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<title>AdamBuker.com RSS</title><link>www.adambuker.com/index.html</link><description>Note by Note</description><dc:language>en</dc:language><dc:creator>pianoman@siu.edu</dc:creator><dc:rights>Copyright 2006 Adam Buker</dc:rights><dc:date>2008-05-17T01:42:25-05:00</dc:date><admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://www.realmacsoftware.com/" />
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<lastBuildDate>Sat, 17 May 2008 01:59:49 -0500</lastBuildDate><itunes:author>Adam Buker</itunes:author><itunes:owner><itunes:name>Adam Buker</itunes:name><itunes:email>adam@adambuker.com</itunes:email></itunes:owner><itunes:category text="Music"/><itunes:subtitle>Music for Your Mind</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary>Tune in to my bi-weekly podcast as I explore the different  aspects of being a composer. </itunes:summary><itunes:image href="www.adambuker.com/files/podcast_channel.png" /><item><title>The Search for Beauty in an Ugly World II</title><dc:creator>pianoman@siu.edu</dc:creator><category>Thoughts and Reflections</category><dc:date>2008-05-17T01:42:25-05:00</dc:date><link>www.adambuker.com/files/c73faca7fe2ca5c8d979a5e154422668-14.html#unique-entry-id-14</link><guid isPermaLink="true">www.adambuker.com/files/c73faca7fe2ca5c8d979a5e154422668-14.html#unique-entry-id-14</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[What must be done to bring joy and beauty into this ugly world?


That is a question I have been pondering for several years as I am dissatisfied with artistic offerings of this current culture.   If we are to be a society of achievers that are ambitious, passionate, rational, and (most importantly) happy then we must do all that we can to foster those values that make such men possible.   For the artist, this means portraying the ideal through one's given medium.   For the novelist, this means portraying heroic men and women choosing to act with courage and conviction.   For the visual artist, this means portraying the body and posture of heroic men and women and/or portraying a setting appropriate to such men and women.   For the architect, this means building not for the way that men normally live, but the way that an ideal man should live.   For the musician, this means writing not for the emotions that people feel, but the emotions people should feel.


Looking back to the 19th century, it is clear that a different culture existed (although unknowingly in peril philosophically) that celebrated man as a heroic being and was concerned with achieving beauty.   Men from a century and a half ago would not have been able to conceive of the absurdities that plague the arts, humanities, and even ordinary entertainment.   Paintings were not globs, shapes, or random splatters (or even worse).   They portrayed heroic men and women fighting epic battles against evil as well as portraying happy, successful people enjoying life.   Literature was not unfocused obtuse verbiage.   Poetry consisted of using evocative language employing the use of rhyme and meter to create an integrated and intelligible style.   Prose saw the creation of the fictional novel in which writers, such as Victor Hugo, portrayed men and women whose lives were controlled not by fate or god, but by acting on their own free will.   Music consisted of emotion freed from the arbitrary non-rational dogma of classicism.   Composers were free for the first time to experiment and implement their own ideas creating music of passion and intelligence at a caliber not seen before or since.


Consider that previous to the 19th century was the Enlightenment which emphasized reason and laid the foundations for benevolent, free, and prosperous nations to develop.   Consider that the amount of wealth being created by the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution was making it possible for artists to free themselves from the shackles of the patronage system and set the terms on which they would work for the first time in history.   It was from this climate of prosperity and freedom that the birth of Romanticism in the arts was possible.   Since artists no longer had to conform their works into the arbitrary wishes or conventional ideas of a nobleman or a clergyman, a new wave of individuality was infused into the arts.   Thus beginning what is one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Romantic movement, the emphasis of the importance of the individual and his ability to choose his own destiny.   You can witness this in the characters of Dostoyevsky and Hugo.   You can see this idea play out in the story of Beethoven and many other artists.


Why did this wonderful and life-affirming movement die?   This is the question I will examine in the next installment of this series.   Stay tuned.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Pump Audio</title><dc:creator>pianoman@siu.edu</dc:creator><category>Site Announcements</category><dc:date>2008-04-08T00:57:35-05:00</dc:date><link>www.adambuker.com/files/d1367030b2f7346403473885300d9c7c-16.html#unique-entry-id-16</link><guid isPermaLink="true">www.adambuker.com/files/d1367030b2f7346403473885300d9c7c-16.html#unique-entry-id-16</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[I am pleased to announced that my music will be made available to license through Pump Audio for TV shows, TV ads, film, radio ads, internet sites, and podcasts.   The cost to license will depend on how much music is used and what it is used for.   The cost is negotiated through Pump Audio.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Artist Profile on various sites</title><dc:creator>pianoman@siu.edu</dc:creator><category>Site Announcements</category><dc:date>2008-03-26T02:31:10-05:00</dc:date><link>www.adambuker.com/files/6bf376eeea653631dd0ee056f3d28d14-15.html#unique-entry-id-15</link><guid isPermaLink="true">www.adambuker.com/files/6bf376eeea653631dd0ee056f3d28d14-15.html#unique-entry-id-15</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[I am pleased to announce that I am in the process of completing several artist profiles for the following sites. 


