NOTES ON TRIBUNAL
Tribunal was (and still is) a project that I continually had the fear of being misunderstood. Most of those fears went back to thinking people would think I am saying, emotions and logic are not suitable tools for finding reality. What the first two parts (floating perceptions, and words to define words) assume, is that emotions or logic are the dominant (or exclusive tool) for understanding reality and making decisions. With those assumptions made, where would that lead.
Also even though the whole piece leads to a conclusion and resolution of committing to faith commitments, this does not mean faith commitments are always good. They have the most power for good, but also for evil and should not be entered into with out a lot of scrutiny, and even reinforced by emotions and logic it self.
Working on this project also started giving me an interesting perspective on things I encountered, I started evaluating where things fell on the emotions/logic spectrum with out even trying. Books I read, people I talked, even to the point of categorizing the music I listened to. Here are some of those thoughts about music.
Bach-logic
His counterpoint (melody on melody) is extremely detailed, architectural and thought out. So much so that over 250 years later his scores and still studied and emulated.
Ornette Coleman-emotion
If you read any thing where he is talking about music, feelings come up over and over. This I think is a helpful lens for listening to his music which can be a bit jaring and feel unorganized. Its like emotions which keep changing. Its almost like you can here him laughing and crying though his saxophone.
Max Richter-emotion
In his description of his music he said something like being “not being afraid to appeal directly to the emotions”, and I think thats a pretty apt description. If you opened up the hood (looked at the score) of his compostions you would see there is not a whole lot going on, but yet his works can be deeply moving. I am especially drawn the the redacted version of his album sleep (I must confess I have not listed to the eight hour version nor do I have any plans to)
Love Supreme John Coltrane-emotions/logic/faith
This is the only musical example for me, that I feel deeply incapsulates all three. Obviously the theme of the whole album is spiritual as he says in the liner notes that the project is an offering to God. The work is deeply emotionally stiring, especially the tumultuous climax of part 3 leading the the calm and resolution of part 4. And there is the logical unity that connects the whole album (which is very unusual for a jazz album). The bass part at the begging of part 1 becomes the chant at the end of the song, that motive is systematically taken through all 12 keys, he even quotes the theme from a different part in the work doing one of his improvised solos.
