Exit
MUSIC
HUFFINGTON
12.09.12
HE FUTURE OF MUSIC FASCINATES ME — mainly how
technology is causing it to drift away from the 20th-century
model of music as a physical commodity. While the shift may
be moving at a glacial pace, I get excited thinking about music, specifically pop music, regaining some of its earliest strengths and
traits. Mainly existing in multiple forms, interpretive as an idea, not
merely a product set in sonic stone. ¶ I recently had the pleasure of
talking with someone of great influence to me and my generation, Beck,
about his upcoming Song Reader project — 20 never-before-recorded
songs that will be released only in notated form. When I first heard
about it I was very intrigued. In my mind, this work will help to continue
this emerging evolution of music’s new form by taking up a format long
antiquated to the pop audience: sheet music. — Dan Deacon
COURTESY OF MCSWEENEY’S PUBLISHING (SONG READER); SERGIO MEMBRILLAS (DO WE? WE DO.)
T
DEACON: I went to school for music and
studied composition and just kept thinking, I am basically writing Sanskrit. No one
gives a crap about notation. I’m wondering what your connection to sheet music
and notation and songbooks is. BECK:
Once I got into playing music, I was
drawn to folk music and rural blues
music. Recordings of that music
were really hard to come by, so certain songs that I had heard about,
the only way I could see what the
music was like was in notated form.
I think about music I recorded in
the last 10, 15 years, and I can tell
you there’s a lot of music that’s lost
forever because it was on a hard
drive. We have musical manuscripts
from 400 or 500 years ago, so they
may be things that last longer.
How long have you been thinking about
doing a release like this? Well this idea
came in the early 90s when I was
putting out my first records, and
Hal Leonard sent a songbook version of the record. I was looking at
it, and it just seemed so abstract
and weird. And it didn’t make sense
because the record was much more
about sonic ideas and experimenting with recording and sounds, and
Beck’s Song
Reader — out
Dec. 7 — is
a collection
of 20 neverbefore-heard
songs by the
artist that
will only be
released in
sheet music
form. If you
want to hear
them, you
either have
to play them
yourself, find
someone
who can, or
wait for home
recordings
to appear on
YouTube.