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Re: [microsound] Is choral music ambient?



I personally have a problem with the term "Ambient". I remember one radio show I did at UMD where I spent the entire 3 hours playing (and comparing) music that was called "ambient".

So that included music by Satie, Feldman, Cage, Richard D James, Autechre, If Bwana, John Zorn, and a handful of other "ambient" artists. Suffice to say none of this music sounds anything alike.

Defining what falls into a category of "Ambient" is a task doomed to fail. "Ambient" music implies a relationship with the unnoticable, the unintentional sound present in our environment.

I think people have conveniently used the word to describe everything from "music that you can't dance to" to "music you can meditate with" to "music you play in a haunted house."

An album I released recently is described as "Ambient" but holds about as much relationship with the artists mentioned above as it does with R&B and Country Western.

Given that ALL genrification is by nature subjectively exclusive, the term "Ambient" is especially bad; I put it right up there with "Classical" and my personal favorite "IDM". What some call ambient, others do not.

So I'd ask you back, what's the point of finding out?

A lot of what's considered "Ambient" has its musical underpinnings in non-western music, especially the Ragas and trance-like drummings of other cultures (which I might add are certainly extremely functional in those cultures, if not ours).

So while one may call something Ambient, another may call it Downtempo, another may consider playing Gesualdo during a gallery opening as Ambient, while someone not so predisposed to classifying music would just enjoy it as choral harmony and not something "ambient" at all.

Sometimes people use the term simply to classify the undefinable.

.,m

(ps - Strickland's Minimalism is a good one if you haven't read it yet)

Matt Tierney wrote:
Hi, first post on the list... :)

I asked on the Rhizome forum where I could find some descent discussion
online of avant-garde/experimental and 'other' musics. I hope this post is
suited to the overall vein of the list. If not I would glady accept
recommendations!

-

I'm reading Prendergast's "The Ambient Century".

It's a nice idea for a book, a 'century' of ambient music... But did ambient
music really start with Mahler or Satie?

What about 15th Century Rennaisance choral music like Palestrina, Tallis and
many other similar composers from this period?

There's something about this era that strikes an 'ambient' chord with me. Or
is the music too *intense* to be classified as ambient?

I don't want to confuse *beauty* and ambience, but if I'm wanting to listen
to some ambient music, I'll often go for Tallis...

What are others thoughts on this?

Regards,

Matt Tierney



On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 3:49 PM, Paulo R. C. Barros <
paulorcbarros@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=jVCki_4DuyI

Cheers,
Paulo


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