Re: [microsound] Re: an interesting monolake answer

[noelsus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

yep it is a good thread. If you've ever spent some time speaking with
Robert Henke you might imagine him saying this with a somewhat
mischievious grin on his face. I suspect he is using the word evil here in
a less than totally didactic manner. I think he is simply saying don't use
your eyes in spite of your ears when producing music.

Robert Henke is not afraid of the image.

PS Ableton Live has a brilliant interface. I find it a transformative
environment. This is one of the reason's for it's success.

> Nice thread, thus Robert's provocative statement must be respected.
>
>> Visual representation of sound is evil.
>
> Perhaps aural representation of sound is *live* ? Only Miles could tell us
> for sure.
>
> A defining distinction between BR (before recording) music and PR (post
> recording) music is that the former requires a visual representation for
> propagation, the latter does not. How much do we still need a visual
> representation to concretize the musical conceptions we conjure in our
> minds
> (for those of us who still consider ourselves composers)? I want to argue,
> really not much at all anymore. In this regard there is an important
> distinction between visual representation and abstraction. The latter is
> inevitable in music conception since any musical conception I know of,
> whether a tonal fugue or the decision to listen intently to the sounds
> outside your dwelling, involves abstraction; if nothing else, then by
> virtue
> of attention to the processes of auditory cognition. Abstraction is
> indispensible but visual representation is not. The musical conception of
> a
> piece that is implemented with Live can precede the software in a way that
> an 18th century piano sonata conception could not precede the limitations
> and affordances of european music notation. (Did Mozart ever complain
> about
> not being able to write 1/4 tones the way folks here are complaining about
> Live's loop-bias doing their heads in?)
>
> As a side note, I nominate the optional nature of PR music's visual
> representation as a key reason why the wackiest looking music scores show
> up
> in the 20th century. Once freed from necessity, some people get looser
> with
> the tool, or start twirling it around over their heads.
>
> Eric
>



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