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View From The Crow's Nest

Ahoy mateys, and welcome back to another Ink edition of the Tentacle, the magazine voted most likely to be read in a sushi bar by an itinerant microtonal composer. It has been several months since our last issue washed ashore, and we hope you will find the Summer 2001 Ink worth the wait. If you haven't noticed, we are now publishing the Tentacle on a quarterly basis to better accommodate our volunteer schedules. This summer we celebrate the fourth anniversary of the Tentacle, which was spawned back in 1997 when the first photocopied newsletter urged readers: Don't be the last sucker on the tip of the Tentacle; please copy and distribute! We've sailed far since then and continue to sound uncharted depths with support from our readers.

The present issue contains the conclusion of our Northwest Creative Instrument Builders survey plus a hearty bouillabaisse of music book reviews served up from the Littoral Zone. In addition to regular features such as Radio Free Improv, Noise Lovin' Ned, and news from around the region, be sure to check out the concert calendar for information on this summer's great offerings, including the 16th Seattle Improvised Music Festival, the du Maurier International Jazz Festival in Vancouver, B.C., and the 6th Annual Olympia Experimental Music Festival. Feel free to send us feedback on what stimulates and ails ye at tentacle@tentacle.org.

The Tentacle is a nonprofit, volunteer-produced vessel and relies on individual contributions (and limited advertising) from our extended musical family. Thanks, as always, to the subscribers, contributors, and advertisers who have provided a life raft in sometimes heavy seas. Thanks also to all of our volunteer distributors and contributing writers and illustrators; a hearty tip o' the tentacle goes out to Mike O'Connor for his fine cover drawing and to new calendar editor Eric Ostrowski for taking a turn at the helm. And finally, although he wanted no fuss made, we bid adieu to our Helmsman Dennis Rea, who after an industrious four-plus years is disembarking from the Tentacle to redirect his energies to his own music and other neglected projects.

A 21-Note Salute to Our Sponsors
Since April 1997, the Tentacle has compiled and sent out our free weekly T-mail calendar/newsletter, which now reaches 650 subscribers throughout the Northwest and beyond. We would be remiss if we did not extend a hearty tip of the Tentacle to our T-mail sponsors who have helped to support this weekly service since our inception:

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Harpooned! — Letters to the Tentacle

Bipolar Praise

[Re: Christopher DeLaurenti's piece "What is Creative Music?" in the Tentacle]

I found this article to be both extremely accurate and wildly off the mark; both brilliant and obtuse; both eloquent and crude, profound and shallow, witty and retarded.

From the laughably obscure and ridiculously pseudo-intellectual opening quote from Mr. Virgil Thompson [sic] which asserts that the past merely "wears out" as if it were old socks, never taking into account more sophisticated, non-linear notions of time; to the author's sophomoric opening salvo about "throwing down the gauntlet"; to the interesting but obvious revelation that "if you live in the United States, count yourself among an elite..."; to the extremely narrow-minded, dismissive pigeon-holing of vast areas of music as "suffering from statically deployed periodic rhythms and the formulaic prominence of words," as though they were patients in the terminally ill ward; to his brilliant pun on "anti-queer"/"antiquarian" and bold assertion that "rock musicians are the Pat Buchanans of the music world"; to his solipsistic, pretentious reference to a personal Canon Law of Creative Music which he wisely declines to elaborate; to his precious, misanthropic description of creative music as "the subversive, creative spark cupped furtively in one's hands... to shield against the deaf and dumb bluster of society"; to his admission that "it is foolish to proclaim one form of music as universally superior to another" after he has categorically done so; to his straight-faced assertion that "adventurous musicians, unlike many of their conservative comrades, should be conversant with all forms of music," after he has himself dismissed most other forms out of hand; well — all of these things took me on a most stimulating roller coaster ride of logic that was not so much circular as spiral in form.

It is hardly necessary to point out the many fallacies in Mr. DeLaurenti's reasoning, as he has generously foreseen and provided most of those arguments himself with his numerous contradictions. But there are a few of them that bear mentioning. Mr. DeLaurenti points out that "Paradoxically, the twentieth century has been the most radical and most conservative musical era in history," as if each era in history had not been equally radical and conservative in its own way. Without even being a musical historian, I can point to developments both European and beyond that were no doubt as mind-blowing to their particular times as John Cage and Captain Beefheart have been to ours. I think of the stunning inventions of the troubadours of the eleventh century, the dervish music of the Sufis during the twelfth — both musics that had profound, radical effects on religion and culture; then there are obvious radical musical developments closer to us such as those by Mozart, Wagner, etc.

