Matt Dallman's Response to my comments on a moral ground to art

Matthew Dallman a writer, musician and much more of a proper blogger than me, was kind enough to post some thoughts in response to my post meditation retreat comments on a moral foundation to art.

Matt is very interested in theoretical perspectives on art and art making that include but don't stop at scope of post-modernish critical theory.

Here is a quote:

My composition teacher, W.A. Mathieu, has taught me to consider what the human ear can reasonably be expected to hear and process. I could put any and all notes I want into one of my compositions, but the reality is that the average human ears are only going to be able to really hear--and thus truly resonate--with certain of the notes in certain patterns and combinations. The artistry of composition, in fact, involves skillfully dancing on the edge of the known and the unknown, in ways that keep the ears of the audience simultaneously engaged and in a rapture of surprise. These lines and limits of perception are pre-given to a certain extent (only tones in a certain frequency range can be perceived, for example), but also evolve. Our ears tolerate far more sonic ambiguity than those of previous epochs of culture.

Read the rest on his blog.

erik