ecarroll

"We have been eductating for a society that perhaps is gone. We need more and more creative people in society. We more and more people who will make things connect together, who will go in strange directions. We don't only need good workers. These days are over."
-- Sir Simon Rattle

TMers,

Simon shows us once again that he gets it, that he accepts his role as a cultural leader. He's always been one of my favorite conductors and people (he's on the Chosen Vale advisory board). Now he's one of my heros as well.

YouTube - RHYTHM IS IT! Trailer

YouTube - Rhythm is it - creativiteit

YouTube - Versteck dich nicht - Wickeds (from the film RHYTHM IS IT!)

We are so used to noise in our society. The moment there is silence we can really listen...

I find this series to be stunning. Concentrate. Watch. Listen.
EC

ecarroll

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYB8y...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enQUM...eature=related

ecarroll

mahaberio

I'd not heard of these films before you brought them up but they seem very interesting and relevant. I was aware Simon Rattle had been doing great things with Berlin and I've long-admired his individuality and fortitude as a conductor, but I think his relevance to the classical music world runs much deeper.

-Matthew

Vulgano Brother

If any of you have back issues of Scientific American, pull out the October 1982 issue and read Variations on a Theme as the Crux of Creativity in Douglas Hofstadter’s column Metamagical Themas, or you can find it starting on page 232 of Hofstadter’s book, Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern. (Don’t bother checking the Seattle library: they do not have a copy.) Here is a quote:

“The bottom line is that invention is much more like falling off a log than like sawing one in two. Despite Thomas Alva Edison’s memorable remark, ‘Genius is 2 percent inspiration and 98 percent perspiration,’ we’re not all going to become geniuses simply by sweating more or resolving to try harder. A mind follows its path of least resistance, and it’s when it feels easiest that it is most likely being its most creative. Or, as Mozart used to say, things should ‘flow like oil’—and Mozart ought to know! Trying harder is not the name of the game; the trick is getting the right concept to begin with, so that making variations on it is like taking candy from a baby.
Uh-oh—now I’ve given the cat away! So let me boldly state the thesis that I shall now elaborate: Making variations on a theme is really the crux of creativity.”

Wow! Such a big bundle of truth! If we get truly “creative,” we will come across as crazy persons—there is a limited parameter, a limited envelope that we can mess with, and if we go outside that box we lose our audience. Back to Hofstadter:

“One of the problems with the ever-popular self-help books on how to be creative is that they all encourage ‘off-the-wall’ thinking (under such slogans as ‘lateral thinking’, ‘conceptual blockbusting’, ‘getting whacked on the head’, etc.) while glossing over the fact that most off-the-wall connections are of very little worth and that one could waste lifetimes just toying with ideas in that way. One needs something much more reliable than a mere suggestion to ‘think zany, out-of-the-system thoughts.’”

Time for the big ‘ol Vulgano speech: We cannot control the notes, the articulation, or the dynamics, because they are written in a script as sacred as any other. We cannot control the tempo, because of the person with a stick marking time. We can, however, control the attitude of the music, attitude in the aviation sense, the direction we lean. This is the knob we are freely allowed to turn, and missed notes or not, it is as a messenger that we will be remembered.

A pretty cool job, actually.

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www.letsbuildhope.org

Smithi20

Interesting... if we boil it down to following your ears, heart and quest for individual happiness, I adore wasting a lifetime toying with ideas. I would much rather play to 30 people who want to travel with me than 300 who are waiting for something they recognise...

__________________
Ian

Eng Bessons: Proteano Bb/A and C/Bb //Warburton 3M10
Weltklang //Warburton 3FLX

ecarroll

. . . music to my ears. Thank you.

Best,
EC

rowuk

I am not sure that Sir Simon is spot on. The "creatives" have always been there AND out of the box. We have had an incredible 150 to 200 years for the middle class too. The most recent marketing attacks on fine anything has indeed made many wonderful things so commonplace that they are no longer special and at the same time turned against us, trying to force feed ever increasing blandness.................... It isn't capitalism, it's laziness.

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Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.

oldenick

Here is a link to an abridged version of the chapter from his book.

Metamagical themas: questing for the ... - Google Book Search

Great read