Broken Words

We live in times where media is demanding that we become multi-media translators. Words, emojis, texting, colour charts, maps and so on. We are being asked to translate combinations of signs to interpret meaning. We move from texting to email to abbreviated phone messaging to image transfer. Words are broken up, shortened or combined into hybrid formations. Simultaneously we are being confronted with the challenge of an artificial world. Trust is being eroded. Words are being broken in a multitude of ways.

These three musical works explore these ideas and how they can impact music. New and hybrid phrase construction and rhythmic patterns emerge from familiar origins. Cross-genre music combinations become more prevalent. The ever presence of random moving images assigned to instrumental music is usually transformative. Dialects and accents now translate into hybrid musical styles. All these can impact on the structuring of musical expression. While the structuring nature may change, the experience of music listening is durational. Reflective memory and repeated listening, however, gives opportunity to reposition what is thought to have been heard, understood or translated as meaning.