On discipline, music, and life.

The Road To Graceland.

by Robert Fripp

Music is a process of uniting the world of qualities and the world of
existences, of blending the world of silence and the world of sound.

In this sense, music is a way of transformation.

What we do is inseparable from how and why we do what we do.

So, the transformation of sound is inseparable from a transformation of
self.

For example, we attract silence by being silent.

In our culture, this generally requires practice.

Practice is a way of transforming the quality of our functioning, that is,
a transformation of what we do.

We move from making unnecessary efforts, the exertions of force, to making
necessary efforts: the direction of effortlessness.

In this the prime maxim is: honor necessity, honor sufficiency.

II

When we consider our functioning as a musician, that is, what we do in
order to be a musician, we find we are considering more than just the
operation of our hands.

The musician has three instruments: the hands, the head and the heart, and
each has its own discipline.

So, the musician has three disciplines: the disciplines of the hands, the
head and the heart.

Ultimately, these are one discipline: discipline.

Discipline is the capacity to make a commitment in time.

If the musician is able to make a commitment in time, to guarantee that
they will honor this commitment regardless of convenience, comfort,
situation and inclination of the moment, they are on the way to becoming
effectual.

An effectual musician is a trained, responsive and reliable instrument at
the service of music.

III

So, practice addresses:

1. The nature of our functioning; that is, of our hands, head and heart.

2. The co-ordination of our functioning; that is our hands with head, our
hands with heart, our heart with head, and in a perfect world, all three
together in a rare, unlikely, but possible harmony.

3. The quality of our functioning.

IV

It is absurd to believe that practising our instrument is separate from
the rest of our life.

If we change our practice, we change our lives.

Practice is not just what we do with our hands, nor just how we do what
we do, nor why we do what we do.

Practice is how we are.

V

A practice of any value will be three things:

1. A way of developing a relationship with the instrument;

2. A way of developing a relationship with music;

3. A way of developing a relationship with ourselves.

So, the techniques of our musical craft are in three fields: of playing the
instrument, of music and of being a person.

I cannot play guitar without having a relationship with myself, or with
music.

I cannot, as a guitarist, play music without having a relationship with
myself and my guitar.

And, by applying myself to the guitar and to music, I discover myself
within the application.

VI

A technique simulates what it represents, and prepares a space for the
technique to become what it represents.

For example, the manner in which I live my life is my way of practising
to be alive.

There is no distance between how I live my life and how I practice being
alive.

VII

Once a quality is within our experience, we recognise its return and may
allow its action to take place upon us.

But how and why it is present, or comes to visit, is rather harder to
describe.

If this quality is present with us, description becomes easier: we
describe the world in which we live.

If we live in the way of craft, the craft lives in us; as we describe
this way, the craft reveals itself through us.

Any true way will be able to describe itself through its craftspeople.

VIII

The quality we bring to one small part of our life is the
quality we bring to all the small parts of our life.

All the small parts of our life is our life.

If we are able to make one small act of quality, it will spread
throughout the larger act of living.

This is in the nature of a quality - a quality is ungovernable by size
and by the rules of quantity: a quality is ungovernable my number.

So, one small act of quality is as big as one big act of quality.

An act of quality carries intention, commitment and presence, and is
never accidental.

IX

Once we have an experience of making an effort of this kind, we may
apply this quality of effort in the other areas of our life.

The rule is: better to be present with a bad note than absent from a
good note.

When our note is true, we are surprised to find that it sounds very much
like silence, only a little louder.

X

If music is quality organised in sound, the musician has three
approaches towards it: through sound, through organisation, or through
quality.

The apprentice will approach the sound, the craftsperson will approach
the organisation of sound, and the master musician approaches music
through its quality.

That is, the master musician works from silence, organises
the silence, and places sound between the silence.

XI

Where we are going is how we get there.

If where we are going is how we get there, we are where we are going.

If we are where we are going, we have nowhere to go.

If we have nowhere to go, may we be where we are.

XII

Music is a benevolent presence constantly and readily available to
all.

May we trust the inexpressible benevolence of the creative impulse.

