anything is possible
It is a good time to be alive.
As a composer/musician/producer, I am constantly wrestling with the implications of new technological breakthroughs. What do they mean? What are their implications for the future? What new ways of working do they open up for us? And, perhaps most importantly,
What new kinds of music do they make possible?
For the composer/musician/producer who is only interested in forms and techniques that have already been done, perhaps these questions seem pointless. However, for those of us who are interested in creating something new, they are questions of profound importance.
Let me elaborate a bit...
On November 5, 1945, in New York City, Dizzy Gillespie took his quintet, including Charlie Parker, into the recording studio. Two of the tunes they recorded, "Salt Peanuts" and "Shaw 'Nuff", evolved jazz music a hundred generations in one fell swoop, leaving everyone who listened, musicians and critics alike, absolutely stunned in disbelief.
They had fully grasped the possibilities of the technology available to them, and they made history with it.
On 1951, Les Paul recorded "How High the Moon", using a technique he had developed with his prototype multi-track recorder called "overdubbing". Nobody, to my knowledge, had ever done this before. The result was a record that shocked and amazed everyone who heard it, and whose implications are still relevant today. I simply cannot imagine what people must have thought in 1951 when this was released.
He had fully grasped the possibilities of the technology available to him, and he made history with it.
In 1968, a classically trained musician named Wendy Carlos went into the recording studio to begin recording, one part at a time, various pieces by Bach on a new instrument designed by Bob Moog - a large modular analog synthesizer. The resulting record, "Switched On Bach", literally introduced the world to the modern synthesizer.
She had fully grasped the possibilities of the technology available to her, and proceeded to make history with it.
All of these musicians represent the best in all of us. They took the tools available to them, mastered them, and proceeded to make new music with them! They were not content to simply rehash what had already been done - they created something new! What a noble and powerful they had!
Today, we are in the midst of a musical revolution. Changes are happening all around us, both in the technology we use and in society itself. Let's all strive to make our own mark and push music to a place it's never been before, both by creating something new, and by patronizing artists who are trying to do something new.
I look forward to interacting with you in the future, please, drop me an email and let me know what you think.
It is a good time to be alive.
- David Thomas Peacock
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