Saturday, February 20, 2010

Two things are of infinite interest to musicians: vibrations and rhythm. There is no end to fascination with either of these natural elements.

Vibrations we know cannot be repeated: like snowflakes they are individually constituted, new every time.

For rhythm imagine drawing a penciled line on a piece of wood and taking it to be cut. Does the cutter aim inside the line, right at its center, or outside?

How thick is the saw blade? How wide is the pencil mark? How much do you care?

Rhythm is an infinite number of cuts with an infinite choice of pencil widths and saw blades, each one of which you care deeply about. But there is only that one piece of wood.