re: Chords (harmony for loops)

[SoundFNR@aol.com]

Richard said
>Notions of polyphony versus homophony versus 
>versus timbral fusion are quite useful in analyzing loop music.

and then he said
>  "the harmony is a function of the polyphony"
(about polyphonic music) 

...and reading a text on Counterpoint confirms this to
be the case.  The direction that each
melody line  follows and the way the intervals between them
change, are considered before the harmony becomes defined.
(but only prog-rockers use this stuff nowadays)

stig said
>isn't this also how indian music works

with a single line over a continuous drone there's 
a tension between the melody and the tonic(=drone note)
which kind of makes up for the lack of "western" harmony.
The emphasising of a particular note of the scale, by phrasing,
means that the music still has a system of tension and
release. (I bet most of us do this by ear already).

When looping, I've been using an approach which
(to me anyway) sounds more like South East Asian 
music (gamelan etc)
The notes from a mode are introduced into a loop 
to produce a kind of hanging effect.
Seeming to have some sort of harmonic direction
but never resolving, always floating.
This then allows the start/end of the loop to be 
obscured, or totally lost, which gives less
impression of mechanical repeatition.



andy butler