Hello Everyone,
If you have not already, I encourage you to use the following link to listen to the most recent episode of the TCC Podcast, featuring the composer Dr. Daniel Townsend and his piece The Vibration of Ancient Incarnations.
https://www.tccollaboration.com/18-the-vibration-of-ancient-incarnations-daniel-townsend-phd/
It is always a great time to interview and feature someone who’s music I am not very familiar with. In this case, an avant-garde-like vocal piece based around poetry and a narrator with an originally conceived graphic notation score. For myself, as an analyst, that is far outside my comfort zone and it was a great exercise to engage with in. Dr. Townsend was, of course, also a great person to engage with it. As we discussed in the episode, music that is this explorative necessitates some kind of buy-in from the audience, and sometimes that buy-in is a hard-sell. Personally, I have had a great amount of personal growth over my time in college, as you would hope from someone receiving a college education in music, but even then, as a casual music consumer I still find difficulty with the buy-in of certain pieces. Then, on the opposite side, the question of artist responsibility to create a compelling buy-in in the first place, and even then, for some asking that question would be antithetical to artistry itself. So, as you can see from how this paragraph spiraled, this can become a very thorny and complicated element of composition and audience-relations, and I highly encourage you to listen to the episode to hear Dr. Townsend’s takes and experiences with such. He was a great person to talk to about this, and had some great anecdotes to go along with it.
Thank you again to Dr. Daniel Townsend for coming onto the podcast and for sharing his piece The Vibration of Ancient Incarnations.
I am incredibly excited to preview that the next episode of the TCC Podcast will be wildly different than anything before. Episode 19 of the TCC Podcast will be the first TCC Roundtable, with Justine de Saint Mars and Will Davenport, previous guests on the podcast, where we will be discussing Collaboration in Reality! Roundtables are going to be infrequent, occasional episodes featuring various people in and around music, not just limited to composers or theorists, discussing wide ranges of relevant issues in the field. These will be much more free-form than the typical interview style episodes, and will be guided loosely with an outline and an overarching theme. For this first TCC Roundtable, it will be Collaboration in Reality. In academic and philosophical settings, we, mentioned in the most recent episode with Dr. Townsend, get tied-up into conversations about the conversation. Words and phrases such as “we should be having the conversation”, “finding a place for that conversation”, and other similar sentiments. That is not to delegitimize such ideas, as discussion about discussion, especially around controversial ideas, can be essential for framing purposes, but it is important to expand past the preliminary and get into the issues themselves. So that is all to say, this first TCC Roundtable will be approaching multiple elements of collaboration in music and academia with a particular focus on how to practically follow through with those elements. The actual issue and, to what the panel can best surmise, the solutions. I can’t share any more of it, or that would be spoiling the fun of a new episode type! You all will have to wait for the release of the next episode this coming Monday, and you certainly won’t want to miss it!
I am also excited to tease that the next guest after the first TCC Roundtable will be the composer Michael Dixon and his piece Albireo. This will certainly be a unique episode, especially and if that is vague it is intentional, but that is part of the fun! More on this in next week’s blog post!
There is also an additional announcement to make, and if you have been perusing around the TCC website, you may have noticed it already. The Theorist Composer Collaboration now has an account on Buy Me a Coffee and is accepting donations to help support the creation of the show. I wrote this on the new donation tab, which is now on the navigation bar at the top of the website, but never feel pressured to donate. All content is still completely free and fully accessible at the same time for everyone on every relevant streaming platform. One of the advantages of Buy Me A Coffee over something like Patreon is that the former allows for one-time donations, and does not bind supporters to monthly subscriptions. I would never ask for tethered, monthly support unless I had something substantive to offer, and right now I do not. Not to bemoan running this podcast, it has been a great joy and a source of weekly inspiration, but it is a great deal of work for one person. I wouldn’t feel comfortable asking for such a commitment without offering something extra in return.
There is also an adjacent reason as to why it took so long for there to be a way to monetarily support the show. To ask for such support, I felt as though I needed solid proof of quality and consistency in the content of the TCC before asking for any donation. Although I feel a bit self-conscious in saying this, for a while now I believe that the TCC has proven to be of consistent and high enough quality to say it is more than just a proof of concept. Any and all donations are incredibly appreciated and go a long way to help support the production and continuation of content here on the Theorist Composer Collaboration. I will say one more time however, never feel pressured to donate. Your continued listenership and following of the TCC is just as appreciated as always. Here is a link to the Buy Me A Coffee page, which is also available on the donation tab at the top of this website:
https://buymeacoffee.com/tccollaboration
Again, don’t forget to listen to the most previous episode if you missed it, featuring the composer Dr. Daniel Townsend and his piece The Vibration of Ancient Incarnations. Make sure to follow our social media links below and the podcast streaming platform of your choice to keep up-to-date on new episodes and blog posts from the TCC. Additionally, set your calendar and/or streaming subscriptions to this coming Monday, August 12th for the first TCC Roundtable where we discuss Collaboration in Reality. You won’t want to miss it, and we’ll see you there!
- Aaron
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