tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.comments2024-02-11T09:55:50.468-08:00The Eastside ViewCharles Sherehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10480432901356490235noreply@blogger.comBlogger534125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-6971248974220048812023-06-19T00:15:09.296-07:002023-06-19T00:15:09.296-07:00Doug's name surfaced for the first time in a w...Doug's name surfaced for the first time in a while. Comparing notes with a new harpsichord client, we discovered a common friend in Doug, with whom he had worked at Pomona. I pulled out the LPs, then scores, and a casette of vocal works Doug had compiled. My first cembalo commission was for Douglas - and the loaner while he waited prompted his reimmersion into keyboard, given its flexible intonation. Douglas Leedy's influence will emerge again later today, when I give a first tuning lesson to a violinist with her first harpsichord. <br />David Calhounhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09459958192695415190noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-61129835130654597522020-12-25T15:10:00.431-08:002020-12-25T15:10:00.431-08:00Loved his writing and this blog and seeing him at ...Loved his writing and this blog and seeing him at the occasional music event in the Bay Area. His life appeared enviable on all kinds of levels, and I feel grateful to have been even peripherally connected to his world.Civic Centerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12362422142667230626noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-29753885608612347132020-10-09T20:59:53.955-07:002020-10-09T20:59:53.955-07:00My teacher
Who told me when you pay attention you ...My teacher<br />Who told me when you pay attention you are very good<br />And that i must work at art to train my hand to translate my images on to <br />Canvas or paper <br />What a wonderful joyful teacherthe chicken queenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17010253833497277026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-77129124793582601242020-05-19T07:41:03.705-07:002020-05-19T07:41:03.705-07:00For me, it's hard to understand how later comp...For me, it's hard to understand how later composers could make structures and melodies that rivaled Bach and Handel and Scarlatti. If classical music had its golden age, Bach would be its king. Mozart and Haydn stripped the form down, cleaned out the clutter, and made it all seem orderly and finished. Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-59322138285195856882020-05-19T07:36:09.313-07:002020-05-19T07:36:09.313-07:00In geologic terms, the earth's surface is a re...In geologic terms, the earth's surface is a restless thing, spouting and folding and splitting and dissolving. But in human terms, it appears stable, and somnolent. If we think only of "resource" and opportunity, we'll end up bereft. Humankind needs to slow down, take stock. Stop consuming greedily, catch our breath. After a millennium of rapid advance and spread, we need to step back.Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-23425522315966895882020-04-30T14:21:12.480-07:002020-04-30T14:21:12.480-07:00Charles, thanks again for this perceptive apprecia...Charles, thanks again for this perceptive appreciation of Helène—her personality and her work. There will be a memorial for her this Sunday, as per her wishes. If you'd like the details, message me on Facebook.<br />Best,<br />Peter SamisUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10782265406488312919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-68966004417226956052020-04-15T10:01:18.593-07:002020-04-15T10:01:18.593-07:00Charles, this is a beautiful evocation of Helène, ...Charles, this is a beautiful evocation of Helène, her warmth & her quiet determination to make the world better. That she did this through such a variety of forms & embodiments—from oil stains on flat surfaces to rocks exchanged in pillowcases over barrier walls in Israel/Palestine to pink highlighting on vellum to expose the flaws of sacred texts—reveals the depth of her reflection and the range of her practice, always informed by this moral conviction. Thanks for this beautiful piece. Peter Samisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-46430036550141416542020-01-18T18:06:57.755-08:002020-01-18T18:06:57.755-08:00Was googling and came upon this and thought you mi...Was googling and came upon this and thought you might like to know that Goodwin Samuel died yesterday at 94. He was indeed a splendid fellow and great Francisco Street neighbor. David Bankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03385323699247619243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-59052326701312654092020-01-15T09:55:13.870-08:002020-01-15T09:55:13.870-08:00Charles:
