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Paolo said: >Below is my top-ten rotation of CDs in my current listening. It's funny >that >just a few years ago, I was under the influence of the UCSD Music >Department >in that I snobbishly avoided any music that I or the professors and >graduate >students would consider "not innovative/creative enough". It's taken some >time to open my mind and not be ashamed of liking the music I like. :) Good for you! Yeah, too bad about much of music academia: self confidence in one's musical autonomy is constructed and deconstructed at the same time. But that's another discussion... Great list! >...8. Modest Mussorgsky - Pictures At An Exhibition >Not much to say about this classic. ... Allow me: (The following is a peripheral-to-the-topic, Sunday morning introspection, but I do eventually get around to looping. It is not nearly as, shall we say, stimulating as a Butt Looper!) Pictures: I'm curious if you have a fave performance, Paolo - there are so many. Although I do enjoy the orchestral recordings, I'm partial to Mussorgsky's original score for solo piano. (Loren Hollander's version is exceptionally dynamic and expressive, but unfortunately out of print.) IMHO, Ravel's orchestration was an extraordinary accomplishment, but I almost think something was lost - the original piano score's unadorned elegance and starkness are less evident in more texturally complex orchestral renditions. (Some critics are even less charitable about Ravel's effort, bless 'em. Hey, each to his/her own! Would that our respective talents were all as generously endowed as Ravel's! ...Hmmm, that didn't sound quite right...) So what does this have to do with looping? Well, it got me to thinking what Ravel might have done with an electronically enhanced orchestra and looping devices/instruments. Or Mussorgsky, for that matter. Although for me, in this case, MM's composition and choice of instrument virtually define each other. Anyway, seems like it would have been pretty cool. (Remember Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's version? Took a lot of b-, uh, guts to tread in MM's enormous footprints. I lost that album, the vinyl kind, in a move long ago. It's reissued on CD. Wonder how it has stood the test of time?) This brings up the related thread about compositional approach and inspiration, to which I'd like to add: The differences between MM's original, and Ravel's interpretation (independent of one's personal preference or opinion) are excellent examples of the challenge that all musicians face. We continually make decisions, consciously and unconsciously, about the validity/necessity/success of each component and layer in our "audio collages" (yeah, great description). For us modern loopers, the relative profusion of tools that allows us to easily build incredibly dense, multi-layered sounds can be both a blessing and a curse. It is tempting to add more and more, because it's fun, and it's easy! However, we must be careful not to suffocate the unaffected freshness, vitality, --rawness!-- that illuminate our expressions. That's what inspired us to create them in the first place. laurie >From TimeLor@Mountain.net Sun Nov 23 12:27:28 1997