I have been feeling really creative and full of energy lately, which is a pleasant change from how I have felt for the majority of this year. I made a zine last week, my first ever, and it was amazingly fun. (If you'd like a copy, email me at myammie01@yahoo.com.) I've finally started really cooking again (hooray for that!), and today I sewed an extension onto the bottom of a skirt that was too short. I'm starting to want to play my viola again also, which is the biggest benefit of all. I want to enjoy what I do again, and I think I needed the space to rediscover that enjoyment.
So tonight I went to an awesome concert of student-composed electro-acoustic music, aka music with an electronic element and a live instrument element. It was so much fun! It was so out-there, and made me reconsider the roles of composers and performers in the process of music-making. For instance: the first piece was just a tape, no live musicians at all. Basically, everybody just sat and stared at an empty stage and listened to this tape, which consisted of snatches of songs (like a radio tuning in and out of stations), static, underlying harmonic drone, and phrases. It was so weird; I never considered the concept of a concert without a performer, or that a composition could be called a composition if it actually can't be performed, only played back. I was thinking about whether most people would consider it to be a piece of music, as legitimate as Beethoven's 9th in it's own way, and I don't think they would. Another piece was based around tones from the composer's handheld Simon videogame; someone stood onstage and played the game while the musicians played. All in all, very fun and interesting, as well as a little inspiring.