That’s a beautiful metaphor and again I have cinema to thank for first making me aware of a composers work – for me, Philp Glass will always make me think of where I first encountered him: Koyannasqatsi. I also stumbled across this video, which is quite unintentionally funny: You too can play like Philip Glass!?
And while on the Philip Glass tip, I can reccomend this link to Glassbreaks: a mash up album of Philip Glass and hip hop by DJ BC. And it is a lot better than that description!
I’m not sure who said it, but I remember ages ago an artist saying how they liked to attend concerts by minimalist composers, not because they liked the music particularly but because they got really really bored… And they found it hugely inspiring because a lot of their best ideas came to them while they were bored. Its an interesting subject in this world of instant-gratification; the joy of boredom
I thought it was fairly obvious Torley’s video was made tongue-in-cheek.
Facetious would be more the term I would use….
Boredom can be a great catalyst for ideas!
I find It happens to me when Im walking around shopping. Especially if I’m out doors and hear music very faintly and the bass is gone so its just a bit of washy midrange and you can’t really tell what the root of the piece is.
it can be quite interesting, so then the major chords could seem different because they could seem minor if you think the bass note is something that it isn’t.
I find I’m often disappointed when I get closer to the sound source and can hear the full range of the sound and it’s like a High pass filter is rolled off and re set and I can here the key and then the piece of music gets very boring. all the mystery disappears.
I had a artist I used to produce, a singer, and he swore his best melodies came when he was very bored at work because his mind would try a flee the boredom and escape to a ‘happy-place’. He was smart enough to cary a pocket dictaphone to document the idea on a tape. as he had a closet full of these tapes he would often bring several into the studio and use that as start point for a new composition.