I talked with the gypsy loving douchebag Christián yesterday briefly about my dislike of noodling and how musical structures that only serve as a receptacle for guitar (or any other instrument) improvisation aren’t really to my taste. I prefer when the structure, or harmonic, rhythmic and melodic form of a piece is on the altar and all instrumental parts serve to enhance its body.
When a body of work as vast as a folk music exists, such as flamenco, I always pause to worder why there is so little variation in form. There is also very little variation in timbre. This leads me to believe that it is music that is so tied to the public’s expectations that it is immobile. The musicians themselves may only sense it unconciously. Their choice of musical calling is a folk tradition and should stay within various boundries. Perhaps they’d never voice it in that manner. It’d remain unconcious.
I sense a connection with the idea of home, or at least security. On the whole, humans tend towards cultural mores that bring the sensation of safety and familiarity. The raiz of familiarity and family is the same. Gravitatino towards family has always been a bane of the species. No matter the consequence - family first. No matter the consecquence - familiarity first. The consequence here is that a musical form ossifies. By form, I mean rhythmic and harmonic structure. Anything departing from the structure is no longer regarded as a part of said folk art.
One shouldn’t shake the tree! An acorn might fall and impale your skull! Worse yet, it may fall to the ground, inter itself, mutate and grow into something altogether different and beautiful.
Ossified forms cannot hold my interest over time. Creative modules within me understand what can and could be done within an ossified form, and intellectually, I appreciate those possibilities. However, stronger creative modules within me ask Why not variate the rhythm suddenly for a few bars? Why always lead into the same cadence? Let’s add an electric cello in this part. Wouldn’t a drone in this section add atosphere? You are playing the same two chords over and over, anyway. And so on.
Paletos flee from under the shaking tree. They sense foundations being uprooted. They claw towards the tried and true. Fuck um.
