For my own benefit, to enhance my personal understanding and feelings toward certain aspects of music and art in general, I have lifted some audio snaps of this forum's engaging discussion with a view to clarifying my thoughts on what was said.
My written response: I find it quite absurd that an analogy is drawn between the reasons for learning a Bach fugue, which has been proven to develop student’s piano technique and an understanding of melodic polyphony over centuries, and learning Music Concrete or Serialism in their pure form. If I’m to take Stephen literally, I can’t be a competent composer unless I understand these areas. My main problem with both Serialism and Music Concrete is the complete lack of emotional response I feel when listening to apparently ‘important’ purist works from either genre.
In countless other styles of music that I don’t particularly like (such as Bach fugues), I can often find instrumental or emotional material to connect with on some level, but rarely does it happen with these two esoteric styles. I don’t feel this is part of my ‘pre-conditioning’ from society. I didn’t like the same eighties pop drivel that others did during primary school. From around the age of eight I’ve had an individual agenda for why I listen to a particular style of music. I don’t deny my scope is narrow, but as Stephen said earlier “There is only a limited amount of time”, so why fill it with academic material that you feel you should ‘get’ just because other academics do? I’ve been trying to ‘get’ it for three years now and either it’s being presented in the wrong way or, shock horror, it’s an individual thing, and the emotional responses it solicits from one person are not possible to extract from another – despite the educated awareness of all involved.
David Harris on the reduction of one on one training for composers at UNI:
My written response: I don’t feel I’ve gained an in-depth understanding of Music Concrete and the motivation for composition in the style just from ‘doing a piece’. If we were given sufficient tuition from a compositional perspective (something along the lines of the 33 hours one on one that David H. mentioned was the case for composition students at Flinders St School of Music would do nicely) then maybe I would understand the process in-depth and have that knowledge to take with me in life and apply to whatever I want to do.
My question regarding the format of Major projects and why they cling to forced composition in the purist forms of Music Concrete and Electro Acoustic music:
D. Harris responds with a pro-serial rant pointing out the restrictions of a tonal system by comparison:
12.Audio here. My written response: It is my right as an individual to ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ anything, and it is not always something I can control. There is a deep flaw in the way D. Harris has worded his expression in that he states it is pointless to choose to like or dislike things. What makes you think that there is any ‘choice’ involved at all? Choosing to like or dislike things is the pastime of superficial people, who choose to like something because it’s liked by a crowd they want to hang with – what they are actually doing, is pretending to like something that they probably feel neutral about or maybe even don’t like at all. I don’t like pure Serial and Concrete music because, as I’ve already stated, none of the repertoire presented to me from either does anything for me. This is not my choice, it is a failing of the art to offer anything of musical substance to the individual that is I, and I’ve given it all the chances it deserves as far as I’m concerned.
The tonal system may be restrictive, but it continues to produce great music to my ears. The Serial or Concrete systems may be wide open, but they just don’t do it for me – and it’s not me, it’s them.
Stephen W. attempts to point out the virtues of learning something in its purest form:
I ask if it is yet determinable what the necessary basics for mastery of Music Concrete even are. Stephen responds followed by Peter questioning our ability to judge Music Concrete effectively: 14.Audio here.
My written response: If exciting, interesting and moving works of art are what you crave then relax the genre specific directive associated with student major projects. If a student enrolls in this course who loves to make dance music first and foremost, let them embrace what you’re teaching by incorporating it into their own style. Don’t crush their soul with the weight of academic scripture that decrees all must suffer at the hands of Stockhausen, Schoenberg and Cage before they can be permitted their own voice. Whether you believe it or not, this is the effect that such directives have on many students. I was really looking forward to engaging with and applying technology and music theory of all kinds to my own compositional directions as part of this course. Instead, I find myself with an esoteric and largely useless collection of works that are the product of being forced to work within restrictive boundaries. If we did indeed have our 33 hours per year of one to one tuition in compositional style, with direct relevance to what would be expected in the major project for a given semester, this may have been a very different story. However, as this is never likely to be the case, I suggest again that the major project specifications are adjusted, so that future students may walk away with a greater level of creative satisfaction and a folio of works that may better serve their style as composers/performers. I don’t intend for this blog to be a negative response to my entire degree in any way, as it has been a largely positive experience. I just feel that music is too subjective in general for a course to cling to so many perceived constants. Perhaps a TAFE based approach to marking assignments on technological competence would be more appropriate, removing subjectivity from the process altogether. I guess the moral of this blog is to think about how concepts are presented to students, before determining expectations regarding what they should achieve with them.
