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Classical repetion techniques



Michael Peters wrote:
>Why don't you (and/or the other classically trained loopists) put together
>something about repetition (and the beginning of looping) in classical (or
>other) music, for the website?

While I am thinking about, the composer Olivier Messiaen is known for using
repetition.  His orchestral piece Turangalila Symphonie (1946-48) makes
extensive use of repetition eventhough you would never actually hear it or
even see it in the score.  He creates a very complex polyrhythmic texture
by combining repeating long rhythm and pitch patterns of different lenghts.
Many of the patterns are longer than 16 beats and some as long as 50
beats.  He also makes use of isorhythm which is an interesting repetitive
technique that comes from early music.

With an isorhythm you have two patterns of different lengths happening at
the same time.  The catch is that the patterns are in seperate musical
parameters. A typical isorhythm will have a repeating pitch pattern and a
repeating rhythm pattern but both are of different lengths.

Ex.
Pitch pattern is: C D E F (4 events to the pattern)
Rhythm pattern is: quarter note, eigth note, eigth note (3 events)

When combined you get a macro pattern that repeats every 12 events

Q=quarter note
E=eight note

C D E  F, C D  E F, C  D E F | C D E F.....
Q E E, Q  E E, Q E  E, Q E E | Q E E......

But you dont have to be limited to using just the duration and pitch
musical paremeters.  You have intensity, timbre and position in space to
experiment with too.

Timbral, pitch, rhythm isorhythm:
P=piano
G=guitar
M=marimba
F=flute
B=bassoon
V=violin

Pitch  -C D E  F, C D  E F, C  D E F | C D E F.....
Rhythm -Q E E, Q  E E, Q E  E, Q E E | Q E E......
timbre -P G M  F  B V, P G  M  F B V | P G M F B V......

later,

Hayden
hporter@uakron.edu