The process of comprehending a work of a...Charles:<br /><br />The process of comprehending a work of art involves delving into one's own feelings. it's as much a process of self-discovery as it is an explication of a pre-figured framing.<br /><br />I often done't even really know what I think about something until I begin to try to explore it verbally, which involves searching through my sensibility and casting about for a means to express it in language. <br /><br />I think people who never make themselves express what they think or feel really have unformed or vague notions of what they experience. Putting it into words forces you to clarify and articulate your sensibility.<br /><br />You may have grown weary of critical writing, and after 10 years of blogging about various subjects myself, I understand that fatigue. But I'm by no means against the idea as a life purpose. I think that--tiven two lifetimes--I might never completely wear out my interest in posting reactions to things I see and hear and feel. It's after all how we communicate and share with others. <br /><br />Can we recapture our innocence, the innocence of first reading poems and seeing pictures or movies? I think we can. In writing about certain classical cinema, I'm able to revisit the sensations I had then, to place myself back in the proscenium of my awareness at a certain point in time. It's not a trick. It just requires a little bit of memory recall. <br /><br />I'm not ashamed of the construct that is my taste. After all, it's always changing, if only incrementally. it's exciting to encounter something or someone who alters one's sense of the meaning of things. I find that at 72 I'm still able to do that. Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-13461324824276338492019-10-14T06:03:59.293-07:002019-10-14T06:03:59.293-07:00This sounds very Eastern.
You know that the only ...This sounds very Eastern.<br /><br />You know that the only way to escape from the experienced mind is through some form of intervention.<br /><br />In dreams, I think I sometimes approach the innocence of direct experience. In dreams, my mind literally creates scenarios, fictions which narrate my subconscious intentions--or fears, or lusts, or passions, etc.<br /><br />We were never less mortal as children than we are as adults. We may have thought we were "farther away" from it then, but we knew the "sound of thunder at the picnic."<br /><br />Criticism--or the habit of it--is a way of discovering how you feel as well as what you think about something. The discipline of forming an argument, or an opinion--putting it into a form, with shape, substance, meaning--is also, as you note, a form of creative thinking. We make new works this way, new versions of originals. <br /><br />In fact, we may be incapable of fully comprehending any work of art or thought, since our mind, even in childhood, manipulates and alters what we perceive. <br /><br />My Mozart isn't your Mozart, my Stein isn't your Stein. Is this kind of diversity useful? <br /><br />Is individuality useful? Probably not for insects, in their social milieu. <br /><br />What are our brains for?<br /><br />Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-86492586000084170982019-08-28T09:14:38.558-07:002019-08-28T09:14:38.558-07:00I really want to read whatever it is this leads to...I really want to read whatever it is this leads to.Daniel Wolfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09093101325234464791noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-41041848085593544272019-02-11T15:05:37.445-08:002019-02-11T15:05:37.445-08:00Beautiful photo. As a landscape architect student,...Beautiful photo. As a landscape architect student, I loved the Pinus Pinea. Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-22080860592811711302019-01-24T17:31:27.084-08:002019-01-24T17:31:27.084-08:00Many thanks for your post. I would like to add wor...Many thanks for your post. I would like to add words of J-M Guyau:<br />"The ability of the present generation has been made possible by the stumbling and mistakes of generations in the past; and this embryonic and successless past constitutes the guarantee of our future. In the moral, as in the physiological world, there are instances of fertility that are not yet explicable. Sometimes long after the death of the man who first loved her the woman brings forth a child that resembles him; and humanity may[517] bring forth a civilization on the model of some ideal cherished in the past, even when the past seems to be buried forever, if the ideal contains some obscure element of truth and, by consequence, of imperishable force. What has once really lived shall live again, and what seems to be dead is only making ready to revive. The scientific law of atavism is a guarantee of resurrection. To conceive and desire the best is to attempt the ideal, is to predetermine the path that all succeeding generations shall tread. Our highest aspirations, which seem precisely the most vain, are, as it were, waves which, having had the power to reach us, have the power to pass beyond us, and may, by a process of summation with other waves, ultimately shake the world. I am satisfied that what is best in me will survive, perhaps not one of my dreams shall be lost; other men will take them up, will dream them over again in their turn until they are realized. It is by force of spent waves that the sea fashions the immense bed in which it lies." <br /><br />I could also add inthis context a name of Nikolai Fedorov (Fyodorov) the founding father of russian (soviet) cosmism and Ivan Efremov (soviet SF writer, paleontologist and visionary).