[Ramona_A_Stone]

Nice Mr. Pook. Also thanks for this email, the contents of which I cannot resist posting. I laughed heartily and long at both the letter and Mr. Fripp's response:


"Attention: Robert Fripp - Recording Artist
Virgin Records
Kensal House
553-579 Harrow Road
London W10 4RH

Re: Royal Albert Hall performance- 5/12/93

Dear Robert,

I am saddened and let down by you. My wife and I have been fans of yours
for years. She saw you on the "Discipline" tour and I saw you for the first
time at the Royal Albert Hall performance with David Sylvian this month.

Well, actually, I didn't 'see' you. I 'heard' you - I think. You knew you
weren't going to perform and be lit at the same time, and we didn't. I was
simply confused. I didn't know where to look. Should I strain my eyes to
see your brilliant craftsmanship?

We have followed your career through The Roches, King Crimson, League of
Crafty Guitarists, etc. We know your sound. We paid to 'see' and 'hear'
you.

Sure, I could have let go of my ideas or pictures of what a concert is
supposed to be like. I've done it before. However, I wanted to 'see' you
playing guitar.

The bottom line for me is that you didn't take responsibility for your
actions.
You, nor David Sylvian, communicated to us about this 'choice' you made to
play in the dark. Since David was doing all the singing, maybe he could have
said, "Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, Robert will not be spotted with
light
tonight because he finds it easier to perform in a dimly lit situation and
apologises for not being fully lit. I imagine you may have expected to see
him
clearly because he is co-billed as the main attraction. He believes that
this
choice of not being lit will ultimately provide him with the space to give
his best
performance and thus give you your money's worth." Truthfully, I think it
should have been you saying this. If you did this, all would be forgiven - I
promise you.

At first, we spent most of our time thinking there was a technical problem.
Then we got the point. Then we battled between straining to see you play
your leads and, at the same time, focus on the distraction of the rhythm
section who were strongly lit in white light. As a trained concert listener
and viewer, I think the eyes and ears go to who is playing the lead if no
one is singing. Your not being lit knocked us off balance and detracted
from the whole purpose of the show which, in my mind, is to perform to your
maximum potential.

If that was your best effort, then I think you are a fraud or simply one
who is not an aware person. Not being lit, is a big '****-you' to the
audience when you know perfectly well that people would be disappointed by
not seeing you. It is a tease and a manipulation. Maybe one day you will
get the attention off yourself. Getting the attention off yourself is a
type of selflessness which is greatly appreciated by the listener/viewer.

A man once told me, "When you get to the point where you know you are no
better and no worse than any other being who has ever lived, you will have
reached your pinnacle as an artist." Until you reach that point, Robert, I
feel sorry for you and wish you peace of mind in the quiet, unconscious,
daily living 'hell' that you are keeping yourself in.

You can please send me #21 ($ - Pounds?) to pay me back for the show. You didn't earn it,
sorry. I am open to a reply from you.

For your information, I will not stop buying your recordings. I am not that
extreme, however, I have talked others who attended the show and have made
the decision to not support you any more with CD purchases or going to your
live performances.

Yours truly,
DW

==========================

Dear DW of Kings Langley

I was saddened and upset by your rude, insulting, presumptuous and
deliberately unkind letter. That you have a sufficient passion for music to
write the letter is reassuring and heartening to me; that you allow no room
for any interpretation other than your own of the RAH show, nor an
alternative approach to audience/performer responsibilities, and respond
only in the nasty and graceless fashion which you have is
disappointing. Regrettably, the tone of your letter typifies the quality of
public debate. Given your intentionally offensive manner, you may
understand why I shall not enter a discussion with you regarding the issues
you raised, which are in themselves interesting and have been a major
concern of mine for many years.

If you consider me a fraud then you make my life easier: you abandon the
demands which your expectations make of me.

You "feel sorry for (RF) and wish (me) peace of mind in the quiet,
unconscious, daily living 'hell' that (I am) keeping (myself) in". Uh,
thanks for your kind feelings, Dave, and I'm really sorry that I'm such a
terrible person. Forgive me, but your arrogance is breathtaking, even to
one whose breath has been taken many times. Your only possible excuse for
that one is youth.

