new possibilities for musical structure opened up by the use new possibilities for musical structure

["michael noble" <looplog@gmail.com>]

OK, I'll bite.

Let's say we want to move the discussion in the direction of structure.  This is where things begin to get really semantic.  It seemed strange to me that the discussion on instruments -vs- effects was deemed less important simply due to its semantic nature.  Are there no others here who can see the value of the distinction especially in realm of composition?

Which is precisely one of the concepts and practices most pertinent to the creation of musical structures.  So is it possible to venture a theory of sound structure creation through the use of loops?  Is semantics not indeed an important method in the elucidation of any theory?

It seems then that actually there are a number of oft revisited distinctions that have come up on this list, and no doubt countless other music or sound based discussion forums.  Instrument vs effect, improvisation vs composition, practice vs playing vs performance, performance vs audition.  

If you believe, as I do, that loops present a certain formal constitutive possibility to the quesiton of being (ie we are all made of loops), then loops present themselves specifically as an answer to such distinctions.  What I would like to say, is that repetition simulatenously creates and erodes boundaries, and hence can be used to both investigate and complicate the very notions that are apparently linearly oppposed.  The very act of defining is indeed that of setting aside all that which is "in the loop" and "outside the loop" within a given social context, even if that context is as highly personal as your own mind.  As an example, the loop itself binds instruments to effects as a formal (or form of) container, perhaps largely due to the fact that purely repeated acoustic material becomes nauseatingly tedious without some, however subtle, change.  That is, the sound must be affected in some way in order that the repetition produce some meaningful or desirable effect.

I'm not sure that looping, loops or loop manipulation presents new possibilities in so much as they present new insights into something that was there all along.  In other words, loops as a form of communication of acoustic meaning, bring attention to the very fact that we are structurally bound by loops in a myriad of ways, and the effects and instruments that we use contextualise this structural awareness by often connoting a certain social relationship (or simulating a certian socially observable time scale).  What becomes interesting then is the notion of complex loop clusters becoming compositional structures, something like a loop-network, and allowing repetition, and hence looping, a metonymic capability for understanding the world around us.  When I say interesting, I mean that from both a theoretical - what does it all mean - and practical - how can we do it - perspective.

cheers
omjn