But Mr. DeLaurenti would have us believe that only the twentieth century has seen such progress. It is a typically virulent strain of myopia that characterizes the entire essay.

And he fails to trace "creative music" back to its common origins with "rock" as he so broadly defines it; i.e., jazz, blues, old-time voodoo rituals, and spirituals of Africa and thence New Orleans. Mr. DeLaurenti never really bothers to answer his titular question, preferring to define "creative music" by what it is not, or else foisting on us vague platitudes about the lonely musical soldier cupping hands to preserve the flame, or some mumbo-jumbo about "polyphonic rhythms" gleaned from Advanced Music Studies 101.

But the squareness of Mr. DeLaurenti's mind doesn't end there. It has hardly begun. When he allows that "we need antiquarians..." so long as they are "reminded of who they are," I half-expected him to start quoting Nietzsche and foaming at the mouth about how the "Superior Man" is above the common law. It is at this point I seriously wonder if this is all a sick joke. There is not a statement that isn't debunked by a contradicting echo, no assertion that isn't undermined by a backflip in logic — often in the same breath! Even the whole essay is ingeniously — or disingenuously?? — negated by the concluding statement that "No prose can prove my point."

If this were a joke, a farcical think-piece on the order of Borges's fictional essays on Pierre Menard, for example, it would be truly brilliant stuff. Certain passages lead me to doubt that this is so, but I hold out hope.

— David Hadbawnik

Tentacle Ship's Sturgeon Christopher DeLaurenti replies:

Dear David,

I found your response to "What Is Creative Music" thoughtful and almost rhapsodic. Like the teachers, nurses, and other well-meaning school functionaries who scrawled suspicious comments ("walks with a strange gait") in my grade-school file, I believe you are perceptive but wildly off the mark.

I regret you found the quote from Virgil Thomson "laughably obscure." Faintly remembered for his proto-Glassian landmark opera Four Saints in Three Acts, Thomson may now be lucky to run a poor third to Subotnick and Haydn as the most misspelled composer in history. Nonetheless, Virgil's obscurity should not lead anyone to assume that he was a worthless writer or composer. Composers can lie hidden for years, decades, and centuries; in the course of my studies and otherways stolen musical education, I've found it best to glean knowledge from whichever mouth seems wise, regardless of their current fame or fashion.

Take a gander at Thomson's writing. Admittedly, American Music Since 1910 isn't his best: He is at sea discussing electronic music and a good chunk of it is an advertisement for Virgil Thomson, yet that book and his other writings contain worthwhile wisdom: "Music after Bach was not, as is commonly thought, a retreat from counterpoint. It was a progress from non-differentiated, homogenous counterpoint into a highly differentiated, or dramatized, counterpoint." (Introduction to Robert Erickson's The Structure of Music, page x) In my opinion, his insights — borne of experience as a composer and agitator for new music — loom leagues away from common cocktail pseudo-intellectual banter.

Why didn't I pilfer or paraphrase any number of Boulez quotes? My debt to the new music agitators of yore includes others besides that overquoted composer-conductor. Thomson's sentence rang true in my ears — ears weary of "suffering from statically deployed periodic rhythms & the formulaic prominence of words..." I don't find my little litany narrow-minded at all but a faithful, compact, and deservedly trenchant description of my aural boredom with "rock." 1,000 times as many people might find it offensive, but I am 1,000 times more offended by those who scorn sonic pioneers by ignoring them or failing to seek them out.

I would also like to contest your characterization of my phrase "throws down the gauntlet" as "sophomoric." As a cliché, "gauntlet" often gets confused with running or railroads. My use of the metaphor conveys that it is time to battle conservative music and reinforces the challenging tone of the piece.

Was "What is Creative Music?" too negative? I don't think so. Blunt words shake skulls.

Several years ago, John Bain of the Mutant Data Orchestra and I drove down to perform at the Big Sur Experimental Music Festival. During our heated discussions, Bain summarized his view of tape music by declaring "once it's on tape, it's dead." Did a dear friend pointedly repudiating half of my musical work offend me? Of course not.

Musicians should stand ready for ideological destruction. I strive to harbor perpetual self-doubt and accept that my music and musical values may be demolished overnight by a deus ex machina masterpiece. To create music today, I must be indefatigably right; to change and grow, I must reserve the right to be utterly wrong tomorrow.

