On music and being an artist

I have not written anything here for a long time, so time to venture something again. I like all the interest in music and art that has appeared here over the last year. I have developed my musical skills slowly over many years, mostly singing with some composing. The start for me was in the folk music era when people like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan were just getting started.  I first sang publicly with a folk group of college mates.  Our biggest gig was a large Boston MLK rally (where I blew the words of Phil Ochs song).  My other love was mostly classical music, especially opera. The folk music for what it said and how in its simplicity it struck deeper chords. Opera for vocal soaring gorgeous sound that can still rattle my soul even though the lyrics can often be awful.  Music moves us in ways that cannot always be put into words or even properly identified. Emotional, yes, but something deeper too.

I can not explain it rationally, but I sense that music gives something to us that is essentially spiritual, that uplifts and somehow heals or informs the soul. It can be an experience that leads to some transcendence of ourselves. The kind of music that affects us varies for many reasons. In my view, our early experiences of it certainly have something to do with it, as do the environments and peer groups those experiences occur in. They give us the start of that affective “vocabulary” though which we listen, perform, and experience. We can expand that “vocabulary” through listening and learning about other musical forms and expressions, but we generally gravitate to what speaks best to us. Most of us are fluent in one language, not several; most understand a certain type of music, but other types or genres not as much. There are always of course, the multilingual or multi-musical genre exceptions. We all probably like something in several other musical or artistic genres different from the one we gravitate to most, but are generally more at home in and more influenced by a certain few.

So, as that all may be, my favorites today are people like Loreena McKinnett, Mary Black, and several other Celtic singers and musicians. I also always relish a good classical singer, especially opera ones, and I like (my classical friends will cringe) Andrea Bocelli especially on some of his more “pop” style numbers.  I will branch out for a little Bob Marley or Angelique Kidjo and many other “world music” (a catchall category) singers.   I also like some “new age” (another catchall) musicians, who often can be great musicians, aka Jesse Cook.

Now in my old age (I am in my retirement years) I have finally decided to try develop something I have long wanted to do: write songs, compose music. I have done this occasionally over the years, but it was always secondary. I came late to learning any musical skill, so have been held back by that.  However, composing was something I tried even as a child with no real skill at all.  My first was a series of notes on a sheet of musical paper for a teacher in grade school.  I have no idea how it sounded, nor did I then, but I wanted to write music I guess.  I got some haphazard education during my college years, but even though encouraged by a couple of professors who were very kind to me, did not feel able to pursue it as a career. I really didn't have a good musical background or skill set in any instrument.  I took piano lessons for the first time then, did well, but had a long ways to go.

I now play piano, organ, and accordion, but would consider myself only a mildly proficient musician.  My main instruments are my voice (in which I have had some good training over the years since) and my computer. With a music notation program I can create music beyond my performance skill level and with a mixing program, I can give it great sound and record myself singing.

So now the step is to put myself out there as an artist, a composer, a song writer. This is not an easy step for me, it is like the proverbial leap off a cliff.  I don't pretend to write any type of popular nor even classical music.  It is a mix of classical, Celtic, folk, and probably some other influences. If it is “integral” I will have to leave that to your and others' judgment.  I will make no such claims.  The themes are often of a spiritual or religious nature, but that doesn't make them integral as you well know.  They are what they are.  I hope some people may find them moving or entertaining or whatever, but that is not something I can control.  We do what it seems the spirit calls us to do, what comes of it we let go of.

This step out or leap is currently a website I just built to present some of my music. It is charliedunlevy.com, Songs by Charlie. Take a listen, if you have moment or two.  I would be interested in any responses.

Thanks.