Reference:
Whittington, Stephen. "Forum - Week 12 – Semester 2, 2008: Squawk Box IIIB.” Workshop presented at EMU Space, level 5 Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 30th of October 2008.
Forum – Week 11 – Semester 2, 2008: “Robert Moog and Other Things That WOW”
In true prog style: the silliest piano solo you'll ever see/hear...
The robots are coming. This kind of Tech-Nerd fear mongering poses a significant question for me; “Where is the higher consciousness going to come from?” I wonder if anyone thinks it will just miraculously happen when technology reaches a given threshold of complexity. Seriously, the amount of programming and engineering that must have gone into the ‘cute’ robot from the Steve Reich clip - to achieve far less than a sub-epsilon-semi-moron level of intelligence indicates that we have little to worry about, at least in the immediate future.
Far more exciting was the K. Emerson keyboard solo. I find it perplexing that a great many keyboard players are not interested in embracing the possibilities for expression they are offered by technology. Don’t great concert pianists wish they could bend a note once in a while? Or add some vibrato? Or throw in a dive bomb? Or dirty it up with a distortion pedal and a Wah?
It was interesting to see how some conventional musicians from the 1970s had taken to synthesisers. They may have called it Avant Garde, but their “New York Minimalist” approach to electronic music was a far cry from Stockhausen to my ears (this is a good thing).
Reference:
Whittington, Stephen. “Forum – Week 11 – Semester 2, 2008: Robert Moog and Other Things That WOW.” Workshop presented at EMU space, level 5 Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 23rd of October 2008.
The delicate and subtle set of introspective animated short films presented by Poppi and Yisheng Qian (Betty) was quite engaging.It’s refreshing to witness a presentation of work that the artist has truly immersed themselves in for their own reasons.Too often we are presented with student projects that are products of course criteria, rather than inspired creation (I include my own efforts in this observation).I’ve towed the line thus far with the “this is what I did with Max/MSP, SC, Audio Arts etc” course directed approach.When I see presentations like this one however, where the person has gone against that model and decided to showcase something they really care about, it makes me wonder if I should have done the same.I mean, I found this presentation very entertaining, and I struggle to imagine anyone having the same reaction to one of my Max, Collider or Concrete pieces, which have felt like more of an afterthought to the process of learning how to program, than works of sonic art.Perhaps the criteria for student presentations could be opened up to a free for all “show us what you like to do with sound” model, rather than “show us what you did for this course last semester, with the painfully limited amount of time you had to work with.”
Reference:
Whittington, Stephen.“Forum – Week 10 – Semester 2, 2008: Honours Student Presentations.”Workshop presented at EMU space, level 5 Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 16th of October 2008.
Forum – Week 9 – Semester 2, 2008: “Student Presentations”
All we need now is a virtual person to play it...
Ben Probert’s controversial 2nd year Max program was nice to look at, as always. Unfortunately its musical/sonic output was a little underdeveloped. I have an interest in creating self-composing or computer assisted composition software myself, so despite the simplicity of the programs music it gave me a few ideas to explore. My own programming experience thus far indicates that moving beyond simple output of a self-composing tool (as I’m sure Ben will agree) involves an exponentially increasing amount of code.
Luke Digance kept things rhythmic with his SuperColliding effort from last semester. As did my own piece on the day, it sounded a little stark. I think it’s a combination of the Bose speakers, which need extra drive to produce effective bottom end, and the recording space in EMU, which is designed to control sound, not enhance it.
