2 Brünish somethings

2 related somethings written by Herbert Brün that I want to keep around.

First, from th program notes of his String Quartet No. 3:

If played and heard often enough, every musical gesture is prone to be interpreted, by musicians and listeners, as a gesture of musical speech. As the gesture becomes familiar, and thus recognized by society, the composed structure, in which the context generates the meaning of its components, will be misunderstood, instead, as one in which the components give meaning to their context.

In order to retard this development, this visitation of communicative familiarity, for as long as possible, I have attempted, in several of my compositions, to anticipate the gesture-forming tendencies within the composed structure and to reduce each of them ad absurdum by way of a non sequitur. I wanted, thereby, to rob trivial perception and partial recognition of the paralyzing effect that all too commonly is mistaken for understanding of music.

Th second, from My Words And Where I Want Them, #247:

Composition generates whole systems so that there be a context which can endow trivial 'items' and meaningless 'materials' with a sense and a meaning never before associated with either items or materials.

Be it linguistic art, where the sentence injects meaningful intent into mere lexicographic vocables, thus turning these into words-

be it visual art, where the configuration injects meaningful intent into mere perceptible data, thus turning these into spaces, shapes, movements and colorpatterns-

be it audible art, where the structuring of time and distance injects meaningful intent into mere acoustical phenomena, thus turning these into musical events-

sooner or later both the profiteering interpreters and the consuming audience will perversely deny the composers' competence and, instead, declare the sentence to be meant by its words, the painting to be meant by its components, and the music to be meant by its sounds.

In order to retard this unfortunate and inevitable decay (too many humans are indistinguishable from laws of nature) for as long as possible, I have contrived to inhibit such gesture forming tendencies in most of my compositions by using many a non sequitur as a structural leap over new gaps avoiding old bridges.

The intent is motivated by my non-malicious desire to keep not only my music as alienated as possible from 'business as usual' and to have not only my composition say something to the interpreter and the listener for the longer time than it may take them to just repeat their habitual commonplaces to themselves.

The survival of composition depends on the composer's art: anticommunication.

brüningnoon

I've spent my afternoon at th Herbert Brün House a.k.a. th Parkhouse, where I sometimes work to digitize old reel-to-reel recordings in th collection of Herbert Brün, a founding thinker of th School for Designing a Society. I sit amidst not only his experimental music compositions (temporarily trapped in analog), but also his words. On th shelf sit several books that he wrote, which th Herbert Brün Society (my teachers & friends) disseminate.

As I work, I sneak little peeks into his book my words and where i want them; so, while I have temporary access to this little wonder, let me take a moment (off th clock, don't worry) to share some bits w/ you. I haven't gotten too far into it, but I do already have favorite bits:

2

I consider words innocent until proven guilty. Once they are proven guilty, however, I consider their meaning to be irredeemable. Thus words form the limits of personal freedom. While I may be free to express my thoughts in a free society, the words at my disposal may not be free at all. Ignorance of this fact is what turns the thoughts of free people into the thoughts of slaves.


7

As long as we do not claim the knowledge of absolute truth, and while believers can not but make liars, listeners make storytellers tell stories and make composers compose music.
And they know it.


8

All I am is not objective.
All I am is said by an observer.
I am said observer's all.
My observer: is it observing me
or is it I observing
or is it I observing me
and does it say what it observed
or am I my observer's language?


15

Belief turns everything into lies, even the truth itself.

Many people intend to lie occasionally. However, even the best intentions and the finest diction can not turn a statement into a lie unless a believer can be found. No believers - no liars. And the inverse, astonishingly, also says what I want it to say.


20

Instead of
finding ourselves
in yesterday's future we
find ourselves in tomorrow's
past.
We cannot afford what
we want today
because of
those who can't buy it and
therefore don't want it.
What is it?


21

Today's daily discourse is the punishment for our obedience to our society's daily orders.


30

The law which you don't break will break you.
The language which you don't speak will speak you.

Th book contains a total of 387 bits. I look forward to more bafflement.