Last.fm


Myspace Music


Facebook Music


YouTube.com


Once these profiles are finished, I will provide links to my profile pages on the navigation bar on this website so that you can add me as a friend.


Also stay tuned to this site as I will also be updating the listening page and posting part two of The Search for Beauty in an Ugly World.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>The Search for Beauty in an Ugly World</title><dc:creator>pianoman@siu.edu</dc:creator><category>Thoughts and Reflections</category><dc:date>2007-07-29T17:01:07-05:00</dc:date><link>www.adambuker.com/files/ce70e0aaaa4018fc274a5fc0eacf20fd-12.html#unique-entry-id-12</link><guid isPermaLink="true">www.adambuker.com/files/ce70e0aaaa4018fc274a5fc0eacf20fd-12.html#unique-entry-id-12</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[A very popular phrase that one may hear quite often is, "That's just the way the world is," often as a statement of resignation and defeat over some particular evil or ugliness whether it is the latest corruption in D.C. or the revolting popularity of untalented Hollywood whores and gigolos that parade in our magazines, blogs, and TV channels.   That statement is said as if there is no possible way to overcome it and that the world by it's nature must be revolting, disgusting, and evil.   Since it is in only within the terms of a human consciousness that things are judged as good and evil and since only humans have the power to drastically alter their own environment, can one conclude from that statement that the very essence of human nature is ugliness and evil.   The reason the world is rotten is because humans are rotten and so are the things that they produce.


To that I simply must say that it's all a load of garbage.


We are creatures that possess free will.   The world does not have to be full of the rotten, the ugly, the evil.   If the world appears to be this way it is only because we as humans have abandoned the principles that create a beautiful world, but what are those principles?   How do they apply to art and music?]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Update</title><dc:creator>pianoman@siu.edu</dc:creator><dc:subject>News</dc:subject><dc:date>2007-06-10T17:00:28-05:00</dc:date><link>www.adambuker.com/files/64a0671c46386dda90d72acd2ba01d32-11.html#unique-entry-id-11</link><guid isPermaLink="true">www.adambuker.com/files/64a0671c46386dda90d72acd2ba01d32-11.html#unique-entry-id-11</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[I have moved to Springfield, MO for personal reasons as well as to allow myself more time for composition.   If you need my new contact information, please click the link at the bottom of the screen to send me an email.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Stop&#x2c; Look&#x2c; and Listen</title><dc:creator>pianoman@siu.edu</dc:creator><category>Site Announcements</category><dc:date>2006-10-14T05:09:41-05:00</dc:date><link>www.adambuker.com/files/89b95b625fc5644c920fc7f01b2f3ced-10.html#unique-entry-id-10</link><guid isPermaLink="true">www.adambuker.com/files/89b95b625fc5644c920fc7f01b2f3ced-10.html#unique-entry-id-10</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[There are two new features that have been added to the site.   There's a new photo gallery that you can access by clicking 'About the Composer' and then clicking 'Pictures.'   We've also added a new mp3 player to the site so that you can sample the work of Adam Buker.   To access it click on 'Listen' (must have Flash Player 7 installed, high speed connection recommended)]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Piano Concerto in E-minor&#xa;</title><dc:creator>pianoman@siu.edu</dc:creator><category>Projects</category><dc:date>2006-04-07T03:15:08-05:00</dc:date><link>www.adambuker.com/files/3166c1931d6b2282ac360056ae201c8a-2.html#unique-entry-id-2</link><guid isPermaLink="true">www.adambuker.com/files/3166c1931d6b2282ac360056ae201c8a-2.html#unique-entry-id-2</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[My next project involves writing the first movement of my piano concerto in E-minor which will be called the Concerto of Deliverance.   The title and the program of this piece comes directly from two sources.   The first source is the literary allusion to Ayn Rand's masterpiece, Atlas Shrugged.   The novel is set in the not-too-distant future where the men and women who think and act with integrity are going on strike against a world that's designed to destroy any form of greatness.   One of the strikers is a composer named Richard Halley, who writes a piano concerto of the same name in dedication to the leader of the strike for setting men free of the evil morality of altruism that has plagued mankind from the beginning.


The second source comes from my own personal moral awakening.   Much of how I live influences how I write.   Over the last five years my own personal life has had many ups and downs from my own struggle to live to my fullest potential.   Everything in this work is a reflection of different aspects of that struggle.   The first movement shows anger, passion, and indignation.   The second shows anguish, turmoil, and despair.   The third movement is complete exaltation and happiness.]]></content:encoded></item></channel>
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