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Interesting thoughts, Michael. You said:
"What I would like to say, is that
repetition simultaneously creates and erodes boundaries, and hence can be used
to both investigate and complicate the very notions that are apparently linearly
opposed."
I like this. On the creating
boundaries part, I would refer back to Matthias Grob's comments a while
back...I'll have to dig them up, but believe he was favoring using feedback
so that you are forced to keep inventing rather than relying on the same loops
looping indefinitely, which is that restrictive component that creates
boundaries. This really opens up the power of the looping device as a
composition tool Or another way of approaching it, yet it still supports
your notion eventually, is creating longer loops with less repetition inside of
them. This is what I tend to do, as I the short and especially
rhythmic loops make me tense and uneasy. Or yet another way, which a lot of
loopers get into because of their personalities and technical savvy, is to do
clever things with the technology, like reversing, chopping up, sequencing,
etc...though it is debatable I suppose whether this is really avoiding the
boundary creation problem, but just circumventing it with technology,
manipulting wha is already within the boundary rather than truly bringing fresh
stuff in...not sure.
I am anxious to see some of the comments
on this thread!
Kris
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 10:24
PM
Subject: new possibilities for musical
structure opened up by the use new possibilities for musical structure
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
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