<br /><br />The future can be really bright! <br /><br />All the best! <br />Jacek Jacekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03686282611620933748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-6265885429944387992019-01-24T17:31:04.487-08:002019-01-24T17:31:04.487-08:00Many thanks for your post. I would like to add wor...Many thanks for your post. I would like to add words of J-M Guyau:<br />"The ability of the present generation has been made possible by the stumbling and mistakes of generations in the past; and this embryonic and successless past constitutes the guarantee of our future. In the moral, as in the physiological world, there are instances of fertility that are not yet explicable. Sometimes long after the death of the man who first loved her the woman brings forth a child that resembles him; and humanity may[517] bring forth a civilization on the model of some ideal cherished in the past, even when the past seems to be buried forever, if the ideal contains some obscure element of truth and, by consequence, of imperishable force. What has once really lived shall live again, and what seems to be dead is only making ready to revive. The scientific law of atavism is a guarantee of resurrection. To conceive and desire the best is to attempt the ideal, is to predetermine the path that all succeeding generations shall tread. Our highest aspirations, which seem precisely the most vain, are, as it were, waves which, having had the power to reach us, have the power to pass beyond us, and may, by a process of summation with other waves, ultimately shake the world. I am satisfied that what is best in me will survive, perhaps not one of my dreams shall be lost; other men will take them up, will dream them over again in their turn until they are realized. It is by force of spent waves that the sea fashions the immense bed in which it lies." <br /><br />I could also add inthis context a name of Nikolai Fedorov (Fyodorov) the founding father of russian (soviet) cosmism and Ivan Efremov (soviet SF writer, paleontologist and visionary).<br /><br />The future can be really bright! <br /><br />All the best! <br />JacekJacekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03686282611620933748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-76600363452831521122018-10-03T23:33:34.947-07:002018-10-03T23:33:34.947-07:00Mallarmé, again, this morning. Alex Ross: “ ‘Fantô...<i>Mallarmé, again, this morning. Alex Ross: “ ‘Fantôme qu’à ce lieu son pur éclat assigne’: that line has a music beyond its meaning, its six-syllable phrases singing out in turn. (The first “e” is its own syllable, according to classical rules.)”<br /><br />I translate the line as “His pure display assigns an empty phantom here” : but note : “son pur” is more wordplay : it means “pure sound”!</i>Charles Sherehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10480432901356490235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-67451908187862892372018-05-09T12:47:18.815-07:002018-05-09T12:47:18.815-07:00Thank you, Charles!Thank you, Charles!Daniel Wolfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09093101325234464791noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-46611256909017418232018-05-03T12:07:16.271-07:002018-05-03T12:07:16.271-07:00Stoics, yes, okay, but my man is Epicurus. Wikiped...<i>Stoics, yes, okay, but my man is Epicurus. Wikipedia:<br /><br />In contrast to the Stoics, Epicureans showed little interest in participating in the politics of the day, since doing so leads to trouble.</i>Charles Sherehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10480432901356490235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-75014008899027178882018-05-03T11:31:10.509-07:002018-05-03T11:31:10.509-07:00And read some Stoics...And read some Stoics...Thérèsehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13962409347830705140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-64419795754738638692018-01-03T14:09:58.257-08:002018-01-03T14:09:58.257-08:00Many years later, Jan. 3, 2018, I receive an email...