Indeed, I stand behind every word of "What is Creative Music?" except for the non-sequitur "the movement of sound in space," a phrase which, in spite of repeated resolutions to change "movement" to "allocation," lingers in every version of the piece, like the reverberant residue of reading too many issues of Die Reihe.

I was surprised that you found my reference to a "personal Canon Law of Creative Music..." solipsistic and pretentious and my silence "wise." As a self-taught composer and improviser, I have an interest in locating my blind spots, habits, and other musical tics.

Where is the pretension in examining one's work? Have you met many composers? Composers write about themselves and each other all the time. In my encounters and correspondence with hundreds of composers, I've found most of them to be interested in how their progeny, peers, and progenitors create music. A composer elucidating her views on music will not necessarily be interesting, innovative, or even compelling, but sharing viewpoints is the expected, educational thing to do — not a solipsistic or pretentious act!

While you may not have met many composers, if you are an adventurous musician, I must marvel at your fortune to perform before sympathetic audiences. "Creative music is the subversive..." is hardly a quote from a dour, withered miscreant cackling a doom for humanity, but a matter-of-fact assertion from a composer and improviser who has played gigs getting heckled, barraged with bar-effluvia, and otherwise harangued for making creative music. Creative music's pioneers suffer(ed) far worse, so I am not claiming a lofty or uncommon position. As for the "deaf and dumb bluster of society," 10 minutes of TV, 5 minutes with a B-city newspaper (e.g., the Seattle Times), and 1 open-eyed minute basking before a building-sized billboard prove my point.

You erroneously claim that I say it is "foolish to proclaim one form of music as universally superior to another" after I have categorically done so. In the subsequent sentences, I did not state so categorically, i.e., that everyone should believe what I believe, which is why I started my sentence with "I believe..." and continued with specific comparisons and personal reasons. And it is not inconsistent for an adventurous musician to be interested in conservative music. Some adventurous musicians will tell you that to revolt against the past, one must first have been deeply annoyed by it!

I recently attended the Bang on a Can All-Stars concert in Seattle; at the post-concert discussion, one of the composers told the now-familiar tale of feeling liberated by rock and using it to break free of academic constraints in the 1970s and early 80s. For me it is exactly the opposite: Rock is the root of my revulsion and revolt!

I also disagree that it is hardly necessary to point out the "many fallacies" in my reasoning. As I am always on the hunt for enlightenment, I wished you had listed and refuted them!

You do, however, spout some mumbo-jumbo of your own. First, each era in history has not been "equally radical and conservative in its own way." No other era before our own can boast the technological, stylistic variety that we have today. To assert that the innovations of the Troubadours or the Sufis have exerted as profound and global an effect on their respective eras as the advent of recording or electronic music in ours is laughable. The Sufis and Troubadours certainly expanded the rhythmic palette (and made some wondrous music!) but did not make it possible for any sound within human hearing to be captured and subjugated into music, and then distributed (some might say polluted) throughout the world within a matter of seconds.

You may also want to revisit Advanced Music Studies 101 to investigate creative music's "common origins with rock." I think a thorough history of creative music remains unwritten. From the extinct Intonarumori to the late 1940s Tristano sessions that produced "Intuition" and "Digression," I suspect many unconnected movements and under-exalted pieces have yet to be pieced together into a coherent history.

"No prose can prove my point" does not negate my essay but reminds the reader that the highest authority in any discussion of music is not my allegedly bitter words or poltroonish pronouncements, but the music. Several folks have wondered where the optimism or joy was in my essay. It lurks not there, but in my music and the smile on my face as I hear it — or create it.

Although we may disagree, I enjoyed your piece very much. I adore speculation and hope you will indulge me a few more paragraphs for a tangential tale.

One night, ensconced with my friend Jeff and his Law School chums at the best pseudo-swank bar in Seattle, I savaged several popular films everyone liked and (yes, that night I was as pompous as the verb) propounded the virtues of the ultimate date film, Belle du Jour (motifs of sound and silence, the infantile security of bondage, the silken helmet-hair of Catherine Deneuve, etc.). To top off my pint of hubris, I proclaimed Patton a saga of the adolescent's journey to manhood that had nothing to do with war.

