Remodernist Music
A Manifesto by
Gerschweyn Matthews
As a professional fan of film and music I've been very much taken a back by the practical and theoretical work of Fine Artist, Film Maker and Photographer, Jesse Richards. I think he is most known for his post modern, Manifesto on Remordernist Cinema. After some communication with the genius that Mr. Richards, I've been inspired to expand on his work in the context of music. The creation, production, sale and consumption there of. For further information on the works of Jesse Richards, do visit with him at; http://www.wix.com/jesserichards/jesserichardssite. For further information on Stuckism visit; http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=2224155647&v=info
1. Remodernist Music argues for the establishment of truthful reflections and expressions about the human experience as the most important intention with the creation of music.
2. Remordernism in music argues that the pursuit of "perfection" within the recording process is merely a cosmetic folly. This is so for the remodernist musician functions at his / her highest level of creativity in the event of probing into and documenting the intricacies and mysteries pertaining to the human experience. An experience littered with imperfection, randomness and unapologetic emotiveness.
3. "Perfect" takes and high end post production processes does not improve the artistic value of a composition. Rather, I think that how accurately a song mimics the emotional state that of which an artist is trying to convey has a more congruent relationship with the song in question’s artistic value. It’s about documenting and expressing truthfully, effectively.
4. Pondering further on the matter at hand, has lead me to believe that there is no such thing as precision (with which I imply perfection) but for in the minds of us. We are not perfect beings, we can thus never have perfect experiences as necessarily mediated through imperfect bodies. Given that we can have no real or rather proper understanding of un-experienced events, the concept of perfection as an experience-able event is devoid of meaning. More over, why do we regard perfection higher then we regard lived experience? One being an idea, the other being lived reality.
5. With creating music, the remodernist musician does not set out on an ego-centric mission in the pursuit of "perfection" so as to gain the favor and respect of those who consume music. I think commercial success is very much a lower case experience brought about collaterally by the creative process itself. Remodernist Music argues that a successful musician is such by default though participating in the personally investigative event of creating music. The process of making and experiencing music is thought of (ideally) as a kind of melodic psychoanalyses.
6. Art, including music has functions other than that of pleasing our carvings for the experience of beauty for the sake of experiencing beauty. One of these important functions pertaining to Remodernist Music is that of journaling and reflecting on individual and social experience in an attempt to better understand the nature the self in relation to all that is other.
7. Remodernist Music does not seek to establish celebrity, nor does it agree with the establishment of such in the pursuit of gain; both monitory and egocentric. Rather, the composer is thought of as a questioner, an existential philosopher or metaphysical surgeon up in arms with prevailing ignorance regarding reality; both personal and collective.
8. Popular Music will always be lesser music if maximized sales are the driving force behind the creation there of. Do we think of a certain brand of soft drink as invaluable in aid of our quest to better understand the human condition just because of creators of the product in question are “living it up?” I do not think that we can or should measure the success of a record using statistics pertaining to the “product” at hand’s financial performance. From a consumer stand point; if a record or a single track stirs the emotions and grey matter of it’s creator and that of subsequent listeners due to it functioning as a metaphysical light bulb switch triggered by the application of mind and thereby illuminating a missing piece of the “human experience puzzle”, the record or track is successful. Music is made by us, in it’s best form it unapologetically tells about us.
9. No subject matter is taboo. My eye ball splitting anger towards a certain pseudo man of God; for reasons of him having sexually assaulted a relative of mine. My less then savory ideas on Scientology and celebrities who babble on and on about the supposed genius of L. Ron Hubbard. Issues pertaining to self investigation and social commentary such as the before mentioned are all fair game.
10. Our preference of one melodic structural pattern over another is completely arbitrary. There is no rational thought behind say my preference to writing in a C-minor chord rather then a C-major chord. What makes a good melody has nothing to do with melodic structural patterns in and by the phenomena itself. It’s about what the patterns and effectual sounds mean to us.
11. The experience of music is always mediated and the quality of this mediated experience relies on the meaningful application of an interpretive mind to the piece at hand. With “meaningful,” I imply helpful in clarifying and revealing personal and collective truths about ourselves as human beings. Flowing from this I think that your “non- professional” musician friend’s melodic ode to his girlfriend is just as good a piece of music as let us say Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees.” This is so if your friend and his girlfriend find “meaningfulness” in the piece. Fake Plastic Trees is thought of as a good song in a Remodernist sense due to the fact that the piece is “meaningful” to Yorke, his band mates and fans. One could then say that the friend in question is just as good a musician as Mr. Yorke himself. That said, comparative talk regarding musical abilities of different musicians are of little value as the value of the music they create have more to do with personal and collective “meaningfulness” then complex melodic constructions and the precise execution there of.
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