I can understand why Will Revill wanted to present his impressive graphical interface from a former Max project. The lack of sound left me a little cold though. I’m glad I didn’t sign up for the collaborative game project; it sounded like a disorganised nightmare, without even a finished product for the trouble of the few hard-working individuals involved.
Jake Morris: Nice work on the BNU commercial, just watching it increased my energy level…
Reference:
Whittington Stephen. “Forum – Week 9 – Semester 2, 2008: Student Presentations.” Workshop presented at EMU space, level 5 Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 9th of October 2008.
I have mixed feelings about such abstract art house cinema.Would I have found it more entertaining if I indulged in some form of illicit contraband containing THC?Probably.There is a contentious issue for me with this type of film. Like most of Lynch’s work it projects a fantastically dark and dread inducing environment that is just short of all-consuming. It then proceeds to offset this remarkable achievement by engaging in far too many uncomfortable silences and lengthy scenes of demented abstraction that explain nothing and become tedious very quickly.In short, the film may be a cult classic, it may (and I believe does) contain extraordinarily intricate sound design and low budget cinematography for the period, but it bored me nevertheless.Maybe it’s the same issue that keeps me from enjoying Nosferatu: I can’t view this with the perception of a wide-eyed 1970s film buff.I can only view it as myself, and like others of mine and subsequent generations I have too much exciting and groundbreaking art/media to choose from.I feel like I haven’t been shocked by art for a long time and this film is far from shocking by today’s standards.
Reference:
Harris David.“Forum – Week 8 – Semester 2, 2008: Eraserhead.”Workshop presented at EMU space, level 5, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 18th of September 2008.
Forum – Week 7 – Semester 2, 2008: “Student Presentations”
Behold, the power of sine tones...
Sanad kicked things off nicely this week with a pumping dance track laden with interesting vocal manipulation and sonically rich harmonization.I felt he should give his work a little more deserving credit as he was quite dismissive of many of his ideas as ‘cheesy’.
Peter played us some sine tones, hooray.
I’m glad John presented his dark side once again with another piece of “there’s a saw next to me, I think this guy wants us to cut our own feet off” ambience straight from the bowels of industrial Hell.It was great to hear it through the Bose monitors and all the fat bass therein.
Mr Mazzone snuck in fashionably late as usual, but not too late to deliver us with another dose of SC mayhem.I need to practice using the Schedule classes more.
Freddie continued the theme of the day with the old “when it works properly x is supposed to happen” etc.It’s easy to laugh when this happens to other peoples presentation/performances but I’ve certainly had my share of technology induced issues.
I liked Doug’s instant ‘Scarface’ score maker.I’m glad he mentioned 70s film as analogous to it’s output as I was thinking the same thing (well, early eighties anyway).
Reference:
Whittington, Stephen. “Forum – Week 7 – Semester 2, 2008: Student Presentations.”Workshop presented at EMU Space and the Audio lab, levels 5 and 4, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 11th of September 2008.
Forum – Week 6 – Semester 2, 2008: “Emo Presentations”
There was a relatively diverse palette of sonic emotional proposals presented today. I do wish I’d avoided MIDI and maybe kept things a little less complicated. While the approaches from all involved differed in some respects, there were recurring themes that suggest we are perhaps conditioned to perceive and make analogous sonic connections by our environment and culture.
I think I found Freddie’s the most entertaining. The sound of a child’s cries on tape often implies a gargoyle-esque quality. Stephen Tanato’s general MIDI clichés were a little, well, clichéd. I think the positive emotions were easier to convey in a specific sense – Major chords for happy, power chords for heroic, water and bird noises for tranquillity etc. The difference between anger and disgust is a difficult one. There were a couple of well-crafted distinctions today though, with John Delany’s representation of disgust the standout for me. It seems there is also an art to determining a sonic representation for both sorrow and compassion that is unambiguous.
Reference:
Whittington, Stephen. “Forum – Week 6 – Semester 2, 2008: Emo Presentations.” Workshop presented at EMU space, level 5, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 4th of September, 2008.
