Otte responds to art by Mary Judge using just an amplified pencil.<\/a><\/p>\nThe museum\u2019s notes call the music \u201coften surprising, sometimes baffling, always illuminating.\u201d The connection between the 40 works chosen (out of 2000 options) by David Houston and Florence Neal is up to the beholder.\u00a0 The same can be said about the pieces of music.<\/p>\n
Otte felt a connection with the works by relating to what he called the performative aspect of an artist–the idea of still engaging an audience while the visual artist\u2019s work remains still. Whereas Kowalski found a kinship with the act of creation – making a picture being analogous to making a sound. Different results, but the mindset implies a similar procedure.<\/p>\n
All of which are ideas that can apply to other visuals when they combine with music–especially dance, where both Otte and Kowalski have a great deal of experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can only say that I’ve been, more often than not, astounded at what dancers are hearing in music and how they experience music and it’s often fascinating,\u201d Otte said. In his experience dancers may give apologies for not \u201cknowing\u201d an appropriate musical term, while their assessment of the piece is generally quite insightful.<\/p>\n
Kowalski also noted the complexity of choreography as a visual form: existing in three dimensions and moving. \u201cIf you’re sitting beyond about row 12, you’re seeing a great deal of usually very complicated forms, tracing patterns, on a fairly large stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
A previous collaboration between the two featured this interaction. Kowalski wrote a piece for the Percussion Group Cincinnati called Rebus<\/em>, which includes choreography with flag signals. Initially composing a storyboard, once again the visual existed before the sounds. But, that piece was quite concrete – something Kowalski has always found essential working with dancers.<\/p>\n\u201cUnlike musicians, dancers don’t notate, usually they don’t go into a rehearsal with a bunch of things in their head already,\u201d he pointed out. \u201cThey work it out. It’s a very different way of working from most musicians that I know.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is no one right way to do a project like this. But like any collaboration, trust must be involved. If the creators are open and welcoming to each other\u2019s vision, then brilliant combinations are possible. If we were to call the visual and the musical participants \u201csides\u201d of the equation – the sides have to balance, and be somewhat open to the other\u2019s contributions. Kowalski describes this as a tension, much like a conversation. But to be successful, each factor, visual and musical alike, must point to the other.<\/p>\n
There is no one right way to do a project like this. But like any collaboration, trust must be involved.<\/div>\n
\u201cSome people dig it more visual, and then they get into the music and the other people the other way around, and I just think that’s ideal,\u201d he explained. \u201cI’m very happy about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite their different approaches, both musicians planned and charted and graphed to create each of these responses. Otte describes the planning as a math problem. \u201cThe calculations that went into that final one minute; that final 60 seconds repeated for each of us 20 times in one way or another.\u201d But also occasionally the minute of music came quickly and easily. \u201cThe ones which just came in in some burst of fun, we stuck with a few of those.\u201d<\/p>\n
Otte and Kowalski will be live at the Ohr-O\u2019Keefe Museum for a talk and performance of even three more premieres. Forms of falling dust <\/em>is a work for prepared yang-qin by Rachel C. Walker, a former student of Otte. Another collaboration between Otte and Kowalski called How To Compose Yourself <\/em>involves a fairly frenzied piano part with percussive commentary. And the concert includes a new iteration of Begin Again<\/em>, a work by Kowalski whose material stretches from the year 1597 to 1977 and now to 2021. In Begin Again<\/em> a treatise by Thomas Morley was interpreted on an IBM computer by Ed Miller. A 1977 rendition included the voice of soprano Marlene Rosen, and this version it will include today\u2019s additions from Otte and Kowalski.<\/p>\nThe act of drawing on decades of material is part of what makes the project feel so substantial. Music originally created on an IBM the size of a linen closet, being watched and heard on a phone that fits in my hand, still feels fresh and new in this context. And while these pieces of music once again come to life thanks to fresh realizations, they also have renewed meaning thanks to the pairing with another artist\u2019s visual material.<\/p>\n
Music originally created on an IBM the size of a linen closet, being watched and heard on a phone that fits in my hand, still feels fresh and new in this context.<\/div>\n
The clich\u00e9s about art and music would tell us that the two aesthetic forms are bound to go together. I leaned into one of these, by Jean-Michel Basquiat, in my conversation with Otte and Kowalski.<\/p>\n
\u201cArt is how we decorate space. Music is how we decorate time.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cDecoration,\u201d said Otte. \u201cThat\u2019s a loaded word.\u201d Kowalski objected as well.<\/p>\n
But at the surface level he immediately conceded that music could be \u201cdelightful if it is in fact decorative and entertaining.\u201d And Kowalski identified \u201centertaining\u201d as a secret word.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the word that overlaps: \u2018decoration,\u2019\u201d Kowalski said. \u201cDecoration is congenial and attractive and so is entertainment when it\u2019s any good, I think. And so I would use the word \u2018shape\u2019 instead of \u2018decorate.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
So Basquiat is possibly correct, depending on what the music has to say. Whether or not you can welcome the word \u201cdecorate\u201d for a serious piece of music is up to you, just as whether or not a piece of art \u201cshapes\u201d your space. And the fact that we\u2019ve returned to these kinds of philosophical artistic conversations is another sign that we\u2019re emerging from the harshest closure in the history of music with our thoughtfulness intact.<\/p>\n
Development: musical image \/ Michael Kowalski’s music sketches for “Untitled” by Kazuhiro Nishijima, images courtesy Kentler International Drawing Center.<\/p><\/div>\n
As a pandemic-pivot, this project was enormously successful in that some music-making happened at all. While the music world navigates a bumpy road to a new normalcy, this project is quite possibly a model. Not just of the value of interdisciplinary connections, but also one of flexibility and access.<\/p>\n
While the music world navigates a bumpy road to a new normalcy, this project is quite possibly a model.<\/div>\n
Music as Image and Metaphor<\/em> has visual and aural elements that are complete statements on their own. It can be experienced at an individual level, at one\u2019s own pace. And it\u2019s available in varying degrees of in-person participation, including online. And geographically, it has been available to viewers in the southeastern USA. While the Kentler Flatfiles reside in Brooklyn, they have been available in this form to viewers in Georgia and Mississippi. Modeling and sparking conversations – musical dialogues – that allow us to grow our audience, our depth as artists, and our own creativity.<\/p>\n40 Flatfiles down, 1,960 to go.<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
This exhibition of the Kentler Flatfiles includes pieces by the following visual artists: Herbert Br\u00fcn, Beth Caspar, Phillip Chen, Abby Goldstein, Takuji Hamanaka, Keiko Hara, robin holder, Richard Howe, Hannah Israel, Mary Judge, Kazuhiro Nishijima, Ralph Kiggell, Rosalinda Kolb, Ji\u0159\u00ed Kornatovsk\u00fd, Robert Lansden, Simon Lewandowski, Jim Napierala, Florence Neal, Margaret Neill, Morgan O\u2019Hara, Gahae Park, Jaanika Peerna, Scott Pfaffman, Orlando Richards, Susan Schwalb, Viviane Rombaldi Seppey, Molly Snyder-Fink, and Hugh Williams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A visual that inspires the composer or improviser is sure to also inspire audiences to a fuller and more moving experience. The Kentler International Drawing Center is driving this connection home with its now-touring exhibition Music as Image and Metaphor<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":698,"featured_media":413083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[622,1004,53,603],"nmb_categories":[6],"how_to_category":[],"nmb_tags":[1001,1000,999,1002],"internal_taxonomy":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nDo You Hear What I See? - New Music USA<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n