On Dynamics
I’ve been thinking a lot about musical dynamics lately, since my teacher has been asking me to think about the natural decay of a bowed sound and the combination of “tension/release”.
I’ve been reading “Casals and the Art of Interpretation” lately. If you haven’t heard of it, I highly recommend it. Pablo Casals was an incredible cellist and a conductor and these are his thoughts on how to make music breathe. I especially love his thoughts on dynamics, such as “Diminuendo is the life of music”. By which he means that you need to contrast two loud sounds with some diminuendo. Without diminuendo, we’d have too much sameness and monotony in our music.
What with loudness maximizer plugins and such, we’re forgetting the contrasts and dynamics that are possible in electronic music, reducing one of the vital dimensions of music. Our music doesn’t breathe anymore.
While I can’t really change that in others, I’m gonna try and make my music breathe more.