You mention the decision to support me, or not, through records and
shows. Although the audience can choose the performer, the performer has to
take the audience as given. This is clearly inequitable. You seem to assume
I want, and perhaps should be grateful for, your "support". My life as a
musician isn't undertaken either to get rich or become popular. So please
be informed that the author of your letter is not a person I wish to have
in my audience (whether in person or in an extended sense). Neither do I
want, nor feel the need for, your "support" nor for that of any audience
which assumes its right to impose on me its particular expectations of how
I meet my responsibilities (which your letter in any case disputes). I know
the extent of my training and experience, but I have met few members of the
audience whose training has been quite as extensive.

You ask me to send you #21 to pay you back for the show as I "didn't earn
it". I've considered the fairest response to this. Firstly, you did at
least see David Sylvian, and three other musicians. My own contribution was
surely less than half. Secondly, both audience and performer take a risk
on the performance. The audience gets an artist who may not meet their
expectations, and a performer might get someone as lacking in charity and
courtesy as yourself. Thirdly, anyone with a measure of familiarity with my
work (which you claim) might reasonably expect the performance to be
not-quite-as-you-might expect.

So, #21 shared between us both x 40% (a poor estimate of the 3 musicians'
performance) = #4.20. Although not much for you we haven't considered the
expenses I carry and I doubt that you'd want the bill for those. Enclosed
is a cheque for #4.20 on the understanding that you will never again come
to a concert at which I am performing.

Sincerely"

True Frippophiles might also enjoy this chat transcript, with some jewels of Fripplosophy.

[greedy_lars]

i saw Crimnson here in Portland on the Thrak tour, and as was expected, Robert was in the back where it was dark for the whole show. so well, as ive read in the past, he dun wanna giveaway his secrets, and more power, he is one of the best most creative gutairists of his time. Brian Enos St. Elmos Fire still sends chills down my spine when Fripp does his lead, and ive heard it about a million times. so nice.

[Ramona_A_Stone]

"A few artists have already written songs inspired by the events of September 11. Country singer Alan Jackson introduced a plaintive “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning”) at the CMA awards a couple of weeks ago, and Paul McCartney sang his rousing “Freedom” as the finale to the “Concert for New York” in October. McCartney has made his song available as a charity single download, with proceeds going to the Robin Hood Relief Fund. Other artists have recorded patriotic songs—such as the Dixie Chicks’ gorgeously harmonized a cappella version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and Bon Jovi’s heartfelt “America the Beautiful”—for download, asking that a donation be given to relief organizations. And still others have put together group recordings—Michael Jackson, for instance, with his “What More Can I Give.”

But to me the most fitting music so far related to the attack and its aftermath is Robert Fripp’s “Refraction,” part of his Soundscapes series. Fripp, best known for his progressive rock group King Crimson, improvised and recorded the 6 minute piece on November 30, 2000, before an audience. Although this was obviously many months before the destruction of the World Trade Center, the free performance took place right across the street from there at the World Financial Center—only a footbridge away.



Listening to “Refraction,” I could imagine Fripp standing on the current pile of smoking rubble, letting everything that had occurred there run through him to create this music. Mournful, ethereal, expansive—the piece seems to be at once a dirge for those who’ve died, a tribute to those who risked or gave their lives, and a call to look deeply within ourselves for the best way to respond.

The guitarist and composer has said of the series, “The Soundscapes recording resounds with the essence of the Soundscape itself: of being true to the moment in which they are performed, to act in accordance with time, place and person.” To this end, Fripp uses his technique called Frippertronics, solo guitar work based on delay and repetition and involving tape loops and sound layering. The surprising thing is that the moment “Refraction” is true to is not only the moment in which it was performed, but also this time, right now—the time since September 11.

