Re: [microsound] Performing "Live"

[jonah dempcy <jdempcy@xxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "jason urick" <themoonstealingproject@xxxxxxxxx>

> why are you so stuck on rythm?

was giving an example. shall i give another? say the band starts playing
through the cycle of 4ths, playing really out symmetrical chord voicings and
going further and further up in 4ths (EG: tonalities shifting from C, F, Bb,
Eb etc) and the audience is cheering, screaming, going higher and higher and
pretty much fluorishing through the chromatic scale but continously striving
higher and higher. then they start extending chords into the highest
structures by shifting fully extended maj/min chords at alternating maj/min
3rds apart. (eg: Cmaj13, Emin13, Gmaj13, Bmin13) ...

do you spontaneously sequence all of these key changes and attempt to keep
up? no because you are limited in that respect, instead you can do something
else like make a weird noise. sure, the weird noise is unexpected and
ostensibly "creative". but remember that the point here is about the
limitations, and in this example, the computer is very limited. my argument
also has not been refuted, that the moment of spontaneity lies in the
trigger->response of the instrument, and that in the case of the computer
the only spontaneous moment would be pressing play.

> not all music composed
> or improvised is rythm based.

actually i think pretty much everything composed of anything is rhythm
based. all life forms and molecular structure, atoms, etc.

> we might as well toss
> out the harmonium, hurdy-gurdy, tambura...

the first note they play is the first beat of a measure. what defines the
tempo and time signature is the remaining notes. how is rhythm not existent
here?

> even though they are steeped in centuries of
> improvised history(believe it or not, but people were
> improvising looonnnggg before king crimson and their
> zillion time changes).

for this i will refer you to--
http://www.ghawazee.org/rhy/rhythm.html
and
http://www.ghawazee.org/rhy/rhylist.html

please look over this and get back to me.

> no a computer would not be the ideal instrument to
> play be-bop on.

actually they have computers that will play bebop. but its a little
different isn't it?

> or play the lead in a prog-rock
> group....

my computer could "play the lead" .. or do you mean play it _live_ ??

> you wouldn't have the timpani play the
> oboe's part in a symphony either would you?

what?

> it's really a shame that in most people's minds
> improvising means shooting off notes at the speed of
> light or changing the time signature every x # of
> bars.

either you're referring to me, in which case i am _NOT_ "most people" or you
are making a nonsensical moot point about some unmentioned group that you
are in contact with but the rest of the world is not, yet is comprised of an
implied majority of this entire world population. ("most people")

-jonah