On Sun, 16 Mar 1997, Greg Earle wrote:
[HJH:]
quoted 9 lines Of course it's a bad idea to try to "reproduce" the sort of *timbral*> > Of course it's a bad idea to try to "reproduce" the sort of *timbral*
> > variety you find in orchestral music on synthesizers; electronica has a
> > totally different kind of timbral variety. But I can see no reason why
> > electronic music *couldn't* incorporate ideas of structure from western
> > concert music, [...]
>
> NO!! NO MORE RICK WAKEMAN!!! NO MORE "TALES FROM PORNOGRAPHIC TOASTER OVENS"!
> AIEEEEEEE ...
> hehehehe ...
Your "panic" :) is justified only if Rick Wakeman is the *only* way to do
it. Somehow I doubt that. Next?
Y'know, I blather on about "structure," but that's only because dance
music as it is right now has the potential to do interesting things there.
What is dance music, but manipulation of sound through time with a beat?
All I'm talking about is shaping that manipulation in a way that's less
haphazard than what I've heard so far (but I'm waiting on _Chiastic..._
thru mail order, so who knows)... in a way that draws connections
(explicit or not-so-) between different bits.
Take "Dwr Budr" on In Sides. Nice a-minor stuff for awhile, then the
support drops out leaving high stuff noodling about. Then that stops
abruptly and new stuff in c-minor starts--OK, modified phrygian, if we
must split hairs. The modification is kind of important b/c it adds an
a-nat. to the scale, which makes a bit of a connection to the opening
a-minor. Fine. But how hard would it have been to introduce the c-phrygian
bass line (the bit w/ the a-nat.) underneath the high stuff left over from
the first part? Then a-minor would become something ambiguous (octatonic,
but it doesn't matter what it's called), and then the c-minor triads could
come in to clarify the new harmonic space.
As it stands you have two sections stuck together with only a faint
connection between them. It could have been one harmonic area mutating
into another--without damaging the groove, mind you. -- Or, in contrast to
what I said yesterday, use of DJesque crossfading, basically, at the
composition stage in a way that has structural weight. And you don't have
to identify these harmonic areas for the mutation to make sense
intuitively. But it DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE, subconsciously. Why shouldn't
dance musicians *work* with this intentionally?
That's most of what I'm talking about. My goodness. I don't see why these
thoughts should conjure up prog-rock nightmares. :) J
________
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H. James Harkins | Arthur: "Umm, oh, er, we're, uh, we're colonels."
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