Influences
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| Bill Evans |
Artistic influences. How are they defined? How are they manifest? What are they? Where are they? Of late, I've been discussing these questions with some of my artistic partners. It's an interesting and nearly endless topic.
Before continuing, perhaps I should take a moment to attempt to define my terms. By "influence," I mean an artist (composer, painter, architect, novelist, musician, sculptor, cinematographer, and so forth) that has tangibly changed or impacted your artistic direction. By "change," I mean enhanced or better-focused your direction. Or have revealed another direction to you. Or it could mean altering your trajectory. Or, perhaps have imprinted on your work to such a degree that you can hear glimpses of their work in yours.
For the sake of illustrating this question and its direction: imagine that you are a tree with many branches. Let's say an influence is a new branch on the tree. All the branches comprise that tree: its shape, its height, how many leaves, and so on, and that tree is you. If an artist made an influence on you, maybe that results in a new branch. Or maybe it results in more than one branch; maybe it is multiple branches. Maybe it puts a bend in an existing branch. I think influences can be manifest in various ways.
Then there are the direct and obvious influence. Back in the mid- to late 1980s, I was immersed in the music of Ornette Coleman, and during that period, I'd hear Ornette lines coming off my guitar. Some of the pieces I wrote for my group could have almost been on records like The Shape of Jazz to Come, or This is Our Music. I wasn't deliberately trying to copy or sound like or write like Ornette; it was just coming out of me like that. When I realized it, I cut back on listening to Ornette for a while, even though I love him. That's one kind of influence: where it's really obvious in your writing or playing or both.
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| Dmitri Shostakovich |
I was looking at the orchestral score of Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony this morning; that is a piece of music that just knocks me over every time I hear it. Each time I hear it, it's like the first time I've ever heard it: it has that kind of mind-shattering impact. Yet I don't hear Shostakovich lines or harmonics in my playing or writing. Does that mean I'm not influenced by Shostakovich? Or because I've listened to and absorbed and loved and studied his string quartets and symphonies and chamber works for literally decades means that he must be an influence, as his music works itself into my subconscious and something of Shostakovich is embedded in my artistic DNA, and that influence is present whether I know it or not? Although now that I think about it, some of Shostakovich's string quartet harmonic concepts could be subconsciously embedded in some of my tunings and harmonic approaches.
Similar question for Bill Evans. I've studied his playing, writing, lines, chord voicings, and on and on for decades. I couldn't put on one of my records and go, "Oh, there's the Bill Evans influence in that chord or in that line." I know he is an influence for me, but how or where is his influence found in my work? I don't know how to answer that.
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| Elliott Carter |
I suspect I've been impacted by Ralph Towner, but there's nothing I do, at least as far as I can tell, that sounds like Ralph. I hope not; I don't want to sound like him or anyone, but still I can be influenced by him, even if I don't know how or where that influence exists within what I'm doing.
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| Arnold Schoenberg |
I know that Arnold Schoenberg has altered my brain plasticity; his approach, his concepts, his harmonic structures; all that and more are coursing through my veins, I'm sure. His work always sounded so right to me, and still does. It sounds familiar to me. It all makes perfect logic to me and it feels like home. Examples are, but not limited to: his third and fourth string quartets, the Five Pieces for Orchestra, and the Drei Klavierstucke, op. 11. Likewise, I've also been impacted by his students Alban Berg and Anton Webern; without question. I'm sure that elements of his harmonic concepts can be found in mine.
I've spoken elsewhere on this blog about the importance of the string quartets of Bela Bartok. Bartok's work, and especially his string quartets, have been and continue to be significant to me. I've studied the scores, sight-read from them, performed scalar analysis on and extracted scales from them, and more. Bartok's string quartets have for years and continue to make a tremendous impact on me.
