The Rhythm of Time…

Posted on July 27, 2016 by David Filippone

Photo: ‘Rhythms of Time’ by dimitrisvetsikas1969 – Pixabay
https://tinyurl.com/yxoe4l64

The Rhythm of Time…

This exercise can be extraordinary, if allowed a full and open hearing. I put the song on repeat, again and again, as if returning to the watch on my wrist, checking the moments…the song is called ‘I Concentrate On You’, but in the exercise, we concentrate on TIME.

I would describe this smoky-misty piece as basso-nova, a sensual mix of samba and jazz…but while the drums keep (found) fundamental time, this is primarily a magical dance between piano [right and left hand], and the bass. A cursory listening, like a remembrance is merely a summary, a surface reflection that will miss the depth and nuance of what will reveal if given the chance… a fair hearing. The artistry is astonishing, beginning with a simple even subtle melody and rhythm… and Oh that rhythm… that time, it has levels, currents and melodic counterpoints, that arise, merge, depart, echo and weave like a moving tapestry… with an arrow toward the elevation of artistry, virtuosity, a crescendo of time’s inversions and counterpoints… of ‘time’ and ‘space’…and ‘knowing’ appreciation… all from a simple humble melody…

“The humble moment, when seen as time, space, and knowledge, is a target worth aiming at. It’s the vital center of the universe; if we hit it, we explode everything that prevents fulfillment, attaining everything that fulfills.” Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche, ‘Inside Knowledge‘ p.67

Listen to this… ‘I Concentrate on You‘ · Brad Mehldau Trio

https://youtu.be/EMdHwIEYZhE

About David Filippone

David Filippone has been a student of Tarthang Tulku’s Time, Space, Knowledge (TSK) vision for over twenty-five years. For the past fourteen years, he has studied TSK and Full Presence Mindfulness with Jack Petranker, director of the Center for Creative Inquiry (CCI). He also participated in programs offered by Carolyn Pasternak of the Odiyan Center. David curated the CCI Facebook page for five years, which is often TSK-focused, and he currently serves on the CCI Board of Directors. The CCI Facebook page can be found at the following link... https://www.facebook.com/CenterforCreativeInquiry/
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4 Responses to The Rhythm of Time…

  1. David Filippone says:
    August 4, 2016 at 7:41 am

    Listening to this recording, the music….it seeps into your pores like butter & honey, delicious rhythms of delicate sound that turns listening into awakened taste buds… waves of pleasure envelope the brain… mellow mood glows, swirling yet not overly sweet… A soft caramel rush…

    Reply
    • Kris says:
      May 29, 2019 at 11:37 am

      Interestingly, David, I had “Bossa Nova” as my “radio station” on Spotify a few days before reading this. I’m currently at work, but can’t wait to immerse myself into ‘I Concentrate on You‘.

      Cheers.

      Reply
  2. David Filippone says:
    August 2, 2016 at 9:47 am

    By EK O’Connor – My Response to ‘The Rhythm of Time’

    During my four experimental months on Facebook, I enjoyed a cerebral and delightful correspondence with composer and thought leader, Steve Lebetkin, about music, composition and the power of each. I even composed a piano sonata during my musician life, practicing what David wrote in his latest post about rhythms. (I then understood Beethoven composing while deaf. Sound is not necessary to hear – or write – music. More later…)

    While I love music and dearly miss playing and performing Dvorak, Grieg, Hindemith, I rarely listen to it in my car, home or studio. I become deeply immersed, exclusive of my activity at hand (driving, washing the dishes ;), creating, or listening to the wind and birds). Music, for me, is immersive. I cannot listen to it in the background, ever. It pulls me into another space.

    David wrote a blog a few days ago, including a delicious jazz track. Interestingly, jazz is, on the surface, improvisational, spontaneous, seemingly free form. Yet, like our smartphones offer instant information, much complex, layered programming is involved.

    In the context of jazz, the programming is our knowledge, conditioning from a lifetime of hearing sounds, scales, keys – harmonious or discordant. When a jazz musician picks up an instrument to play improvisationally, a lifetime of layer after integrative layer of knowledge merges into a “spontaneous” expression of music with its harmony, variations on the melody, syncopation and asyncopation, bridges and rhythms, et al. When a jazz musician improvises, he/she is drawing from his/her musically-encyclopedic knowledge, gathered throughout space, over time, seemingly spontaneously with limitless combinations of sound.

    Everything’s connected, mirrored, echoed. From our circulation system to tree limbs to rivers. From cell birth to social networking patterns to the birth of a star. From simple harmony or melody into complex compositions – classical to jazz and beyond. Eastern music sounds different, due to exposure to different knowledge layers within Asian cultures. But nothing is as “spontaneous” as it seems.

    I have cedar flutes made from fallen cedar. Their voices are less an echo or composition and more an extension of the sound of the rhythm of the wind. (See Lebetkin’s Cycle of the Earth ballet, First Movement:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2EsFdoGNZw )

    Thank you, David, for opening a discussion on space and time in music and its rhythms. I don’t have a mastery of TSK terminology, but I hope the above expresses time, space and knowledge in a TSK context.

    – – –
    A link to Lebetkin’s thoughts on composing:
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-the-public-dislikes-contemporary-classical-music_us_571a234ee4b05b3539d99f17

    Reply
    • David Filippone says:
      June 3, 2019 at 1:38 pm

      Erin,
      It’s been three years since you wrote this response… rereading it this afternoon… it’s just as vital, and intelligent, as the feel I just had from listening once again to the song I referenced in the original post… ‘I Concentrate On You‘.

      Listening once again… I wrote this…

      https://cciforum.dreamhosters.com/?p=9257

      Reply

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