[Applause]
technology sure has changed the way we
interact with our world there was a time
not that long ago where I might come to
an event like this and actually just sit
there and enjoy myself
right but now we’ve got these devices
that help us keep a memory of every
little thing that happens even very
insignificant things but you know I can
I can take us out let’s do that let’s
take a selfie
everybody’s smile I guess I got most you
in there there we go
oh what a good-looking bunch and next
week or tomorrow I can look at this
picture and it’ll remind me of what it
was like how cool it was to be here with
you and I can post it to my social media
to remind everybody else how cool I am
which is frankly why we really do that
right technology also gives me amazing
access to other people’s ideas so as
long as my data plan is paid up and I’m
within range I can connect to the
Internet and I can look at a picture of
a famous painting or a building or a
sculpture I can read a poem or a play or
a novel if my eyesight is good enough
and I can listen to a recording of just
about any important piece of classical
music written over the last several
centuries all the treasures of human
culture right at my fingertips it’s
amazing but I think sometimes we mistake
access for engagement just because I
have access to something doesn’t mean
that I’m really engaging with it and
more importantly classical music was
never meant to be heard in this way
alone so today one thing I would like to
talk to you about is I want to reinvent
the composer’s task I want you to be
excited about what composers do because
composers are inspiring first and
foremost a composer is a wizard at
imagining sounds that’s what a composer
is doing they’re organizing sounds in
time and that process begins with a
vivid imagination but then a composer
has to undergo really quite rigorous and
difficult training to learn how to
translate those symbols from the
imagination into as I say a set of
symbols
that a performer can execute and when a
performer executes these symbols we are
suddenly able to hear into the mind of a
great thinker do you know it took human
beings centuries to develop and perfect
this technology that lets us hear this
thing it’s really amazing composers are
solitary people we like to work by
ourselves in fact that’s one thing that
drew me to composing I’m really an
introvert and composing is something
like doing a Sudoku or a crossword
puzzle or a game of solitaire you’re
organizing a bunch of dots on a graph in
a room all by yourself it’s an
introverts dream you’d love it
but we can’t do it all by ourselves we
require the help of somebody else we
require a performer who is another
extraordinary person
performers spent decades of their life
learning how to decipher the symbols
that composers left behind so that they
can open these windows into these minds
of these great composers it’s really
extraordinary so I’ll give you an
example this oh hello
this is a piece of music or rather this
is not yet music right it’s a set of
instructions and these instructions are
by one of the greatest minds who ever
lived Johann Sebastian Bach Bach was
born in eisenach Germany in 1685 and he
died in Leipzig in 1750 that’s very far
away and a very long time ago but that
doesn’t stop us from hearing Bach’s
great thoughts as long as we have a
performer
[Music]
so for as long as Nick was playing that
piece we were able to see with great
clarity and detail into box thoughts and
then as soon as he stopped which was not
the end of the piece by the way it went
back to being just a really cool set of
instructions and that’s something like
magic right uh so what was Bach trying
to say what was he driving at you know
people have have written hundreds of
books on that topic I think I have
dozens of them in my office how my wife
Allison will tell you that so we’re not
going to be able to really unpack that
here today that’s just too much
information but I think part of the
answer lies in something that Bach knew
not something he knew as a fact you
could look up on your phone but
something he knew as a way of doing let
me tell you what I mean
music has a melodic element that’s how
the notes interact when you play them
one after another and it also has a
harmonic element that’s what the notes
do how they interact with each other
when you play them simultaneously Bach
understood better perhaps than anyone
before or since
that every good melody implies a
compelling harmony and every good
harmony is in a sense a frozen moment of
interaction between multiple
simultaneous melodies Bach had unlocked
somehow the secret to writing every
melody to be full of wonderful harmonic
implications and of writing every
harmony to be full of incredible melodic
possibilities and using this one
instrument which is capable of playing
at most two notes at a time Bach managed
to say something about sound and musical
grammar that we find really compelling
even hundreds of years after
his death somehow this music reminds us
that simple things are often profound
and profound things are often simple as
I listen to this music it seems to be
about the interaction between the one
and the many which is something that has
fascinated philosophers since the dawn
of human consciousness it’s also an
exquisite reminder of the power of
expression one person is capable of
making when they say exactly the right
thing these truths that Bach was
speaking about or writing about are
somehow very important to our
understanding of what it means to be a
human being and this technology of
classical music is one of the ways that
we human beings invented to pass this
wisdom on to our children and our
grandchildren and our grandchildren’s
grandchildren it’s amazing so we’ve
talked about the composer and we’ve
talked about the performer and that only
leaves one person to complete the circle
and that’s the audience that’s you
you’re required to make the circle
complete and to have the the technology
of classical music working the way it’s
