"Vile" for Woodwind Ensemble and Guitar (Page 1 of the score)
In compositional endeavors, Perspectivalism is a semantic theory according to which the contents of utterances and mental states (perhaps of a particular kind) have a truth-value only relative to a particular perspective (or standard) determined by the context of the composer or performer of the transformative state.
If that was too much for you to absorb, which I have been challenged about in my writing, let's think about breaking this down. Let's focus on one point here..."truth value". Where is our 'station' when we create music? Must it be relevant? Must you be relevant? What defines your ability or inability to induce new syntactic musical messages?
I have defended this view for epistemic terms, moral terms and predicates of personal taste elsewhere. The content of color perception and color discourse in my musical scores, I will argue, has a truth-value only relative to a centered world containing an appropriate listening condition and the receiver, or a receiver that is deferred to.
In the end...it's just, and I do mean "Just" music.
Several months back, I decided to capture an image of Richard Barrett's (Composer) precursor score to an upcoming premiere of his composition. He so gallantly posted this score prior to performance and I took the opportunity to interpret it visually in a different manner (and yes, prior to the premiere). It's a re-appropriation of his work. It can be interpreted as a mockery or a compliment. (You decide). If you are unfamiliar with this concept, check out Walter Benjamin or perhaps better in the world of literature, Kenneth Goldsmith.
Richard Barrett
I entitled this work "Syree", and yes, there is a message in the name. Richard, part of the prescribed composers of "The New Complexity" did not take well to this, but then, I did not expect him to either. I do not say that as a ridicule of the composers categorized with this moniker. While it may not be in vogue in certain circles, I personally, find Brian Ferneyhough one of the most brilliant minds the music world has ever experienced.
Brian Ferneyhough
Brian Ferneyhough is kind, intellectual, compassionate, a disruptive thinker and ...well, the most important to me...just an all around great person. I had a great experience with him via email prior to meeting him in Darmstadt and I will always place him in very high esteem as a person. He is a beautiful man with an extremely kind heart.
I do believe that reappropriation/appropriation is a the new authority of thematic claims that can literally and metaphorically define a disruptive, radical shift in compositional discourse.
James Erber, Composer. another fantastic mind and a
complete inspiration as a composer