Music, please...

           I am finally getting around to writing about music,both my own and music in general, which is what's it's all about. I am looking forward to this as it's a subject that still gets me excited and holds my interest, and I'm a little tired of writing about myself. Yet I can't write about music without including the subject of "songwriting" and my own views so I can't avoid it completely.
          Today's subject came to my attention shortly after the completion of my first album "Circular Flight". I had a couple of friends come by and they expressed an interest in hearing it (I never push my work on anyone!) so I played it for them and they seemed pleased with the result. Of course they maybe were just being kind, I recognize that my songs are NOT everyone's cup of tea, nor do I expect them to be. My best hope is that they at least find them artfully rendered.
        But they really listened to them intently, didn't talk over them, etc. However, during the song "Losing Game", during the middle passage with the lyrics "All we are, are ripples on the pond./ We dance for a time, then are gone...", one of my friends spoke up. He is both a religious and spiritual man and ventured an opinion. I don't remember his exact words but it was a vague statement something to the effect of, "Yes, but that's not the whole story...you left out something."

          This statement stuck in my head, and led me down the line of thought which gave rise to this article, years later. This is not the first time I have encountered a similar point of view by non-artists and it got me thinking about what people expect from art. There are many who are deeply into art who are not artists themselves, and often expect art to lay reality (or the truth) bare before them with no pre-qualifications. As a long-time seeker after reality, I deeply empathize with them. At the same time I am forced to defend the artists, because my own experiences have taught me long ago that reality cannot be contained by any concept. And all art is, is concepts hopefully designed, at best, to point at reality, NEVER can it contain it.
        Being created to point at reality, it must always be formed from a point of view. If you continue to broaden that point of view past a certain level, your artwork will lose focus, dissipate, and (eventually) cease communicating anything.
        Here's another example of the problem. Picture an actor who has been selected to play the role of the villian. He is a fine actor and does a superior job with his part to the point where people start hissing him and throwing things at him when he walks down the street.
       The only way he can play the part so well, is by gaining a deep understanding of the character he must play; his motivations, his weakenesses, his self-deceptions etc. In other words, the actor must be LARGER than the character. His own insights must be clearer than those of his "villian" or he cannot play that role effectively.
          In the same way, the songwriter must take the viewpoint of his concept and expand it far enough for the listener to see where he stands in relation to things. You can take your listener to the edge and show him the view, but you mustn't push him off.
          "Losing Game" is a prime example, but you will find a similar philosophy running throughout my work. "LG" is written from a dark but very real perspective of viewing the universe as a place of pain and hopelessness. I'm sure most people can relate to this as one of the most universal of human experiences which is always an ideal place to start with a work of art.
          But (for me anyway) art is not just about voicing and mirroring back to people what they already know. (Look around at what is being put out these days & selling and you might disagree). An artist needs to take you from where you are and then show you something new. With "LG" this dark view has a few windows in it to spot a brighter place, albeit thru a glass, darkly.
         So I seldom produce a negative work without a few strands of hope to grab onto. In a similar way, I don't produce a romantic or happy mood without it being tinged with some pain. This reflects my own experience of life, if not quite aimed dead-center on reality.
         As John Lennon once observed, songs should NOT be intended as ultimate truth. He characterized them instead as "post cards" from the artist, saying "This is what's going on with me. How are you?"....