Everyone good-naturedly argued and tussled over that and other films; we laughed, we cried, etc. Then the bomb dropped. A cheery lass pointed an accusing finger and demanded "so what film would you make, Mr. Anti-Music in Films?"

Tipsy and ebullient, I foolishly began to describe how $500 million U.S., under the direction of yours truly, would buy the best erotic film of all time — Guccione's Caligula meets late period Max Ernst. I didn't notice the appalled silence until later, when I described the special software that would analyze each explicit scene and match the lines of color contrast to those found in the Great Masters and then integrate the Masterpieces of Western Art (by this time I was witlessly speaking in capitals) into the film through dissolves, not to mention my theory of custom-allocated Redon-inspired holographic projection and other important-to-invent, waiting-to-be-hyphenated technologies.

It could have ended dramatically with a whispered "my God, he's mad" from the crowd. It didn't. Jeff, staring at his soaked drink coaster, said, "And this is my friend, genius or charlatan, you decide."

Fortunately, I was still fast on feet and chimed, "I'll take charlatan."

"You better," said someone.

Better to dream aloud as a fool than stay silent beneath a cowl of conformity!

cordially,
Chris

Meta-meta-comments

Hello,

Really enjoyed Bret Battey's article ["Just Stun Me," Spring 2001]. A scattering of responses and some lengthy melodies of thought were stimulated by it, but I'll just keep it all underwater and toss some borrowed lines to which it all seemed to lead:

"And what is good, Phaedrus,
And what is not good —
Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?"
(Robert Pirsig)

I'll say (I lied) evaluation is subjective and objective, and neither; it's a dance of a mind and a mind-constructed physical trace, (with the difference between the two perhaps just a gap in frequencies). The more complex, yet simple and thus possibly skillful the creating mind, the more its traces in works will engage similarly developed minds. So I say Bret's instincts are right on. But the meta-music or -dances between listeners and works is its own vast repertoire, leaving plenty of leeway to what's worthy.

[Also] thanks for the tribute to Kubrick and Ligeti. I couldn't agree more. That film [2001: A Space Odyssey] profoundly and lastingly altered my consciousness as a child, and I am most grateful. I will note, "The Blue Danube" had just as much impact on me as the Ligeti pieces, and to this day the formal structure of a J.S. Bach or Vivaldi moves me to, I think, the same "place" as an "Atmosphères." Across the spectrum of listening experience, it is undefinable Quality that counts. Thanks to these artists for blowing wide my spectrum.

— Charles Mattoon

No Whine Before Its Time

Tentacle Helmsman Dennis Rea replies to Omar Willey's letter in the Spring 2001 issue of the Tentacle ("I hate all of you. I am sick of this fucking town of whiners…"):

Ahoy Omar,

We were rather surprised to receive your letter, since the last we'd heard, you were melodramatically announcing your disengagement from the music scene in these pages, yet you apparently still go out of your way to read the Tentacle.

It evidently suits your prejudices to imagine the Tentacle crew "sitting on our asses" with nothing better to do than "whine." (By the way, what is your letter if not whining?) You clearly have no idea how much volunteer labor goes into producing the Tentacle; I'm not talking about writing the occasional editorials that are so objectionable to you, but about the endless hours spent fielding and manually typing up calendar listings in order to help spread awareness of music that is ignored by other local publications, to mention just one of the mundane tasks that occupy our free time.

We're sorry if our efforts have fallen short of what you expect of us, but believe it or not, most of us also have full-time jobs, multiple musical involvements, relationships, and other demands on our time. Despite repeated public calls for more volunteers, the brunt of producing the Tentacle magazine, Web site, and weekly T-mail has fallen squarely on the shoulders of four people who receive nothing in return but the satisfaction of putting something back into the community — and the occasional outburst of abuse from armchair critics like yourself.

Personally, apart from co-editing the Tentacle, my efforts on behalf of the community have included helping to sustain the Seattle Improvised Music Festival for 16 years and co-curating a concert series (Other Sounds) that has provided performance opportunities for hundreds of local, national, and international musicians. So what have you done lately to advance the cause of creative music in this town, besides sniping at the Tentacle and others from the safety of your computer keyboard?

As for your offer to roll up your sleeves and show us how it's done, thanks but no thanks. Why would we want to work alongside someone whose messages to us are laced with adolescent invective? If you really think you can do a better job than we do, go right ahead and publish your own magazine, or start your own support organization — we'd love to see you try.

— Dennis Rea,
outgoing Tentacle Helmsman