Music Book Review: Listening: Music, Movement, Mind by Nik Bartsch

Listening: Music, Movement, Mind
by Nik Bärtsch (Music 780.1 Bär)

I always find it interesting when musical thinkers try to apply or at least compare concepts from other disciplines with the act of making music. There are all kinds of books that look at the psychological implications of music, and we’ve talked about a few of those. There are a few authors who have presented their musical lives from the perspective of spiritual journeys, like bass player Victor Wooten’s two books, The Music Lesson and The Spirit of Music. Then there’s the old classic The Inner Game of Music, by Barry Green with W. Timothy Galwey, the latter of whom applied concepts of “natural learning” to improving skills in sports in his own books like The Inner Game of Tennis and The Inner Game of Golf. Now we have a great new book by Swiss pianist, composer and improviser Nik Bärtsch, written in conjunction with his wife Andrea Pfisterer, that incorporates lessons learned from the martial arts practices, aikido in particular, into various aspects of music. The book is called Listening: Music, Movement, Mind, and you can borrow it from the Polley Music Library.

 

My first impression of this book was that it reminded me a lot of Marshall McLuhan’s classic The Medium is the Message in terms of its layout and form. Though the subjects being considered in both books are very different, they share a playful sense of layout that includes lots of stunning, mostly black and white photography, and both leap between many subjects, ultimately pulling all of their arguments and observations toward a cohesive whole. And before we jump too far into the book, perhaps just a moment of description of Bärtsch’s musical approach is in order, since the book, in his words, “traces the history of ideas and current work of the ritual groove music.” Ritual Groove Music is the title of his debut album from 2004, and it’s also his working title for his unique style. We’ll listen to a couple of examples in a bit, but suffice it to say that to my ears he creates a very unique combination of minimalist music blended with jazz and funk. One doesn’t often think of composers like Phillip Glass or Steve Reich as particularly funky, and it’s also pretty unusual to think of the way funk riffs or jazz heads unfold as minimalism—he really has found a unique musical path.

 

At the very beginning of the book, Bärtsch talks about how his and his wife’s aikido sensei often uses the phrase “Listen to your partner,” and he breaks down the notion of listening itself along these lines. Why would a martial arts master often refer to listening instead of seeing? He observes that our ears are always open: “Our ears cannot be closed by a reflex, like our eyes.” This simple but powerful state of truly being in the present is ultimately what he demonstrates as a core element of his music throughout the rest of the book.

 

It’s difficult to describe what’s happening in the narrative structure of this book with conventional terms, although it’s easy to follow along. From this humble beginning, Bärtsch seems to change subjects every few pages, sometimes every few paragraphs: we find large-font quotations featuring thinkers from many disciplines, moments of personal reverie, and stories from a wide variety of disciplines such as modern music history, the life sciences, martial arts, and the design principles behind comic book pages. But perhaps this is easier to explain as a kind of ritual groove music in literary form? Each change of subject is like playing through a riff again, approaching a primary concept from different perspectives: one hears silent movements in aikido, then we see how fast motions and impacts are silently depicted in comics with words that represent sounds, then noting that new discoveries in the arts and sciences are generally “silent” for a while after discovery, because they need new words — new sounds — for us to properly process them as new ideas. Thinking of this book itself as music, it might feel like a quick walk through unfamiliar territory at first, but the segues have a rhythm, and those rhythms fall into a groove.

 

It’s not all weighty philosophical meanderings here, however. You’ll find lots of practical advice and personal observations that apply to the more mundane, day-to-day aspects of being a musician here, too. As you might expect of a book that aims to describe the author’s own musical approach, he spends time discussing his collaborators and how they work together, the nature of playing in bands, juggling the roles of composition and improvisation, and suggests concrete principles for helping bands to function in healthy ways. He even talks a bit about the nature of running music clubs that host contemporary music, as he’s played in many and been co-founder of one himself. Some of these practical approaches can apply more broadly than music, too: toward the end of the book, for example, he mentions that, “In a live performance situation, mind and body cannot relate to more than three principles,” followed by many examples of reducing important concepts into three principles that can be acted upon in the moment, from musicianship to parenthood to love.

 

In the end, Listening: Music, Movement, Mind reveals Nik Bärtsch to be a kind of modern-day polymath, a genuine deep thinker who strives for meaningful relationships between all of his interests, collaborations, friends and family. While his particular model might not be the model for everyone — I don’t think every musician necessarily needs to add a martial arts practice to their life immediately — his thoughtful methods for finding connectedness and value all around him can be useful tools for a wide audience.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Inner Game of Music by Barry Green or The Spirit of Music by Victor Wooten.)

 

( official Listening: Music, Moviement, Mind page on the official Nik Bärtsch web site )

 

Recommended by Scott S.
Polley Music Library

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

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Check out this, and all the other great music resources, at the Polley Music Library, located on the 2nd floor of the Bennett Martin Public Library at 14th & "N" St. in downtown Lincoln. You'll find biographies of musicians, books about music history, instructional books, sheet music, CDs, music-related magazines, and much more. Also check out Polley Music Library Picks, the Polley Music Library's e-mail newsletter, and follow them on Facebook!