New music
New listening
Not an attempt to understand something that is said
For if something were being said
The sounds would be given the shapes of words
Just an attention to the activity of soundNew means change the method
New means change the experience
And new experiences change man
Whenever we hear sounds we are changed
We are no longer the same
After hearing certain soundsAnd this is the more the case
When we hear organized sounds
Sounds organized by another human being
MusicOur entire system of values
Of the things we accept to be true
Is based on the visual sounds
You have to sign a paperBecause your word
Is not enough to be trusted
As a result the acoustic faculty
In human beings has declinedAs it has become possible
To define a continuum between sounds and noises
Completely new problems have come up for
When we compose or play intuitively
Because we have no training
Whatsoever in balancing tones and noisesTraditionally in western music
Noises have been taboo
And there are precise reasons for this
It has become from began from the time
When staff notations were introducedTraditionally in western music
Noises have been taboo
And there are precise reasons for this
It began from the time
When staff notations were introducedAnd music could be noted
In precise intervals for the first time
Then it was mainly vocal music
Some predominantly with vowels
Rather than consonantsIf I sing a melody of consonants now
People would say, it isn't music
We have no tradition of music
Composed in these sounds
And no notation for itThere you see how narrow our concept of music is
From having excluded consonants the noises
Of course you find consonants in vocal music
But only in order to make a word comprehensible
That's the function of a consonant in our daily language
To clarify the meaningBut in a musical sense
Consonants have no function other than as accents
S S or T or K or K
To start or end sound clearlyI respond to sounds directly
Sound is my air
Whenever I deal with sounds they organize themselves
So to speak
They respond very well to me and I to them