“There is a feedback between sensitivity and consciousness.” —Stockhausen
That is, being aware of the elements of art makes you more sensitive to perceiving them and helps you use them in your creations.
Karlheinz Stockhausen (22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was one of the pioneers of electronic music. You may have heard one of his creations today when you heard a beep at the grocery store.
We are surrounded by artificial sounds that are entirely new, unheard by our ancestors.
“He will play what he has heard.” —Stockhausen.
That is, even when your mind is clear of thinking, and you are improvising at the piano, you are still on the Earth, you are still in the present context of the world. Listen to hear more, to improvise in new ways. Imagine you are from another planet.
We are on a new planet.
New sounds are being synthesized like plastics.
Instruments of wood, stone, metal, cowhide, horsehair . . . all making sounds that had never before been heard before the invention of the flute, the violin, and so on.
Today, we have the synthesizer.
Now the sound itself can be composed (such as a beep).
Experiences change a person. Reading a novel or listening to music are experiences. Hearing a new sound or learning a new word are experiences.
“Whenever a new experience is possible, a new humanity is possible.”—Stockhausen (paraphrased)
* Orlando Bartro is the author of Toward Two Words, a comical & surreal novel about a man who loves yet another woman he never knew. Find your copy at Amazon. Hardcover, paperback, and e-book editions available.
https://www.amazon.com/Toward-Two-Words-Orlando-Bartro-ebook/dp/B072MNB4F9