Forum – Week 5 – Semester 2, 2008: “My Favorite Things (II)”
Politics in music is always a point of contention for me.On one hand I appreciate the potential for the medium and its message to reach a great many people, but I do wonder if it’s just preaching to the converted most of the time.That being said, Negative Land handles their agenda with a very original approach that seems less preachy and contrived than the lyrics of other politically motivated artists like Michael Franti and John Butler (Butler’s early attempts at songwriting made me whish he would take a hint from F. Zappa: “Shut up and play yer guitar!”).
However, for all its originality and punch, I feel no need to explore the music of NegativeLand further.This type of extreme Concrete-esque manufacture strikes me as a novelty that wears off very quickly, no matter how clever the arrangement or serious the subject of satire.Also, I think my patience wears thin at the barrage of low quality audio that is forced upon the listener with music that engages in a lot of historic digging.Raising awareness of the past and having a will to prevent repetition of bad historical practices is a noble pursuit, but I feel there is little of reasonable fidelity to source from pre 1970, save for a few exceptions of course.
Reference:
Whittington, Stephen.“Forum – Week 5 – Semester 2, 2008: My Favorite Things (II).”Workshop presented in room 1004, level 10 Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 28th of August 2008.
Forum – Week 4 – Semester 2, 2008: “Composition Workshop”
‘Hasya’
In the purest sense of the word: “a joy that comes from within for no apparent reason.”
Sonic analogies this meaning conjures:
1. Sustained root position major chord in the mid-range with root note doubled in the bass.
2. A happy dog trying to talk.
3. A perfect pinch harmonic from an overdriven electric guitar.
4. Laughing children.
5. A crowd roars for the winning goal (whatever that may be).
‘Adbhuta’
“The feeling of wonder stemming from recognition of one’s own ignorance.”
Sonic analogies:
1. An augmented 7th chord of any kind.
2. A carefully controlled explosion – recognition creates an explosion of new ideas.
3. Sweep of white noise increasing in volume – fresh mindset allows new ideas to wash in.
‘Veera’
“Fearlessness and self-assurance with complete control over one’s ego.”
Sonic analogies:
1. Chunky overdriven electric guitar power chords.
2. Simply harmonised orchestral strings playing 5ths apart in staccato.
3. Cheesy Hollywood cinema brass music ala ‘Superman.’
4. Cheetah taking down a gazelle.
‘Karuna’
Interesting, the Karuna rasa is described as ‘sadness’ on www.rasas.info.I guess this could fall under the heading of ‘compassion’ but love/erotic?
Sonic analogies:
1. Slow, gentle romantic piano music in a minor key.
2. Slow, gentle romantic piano music in a major key.
3. Sombre major or minor chords.
4. Gentle ocean shoreline waves and bird song.
‘Krodha’
Another discrepancy with the findings of my research but anger and fury are easy to convey in my opinion – see below.
Sonic analogies:
1. Screaming death-metal vocals.
2. Machine gun fire.
3. Violent uncontrolled explosion.
4. Hacking and pounding into flesh with breaking bones and squibbing blood splats.
‘Bhibasta’
A demonic and useless emotion that leads to depression: “disgust and loathing” (of oneself and/or others.
Sonic analogies:
1. Vomiting.
2. Atonal screeching of anything.
‘Bhayanaka’
Fear is the product of ignorance, apparently.So next time you’re stuck in a dark alley being knifed, just remember – only an ignorant fool would allow themselves an indulgent dose of fear at this point.
Sonic analogies (in this case it’s the sound of my perception of fear – not the sound of ignorance, whatever that may be (Pauline Hanson perhaps?)):
1. Cold heavy bricks scraping one another.
2. Howling icy wind.
3. Booming thunder.
4. Sombre Russian male choir singing very low and sustaining forever.
‘Shoka’
Sorrow or more specifically “grief”.
Sonic analogies:
1. Russian folk music.
2. Metallica’s “Fade to black”.
3. Exhausted weeping.
4. Chromaticism and excessive rubato in a minor key.
‘Shanta’
“Peace man.”
