The Art of Production

Sometimes it can be helpful to consider atypical examples of a subject you are studying. In the Welcome post for this blog, I quoted Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, which defines “to produce” as “to give birth or rise to,” “to cause to have existence or to happen,” “to compose, create, or bring out by intellectual or physical effort.” With this definition in mind, let’s examine one atypical example of production.

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a concert by guitarist Eliot Fisk. Mr. Fisk arrived alone on stage, carrying only his guitar, and proceeded to seat himself on a chair and play several pieces, all works of his own transcription. One was J.S. Bach’s Cello Suite No. 3.

In the terms of the above definition, he had not produced the guitar, the chair, or Bach’s original piece. But he had produced the transcription and, perhaps most interestingly, the performance ― beautiful music that filled the hall for twenty minutes. Here, then, is another example of how one producer uses the output of others to create a product of his own, and how difficult that can be. Watching and listening to him, it was easy to imagine the time, devotion, knowledge, and skill required for him to perform as he did.

So while his product that evening was not physical, with its usefulness to the audience more of an experience (and also a wonderful memory, at least for me), it was a product nonetheless ― and one that well reminds us of what human production may involve and can give.