This = awesome: "I think in words and pictures and the more images and word meanings I have stored in my scull, the more I am able to distinguish if the art I am making is any good."
Other page one things: I think we can appreciate something as "good" without prior experience of similar things.
Another. Don't forget, what we call 'classical' was the pop music of its day. Think about how commonly we see bits of Haydn in kid's music. "Pop music" is an artificial way, and arbitrary term used to separate music from music. I don't favor that.
Page two: Agreed, music indeed induces "wandery" or exultation. I have discussed this with fellow audiophiles, and many tell me they can concentrate solely on the song and sound for an entire song. I am dubious regarding the veracity of such claims! Put me in your category. They don't call it a musical journey for nothing!
Page three: Disagree on this..."the only good reason to spend audiophile money on a stereo is to gift yourself the opportunity of experiencing as much as you can of the art and sound of humans playing handcrafted musical instruments."
I admit to enjoying things like electronic music, John Cage conducting boat horns, etc. What you describe is completely fine, however. I don't mean to undermine your direction!
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I agree about doing 'everything' in a state of mindfulness, but then I also approve of sometimes slipping away from that. I had a wonderful art professor in college who would watch us while we worked. Sometimes, he'd come up to a piece and artist and say, "Stop thinking!"
There can be a lot of mindfulness in mindlessness, it turns out! One can start working on something without knowing a final intention or artistic destination and then discover where one's own mind takes one without the artist/creator even 'knowing' it. I admit to having finished some things and only then realizing, "Oh, so that's what that was." I think making art can create a sense of insight 'after the fact' for the creator as well as other times creation being an intentional expression of meaning or intent.
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Anyway, thank you for another great piece. I am still synthesizing my own way of thinking about sound in the context of your past descriptions of what a piece of gear is drawing your intention to, and how that can be intertwined with our own natural propensity to drift in and out of objective attentiveness. I guess you could say I am trying to find the whole where the sound gets in and allows my mind its wandering, where it will go.
Thanks again for another beautifully done, insightful, and thoughtful/thought provoking article - we couldn't ask any more of you.