supposed to and I’ll tell you when that
technology is working properly
it’s intimate its immediate it’s
personal it’s something you’re going to
want to experience live we have this
technology of recording which has done
something really extraordinary it opens
the window into the composer’s mind and
then it forces it open so that it can
never be closed again and that’s
wonderful it’s given us I don’t want to
take too much away from it it’s given us
access to things that in prior times we
would have had to have been very wealthy
or well-connected to hear now we can all
hear it right but that that access has
come at a cost because it changes the
way we think about music and I’ll give
you four of the many ways that recording
technology has changed our thoughts
about music
firstly it changes our conception of
music in time if I like something I’m
listening to quite a bit I can go back
and listen to it again and if I hate it
I can fast-forward past it and skip
entirely and that changes the composer’s
control over the sounds in time which as
I’ve said is one of the things composers
are supposed to be in charge of secondly
when I’m not in the room with the person
who’s playing this music loses some of
the immediacy the intimacy the personal
aspect I begin to take it for granted
thirdly I start to think of the music as
a thing instead of an experience so I
have an iPod here and it’s the biggest
one I could find but I wanted to put a
lot of music on it so it’s huge and I
gotta be honest with you even as I’m
giving you this talk I think about the
files in here as a thing don’t you but
music is not supposed to be a thing it’s
supposed to be an experience an
experience meant to be shared which
brings me to my fourth point most of us
experience music in some way like this
we have a set of earbuds in or maybe
we’re in the car by ourselves and this
is lovely but I’m experiencing this in
isolation nobody else is experiencing it
with me that’s not how music is supposed
to work we’re supposed to experience it
in community so I want to encourage you
make live music a part of your life this
technology that I’m speaking about I
really want to impress upon you this is
all about love when a composer dedicates
years and years of her life to learning
how to leave behind a set of symbols so
detailed that even years and years
centuries after she’s died we can still
hear her very best thoughts that is a
courageous act of love when a performer
dedicates impossible at nickel tell you
impossible
hours of practicing to learn how to open
windows into this composers mind and
that composers mind and that composers
mind so that you can hear this gift
that’s a courageous act of love and hear
me out when you as an audience member
sit in your seat and you leave behind
your distractions and give your full
attention to this music that’s coming at
you
that’s a courageous act of love all
three parts are necessary I as I say I
want you to be I want you to make this
live music a part of your life I want
you to find a living breathing human
being with blood flowing through her
veins and sit in front of her as she
activates the molecules of air around
you in waves to give you the greatest
thoughts of a dead person’s music how
incredible is that don’t you want to be
a part of that it’s amazing it’s amazing
so just to sort of demonstrate some of
that I’ve written a piece of music for
for today for my son Nicholas this is my
son I didn’t introduce him earlier yeah
let’s give him a hand I have four kids
they all play music my wife and my four
kids play music together it’s awesome I
highly recommend it
I guess the four kids part is not for
everybody but I certainly enjoy it it’s
amazing so I’ve played with Nick many
times I know what Nick is good at I know
what he likes to do I know what he
doesn’t like to do and so I’ve written a
piece of music that that uses his his
best qualities my music refers to the
past so you may hear ideas that you
recognize you may hear a little snippet
of something from the Bach that we heard
earlier I like my music to have a
beginning a middle and an end and even
though this piece is quite short I think
I’ve worked to do that and I’ve also
repeated ideas and developed them
because that’s one of a composers tools
so that so that the piece it starts to
tell a story what did I mean by the
music you’re about to hear well that’s
an interesting question a lot of people
ask that
one of the beautiful things about music
in general of a particularly classical
music it’s gonna mean something
different to every person in this room
you are required for the piece to get a
meaning you’re the last stop on its
train to meaning right and after all if
I if I could tell you what I meant I
wouldn’t have needed to write a piece of
music about it now it so happens that
late last night in all the craziness
Nick and I recorded this and we did it a
few times to make sure that Nick was
sounding his best so I’ve got it here on
my iPod
and boy Nick you sound fabulous really
good it you know it reminds me of our
time together as we were working on this
piece it reminds me of the time that we
spent together all those times playing
that music and that’s a beautiful thing
for a father and son but it’s I gotta
tell you it’s not the same thing as
being here in the room with him it’s a
little bit like the selfie I took at the
beginning of our talk it’ll remind me of
what this was like but this it will not
be the same as being here in this room
with you a picture of a hug is not the
same thing as getting an embrace from a
friend you wouldn’t want to live your
life maybe some of you do unfortunately
but you wouldn’t want to live your life
just look at it pictures of yourself
doing things would you you’d want to
actually be there
don’t settle don’t settle for a picture
don’t settle for a snapshot or a
recording don’t even settle for this
video you are currently watching go out
and find somebody to play live music for
you and now let’s hear as Nick opens a
window into my mind
[Music]
thank you
