Author Archives: joemiller

Will robots and computers become conscious?

I place myself in the same camp as philosophers who insist there is a “hard problem” to consciousness that is frequently skirted in discussions about artificial intelligence, as well as in film and fiction about robots and computers becoming conscious. This issue most recently got triggered in me by Tom Ashbrook’s discussion with Martine Rothblatt. See On Point, September 11, 2014.

Martine Rothblatt

Imitation is NOT identity. Suppose technology eventually had the ability to make a machine that duplicates me—the talk, walk, speech patterns, reflexes, quirks, emotional expressions—is that then ME? Hardly. It is a very sophisticated animated image. That is all. In principle, it is no more me than a photograph or video. This can be easily proven. Suppose my spouse took up with my clone and left me. If that thing were me, I should have no objection.

There is a deeper issue here: the language of science is the 3^rd person—that is where things are observed, weighed, measured, and discoursed upon. But the mind is only viewed from the 1^st person. I am the only witness to my experience; scientists are restricted to observations of my brain. Science has been attempting to reduce the WHO (1^st person) to terms of a WHAT (3^rd person) and make the former disappear. Science assumes that my experience must be a sort of epiphenomenon and illusion produced by neurons. Basically, the scientist says, “Your neurons are real, but you are not.” (Of course, he must accept that his experience of himself is as unreal as my experience of me.) Perhaps we do not come to terms with the “Taboo of Subjectivity” (see book by B. Alan Wallace) because we still fall under the shadow of a sort of atavistic Behaviorism that continues to push that mind is merely the sum of its observable expressions. This, because it is the only approach our method will sanction. In the meanwhile, we must endure absurd fantasies about ‘artificial consciousness’ from people like Rothblatt.

Establishing a Federal Department of Peace

Peace Alliance Logo

Peace, as many point out, is more than an absence of conflict. It must involve those positive forces of conscious harmony that promote justice, freedom, understanding, health and prosperity. Without a physically and psychologically secure basis to life, there is great likelihood for infection by fear, anxiety, envy and superstition, which become seeds of violence. (Mohandas Gandhi wrote that poverty is the worst form of violence.) As a culture, we only now seem to be awakening to the implication of these truths. Domestically and internationally, our practice toward violence has long been to ignore the roots and stalks of the plant until it flowers in crisis. Then we react, meeting violence with violence, while vowing with politically groomed self-righteousness to be tough on crime and terrorists. The results are costly and ineffective.

Enter The Peace Alliance, a citizen-based activist group that has been working quietly for years building support for a Department of Peace. This cabinet-level department in the U.S. Government would pull together the wisdom and resources of experts in conflict resolution and nonviolent communication, augmenting our current problem-solving modalities with skills that are effective at treating root causes of violence.

Experts in the study of violence are turning to an epidemiological model. Rather than stigmatizing and condemning violence where it erupts, we should pay more attention, as with disease, to the many factors that contribute to the incubation of violence. By addressing root causes we would not only more effectively reduce violence, we would also save human resources and money.

Visit The Peace Alliance.

Perla Batalla: Songs and Sundries Variety Hour – Saturday August 23

Hallelujah

Perla Batalla: Songs and Sundries Variety Hour, Grant R. Brimhall Library, Thousand Oaks, Saturday August 23

Grammy-nominated singer Perla Batalla possesses not only a signature voice known to summon soul-stirring depths, but the professional and personal clout to pull-in a slate of heavy-hitters when she decides to throw a party. And party is exactly what patrons of Thousand Oaks’ “Live at the Library” got for the closing show of the season at Grant R. Brimhall Library on Saturday night, dubbed “Perla Batalla: Songs and Sundries Variety Hour.” The Ojai resident and perla2 former back-up singer to Leonard Cohen hosted, with grace and humor, two generous sets of music, sharing the stage with a dozen or so musicians from her personal and professional family circles. The effect was pure enchantment. “I grew up watching Carol Burnett and Engelbert Humperdinck,” Batalla told a capacity audience, relating the genesis of the idea. But those of us who have seen the film, Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man, can think of a more recent example of a variety concert that Batalla played a role in.

The evening rotated through subsets of the singers and instrumentalists, ranging from light-hearted songs by Batalla’s brother, Ovation Award-winning actor and writer Rick Batalla, to a cerebral work for solo piano written and performed by television and film composer/producer/keyboardist Dave Palmer. Rhythm dharma for the evening was solidly braced by Batalla bedrocks Gilberto Gonzales on bass, young wonder drummer Alejandro Medeles, Claud Mann (Batalla’s husband) on congas, with special guest Grammy-winning composer/producer Jon Gilutin on piano, whose improvisational visions blissfully filled a multitude of song choruses throughout the night. Continue reading →

River Song Quintet and The Westerlies at SOhO

Call me brass player road kill. I admit it. For nine years of my precious youth I practiced religiously, first attempting to conquer the trumpet, and then as the god of high range did not answer my prayers, I jumped ship and swam to the trombone row boat. I made it as far as college jazz ensemble, but finally, at age 22, I was done. I accepted that I wrestled with the plumbing for the better part of a decade, and the plumbing won.

It was painful going. I had been dedicated, practiced hard—in other words, performed the requisite sacrifice—and expected the gods to do their part. But they only modestly responded. Yet they bestowed their graces liberally on other boys I met along the way, and some of these I know did not practice as hard as me. It wasn’t fair. I didn’t understand why I was being marginalized from something I wanted so badly. Eventually I watched myself veering away from the center lane towards the brass highway shoulder, and I took the next exit. I sold the horn the following year.

I know I’m not the only jilted lover to be blown out the brass players’ spit valve. Continue reading →

Violinist Daniel Hope at Music Academy of the West

The Debut of Hope

Violinist Daniel Hope, Mosher Guest Artist, in concert, presented by The Music Academy of the West. Saturday July 5, 2014, at Hahn Hall.

English violinist Daniel Hope’s debut recital Saturday night was an exemplary Summer Festival guest performance: virtuosic in expression, fresh in programming, and winning in the guidance of an Academy ensemble. The unforgettable first half of this concert consisted of a variety of works for unaccompanied violin, all played with power, presence and astonishing control of sound, tone and tuning. The second half brought to the stage an ensemble of fifteen fellows and three faculty members for a performance of contemporary composer Max Richter’s “recomposition” of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons violin concertos, a work premiered by Hope in 2012.

The evening began with an unprogrammed segue to Passacaglia by Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, composed by his late seventeenth century contemporary, Johann Paul von Westhoff. Imitation of Bells was a mesmerizing experience, a melody-less sequence of rhythmic arpeggios affected by the steady rocking of the bow over all strings. The resulting block of sound was at once static and dynamic, undulating on the surface while gradually transforming harmonically. Von Biber’s Passacaglia, which followed without pause, is another work at once simple and complex. A slow-walking descent of four repeated notes (think “Sing Christmas Bells”) forms the unvarying backbone of this solo violin showpiece, with all the interest invested in imaginative variation, ornamentation and filled-ins. Hope captured the improvisational character of Passacaglia, and proved that our favorite rock and jazz solos, inventions often built over just such simple vamps, are at root nothing new.

The jaw-dropping event of the evening, however, followed next, with two modern masterpieces that combined broad tonal language with advanced techniques. Hope joked that Alfred Schnittke’s A Paganini pays homage to the legendary violinist and composer by running his Caprices through a blender. The Soviet and Russian composer, who made his living writing film scores, was fascinated by electronic effects, and Hope’s rendition was tastefully enhanced by the live manipulations of English sound artist Chris Ekers. Erwin Schulhoff’s Sonata for Solo Violin unfolds in four short movements, and evinces folk fiddle influences. Hope gave a touching introduction that honored the Czech composer whose life was cut tragically short during World War II.

Max Richter allegedly wrote Recomposed: Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons’ not merely in homage to the composer, but in revolt to nauseating habituation that employs the original as elevator and dental office music. The meta-dimension is extremely effective for awakening the listener: hooking the ear with familiar fragments of melody or orchestral ostinato, only to launch into the unknown (and frequently unresolved)—as if a familiar highway had been magically rerouted overnight. The fine ensemble was augmented with harpsichordist Chien-Lin Lu and harpist Ruriko Terada, as well as faculty members Jorja Fleezanis (violin), Alan Stepansky (cello) and Nico Abondolo (double bass).

eighth blackbird at Music Academy

Clockwork Convergence

eighth blackbird presented by Music Academy of the West. Thursday, June 26 at Hahn Hall.

Like the anticipation of a sunrise, the central focus of the Music Academy of the West is always just ahead of the horizon—that is, the professional musician of tomorrow. While ensuring continuity with the past, the faculty and administration also leave windows open to the present moment: opportunities for young Summer Festival fellows to hear and meet the pros who are only a decade or two down the road. 2013 MAW patrons will remember cellist Joshua Roman’s hip inauguration of new venues last year—curating at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and performing an unforgettable solo set in a Funk Zone photo loft. In through the open window this year flew eighth blackbird, the Chicago-based Grammy-winning contemporary classical sextet founded in 1996 that has made a name for itself playing new music. Indeed, the two sets performed at Hahn Hall, which displayed complex rhythmic finesse and theatrical flair, consisted entirely of new wine in new bottles, with no vintage older than 1982. New music is not everyone’s favorite cup—and as with wine, value becomes a function of age for many classicists—but the MAW does right by pointing to potential career routes outside of the symphony hall, and also by including imaginings from the front lines of musical invention.

The most entertaining work of the evening was Counting Duets, a sequence of four Etudes by György Ligeti (arr. for ensemble by blackbird flutist Tim Munro and pianist Lisa Kaplan) that interlocked with four of Tom Johnson’s spoken word Counting Duets (1982). The Johnson pieces play out like a game, with two parts speaking entirely in numbers, contesting in dialogue, counting backwards and forwards, diverging and then coming together again in clockwork convergence. The Ligeti—notoriously beastly on keyboard—displayed new dimensions and marvels in these ensemble renditions. Duo for Heart and Breath by Richard Parry constituted the most intimate moment of the night, an experimental duet where pianist (Kaplan) monitored her heartbeat (via stethoscope) for tempo, while violist Yvonne Lam communed with her own breath (and I had the vivid sense that others in the room, like me, were suddenly made aware of their own vital signs).

eighth blackbird (intentionally written in lower case) gets its name from a Wallace Stevens poem, the eighth verse speaking of “noble accents and lucid, inescapable rhythms.” More than anything, one comes away from a blackbird performance impressed with the rhythmic textures—the weave, the palette, the broad plateau of churning patterns. Matthew Duvall’s versatile percussion helps this along, with metal and rosewood marimbas, kick bass drum, snare, and much else. But at root the rhythm is in the writing, and every player, winds and strings included, helps the pulse along.

Academy Festival Orchestra, directed by Larry Rachleff – June 28, 2014

Heroically Heroic

Larry Rachleff seems to be the go-to man for whipping an orchestra into shape in short order. Patrons of the Music Academy of the West eagerly anticipate the Academy Festival Orchestra performances that, year after year, hit a high note while only a few short paces away from the Festival starting block. This year Maestro Rachleff, long-time director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic and director of Rice University’s Shepherd School orchestras, did double-duty with Academy Festival Orchestra performances capping both weeks one and two. On the first night of summer an orchestral subset played the newly renovated Lobero Theatre in a program of Richard Strauss for brass, and early symphonies by Prokofiev and Beethoven. A week later on June 28 at the Granada Theatre, Rachleff stood before full orchestral forces for—more Strauss for brass, and symphonies again by Prokofiev and Beethoven—this time the heroic Nos. 5 for each. Simply put, as one patron called to another on the street afterwards, “Wasn’t THAT energetic?!” Continue reading →

Santa Barbara Symphony, Saturday May 17, 2014

The Nir and the Far

Santa Barbara Symphony, Nir Kabaretti, Conductor, at the Granada Theatre, on Saturday, May 17.

Completing his eighth year leading the Santa Barbara Symphony, Maestro Nir Kabaretti has continued to demonstrate brilliance and warmth, high-level music making and accessibility. No one present Saturday would doubt the world-class artistry now regularly exhibited by the orchestra, nor the sensitive attunement of players to the maestro’s musical vision. Substantial fare included Antonín Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B minor and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No.5. This reviewer overheard several patrons afterwards reconsidering their feelings about Shostakovich based on this powerful performance—and isn’t opening minds a yardstick for success by any measure? Continue reading →

Adelfos Ensemble, Tuesday June 10

A Tall Ship and a Star to Steer By

Adelfos Ensemble in concert at Trinity Episcopal Church on Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Most classical music groups have adjourned by late spring. After a flush of season finales in May, there suddenly falls a lull for music lovers, doldrums really. But recent years have witnessed one notable ship tacking to a different trade wind. I’m talking about that eighteen-voice wonder known as Adelfos Ensemble, directed for the past six years by early music expert and brilliant tenor, Temmo Korisheli. Last June Adelfos sang an exciting program of early American music, diverse in content, dense in substance, bright in execution, educational, ever surprising, and totally original. And this year’s June bloom went even further, with a fascinating program entitled, “Over the Stormy Ocean Tossed: Choral Songs of Seafaring, Adventuring, and Calamities.” What makes Adelfos so outstanding is partly the high skill set and musical maturity of its singers, many of whom are soloists and section leaders with other groups in town. They pull-off the harmonic heavy-lifting of tight intervals and funky key shifts with seeming intuitive ease. But the group also owes much to Korisheli’s bold thematic programming, scholarly breadth, and leadership skills that guide singers to master some very tough music. If there is one disappointment about Adelfos, it is only that they do not yet share more broadly what they so painstakingly prepare, season after season. Continue reading →

Classical Now – June 2, 2014

June 2, 2014 – Hour 1

June 2, 2014 – Hour 2

June is bustin’ out all over, and Summer is only a few weeks away. I start with that tribute from the soundtrack to “Carousel.” Although no one really knows when Scott Joplin’s birthday is, some place it at the beginning of June, and that is good enough for me. We listen to some of the piano roll “recordings” by the great American stride pianist. Marvin Hamlisch comes up on the birthday calendar, and conveniently, too, with his settings of Joplin for the film, “The Sting.” We’ll also hear music from Georges Bizet and Fred Hersch.