Dma "john cage" recording 2

1. What was your initial reaction to this compositional prompt?
2. What approach did you take to tackling this composition? 
3. Can you find quotes in your self-interview text to help explain your process?
4. In what ways was your process consistent with or different from the process you outlined in your self-interview?
5. What was your inspiration?
6. What did you learn about your environment by taking a 'sonic' approach to capturing the experience of it?
7. Did you enjoy working with audio (gathering samples, assembling them, etc.) enough to want to continue or expand on it?
8. What in particular did you enjoy or discover about working with audio as a compositional medium?
9. Describe one place in your composition where you feel you captured something beautiful or aesthetically interesting?

     Initially, I decided to create a composition recording my "two lives" if you will, or rather, the discrepancy between my home life and my life at school. I'm currently in the process of moving into a new apartment in Winston-Salem, so my main idea is to combine sounds from my home in Chapel Hill with the sounds of my Winston-Salem life. The composition includes some of the most familiar sounds I hear daily. My ticking kitchen clock, my parakeet spazzing out. In my apartment, I recorded the the fan blowing my posters on my wall, my roommate "practicing" guitar (really just making noises) the kettle boiling water for tea, pouring water into a glass, and the creaking floors as we walk around. Some tracks are panned, so if you can listen with headphones that would be ideal. Some are quiet almost to the point that you don't notice them, and some are obnoxiously loud. This symbolizes the sounds we notice, don't notice, tune out, or stop hearing. I played around with this idea, for example, the ticking of the clock is in the forefront of the recording. The fact that it's impossible to ignore symbolizes the little noises we usually don't think about. This composition was fairly consistent with my self-interview, especially in that I drew most of my inspiration from experiences in my life. The idea came from my move to a new city. Originally I planned to just record noises in my home, since that's where I spend most of my summers. I eventually realized that a more interesting approach would be to combine my two lives and explore the ways they overlap and affect me. I had a lot of fun working with audio. Apart from some technical difficulties installing audacity, it went pretty smoothly, and my roommate and I got really into identifying sounds from our lives that would sound good in a recording. True to its John Cage inspiration, nothing in the recording is very "beautiful" in the classical sense. Interestingly, it's mostly composed of sounds considered to be soothing and relaxing (ticking clock, water pouring into a glass, classical guitar, birds chirping, etc..), yet together, it's anything but. I hope it speaks to our common misconceptions, and the differences and abnormalities we find in everyday life. 

--How would you describe what you do? 
What I aspire to do as a performance musician is first and foremost to master the technical aspects of a piece. I then try to determine what emotions and feelings the composer felt while writing and performing a piece. Finally, I figure out what the piece says to me, how it makes me feel, and how it relates to my life, and try to infuse some aspects of that into the performance as well.
--Is this different than what other people think you do?
I think most performers do some variation of this process, adding these personal and maybe historical touches are what makes performance interesting.
--How do you know if you’re on the right track with a project?
I personally am lucky to have a very knowledgable and talented teacher to coach me in the process. but when practicing or performing on my own, when the music really moves me, I feel the tension of the harmonies in my body, which is how I know I'm on track.
--How do you go about making choices?
I've been so lucky to have so many good teachers and coaches in my life that I am able to consult with my experience with them. I can ask myself how they would handle difficult decisions. On my own, I try to keep decisions as true to the composer and the composition as I can.
--How do you know when you’re done?
I rarely feel like I'm done. I could practice something forever and always be improving and becoming more comfortable with the work. I don't think I've ever given a performance and thought nothing could be better.
--What’s your workspace like?
At school my workspace is the practice rooms, which were built in an architectural dark age. tiny, poorly soundproofed cells with questionable stains on the carpet. However, despite being uncomfortable,  I actually prefer them to practicing at home, because they allow me  to work with less distractions. At home I like to practice in my bathroom, which has the best resonances.
--What are your essential tools?
My instrument and my music. and the various accessories that come with it. Occasionally i use a piano but apart from that I can play anywhere under many different circumstances. --What’s the most surprising tool you use? 
I think one of the coolest and most surprising thing about instruments are all the different techniques that can be used to create a diverse range of sounds.                                               
--What was your biggest mistake or the one you learned the most from?
My biggest mistake actually happens occasionally, when I don't adequately prepare for a performance. I think a lot of the time there is a discrepancy between an ideal of a performance and the reality.
--An example of your work:
Here is a video of myself playing first violin on Mozart's string quartet no. 19 in C major, fourth movement. This was at the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, VT 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWLb5JyTb58&feature=relmfu

memorial day queries

     who am I? I am an artist, a musician, a violinist, composed of concertos, etudes, partitas and gigues. I am who I am because of many people. My parents are responsible for my musical identity. It is because of their dedication in paying for music lessons, in making me practice, in driving me to countless all-state competitions. My teachers provided inspiration, instruction and guidance, as well as my friends and peers. 
     But in my composition, I am made of more than music. I'm composed of countless recipes, saucepans, mixing bowls. It is because of my mother that I love cooking. 
    My family used to live in Hawaii. I'm composed of beaches and ocean winds and tropical fruits. All of these places and people influenced and helped me to become this person.

success!

     Today's achievement: Computer Literacy!! in my past technological experience, I have a tendency to be a quitter. Generally when I can't figure out some computer program or another (which is often) I give up without really sitting with it or putting in much effort. However today marks a change in that pattern. Instead of trying, failing, and quitting while attempting to edit my photos and create gifs, I actually was able to sit down, go through the programs, figure out what everything does, and actually learn to use them. Even though the sites are pretty easy, designed for the laziest of american idiots (woah, green day reference), I still felt a sense of accomplishment when I beheld my finished product. (If you want to see it, check out the links posted below) 
     But how does this actually relate to composition? interesting question, one that I don't really have an answer to. Obviously I was composing in some sense, making artistic decisions about which filters and effects to put on my photos. And honestly, I felt pretty tongue-in-cheek witty and post-modern making those choices. One could argue that as I was using building materials in a specific medium (gif-making) putting something together, I was composing. And I think that's what I'll do.

http://gifninja.com/animated-gifs/55862/everyday-me-the-real-me

http://gifninja.com/animated-gifs/55844/many-faces

Image/Representation

     it's weird. how do we present ourselves to other people? I can't count the number of times I've worn outfits or said something thinking I was coming off in a certain way, only to be taken otherwise. In particular, how do we present ourselves physically? instagram springs to mind, specifically edited facebook pics. So many people put such effort into editing their own photos, changing the color contrasts, gradation, adding poetic/angsty captions to better explain how they feel. Only to have their efforts nullified by someone else's tag in an unflattering picture (also. Although I feel bad ripping on these people, I feel a little better because I did the same thing for my dma homework). Why do we put so much effort into disguising who we are when the truth is already out there? While pixlr-ing my photos today, I had to wonder. Do these effects really express who I am? is it so important whether I add an overexposed or burned effect? Without those sparkles in the upper right hand corner, there must be no way the photo can reveal my innermost truths. What does making my face into Warhol-inspired pop art say about my identity? nothing. Surely the image itself is more important than the ways its doctored into something tumblr-worthy. 

     Not to say that the assignment wasn't fun, it was. and wasn't interesting and thought provoking. I thought it was all of those things. But I urge everyone to focus on what's truly meaningful about their identity, not just the extra gradation.