Music for Florida should be Digital and Hyperreal

The string quartet is the musical symbol par excellence of the old aristocracy. Hollywood knows this when it employs one diagetically to signal the assembly of VIPs. People who want a "classy" (i.e. bourgeois) wedding will often use a string quartet. From it's birth in the halls of Esterhazy to the the able hands of Baron (per rumor) Alban Berg, the string quartet represents the highest application of musical values most noble (in the Nietzschean sense).

Given the regal roots of the string quartet: to make a "string quartet" for Florida is a bit absurd. We have our moments: there is an example in the Russian Prince Boris Borisovitch Scherbatow who was exiled to a dwelling near Fort Matanzas during the Bolshevik era. We also have, of course, the court of princesses of Lake Buena Vista.

Aside for Cinderella's castle, however, the closest thing we have to a noble palace in Florida is Historic Mar a Lago, the home of President Donald Trump. There is no better emblem of America's tacky longing for nobility than the host of a T.V. show joining hands with our captains of industry to cancel the American Revolution in favor of a cargo cult monarchy proposed by a literal mole rat named Moldbug. (Pay no heed that Trump is not from Florida: no one is.)

I'm no monarchist, but there is something deeply displeasing about a poor attempt at mimicking the graces of the old aristocracy. And there is no place that misses with such ugliness as West Palm Beach, across the inter-coastal from Palm Beach. The luxury name brand stores, generic art galleries, the "City Mall" which has the same stores as every other city, and the conspicuous luxury car dealerships. I'm told that most very wealthy individuals today are rather inconspicuous and so these stores are more for those that aspire to be them. The rich are different, but West Palm preys on the fact that we forget this.

This is to say that a string quartet for Florida has no place on the music stands of Arditti, Takács, Berg, or any other powerhouse of the old aristocratic aesthetic. I'm a Florida man: I'm completely inadequate to the task. Besides, unlike the climates of Europe, Florida's humidity and temperature swings are hostile to wood. To embody the simulacra of class that Florida treasures, something different is needed.

Digital String Instruments: are they good enough?

Given the above screed, I'd say for Florida, yes; this ain't Cremona. Physical models by SWAM and expressivee are high quality simulations and should be used here, but even the most mediocre romplers of the early 90s are sufficient. The string instruments of the quartet are some of the most focused exquisite instruments in the world, but for a land that is soon to be submerged a flood of different technologies with varying quality seems more appropriate. Removing the restriction of acoustic instruments also allows me to fashion more of the AI slop under which we drown at time or writing. More positively, I can also use very bespoke technologies like models constructed in Faust or Python, the latter being used to either craft AI mimicries or simulations using finite differences, as seen in the work of Stephan Bilbao.

The primary objection to this project is that using these technologies seems cheap. The real work of composition comes from crafting music that musicians want to play and then building a movement so that performers and audiences feel part of something when they perform and listen to your music. These ideas are written in my soul too. However, the shitty reality of accelerationism and the rise of the billionaire class makes these feelings seem to originate from another planet. When these dreams confront the reality of my own precarity, I weep these digital tears.

These words were written on the land of the Timicua, whose sheparding of this land I am most grateful.