tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74241892689832511992024-03-14T04:25:08.231+00:00The Art Of Rhetoric' I have nothing to say and I am saying it 'Rhett Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102642986399021225noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424189268983251199.post-51794400897442000082006-05-25T14:40:00.001+01:002009-03-10T14:56:21.106+00:00Global QuickeningTo experience a physical sense of the passing of time, watch a sunrise, closely.Light, Time, Matter & Space reveal their intimate choreography.Now available in convenient durations.Rhett Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102642986399021225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424189268983251199.post-27997967353909296062006-04-23T14:48:00.004+01:002009-03-11T11:16:15.197+00:00InvisibleNOTHINGRhett Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102642986399021225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424189268983251199.post-75381188745689062522006-04-04T14:59:00.001+01:002009-03-10T15:05:26.748+00:00Seeing and Hearing Double'the night rider' - homage to Frances-Marie Uitti by Paul GriffithsHands tight on the reins, eyes steady forward,astride her living wooden horse, she tears ahead.There are others, at the side,holding searchlights to catch her as she goes.Iannis Xenakis sees her spectacular dexterity.John Cage smiles at her humour.Giacinto Scelsi welcomes her gravity and intensity.Jonathan Harvey hails her wild Rhett Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102642986399021225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424189268983251199.post-6206146223418541712006-03-18T15:06:00.015+00:002009-03-10T15:40:26.426+00:00How To See - A Beginner's GuideJosef Albers - 'Variant' (1948-52)Laszlo Moholy-Nagy - 'A 19' (1927 - detail)Josef Albers was one of the inspirational teachers at Black Mountain College (see below), tutor to Robert Rauschenberg whose series of 'White Paintings in part inspired John Cage to think about silence and write 4'33", so I just had to see this exhibition of his work along with Moholy-Nagy.To change something or at leastRhett Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102642986399021225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424189268983251199.post-62449403464802786202006-03-11T23:25:00.004+00:002009-03-10T23:32:55.119+00:00Black Mountain CollegeFascinating exhibition at the Kettles Yard Gallery Cambridge about Black Mountain College (BMC), where the teachers and students formed a collective of composers, artists, poets, and craftspeople, who all shared the work at the college, grew their own vegetables, and cross-fertilised their ideas.Concerts of pieces composed and developed at BMC were performed. John Cage's 45' for speaker was read Rhett Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102642986399021225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424189268983251199.post-52858789475716744712006-03-10T23:47:00.011+00:002009-03-15T14:57:40.286+00:00From Perfect To Human('The Perfect Human')('The Imperfect Human')Seeking late night stimulation I watch Lars Von Trier's genius film 'The 5 Obstructions' for the 2nd time. In it he forces his old teacher Jorgen Leth to remake 5 times his previous 1967 masterpiece 'The Perfect Human', each time with a different set of obstructions.Limitations inspire creativity, and sure enough when Leth is asked to remake the film Rhett Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102642986399021225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424189268983251199.post-61230390776981712132006-03-09T00:13:00.000+00:002009-03-11T00:15:28.448+00:00JourneysI find myself sitting in a room in Queens' College Cambridge, almost 20 years after I first sat there in 1986. It's as if I've been off on an adventure, but now I'm back home in my simple student room after half a lifetime of experiences.It feels like a journey straight out of Sebald's groundbreaking book 'Rings of Saturn', the story of his walk down the Suffolk coast from Lowestoft to Southwold,Rhett Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102642986399021225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424189268983251199.post-9989766588865640702006-03-07T00:16:00.001+00:002009-03-11T00:18:31.267+00:00Plums unknowingly find artistic purposeDuring an Opera Writing Workshop at Snape Maltings, I sieze the opportunity to air my plums (both literally and metaphorically).Plums are essentially like people, just skin, flesh and seeds, programmed primarily simply to survive and reproduce.Rhett Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102642986399021225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424189268983251199.post-5342555351974761982006-03-02T00:19:00.001+00:002009-03-11T00:21:26.249+00:00The Importance of SeasoningAldeburgh beach (covered in rock salt)It's so important to make sure your life has enough spice and seasoning.After much effort, I make winter return.Rhett Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102642986399021225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424189268983251199.post-57991362143542615302006-03-01T00:22:00.005+00:002009-03-12T13:54:39.908+00:00Debussy made more musical"Music is the silence between the notes." - (Claude Debussy)I checked a recording of 'Clair de Lune' and there are no complete silences. Each note hasn't completely faded and quiet resonances always continue beyond the point the next note is played.The most silent parts of 'Clair de Lune'Rhett Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102642986399021225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424189268983251199.post-85385620201393585892006-02-25T00:27:00.000+00:002009-03-11T00:27:57.298+00:00Inevitable ImpossibilitiesToday someone told me the 'true' story of how they accidentally killed a robin which flew under their foot as they were walking in London, and it was squashed flat by their boot! I joked about how the probability of this happening was near zero, that it falls into the category of 'impossible', but it happened.This reminds me of some of artist Keith Tyson’s playful works which explore the Rhett Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102642986399021225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424189268983251199.post-81929093476106204672006-02-13T00:28:00.005+00:002009-03-12T13:56:55.142+00:00Miniature MasterpiecesI heard Webern's Six Bagatelles for the first time today, extraordinary!Concentrated, delicate, precise, intense and full of energy.Simultaneously alien and natural.The very epitome of finding beauty in the detail.My lesson - even small, short, or simple creations can be powerful and beautiful.Webern's Six Bagatelles distilledRhett Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102642986399021225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424189268983251199.post-37631136185201834652006-02-10T00:32:00.002+00:002009-03-11T00:40:12.328+00:00In the footsteps of Queneau'Opening the Cage' - 14 variations on 14 wordsI have to say poetry and that is nothing and I am saying itI am and I have poetry to say and that is nothing saying itI am nothing and I have poetry to say and that is saying itI that am saying poetry have nothing and it is I and to sayAnd I say that I am to have poetry and saying it is nothingI am poetry and nothing and saying it is to say that I Rhett Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102642986399021225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424189268983251199.post-37354188657309559932006-01-30T00:42:00.002+00:002009-03-11T11:02:51.788+00:00GreyGrey skies in Aldeburgh, no wind, no movement, nothing. Seeing but not feeling grey, I go in search of other colours and call a friend to check the world hasn't ended. "I want to cut the sky with a knife and make it bleed" I say. "That's poetry" she says.In the spirit of Rauschenberg's 'White Paintings', perhaps I just need to open my eyes, to look a little more closely at this grey canvas, and Rhett Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102642986399021225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424189268983251199.post-38826539509907721802006-01-14T11:03:00.003+00:002009-03-11T11:09:17.633+00:00AppetiteElliott Carter decomposingElliott Carter composingI for one would have happily turned up simply to applaud any 97 year old who could make it onto the Barbican stage. Elliott Carter the composer who freed music from bars, was however so much more than just a very old man, full of life, insight, humour and mischief.In a film about his life, Carter mentions liking Proust. At lunch at St.John, I Rhett Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102642986399021225noreply@blogger.com0