technology sure has changed the way we
interact with our world there was a time
not that long ago where I might come to
an event like this and actually just sit
there and enjoy myself
right but now we’ve got these devices
that help us keep a memory of every
little thing that happens even very
insignificant things but you know I can
I can take us out let’s do that let’s
take a selfie
everybody’s smile I guess I got most you
in there there we go
oh what a good-looking bunch and next
week or tomorrow I can look at this
picture and it’ll remind me of what it
was like how cool it was to be here with
you and I can post it to my social media
to remind everybody else how cool I am
which is frankly why we really do that
right technology also gives me amazing
access to other people’s ideas so as
long as my data plan is paid up and I’m
within range I can connect to the
Internet and I can look at a picture of
a famous painting or a building or a
sculpture I can read a poem or a play or
a novel if my eyesight is good enough
and I can listen to a recording of just
about any important piece of classical
music written over the last several
centuries all the treasures of human
culture right at my fingertips it’s
amazing but I think sometimes we mistake
access for engagement just because I
have access to something doesn’t mean
that I’m really engaging with it and
more importantly classical music was
never meant to be heard in this way
alone so today one thing I would like to
talk to you about is I want to reinvent
the composer’s task I want you to be
excited about what composers do because
composers are inspiring first and
foremost a composer is a wizard at
imagining sounds that’s what a composer
is doing they’re organizing sounds in
time and that process begins with a
vivid imagination but then a composer
has to undergo really quite rigorous and
difficult training to learn how to
translate those symbols from the
imagination into as I say a set of
symbols
that a performer can execute and when a
performer executes these symbols we are
suddenly able to hear into the mind of a
great thinker do you know it took human
beings centuries to develop and perfect
this technology that lets us hear this
thing it’s really amazing composers are
solitary people we like to work by
ourselves in fact that’s one thing that
drew me to composing I’m really an
introvert and composing is something
like doing a Sudoku or a crossword
puzzle or a game of solitaire you’re
organizing a bunch of dots on a graph in
a room all by yourself it’s an
introverts dream you’d love it
but we can’t do it all by ourselves we
require the help of somebody else we
require a performer who is another
extraordinary person
performers spent decades of their life
learning how to decipher the symbols
that composers left behind so that they
can open these windows into these minds
of these great composers it’s really
extraordinary so I’ll give you an
example this oh hello
this is a piece of music or rather this
is not yet music right it’s a set of
instructions and these instructions are
by one of the greatest minds who ever
lived Johann Sebastian Bach Bach was
born in eisenach Germany in 1685 and he
died in Leipzig in 1750 that’s very far
away and a very long time ago but that
doesn’t stop us from hearing Bach’s
great thoughts as long as we have a
performer
[Music]
so for as long as Nick was playing that
piece we were able to see with great
clarity and detail into box thoughts and
then as soon as he stopped which was not
the end of the piece by the way it went
back to being just a really cool set of
instructions and that’s something like
magic right uh so what was Bach trying
to say what was he driving at you know
people have have written hundreds of
books on that topic I think I have
dozens of them in my office how my wife
Allison will tell you that so we’re not
going to be able to really unpack that
here today that’s just too much
information but I think part of the
answer lies in something that Bach knew
not something he knew as a fact you
could look up on your phone but
something he knew as a way of doing let
me tell you what I mean
music has a melodic element that’s how
the notes interact when you play them
one after another and it also has a
harmonic element that’s what the notes
do how they interact with each other
when you play them simultaneously Bach
understood better perhaps than anyone
before or since
that every good melody implies a
compelling harmony and every good
harmony is in a sense a frozen moment of
interaction between multiple
simultaneous melodies Bach had unlocked
somehow the secret to writing every
melody to be full of wonderful harmonic
implications and of writing every
harmony to be full of incredible melodic
possibilities and using this one
instrument which is capable of playing
at most two notes at a time Bach managed
to say something about sound and musical
grammar that we find really compelling
even hundreds of years after
his death somehow this music reminds us
that simple things are often profound
and profound things are often simple as
I listen to this music it seems to be
about the interaction between the one
and the many which is something that has
fascinated philosophers since the dawn
of human consciousness it’s also an
exquisite reminder of the power of
expression one person is capable of
making when they say exactly the right
thing these truths that Bach was
speaking about or writing about are
somehow very important to our
understanding of what it means to be a
human being and this technology of
classical music is one of the ways that
we human beings invented to pass this
wisdom on to our children and our
grandchildren and our grandchildren’s
grandchildren it’s amazing so we’ve
talked about the composer and we’ve
talked about the performer and that only
leaves one person to complete the circle
and that’s the audience that’s you
you’re required to make the circle
complete and to have the the technology
of classical music working the way it’s
supposed to and I’ll tell you when that
