Zoe
Keating graced Austin, Texas with her presence on Sunday May 17, 2015 at the
Parish on 6th street. A community atmosphere was created when she
invited the nearly packed venue to sit down; witnessing a musician perform this
action was a comforting change and reassurance that Zoe Keating is an artist.
The concert that Keating put on was a brand new experience for me as a
concert-goer and as an artist; this experience allowed me to challenge and
widen my perspective on music as art.
As a recent dance graduate I have had an extensive
amount of experience with watching various dance concerts, and often discussing
these concerts on a professional level. I instinctively began to prepare myself
as if I was watching a dance concert, but it quickly became clear that I would
not be able to watch this in the same way. Unlike music, dance is more easily
relate-able because the audience is having a visual experience; being able to
have this visual field allows a person to see a relationship or story develop. With
music being solely audible the visual field is not being accessed and therefore
relating to this type of art has to be done in a significantly different manner.
I found it highly difficult to find any metaphors or 2nd functions
within any of Keating’s pieces because I could not rely on being visual. Before
Keating would play a piece she would inform the audience the story behind the
music or what it was about, this helped me more thoroughly understand the
music.
One
piece, Seven League Boots, was about
having magical shoes that would allow you to travel seven leagues in one step;
this came from Keating’s desire to easily pass the mountains that blocked her
from the ocean. During this piece I made the decision to look at the ground
instead of watching her. I employed the technique of soft-focus that improvisers
use when improvising; this allowed me to focus on what I was hearing and what
images it was creating for me. I was able to imagine myself wearing these
magical shoes walking over valleys and mountains. Using soft-focus forced me to
internalize which proved to be successful in fully experiencing this musical
art.
Although
I was successful during one piece I did not prove the same in the rest of the
concert. During this experience I discovered that every medium of art cannot be
approached in the same way, but prior knowledge of different art forms can help
with understanding others.
