08.25
We hear what we believe we are hearing.
We see what we believe we are seeing.
When the disjunction between what we see & hear, and what we believe we are seeing & hearing, becomes two great, analytical mind presents us two choices:
What I see & hear is untrue; What I believe I am seeing & hearing is untrue.So, for analytical die-hard Crimson fans, the disjunction is growing. Their choices are:
This is not Crimson! What I believe Crimson to be is not!When the disjunction is too great, there are other choices. One of these choices is:
Do nothing. While doing nothing: relax breathe be entertain goodwill suspend verbal intellectual thinking Listen WatchThen, perhaps, this moves to:
Seeing HearingThat is:
I am part of the event I am part of the music The music is part of me This is a whole This is a unity.This represents a shift from the "quantitative" & analytical perception of what is happening - a linear sequence of discrete, separate players & actions - to a "qualitative" perception of a whole event unfolding, of which I am a part. We are in relationship:
Music - Musician - Audience Music - Audience - Musician Musician - Music - Audience Musician - Audience - Music Audience - Musician - Music Audience - Music - Musician.This cannot be experienced analytically. It may be experienced intuitively.
An experience of this: I hear the music speaking to me, directly, personally. When this happens, actually, the music is speaking to me impersonally.
Nothing has changed in terms of what is happening - the "content" of the musical event, what is available to the senses, is as before. What has changed is the mode & quality of my perception of what is happening.
"Shifting perceptual modes" is hard enough as it is: this requires our active involvement & active listening. When a significant element in the whole is acting to undermine the possibility that the "shift" might take place, our undertaking is prejudiced. "Lift off" might not be possible with leaks in the fuel tank; deliberately creating leaks is harder still.
Relationship is determined by the degree of "togetherness". In musical performance, photography & recording are forms of "untogetherness". If we do experience this as fact, rather than a bright idea, performance in our commercial culture is a form of ongoing heartbreak.
10.19
Toyah has 'phoned from London, a new draft of "How Popular Musicians Learn" by Dr. Lucy Green has arrived in the post, and Jennifer Batten's "Tribal Rage" is blasting away. How can a guitarist be this good?
So life is getting better. Now, to collect e-post & then off to Crimsonising.
21.00
First day's rehearsal. We have a new sound man - Josh. George Glossop has been with us since 1981 and is taking a break, so this is a new beginning. And a late beginning to rehearsals while equipment was being set up.
I enjoyed playing "FraKctured" and hope to do so on the upcoming tour. But that decision isn't entirely in my hands.
Now, very tired.
"The unity of all things is experienced through the feelings."