technology is working properly
it’s intimate its immediate it’s
personal it’s something you’re going to
want to experience live we have this
technology of recording which has done
something really extraordinary it opens
the window into the composer’s mind and
then it forces it open so that it can
never be closed again and that’s
wonderful it’s given us I don’t want to
take too much away from it it’s given us
access to things that in prior times we
would have had to have been very wealthy
or well-connected to hear now we can all
hear it right but that that access has
come at a cost because it changes the
way we think about music and I’ll give
you four of the many ways that recording
technology has changed our thoughts
about music
firstly it changes our conception of
music in time if I like something I’m
listening to quite a bit I can go back
and listen to it again and if I hate it
I can fast-forward past it and skip
entirely and that changes the composer’s
control over the sounds in time which as
I’ve said is one of the things composers
are supposed to be in charge of secondly
when I’m not in the room with the person
who’s playing this music loses some of
the immediacy the intimacy the personal
aspect I begin to take it for granted
thirdly I start to think of the music as
a thing instead of an experience so I
have an iPod here and it’s the biggest
one I could find but I wanted to put a
lot of music on it so it’s huge and I
gotta be honest with you even as I’m
giving you this talk I think about the
files in here as a thing don’t you but
music is not supposed to be a thing it’s
supposed to be an experience an
experience meant to be shared which
brings me to my fourth point most of us
experience music in some way like this
we have a set of earbuds in or maybe
we’re in the car by ourselves and this
is lovely but I’m experiencing this in
isolation nobody else is experiencing it
with me that’s not how music is supposed
to work we’re supposed to experience it
in community so I want to encourage you
make live music a part of your life this
technology that I’m speaking about I
really want to impress upon you this is
all about love when a composer dedicates
years and years of her life to learning
how to leave behind a set of symbols so
detailed that even years and years
centuries after she’s died we can still
hear her very best thoughts that is a
courageous act of love when a performer
dedicates impossible at nickel tell you
impossible
hours of practicing to learn how to open
windows into this composers mind and
that composers mind and that composers
mind so that you can hear this gift
that’s a courageous act of love and hear
me out when you as an audience member
sit in your seat and you leave behind
your distractions and give your full
attention to this music that’s coming at
you
that’s a courageous act of love all
three parts are necessary I as I say I
want you to be I want you to make this
live music a part of your life I want
you to find a living breathing human
being with blood flowing through her
veins and sit in front of her as she
activates the molecules of air around
you in waves to give you the greatest
thoughts of a dead person’s music how
incredible is that don’t you want to be
a part of that it’s amazing it’s amazing
so just to sort of demonstrate some of
that I’ve written a piece of music for
for today for my son Nicholas this is my
son I didn’t introduce him earlier yeah
let’s give him a hand I have four kids
they all play music my wife and my four
kids play music together it’s awesome I
highly recommend it
I guess the four kids part is not for
everybody but I certainly enjoy it it’s
amazing so I’ve played with Nick many
times I know what Nick is good at I know
what he likes to do I know what he
doesn’t like to do and so I’ve written a
piece of music that that uses his his
best qualities my music refers to the
past so you may hear ideas that you
recognize you may hear a little snippet
of something from the Bach that we heard
earlier I like my music to have a
beginning a middle and an end and even
though this piece is quite short I think
I’ve worked to do that and I’ve also
repeated ideas and developed them
because that’s one of a composers tools
so that so that the piece it starts to
tell a story what did I mean by the
music you’re about to hear well that’s
an interesting question a lot of people
ask that
one of the beautiful things about music
in general of a particularly classical
music it’s gonna mean something
different to every person in this room
you are required for the piece to get a
meaning you’re the last stop on its
train to meaning right and after all if
I if I could tell you what I meant I
wouldn’t have needed to write a piece of
music about it now it so happens that
late last night in all the craziness
Nick and I recorded this and we did it a
few times to make sure that Nick was
sounding his best so I’ve got it here on
my iPod
and boy Nick you sound fabulous really
good it you know it reminds me of our
time together as we were working on this
piece it reminds me of the time that we
spent together all those times playing
that music and that’s a beautiful thing
for a father and son but it’s I gotta
tell you it’s not the same thing as
being here in the room with him it’s a
little bit like the selfie I took at the
beginning of our talk it’ll remind me of
what this was like but this it will not
be the same as being here in this room
with you a picture of a hug is not the
same thing as getting an embrace from a
friend you wouldn’t want to live your
life maybe some of you do unfortunately
but you wouldn’t want to live your life
just look at it pictures of yourself
doing things would you you’d want to
actually be there
don’t settle don’t settle for a picture
don’t settle for a snapshot or a
recording don’t even settle for this
video you are currently watching go out
and find somebody to play live music for
you and now let’s hear as Nick opens a
window into my mind
[Music]
thank you
Please follow and like us: