Sebastian Chang

A History of Music & What Sebastian Provides

Music's astounding story begins in prehistoric times, through songs passed on from generation to generation, before even the advent of written language.  These songs were later accompanied by simple instruments.  Music found a home through the church, ushering in the beginnings of music notation.  The composers of the canon shaped our understanding of music through it.

The rise of technology dominates our current milieu.  The creation of new settings, like film, television, or video games, have expanded possibilities in musicians' creative processes, while limiting other areas of development.  Streaming technologies have changed how we consume it.

Through all of this, the underlying structures of music remain coherent.  Large-scale structures and pattern-based generative musical development prove elusive in a philosophy yet unexposed to analysis of the music of classical music's canon.  The value of working with and against traditional structures is measured from a perspective that's aware of the disposition of the modern day listener in context with how music was thought about in the past.  What things mean is calibrated through a musicians' knowledge of the meaning of musical symbols within the modern day gestalt, and an experiential knowledge of emotive content of the music in settings that are live or as close to live as possible.

Familiarity with fundamental musical concepts and an understanding of how to use them offers musicians a platform in which to maneuver through authentic expressions of today's multilingual, multicultural exchange.  This paradoxically offers the musician moments of extended improvisatory spontaneity, and the ability to be active and contributory in a variety of settings.