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| Bela Bartok |
Keith Jarrett is a massive influence on me in terms of his solo work. He is responsible for several branches on my tree. I was listening to one of his solo records one day many years ago. I wish I knew which one; I'd guess one of the Sun Bear records. While listening that day, I had the very concrete thought "I wish I could do that on guitar." By "that," I meant a solo performance/composition which became a third thing: something comprising a performance and composition that were inseparably intertwined to create this third thing that couldn't exist without either of those and was equal parts of those elements to create a new element that was totally self-contained. Yet wasn't a recital of extant works like a solo classical guitar recital where the performer is playing pieces by Bach or Villa Lobos or Brouwer or such. But solo works that came from me that were by and for me, and not me composing solo works for other players to perform. Prior to having that thought, I would have considered mapping what Keith does (solo works only) to guitar to be impossible. But by merely having that thought, by having that conception, it started me on a path on which I am now and will be the rest of my life. I don't know if my solo records would have been possible without Keith's solo works. That is an influence for sure, without question. Keith's solo works are almost sui generis. It isn't jazz; it isn't classical; yet it is both simultaneously, with the addition of it also being Keith. I'm not trying to play what Keith would play, nor am I trying to sound like Keith; however, I do think that what I do has something in common with Keith's solo work only because it's both classical and jazz and me. Then again, in my more recent and current solo works, I'm no longer thinking in terms of solo guitar like I was in my first few solo records.
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| Keith Jarrett |
Currently, I'm thinking in terms of string quartets, chamber groups, and orchestras, but on guitar. Or more accurately, on my guitars, as my guitars are probably closer to being an orchestra than they are to being a guitar; at least in my mind. Moreso when you consider the varying registers, ranges, double- and triple-courses, and differing tunings on them all taken together as a group. I see them like having all the instruments in an orchestra, and yet in many cases, they're creating new colors that were never possible in an orchestra. So where's that influence coming from? Or is that just the tree as a whole as it exists and it's far beyond the realm of an influence or artistic impact?
I think there's also a directional influence, where you can hear someone and see or hear a whole new direction in what they do, and as such, it reveals a direction to you that was previously unknown. And as such, you sprout some new branches that grow and point in a direction different from the existing branches on your tree.
Hence, in conclusion: I'm not sure how to answer, really. I know, or I think I know, who's influenced me. But I'm learning that I may not always know how that influence is manifest in what I do. I'd like to know. When I'm at the computer, I'm constantly listening. There's a small pile of CDs here which is the music to which I've been listening this week. A cursory glance shows:
- Holmboe: complete string quartets
- Elliott Carter: string quartets
- Bill Evans: solo and trio works
- Keith Jarrett: La Fenice, New Vienna
- Jacobean Lute works collection
- Marilyn Crispell: Nothing ever was, anyway
- Rubbra: string quartets
- Bach: French Suites
Of that pile, I can immediately identify influences: Carter, Bill Evans, Keith, Bach. Less so Holmboe because I've only been listening to his quartets (devastatingly cool) for a couple of years As I absorb and learn them, they'll likely make an impact. Lute works are something to which I've been listening for many years, so there's likely some polytonal conceptual influences and/or right-hand techniques from that vast body of work. Examples might be the works of John Dowland and Sylvius Leopold Weiss.
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| John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy |
Two other major influences are John Coltrane's work post-1960, and Eric Dolphy. I always felt like Coltrane was constantly discovering and pushing the boundaries of what was possible on his instrument. His playing in his later period sounded to me as if he was constantly right on that razor edge of the possible and impossible; of success and disaster. His writing and group concepts furthered that direction. Additionally, in the final few years of his life, his music became his vehicle for the praise and worship of God. As a Christian, that spoke directly to me. I'm sure that A Love Supreme and Interstellar Space have caused new growth on my tree.
Eric Dolphy's playing and writing has, to my way of hearing, nearly boundless joy and intensity. Plus, Dolphy's use of octave displacement impacted me so much that I still hear that influence in my lines.
I suspect that by understanding my influences, I can better learn from them, and better absorb those influences where they exist.
If you're an artist, who were some of your influences? How did they influence you? Share your thoughts below in the Comments section.
-kk
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