Oddly, Fripp was, if not in distance, far away from the atmosphere of ground zero. He simultaneously created and performed the piece in the crystalline Winter Garden, with a curved glass ceiling that sheltered sixteen palm trees—a wondrous sight that never failed to surprise me, the tropics brought to New York City. Since the performance took place during the holiday season, 100,000 white lights hung from the trees and elsewhere in the space. Jonathan Brainin, a guitarist working with Fripp, described the place as having the feel of a cathedral during the evening performances. (Fripp did both lunchtime and evening performances over three days.) Of Fripp’s work, he wrote, “The flavor of the evening’s performance was very much influenced by the space. RF used a wider emotional palette. Compared to soundscapes I had witnessed in prior years, RF seemed to be more involved with the care and feeding of the music.” He also said that Fripp had said the performance would be “gentle.”



That’s a bit at odds with much of King Crimson’s music (most recently to be found in the live album “Vroom Vroom”). In an Internet posting on September 19, Matthew K. Smith, a fan of the group, wrote, “King Crimson is tailor-made for the contemplation of the senseless slaughter of thousands of people. I think we can all hear such tunes as ‘Schizoid Man,’ ‘Epitaph,’ ‘Pictures of a City’…and particularly ‘Coda: I Have a Dream’ in a very haunting and evoKcative [sic] light now….It is very disturbing, but I find some solace and catharsis in how well Crimson represents the madness and inhumanity that exists in mankind.”

Smith will not find an evocation of madness in “Refraction,” but he will find this disaster filtered through the mind and heart of Robert Fripp, even if it was before the fact. I just read that light refracted—bent—by the ice crystals in clouds can cause the optical effect of “halos” around the sun or moon. Fripp in his original way has placed a halo around what is left of the World Trade Center. To feel its power—perhaps healing, perhaps offering emotional insight—go to avantnoise.com and download this music. As a recent media release stated, “It is Robert’s wish for the piece to be shared, free of commerce, with those who want to listen and reflect."
--Mary Lyn Maiscott

I found the avantnoise site very poorly designed, after a hellish logging-in process, the Fripp page disappeared and the site's search engines refused to yield any reference to it. Rather than put everyone else through this frustrating miasma, (it took me nearly an hour to just locate the piece) Mr. E and I conspired to post it on his site at www.tatom.org/eclectica where all may freely and easily obtain it.

This is an absolutely breathtaking piece, as is most of the Soundscape series. For those of you unfamliar with Mr. Fripp's Frippertronic pieces, you may be astounded to realize that this beautiful orchestral tapestry was created live by a solo guitar player. For the initiated, more proof that Mr. Fripp is the premier creative genius of the 20th century. Enjoy!
--Ramona

[eclectica]

[eclectica]

(from the article)

To this end, Fripp uses his technique called Frippertronics, solo guitar work based on delay and repetition and involving tape loops and sound layering.

When listening to the song, I am reminded of the ending of Yes's song "The Gates of Delirium".

This example we have here, of the song "Refraction", sounds to me like keyboards or strings hooked up to a delay and sound layering, but it would be hard to convince me that the actual noises we are hearing are coming from a guitar. That's what it seems like the writer is implying to me, but that may be due to a poor wording. In any case I understand that the work was created by Fripp the solo guitarist, who happened to choose other instruments when composing this.

Here is a sample of Roy Montgomery, who uses a lot of reverb and mixing, with an actual guitar as the instrument:
Roy Montgomery - departing the body 7 MB

This is from the Roy Montgomery CD:
Temple IV was recorded on a Tascam Porta One 4-track cassette recorder at E. 13th St., New York City, between January 15 and January 22, 1995, using a Teisco six-string guitar, microreverb, Digitech time machine, Rat distortion box and Boss digital delay pedal.

People have different types of music that they associate with the tragic events. You get Fripp's song, which is pretty mellow, as contrasted to the Montgomery song, which to me is more suited for the mood of September 11th.

Check out these two shockwave files. The first one has Ismael Lo playing in the background and I feel it goes with the images, but the second one has Enya playing, and to me it doesn't go with the mood of the pictures. But maybe they used the Enya song because it is such a long song, and it works well for a repetetive loop:
http://www.tatom.org/why_rf.swf .6 MB
http://www.tatom.org/public/attack.swf 7 MB

[ab-NORM-al]

thanks peeps...killer thread