Re: [microsound] State of Music

[Julian Knowles <julianknowles@xxxxxxx>]

On Thursday, November 25, 2004, at 05:20  AM, Peter Price wrote:

> listen to a pop song from a thousand years ago

Via what means? A time tunnel? All we have are modern interpretations 
of incomplete sources.... most of the notated material is sacred music 
(as the church had the means to production), very few 'hard facts' 
exist of the secular repertoire to which I assume you are alluding 
(jongleurs, troubadors etc...). There is enough disagreement about what 
actually went on in this music to feed an entire academic community... 
For a start, durational notation didn't come in until much later... so 
how are you proposing we interpret the rhythmic aspects of the work? 
Are you a 'rhythmic modes' subscriber? What metrical structure do you 
propose? The recordings you hear are interpretations which a fair 
amount of guesswork. Educated guessing is part and parcel of the early 
music scholar's work...

>  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)

this is conjecture (see above), but I think you are a rhythmic modes 
person!!!

> listen today...same thing

to what? Again, this is so loose I can't get a hold of what you are 
saying....

Mainstream chart music? Prog rock, microsound? breakcore? minimal 
techno?

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

tell that to nasenbluten

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

At least this example has a manuscript!

'bjork-ised', or according to the best knowledge of the performance 
practice of the renaissance - not middle ages -  (in a church service)? 
Or are you suggesting that production and performance practice are 
'superficial' stylistic details and the production process and 
performance would have no bearing on how it was received?

> Have we lost the ability to think past superficial style?

this makes no sense to me.... It might be the brevity of your posts, 
but your argument feels like a serious of unqualified sweeping 
statements which pass over a lot of the critical detail.. I think its a 
lot more complicated than you are trying to suggest.



---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: microsound-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
For additional commands, e-mail: microsound-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
website: http://www.microsound.org