Re: Alternative performance devices

[vze26m98 <vze26m98@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 5/30/03 at 9:20 PM, the.kurtz.quartet <kurtz@xxxxx> wrote:

> this is part of what makes the old electroacoustic stuff stand
> out as more interesting. the primitive technology meant you had
> to work real hands-on. today when everybody is using the same
> sophisticated software the software controls the composer more
> than the other way round (i.e. lack of expression) and it makes
> everything sound somewhat alike and bland.

I think this relates to another part of this thread concerning the
"infinite" configurability of the musical interface.

Along with the "infinite" possibilities for timbre composition, and
superabundance of micro and macro-compositional techniques, I'm reminded
of the information overload that is one characteristic of the exhaustion
of post-modernity.

The aesthetic response, in my opinion, to this wealth of possibility
needs to recognize it as part of an attack on the human spirit caused by
the vertiginous asymmetries of (for lack of a better term) "Late
Capitalism."

As for the old stuff (someone will know this quote better than I) I'm
reminded of the Barron's comment after they heard their sounds in Cage's
Variations IV (Fontana Mix?): "If we'd known what he was going to do
with them, we wouldn't have worked so hard."

Best,

Tad

<tad@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

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