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Re: [microsound] the clueless leading the blind



On 6/11/02 at 4:00 PM, Bill Jarboe <billjarboe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> You have some smart remarks , I like that and enjoyreading them.

Thanks for the kind words!

> Some of the issues you bring to light seem related to the differences
between those trained in music and those who are graphic designers.

This is an interesting comment as my background is closer to graphic
design than music. I've been using "musicality" as a sort of yardstick
for a number of my comments.

I was initially surprised at the discussions of "performance" on the
list. The first thing that came to mind was an episode of Ralph J.
Gleason's jazz tv show I saw recently with John Coltrane featured. Now,
Coltrane didn't move a heck of a lot while he was performing, almost a
stick figure. But the music was knocking me down!

So initially I wasn't very clear why folks were all worked up about
nothing to see on stage. But recently, it's apparent that a number of
artists on the [microsound] list are creating a type of musical theatre.
At least that's what I imagine...

One of my emails triggered an off-line conversation about Charles Dodge.
Aside from admitting I liked "The Earth's Magnetic Field," I did try to
suggest a spectrum of "programmatic" music: at one end dissolving into
Sonification and at the other perhaps becoming "sound effect."

Somewhere along that spectrum is the wonderful musics that Carl
Stallings created for Warner Brothers', where he mimics Daffy sneaking
up on Elmer Fudd, or interprets the experience of being hit in the head
with a large wooden bat. This stuff seems to me to be music of the
highest order, although in support of theatre, film, animation, montage,
whatever...

> I was pondering ( not thinking) about related issues when I listened
to some of Glenn Bach's work

I'll have to give a listen...

> and I wasn't sure if the music would work for me if i didn't
> know the 'concept'.

Certainly the work should be musical enough not to buckle under the
concept.

Another thought I had, and this gets back to Kim's original "novelty"
comment, is whether Matmos has gotten all the "music" out of the
liposuction machine, exhausted its possibilities, or will they'll just
move on the the next "new" sound source?

There is something to be said for instruments that have evolved their
sounds over long periods of time. People have put countless hours into
developing the sound of the marimba or reverb unit.

-Tad

(Going tomorrow to Romania for a week, so I'll fall silent for a
while...)