Sic Semper Tyrannis

Attending Behavior

I was revisiting Steve Reich's _Writings on Music 1965-2000_ last week and came across this dog-eared passage:

Years ago someone said rather testily to me, "Don't you ever write any slow music?" Actually, it was a good question. What I asked that person in response was, "In my Octet, are you going to concentrate on listening to the pianos- that's the rhythm section of fast eighth notes that never let up- or to the strings, whch are playing much more spaciously?" Sustaining instruments like strings or the electric organ often move at a very slow rate of change in my pieces while chattering in their midst is a thriving anthill- the metropolis is buzzing, but the clouds overhead are passing calmly over a field. And that gives the listener the possibility of not necessarily listening to just one thing or the other; it allows them to realize that different things are happening at the same time. What I'm trying to do is to present a slow movement and a fast movement simultaneously in such a way that they make music together."

Other than his great image of clouds and a metropolis, I like this passage because it reveals that how you can listen to Reich's music is also directly related to how you can go about life.

It's a matter of attention, of discernment. Of all of the activity and events and people and ideas obvious and not obvious in your life, what are you going to attend to? What is going to hold your attention today? What or who is going to get your best effort? Your best thoughts? Your prayers? (Thanks, Steven!)

How do we decide these things? Do we do it consciously?

Dunno.

But I'm starting to think that the beautiful life is one which recognizes the OVERARCHING piece of music that is our life, the work of art that transcends whatever smaller part that we decide to pay attention to.

posted by Mike @ 8:13 AM