Florent Ghys
Our guest speaker this past Monday revealed his very unique and extremely original mindset. Of course, I admittedly was less familiar with Florent Ghys’ work than I would have
preferred. I’ve always found, however, that learning about a composer in their
own words and their presentation of their works has always been a better
experience than having been pre-exposed to them in other ways, such as through
personal discover or a recommendation from a friend. I find that when a
composer is able to communicate their message, objective, and artistic vision
for their work and their career, that I am much more likely to grow to
experience their music in a way that feels much more in-tune with what they
might be trying to convey. Personally, I find both all ways of discovery to be
very fruitful ultimately, however in this case Ghys took the time and care to
present his work in a calculated manner, with several tabs open on different
browser windows pre-loaded with links to his works. I found this to be the a
very gratifying way of learning about the works, taking the curation into
account.
In addition, Ghys’ discussion was extremely interesting; some notable key points include his
creative opinion on his multimedia works, his idea of minimalism coinciding
with sensory overload, and the relationship he’s been able to find between
mundane occurences (such as human speech or color) and contrupuntal music.
Specifically with the last point, the way that Ghys was able to exemplify the
cadence and musicality of speech with his weather report examples proved to be
extremely fascinating to me. Moreover, his presentation revealed a type of
specificity in a given work that I had never been able to see more clearly than
with him, as the pieces that he chose to present were hyper-synchronized, to
the point that I repeatedly imagined Ghys sitting in front of a computer for
hours making sure that each hit point landed exactly in his compositions. The
tediousness that must come with that sort of precision only further speaks
towards the ambition that the composer shares in his vision, and it was only
too clear to me in my experience with the presentation.
Of course, the overall interpretation I got from the class was ultimately that Florent Ghys has a very different sort of lane that he seems to be working within than many of the
other composers that have presented in past classes. Ghys is extremely
calculated, while at the same time not missing the fun and wit that comes with
the possibilities of working with video and music together. Obviously, I
enjoyed the presentation’s lightheartedness with the guest this week, and found
his humble demeanor to further speak for his integrity as an artist and notable
figure in contemporary music.
I also really enjoyed Ghys' musical setting/accompaniment of the weather report. This lecture was particularly interesting to me because some of the works I found completely fascinating whereas others really didn't resonate with me. The weather report is an example of one of the works I really enjoyed, along with the computer game animation, which I found delightful. In contrast, I felt that many other pieces were reminiscent of electronic music, but without the heart and satisfaction of it (such as his roof-top piece or the video with pitches associated with colors and their related google searches.) I like the philosophy behind his work and, as you say, how calculated it is, but on a musical level some of the end results did not seem particularly innovative to me, and fell short compared to similar musical genres, even if on a cerebral level they were exploring something new. Naturally these are just my own opinions - I understand that many people love his music and don't necessarily experience it with the same bipolar response that I had.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the philosophy behind Ghys' work, I found it interesting that his videos essentially place all of the guts of the music in front. With many contemporary pieces, the meaning can be obscured if you're only listening to the music without any explanation, due to complexity of harmony, rhythm, subject matter, etc. I think the videos allow us to peer deep into the exact inspiration/source of the music, which could give us a deeper connection to his works.
DeleteI think it's interesting that the music fell short for you, and perhaps that's because you're comparing it to other music? I feel like for what the music is, and what it is associated with, it really accomplishes its goal, which brings up another interesting topic: If music is associated with film, does it have to be "incredible" music? Or does it just have to be effective in its role? Food for thought.
I got the same impression as you. Florent's music is truly unique. I don't think I've ever come across another musician or composer who has ideas that come even remotely close to the ones that Florent was not only able to pull off, but really turn into amazing pieces. Every single one of his ideas seemed completely original, especially the ones where he created music from the melody in the speech of meteorologists. It was really an amazing experiment, and interesting to hear how different languages have very unique melodic intonations.
ReplyDeleteYeah Jessica ! i agree with everything you are saying. At first I wasn't too satisfied but then he showed us the piece with him taking the weather woman speech and creating music around it and I was inspired! Him taking everyday uses and incorporating them in his music . The man is very innovative and I love the technology, language, and music together
DeleteI got the same impression from him. He is for sure that kind of person that regardless of the amount of time and work would always finish every project. The musical speech in his work is almost entirely based on associations between sounds and images, which for sure has been done already in many ways. However, I would say that his particular voice as a composer lies in the visual materials that he uses (very familiar things, everything from the common world), and also the fun spirit in his work that reminds us that contemporary music can also be fun.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, to me the musical speech was no the most appealing thing in his work but the hyper-synch, the means, the "fun effect", and also the process (which strongly determines the final result of his work...). It was good fun :)
I definitely agree that Florent's music is very original. In my opinion, his work is very artful and tasteful at the same time. I feel like that is hard to come across nowadays. Florent must have worked extremely hard in order to be so experimental and good.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your entire post! I feel that while one can deeply feel what a composer tries to convey without communication, one is able to feel a piece of music deeper when communication is present. I also agree that they synchronization was perfect. To me, this exemplifies someone who loves their craft so much so that they do what is necessary to make everything perfect. My favorite videos were, of course, the whether pieces. Ghys makes music that is not only pleasing to the ears but also very entertaining.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting, I find your estimation of Florent's minimalism coinciding with sensory overload interesting as I didn't find his music to be minimalist at all. I believe his work to be post-minimalist in its tendencies, that is to say that he embraces the idioms of minimalism without ascribing himself to the philosophy, or constraining his work to the minimalist genre. In fact I found especially his visual album to be quite maximalist in its approach.
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