The Sisters of MercyI was raised on Echo and the Bunnymen, the best sixties album in the world... ever!, various [English] mediaeval songs, The Muppet Show, and my sister's compilation tapes from (I guess) when she was in high school. I hated classicalmusic and I was ambivalent to all the music that the media was forcing down everyone else's throats because I just wasn't exposed to it (much).
As I approached the age of 11 I began to care about/listen to music less and less (and I became more and more of a compulsive reader). This stopped one winter when I found myself ill, bedbound, and without anything new to read. I had received an FM radio that Christmas, and the only station that was any fun to listen to was Classic FM (they happened to be playing Ludwig van Beethoven's
Ode to Joy when I turned it on). I spent most of a year gradually accepting the classical aesthetic as superior before I started to learn the piano (aged 12). As I progressed through the grades (grade 2 after 1 year, then 4, 6, 7, and 8) My teacher allowed me increasing freedom to play what I wanted. Either that, or I just played whatever I wanted to on top of all the exam pieces and ones she suggested. Hard to remember. Also, throughout this period I desperately wanted to play the harpsichord and the clarinet. These days, just the harpsichord.
Anyway, as I grew I became more fascinated by Beethoven's music, which I perceived as beautiful, well-constructed, and emotional without (in general) having to rely on extramusical texts and programmes. Reading about him and looking at his works in chronological order (paying particular attention to opus 90 and onwards) revealed a concern for pushing the (then very strict) boundaries of music and struggling to find a musical idiom that was his own. This seemed a very noble cause, and the chaotic fun of the fugue from his Hammerklavier
Sonata, not to mention the 20th-century avant-garde that continued along similarly abrasive lines, convinced me that this was a direction I would like to take with any music I might compose.
By then, I pretty much held any music that used a drum kit in contempt. :)
At this point the chronology starts to break down. Aged 16, I discovered Dada while perusing the art section of my sixth form library. Dada became a focus for my thoughts on visual art, though not for my thoughts on music until, on a whim, I listened to the dada tag radio on last.fm. Most if not all of it blew my mind, but the most memorable results were Pornoheft and Nakkilan palokunnan tanssiyhtye. NPTY is probably the main cause for my appreciation of the apskaft no-fi aesthetic.
At some point, I snatched someone's goff rock compilation off the internet, mostly out of curiosity because I had a goffick friend and no idea what her music actually sounded like. In the dark, The Hanging Garden andTransmission, among others, were surprisingly listenable, and after a while I ended up just buying the albums that contained them (and a few others). So, my approach to all rock and pop is via Bauhaus, Joy Division, The Cure, and The Sisters of Mercy.
The next thing to mention is black metal. I was unimpressed by metal in general, because it seemed to lack the subtlety of the gothic rock that I had begun to listen to. The heavy timbres and textures didn't interest me as much as the creepyier , more subdued textures (and minor harmonies) of gothic rock. However, the first piece of black metal that I heard was Des médecins malades et des saints séquestrés, which behind all the guitar noise used compound metre, interesting (and mediaeval-inspired) melodies, complex structure, and basically everything else I liked. It was a while before I went looking for other tracks, let alone other bands, but it happened.
Just before going to university, I did a few things:
First, I put my AS-level music composition on last.fm (Maybe).
Second, I recorded various components of my computer (on the suggestion of everything2.com and put them on last.fm.
Third, I visited Erik Satie's grave and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Only the latter affected my music, but the former was very moving. While I was at the Pompidou Centre (which is the only thing within the bounnds of Paris worth seeing), I bought Andy Hamilton's book Aesthetics & Music; a DVD containing various Dadaist film experiments; and one of Sub Rosa's Anthologies of noise & Electronic Music. You can imagine how this interacted with my desire to be Beethovenish in pushing the limits of music...
From there it's too chaotic to write meaningfully or concisely about (Not that this is concise). Suffice it to say that I should have mentioned minimalism post-rock, spoken word, polish, neofolk, french, neoclassical darkwave, and...
Yeah anyway. Stopping now.
As I approached the age of 11 I began to care about/listen to music less and less (and I became more and more of a compulsive reader). This stopped one winter when I found myself ill, bedbound, and without anything new to read. I had received an FM radio that Christmas, and the only station that was any fun to listen to was Classic FM (they happened to be playing Ludwig van Beethoven's
Ode to Joy when I turned it on). I spent most of a year gradually accepting the classical aesthetic as superior before I started to learn the piano (aged 12). As I progressed through the grades (grade 2 after 1 year, then 4, 6, 7, and 8) My teacher allowed me increasing freedom to play what I wanted. Either that, or I just played whatever I wanted to on top of all the exam pieces and ones she suggested. Hard to remember. Also, throughout this period I desperately wanted to play the harpsichord and the clarinet. These days, just the harpsichord.Anyway, as I grew I became more fascinated by Beethoven's music, which I perceived as beautiful, well-constructed, and emotional without (in general) having to rely on extramusical texts and programmes. Reading about him and looking at his works in chronological order (paying particular attention to opus 90 and onwards) revealed a concern for pushing the (then very strict) boundaries of music and struggling to find a musical idiom that was his own. This seemed a very noble cause, and the chaotic fun of the fugue from his Hammerklavier
Sonata, not to mention the 20th-century avant-garde that continued along similarly abrasive lines, convinced me that this was a direction I would like to take with any music I might compose.
By then, I pretty much held any music that used a drum kit in contempt. :)
At this point the chronology starts to break down. Aged 16, I discovered Dada while perusing the art section of my sixth form library. Dada became a focus for my thoughts on visual art, though not for my thoughts on music until, on a whim, I listened to the dada tag radio on last.fm. Most if not all of it blew my mind, but the most memorable results were Pornoheft and Nakkilan palokunnan tanssiyhtye. NPTY is probably the main cause for my appreciation of the apskaft no-fi aesthetic.
At some point, I snatched someone's goff rock compilation off the internet, mostly out of curiosity because I had a goffick friend and no idea what her music actually sounded like. In the dark, The Hanging Garden and
Transmission, among others, were surprisingly listenable, and after a while I ended up just buying the albums that contained them (and a few others). So, my approach to all rock and pop is via Bauhaus, Joy Division, The Cure, and The Sisters of Mercy.The next thing to mention is black metal. I was unimpressed by metal in general, because it seemed to lack the subtlety of the gothic rock that I had begun to listen to. The heavy timbres and textures didn't interest me as much as the creepyier , more subdued textures (and minor harmonies) of gothic rock. However, the first piece of black metal that I heard was Des médecins malades et des saints séquestrés, which behind all the guitar noise used compound metre, interesting (and mediaeval-inspired) melodies, complex structure, and basically everything else I liked. It was a while before I went looking for other tracks, let alone other bands, but it happened.
Just before going to university, I did a few things:
First, I put my AS-level music composition on last.fm (
Maybe).Second, I recorded various components of my computer (on the suggestion of everything2.com and put them on last.fm.
Third, I visited Erik Satie's grave and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Only the latter affected my music, but the former was very moving. While I was at the Pompidou Centre (which is the only thing within the bounnds of Paris worth seeing), I bought Andy Hamilton's book Aesthetics & Music; a DVD containing various Dadaist film experiments; and one of Sub Rosa's Anthologies of noise & Electronic Music. You can imagine how this interacted with my desire to be Beethovenish in pushing the limits of music...
From there it's too chaotic to write meaningfully or concisely about (Not that this is concise). Suffice it to say that I should have mentioned minimalism post-rock, spoken word, polish, neofolk, french, neoclassical darkwave, and...
Yeah anyway. Stopping now.
[IMG]
