Florent Ghys and the Practicality of Limitations

Last Monday I became fascinated with many aspects of Florent Ghys’ artistic life. From his compositions, to his audio-visual works, to his overall approach to music and art; Ghys delivered a captivating presentation on what it means (in my opinion) to be an artist in today’s world. 

The facet that resonated with me the most was his way of transforming the ordinary (such as weather reports or stock pictures) into extraordinary art. It was specially appealing to hear him explain his thought process behind every single piece. For instance, he talked about how he hears “melodies” in different languages - and how that inspires him to interpret the melodies on his upright bass. I find it very inspiring to be able to hear music (and see art) in everyday things. On one hand it offers an alternative perspective on the mundane aspects of life. On the other (more practical) hand, it can become a very rewarding compositional technique.

Even though this practice isn’t particularly new (several composers have written music based on ordinary things like birds chirping) it is refreshing to see a modern interpretation of this procedure. As trained composers we have a vast set of tools at our disposal: we have extensive knowledge about harmony, orchestration, production, compositional techniques, etc. While invigorating, this can also be a concealed obstacle: “there are too many options, where do I even begin?” - The moment we decide to apply the aforementioned method, we deliberately put limitations on our skill set. Counterintuitively, this can actually be a very useful technique. It narrows down the options and forces us to do the most with what we’ve got. Picture a painter deciding to use only two or three different colors - they are going to have to think outside of the conventional methods and potentially create a more unique piece of art. As another example: in his book “The Advancing Guitarist”, Mick Goodrick proposes a method of improvising melodies using only one string of the guitar. Conventionally speaking, guitar players are trained to play scales and arpeggios on multiple strings (positions) - by doing this it forces us to change our mindset and possibly come up with melodies that we wouldn’t have even considered. 

Ghys’ interpretation of this method was to transcribe speeches (and other things) into melodies and subsequently writing music around it. The limitation here is determined by the speech and the final composition is the result of those limitations. If it wasn’t for that method he (arguably) wouldn’t have even considered writing that particular melody. However after setting that limitation he was able to compose a very a unique piece of music. 

As a closing thought, I want to point out his approach of “not taking himself too seriously” in the process. For many years music was considered to be this grandiose, magnificent and most of all serious practice. While it remains like that I believe that there is space for other aspects: absurdism, comedy, boredom, mundaneness, etc. These qualities are a part of the human experience and therefore shouldn’t be excluded from becoming art. It is a very refreshing experience to encounter composers like Florent Ghys and I look forward to developing my own craft and finding a voice of my own like he did.