senelerdir ada'da 'adventures in modern music' altbaşlığıyla çıkan serin magazin the wire'ın şubat sayısında, meram sahifesini dizen chris bohn, müziği dinlemek ve o deneyim üzerine konuşmak arasındaki gerilime şöyle işaret etmiş:
"to be sure, when the conditions are right, all other considerations fall away and the only thing that matter is the emerging dialogue between sound and process, moment-forms and the trajectories they shape over the duration that binds audience and improvisor in a mutually rewarding contract of focused playing and composerly deep listening.
...
the contract between listener and player is broken the moment anyone attempts to communicate the night's intimate acts to a third party. they might be inadequate to the task, but words are the best most of us have got for articulating experience of this most ineffable of music through description, metaphor, anectode, physics -cod- or otherwise, progress report, comparison and, inevitably some biographical information."
"demek, elimizde sözcüklerden başkaca bir şey yok.. onları nasıl kullanacağız öyleyse?" sorusuna yanıt da bir kaç sayfa ileride tony herrington'dan geliyor. 'critical mass: words of advice to the lonely music critic' başlıklı tavsiye listesinden bir-iki alıntı yapalım:
"in music criticism, style (how you say something) is as crucial as content (what you say). unlike the contributor to academic journals, who can count on the institutionalised compliance of a captive audience, the music critic must grab the attention of the lasissez-faire reader and hold it rapt for the duration of their disquisition. for this reason, the music critic must make every sentence count, and dress it up accordingly.
...
the music critic must keep the musician at arms length at all times while coaxing them into an intimate discourse regarding their philosophy and praxis.
...
the music critic should be aware of a work's world-historical significance, its cultural capital, and if that work has no such status, be prepared to construct a new world in which it will have."
nasıl?