<i>Many years later, Jan. 3, 2018, I receive an email from Ada Hatcher, who reveals that it was she who designed and constructed the costumes for </i>Event with Canfield<i>: apparently the Jasper Johns originals were no longer available. I'm happy to set this ancient record straight. As I wrote in the first place, her work contributed greatly to the timeless beauty of the production.</i>Charles Sherehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10480432901356490235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-6154838882973332962017-12-08T02:30:07.845-08:002017-12-08T02:30:07.845-08:00Well, I'm not sure I am grasping the depth of ...Well, I'm not sure I am grasping the depth of what you are saying. What comes to mind for me though is that process isn't much seen as a goal - only outcome. I do recognize this so often in many spheres. It's as though without some "goal" doing something isn't worthwhile - which I do see as a change, though a slow-creeping one. I'm not so sure either about labels re art or creation. I don't think most artists think they are creating within a sphere - they are mostly following what is in their mind and what they are experiencing, and someone else puts them in that box. So to me avant-garde doesn't have a lot of meaning, because I am more interested in the art itself and whether it is resonating with me, and helping me see the world differently - but then I am not writing music or painting or any of that - so perhaps I'm missing some point. <br />louannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16967764775123042458noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-3829744431494480952017-12-06T03:56:34.725-08:002017-12-06T03:56:34.725-08:00I didn't realize Rae Imamura had died. Cancer ...I didn't realize Rae Imamura had died. Cancer is such a tricky, deceitful thing. So sad to hear this. I also was thinking that the first two paragraphs of this post were exactly what should be included in how you think about your process and your music. Likely I am picking this out because I am not a composer - however I am a person who listens all the time to people so I have that as a context. louannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16967764775123042458noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-11276313874184894762017-10-24T22:00:17.273-07:002017-10-24T22:00:17.273-07:00KQED gave up on foreign films a long time ago.
I ...KQED gave up on foreign films a long time ago.<br /><br />I remember I used to see Truffaut and Cocteau movies there. <br /><br />Today, KQED is all about politically correct minority entitlement. <br /><br />And fund-raising. On any given night, they give over two of their three stations to paid advertising and promotion. <br /><br />The operation seems tired, and cynical. <br /><br />A sad development for a once courageous affiliate.Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-86114530387834656672017-09-30T00:40:14.144-07:002017-09-30T00:40:14.144-07:00Well, that's exactly what I meant that should ...Well, that's exactly what I meant that should be included in the memoirs - this to me is a depth of field about who and why that is an engine. I know I don't understand all of it, but it is central. Lovely. louannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16967764775123042458noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-22000774215424473632017-09-13T19:49:34.528-07:002017-09-13T19:49:34.528-07:00Thank you for this. He was my teacher and mentor, ...Thank you for this. He was my teacher and mentor, and I still miss him.AliciaSFhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10670715324297567350noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-1201986967951400942017-08-10T12:31:14.096-07:002017-08-10T12:31:14.096-07:00A friend comments, in part (I wish we had a more p...<i>A friend comments, in part (I wish we had a more private means of communication):</i><br /><br />I read through about 1/3 of this a couple nights ago and then realized I needed to have a much better space of time to take it in. It's multilayered and deep. …<br /> <br />The one thing I noticed I was missing, though, is your own thinking about why you have been drawn to the forms and substance of expression that are often not very accessible to most people. I'm positive you have ideas about that, and it could be useful to others as they think about what shaped you and what is going on in their own lives - at any rate, I feel memoirs/biographies often do help in seeing things from a bigger point of reference. So glad you are doing this. <br /><br /><i>This sort of reflection begins to build in the next section of the memoir, which covers my years at KQED, roughly 1967-1972. Even then I did not "have ideas about that": such ideas only come now, almost 50 years later, as I write these things. </i>Charles Sherehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10480432901356490235noreply@blogger.com