Playing By Myself
RSS | 07.19.2011 | Comments »
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Sometimes instrumental/improvised music seems to exist in an environment where musicians perform for their band members as much or more than their audiences. After all, playing in an ensemble that performs improvised music is about a dialogue. Everything that each musician plays exists as a compliment or contradiction to the music going on. The band members have to play towards each other or the music is no longer a conversation. The musicians become building blocks for the band to assemble, or put at odds.
From my point of view, the root aspiration of a lot of instrumental/improvised music is to create a whole that is greater than any of its parts. Ideally, the music that comes out of this process seems to exist on its own, independent of its creators. Another force in the room. This can be extremely moving, and if it happens, the music comes to life. But it also becomes a sort of art piece displayed in the venue, almost as if the musicians have left the room. For me, this moment of musical success is also when the connection between the individuals in the audience and the individuals in the band is severed.
In an interview on NPR, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) suggests that the music that has resounded with him the most has always been the music that seems to be coming from a person, and not just a concept. This statement seemed sort of strange to me at first. Listening to the two Bon Iver records I feel like it would be dishonest to say there isn’t an overreaching conceptual thread present on each CD. I think what he is trying to say is that he does not connect with music where the conceptual intention overpowers the voices (for lack of a better word) and personalities of the musicians. He needs his music to sound like it is coming from someone, and he strives to make that an organizing principle of what he creates in the same way that some musicians reach for a conceptual ideal. Or at least, that’s how I’m going to take it.
Playing instrumental music alone is a sort of short cut in a lot of ways. There are only one person’s ideas, creative opinions, and compositional styles to draw from. Cohesiveness within the band is generally not an issue. But conversely, the creative momentum and diverse quality of a band is completely absent at the outset. To me, it feels like working backwards. When a band writes music together a piece often starts with one persons idea and then a majority of the energy is devoted to building other peoples voices and tastes into the original thread. Somewhere in the building process the idea turns into something created by the whole band.When playing solo, every composition is limited to a single creative voice and the bulk of the work becomes finding ways to add some of the creative tension that is naturally part of a group with multiple points of view.
In the end, It is much harder to create a musical statement that seems to jump into the room, but what is left in its place is a singular intimacy that is very difficult to create with a band. A musician performing on a stage by himself is directly connecting with the audience and everything he plays is exclusively for their ears. For me, witnessing the vulnerability and unobstructed nature of a single individual sharing their music with an audience is as powerful an experience as watching an entire band work in tandem.
Tags: Audience, Bon Iver, Justin Vernon, Musical Voice, Performing Instrumental Music, Solo Performance, Steve Lehman