"Great talent in the theatre is not a comfortable gift. There are sacrifices and battles to defend the gift, with selflessness matched by self-protective toughness. The sublime performer needs to be an amalgam of Mother Teresa and Genghis Khan".
Here's another with it (I believe both have been posted before) - Paul Theroux in "The Pillar of Hercules" (1995) citing Paul Bowles' advice to the author, quoting Andre Malraux:
"Never let yourself become a public monument. If you do, people will piss on you".
From the same computer file another quote, and my note on it:
David J. Elliot ("Philosophy and Music Education" p.7):
"Philosophy works to render the implicit explicit..."
Similarly, by observing and considering the explicit the implicit, i.e. the philosophy which gives rise to the behaviour, is revealed. The resultant action, conduct or behaviour demonstrates the underlying beliefs and value system which gave rise to the behaviour.
These might have some relevance in the light of artist - enthusiast juxtapositions.
This computer file was inaccurately named, and I checked into it before hitting the "delete" button, and moving onto the Diary. The file is a Notes To Myself: reading them again some are familiar, some are surprises. Here are several, pulled out of the it-was-about-to-be-deleted file:
Music comes from different worlds:
Automatic music reinforces existing patterns;
Creative music makes changes in the world.
Creative music is music of the future reaching back into the present.
The future is what the present can bear.
Music is a language of being.
Silence is the field of creative musical intelligence which dwells in the space between the notes, and holds them in place.
The quality of our perceptions determines the quality of our judgement.
Our judgement determines how we interract with the world.
How we interract with the world changes the world.
So, the quality of our perceptions changes the world.
The way we describe our world shows how we think of our world.
How we think of our world directs how we interpret our world.
How we interpret our world governs how we participate in it.
How we participate in the world shapes the world.
Any action carries repercussions.
Active and creative interraction and involvement with anything carries active and creative repercussions.
Things are not as they were before: they have changed.
So, if we approach a living, creative, intelligent "object" a second time and expect it to be the same, we will not see or understand it - it is not the same.
So, to see it "again", we will have to see it not only "as if for the first time" but in actuality for the first time, because it has not been like this before.
So, we can never reach a Final Understanding of anything because it will change as we develop understanding.
If we did reach Final Understanding, simultaneously the "subject" would have changed, rendering our Final Understanding past tense, and no longer final.
Our understanding changes what is is that we understand.
Our interraction with the field of intelligence (the "subject" of our understanding) responds to our understanding of it.
Our "realisation" makes the subject more real.
In this way hearing music which is played changes the music which we are hearing.
When our subjective state changes the music may remain the same, but our experience of it is different.
If our experience of the music is different, then the music is different.
In this simple way, by listening, the audience changes the music.
Music changes when people hear it.
Words cannot convey a musical experience.
A knowledge of the musical language will not itself give us this experience.
Verbal language is the language of function.
The musical language is a language of being.
One describes what we are, the other speaks to who we are.
Any success carries with it an opportunity, a responsibility and an obligation.
When a record company makes a mistake, the artist pays for it.
When the artist makes a mistake, the artist pays for it.
An honest society is an ordered society.
An ordered society is an efficient society.
An efficient society is a richer society.
A richer society may support a poorer society.
My assumption is that our poets tell us the truth, our painters paint what they see is true, our singers tell it to us "like it is". Yet our relationship with the arts is mediated by an insidious commerce. What would be the effect on our culture if we knew that Shakespeare lied to us for money? Lennon? Hendrix? Springsteen? Cobain?
Yet I see many tours of stadia sponsored by soft drink or beer firms, and I ask myself: why does this musician perform in a venue where the sound is inevitably appalling, where the audience are unable to see them without binoculars or a huge bank of video screens? I know they are not on stage to tell me the truth, but the truth which I am paying to hear. They pander to my prejudices, likes and dislikes. This is a commercial relationship, and is quite straightforward.
Sometimes God Hides, that we may:
See clearly how little is possible without help;
Learn how much is possible from ourself;
Learn humility;
Practise patience;
Practise perseverance;
Learn to co-operate with God.
By practising to work from our own initiative we become better able to co-operate with God;
Realise the necessity of enacting God;
That is, a creature may develop spiritual muscles.
Which brings us back to DGM and its Venal Leader, reporting in on the day.
The Morning & Afternoon Shifts addressed final mastering for P1 & P2, to be despatched to Japan by the final post. David Singleton, Hero, not only did most of the work but ended up driving the masters into Salisbury to be couriered out tonight.
Listening to P2's "Live Groove" again was a very pleasant surprise. We have good memories of this, but the music has matured since last we listened.
A subsidiary of RCA in the US has approached me, via BMG & Virgin, to allow the two tracks which Daryl Hall sung on "Exposure" to be included on a proposed US CD release of "Sacred Songs" (which is currently only available in Japan). I have another five tracks of Daryl singing on "Exposure" in the archives - including "Exposure", "Mary", "Disengage". The story of "Sacred Songs" has a long and complicated history, and includes tales of how certain management & record company executives earn themselves the right to have their shoes spat upon by passing artists. Or anyone else, actually.
But now, weak and tired, so away with me and Super Tasty Soup. Its effects so far have been potent, and proof of all that my wife claims for it. The Little Horse is now in Agadir and I hope to blow her a kiss goodnight before I fall over.
"Beauty is the reflection of the appearance of truth.
Better to seek truth than the reflection of its appearance.
But better to seek beauty than nothing."
