Re: [microsound] State of Music

[Peter Price <pprice@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

listen to a pop song from a thousand years ago and what do you hear...a 
melody using a seven note scale organized around a central pitch 
unfolding rhythmically in a regular pulse (from the tempo of a slow 
walk to that of a fast heartbeat) in a duble or triple meter...likely 
moving through on average 3 harmonic areas (i.e chords)

listen today...same thing

that scale...not even imagine you were an alien from another planet 
scale...simple musically literate scale.

Consider the biggest chart topper of the middle ages "L'omme arme"...no 
one would bat an eye if Bjork sang that song.

Have we lost the ability to think past superficial style?

On Thursday, November 25, 2004, at 12:54 AM, Julian Knowles wrote:

> On Thursday, November 25, 2004, at 04:49  AM, Peter Price wrote:
> > Furthermore, disco is clearly a subset of western popular or 
> > vernacular music, a form that viewed at from a particular scale has 
> > not changed very much in 1000 years.
>
> What scale are we talking about?, ie... in order to enter this 
> discussion, I'd need to have some more detailed context for the above 
> statement
>
> I would agree that musical forms derive from one another and pop 
> mostly eats itself (perhaps replace 'pop' with 'western music'), but 
> I'm not sure I can say there is no sense of change.. unless you can 
> convince me of the utility of seeing change as 'surface detail' of an 
> inconsequential nature...
>
>
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