Saturday, December 12, 2009

Sound and passion

On the radio yesterday morning, I heard an interview with Chris Delaurenti of the Seattle Phonographers Union. He talked about field recordings and improvising with found sounds to record compositions.

I thought of that last night while we were watching the movie
August Rush--during the scene when Evan/August is hearing all the sounds in the city and "directing" them. It was a found-sound symphony.

Throughout the movie, I was inspired by the immense passion by the characters, their passion for music and the way they were consumed by it. I'm still thinking about that today. I'm more the kind of person who seeks equilibrium, stays far away from the deep end, but I'm always wondering what it would be like to embrace a desire that fully.

But I also realize that the main characters in the movie were also looking for something else, and were looking for it through their music, with their music. In that way, using your art as a tool for seeking, maybe we aren't so different.

How do you embrace and balance your art?

3 comments:

Dana said...

I saw that movie, too, and cried all the way though it because I used to play the flute and even studied at a conservatory before I decided to be a writer instead.

I have not felt the same passion, that passion specific to the performance of music, since I started identifying as a poet. Not that the passion isn't there with poetry. It is to some degree, but it's muddied by so many other issues related to poetry.

As a result of watching that movie, I just got my flute repaired. I am picking it up today and am going to start taking flute lessons. I need to have music in my life again.

Joannie Stangeland said...

That's wonderful!

I hope I can hear you play sometime.

glass said...

[I need to watch this movie!]

Writing took me by a storm and I pretty much fell in love with it. I was between many options as for what I'd do after High School, but my passion for writing made the decision quite obvious. I've been at it for five years and I have to say, I don't think I could live without it. Even when I'm between difficult examinations I should concentrate on, I can't pull myself away from a notebook and pencil for a quick poem.

I've learned a lot and grown up a lot through writing, and even if life doesn't go the way I would want it to and writing doesn't become a career, I doubt that I could let it go. I'd be lost without it.

It makes me feel that finding one's passion can set one free. I'm really lucky.

I think it's my art that balances me.