Mark Enslin's headphones Eclectic
Seizure


January 3, 2001

I did a show in memory of Herbert Brün, featuring mostly his compositions, interspersed with relevant excerpts from the liner notes, from his book My Words and Where I Want Them, and from Herbert's essay "The Listener's Interpretation of Music—An Experience of Cause and Effect." I began the show by encouraging the listening audience not simply to have the radio on, but to sit still and listen to it. I said that smoking and drinking were permissible, provided they were done quietly, and then played a single pop song to give peope a chance to get settled before Herbert's music began. The pop song, dedicated to our new president-select, was "Hidden Agenda" by the Foremen.

Seldom have I experienced such a warm and positive response to the broadcast. One listener even called me at home to thank me. Here's a brief intro I wrote before the show:

Introduction

Herbert Brün was an internationally-renowned composer of new music who passed away in Urbana last November.

Tonight's show will be dedicated to sharing his music and writings. I am not prepared to present a biography of Herbert, nor do I want to. I would like for his music to speak for itself. In some cases I will let Herbert speak for it as well, by reading aloud passages from the liner notes, his essays, and a book of short texts entitled My Words and Where I Want them. I chose to have this show tonight because tonight is the first Eclectic Seizure of the next 1000 years and I want Herbert's ideas to light my way into the next millennium.

Herbert, to his students, was a strangely articulate, and relentlessly, but charmingly, opinionated individual. He was one of those artists who does not stop to question whether art is political. Music, language, and politics, are different facets of the same society. New art, particularly new music, is necessary in order to bring about a new, better society. For this reason, old art, familiar art, predictable art, recognizable transparent understandable art, a shrug, can only perpetuate the status quo.

Communication, he believed, is what happens when no information is exchanged. If I say something to you, for example, like "Bush won the election," you can nod because you think you already understand what I mean. What he proposed instead was anticommunication.

Read ANTICOMMUNICATION IS AN ATTEMPT NOT A REFUSAL

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