I keep wondering about this; I come more from the Derek Bailey school,
whatever. And I don't think tradition is necessary; what is, is to develop
one's own vocabulary. I don't know for example if Albert Ayler could play
bebop; it didn't matter. What matters is the worlds he opens; what also
matters, of course, is what the listener finds of interest. Years ago I
did a concert with Bill Viola playing ten-foot-long electricians' conduit
pipes; they'd only do one or two notes each. We improvised with
electronics in a cement room; the audience could listen only through the
doors (we were loud enough). It was beautiful; there were overtones and
resonances that carried the sound as if it were recreating the inner space
externally. You could hear a whole range of harmonics.
The point is, at least for me and any number of people I know, tradition
is just as problematic as anything else. One can hum or sing anthems into
a shakuhachi while playing it; why not? Why not speak through it? Why not
play one note, along with that ten-foot conduit pipe?
When I play guitar publicly or on tape, I want to play so fast that I
literally don't know - and can't see - what my hands are doing. This
certainly problematizes tradition, unless I were imitating riffs I already
know - whch I don't. It's almost as if traditional knowledge is something
to be avoided -
Alan
On Mon, 7 Feb 2005, John Baker wrote:
>
> --- Timothy Larkin <tsl1@cornell.edu> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> It's not quite correct that the source of innovation
>> is human
>> ingenuity. Of course, there is no innovation
>> without ingenuity. But
>> it is also true that there is no innovation without
>> a tradition and
>> knowledge of that tradition.
>
> Hi.
>
> "Thank you for saying the same old thing. It is quite
> refreshing."
>
> These sentences are in the tradition of English
> Language. They are also in the tradition of comedy.
> Do you see the joke or the insult? Or both. Do I
> intend to hurt or to amuse? Or both?
>
> If this passage is so ambiguous despite the
> dictionaries and grammars we could reference, what are
> we to say about music where the expression is much
> more vague? Music has no agreed upon content except
> sound.
>
> Tradition is convention. Innovation is new. Someone
> has to start a new tradition. Honkyoku was once new
> and controversial.
>
> Chaucer never wrote a sonnet. It had not yet been
> invented.
>
> Regards,
>
> John Baker
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