Sonic analogies:
1. The pentatonic scale.
2. A sustained 5th chord in perfect tune.
3. Bird-wings flapping in slow motion.
4. Gentle wind rustling long grass.
Reference:
Whittington, Stephen.“Forum – Week 4 – Semester 2, 2008: Composition Workshop.” Workshop presented at EMU Space, level 5 Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 21st of August 2008.
Forum – Week 3 – Semester 2, 2008: “1st Year Presentations”
Get back you insolent classically trained robots of contempt!!
This session takes the number one spot as the ‘most badly organised forum’ of the last three years. In a campus of some 20,000 students, does one think it wise to hold a class in a room without a booking? Hmm.
Anyway, when things finally kicked off the music concrete and other project material presented was relatively diverse. I feel I’m way over the Concrete genre at this stage of the game, so I won’t attempt an informed opinion of any pieces on display today. I was particularly impressed with Josh’s score and Foley for the Toothbrush Moustache animation. I have to admit, I wasn’t sure if the instrumentation was electronically generated. The mention of Spectrasonics took care of my disbelief at the quality – their sampling expertise is to be commended. The music composition itself was handled beautifully. It really served the image well.
Alex’s recording of ‘Behind These Walls’ was entertaining. It brought back memories of first year in which I recorded something vaguely similar. I think he did a better job with the vocals than I did at the time as they cut through the mix nicely.
Reference:
Whittington, Stephen. “Forum – Week 3 – Semester 2, 2008: 1st Year Presentations.” Workshop presented at EMU space, Level 5 Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 14th of August 2008.
Forum – Week 2 – Semester 2, 2008: “My Favourite Things I”
And.. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6...
Terra Rapta was an interesting experience – I was looking forward to listening to it again, without the score to distract my ears, but this did not eventuate. I find score reading an annoying task with music at this level. I can’t read quickly enough to follow the score in any meaningful way so it doesn’t really do much for me. At the end of the day, if I were not planning to play the piece myself I’d rather just close my eyes and listen. I did this with the Schubert Quartet, as the scores were so small that sharing between three was a pointless task anyway. When will these lecturers discover the wonders of a laptop computer, Power-Point and a portable projector?
The Grainger quartet did a remarkable job with Harris’ piece (I’m not sure if it was them in the Schubert recording, but an equally fine performance if so). However, It’s difficult for me to listen to a small classical ensemble and not notice some effects that the musicians are attempting to achieve falling a little flat as a result of the limited medium for sound production that they are using. It’s less noticeable with a full orchestra, but modern electronic instruments are undoubtedly superior at achieving wide ranges of sonorities.
Reference:
Whittington, Stephen. "Forum – Week 2 – Semester 2, 2008: My Favourite Things I.” Workshop presented in room 1107, level 11 Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 7th of August 2008.
Forum – Week 1 – Semester 2, 2008: Listening in the Age of Technology.
This was an interesting opener to the semester, more so than the discussion on blogging that dominated the same timeslot in March. The subject seemed to stir views on my own experience of music, and how they have changed since I first began engaging in music making. The most dominant of thoughts provoked is the question of why I feel more connected to playing, writing and listening to my own music than that of others. It’s not that I don’t like other people’s music, or that I consider mine in anyway superior. I think it is just a matter of knowing exactly where my music has come from and understanding the decisions that led to its construction on an intimate level that others could not possibly share.
One of my shortcomings as a musician/composer is that I have partially developed an inability to ‘zoom out’ from a piece of music and appreciate the whole – as opposed to its individual parts. My brain just seems to begin dissecting on autopilot, denying me the experience that many others may appreciate. If there is an invention I would like to see emerge from the age of technology, it is one that can help me to overcome this and reap the full benefits of both sides of musical awareness.
Reference:
Whittington, Stephen. “Forum – Week 1 – Semester 2, 2008: Listening in the Age of Technology.” Workshop presented at EMU Space, Level 5, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 31st of July 2008.
Pants are so mainstream...
