Re: anti-looper bigots

[kkissinger@kevinkissinger.com]

Hello to all.

(I am finally catching up with email and have a few minutes to  
contribute to this thread.)

I spose there are two kinds of criticism -- one that is simply the  
reality that a listener may not like one's music.  I kind of feel for  
people who don't like my music because there really isn't anything I  
can do about it nor anything they can do about it.

Then there is the "snobbish" criticism wherein someone tries to  
justify their criticism by erecting an arbitrary bar over which no-one  
can jump.  This has gone on for centuries.

In the early (medievial) church, instruments were not allowed -- only  
voices -- and -- only men's voices.  Anything else was condemned.   
Instruments were viewed with suspicion.  They could play notes that a  
singer couldn't hit and as such, was a form of "cheating".

Of course, it didn't stop there.  By the 16th century over seventy  
rules governed the creation of vocal polyphonic music.  To use a  
tritone (the interval from C to F#) was FORBIDDEN.   Of course, this  
didn't last long because -- well -- it is kind of hard to avoid the  
interval and it sounds cool.

So, in Italy, Palestrina wrote some of the most "pure" counterpoint  
while, in England, Byrd wrote some of the most dramatic -- with LOTS  
of tritone cross-relations!

There is, in some circles, snobbery regarding pipe organs.  And even  
though few organists can afford the money or space to have their own  
instrument, the organ provided them by their church-employer often  
becomes an arbitrary (and meaningless) measure of a musician's  
competence.

First of all, you have to play an organ with REAL pipes.  If you play  
a digital instrument, you are automatically viewed with suspicion.

Then, the organ must have mechanical action (i.e., a "tracker organ").  
  After that, it must have "authentic" pipe scales -- the list goes on  
and on.

And of course, everyone compares the size of their organs -- the  
bigger the better -- and the SIZE is everything.  (I know this is a  
double-entendre -- hope you enjoyed it.)

In my college days, low-wind pressure organs were the rage -- if you  
played an organ with over 2" of wind, then "tisk tisk".  Now the rage  
is high wind pressure -- which means the "tracker" organs now must  
have mechanical assists to be playable -- **sigh**.

Well, there is no end to the arbitrary methods someone can use to look  
down their nose at someone else.

And so it is with technology.  One could look down their nose at  
someone else because: they use cheap equipment, they use expensive  
equipment, they use too much equipment, don't know how to use  
equipment, they use a laptop, they don't use a laptop, they  
'pre-record' stuff, they use MIDI, they don't use MIDI, they are too  
commercial, they are too amateur, the list goes on and on.

I do music both for pay and for pleasure -- not always both at the same 
time!

When I am paid my source of satisfaction comes from the notion that I  
satisfied the customer -- that the customer had requirements and that,  
as a professional, I fulfilled them.

When I am not paid, while I still want to please the audience, my  
satisfaction comes from the opportunity to play my own compositions or  
improvisations.

In the first situation (play for pay) criticism from anyone except my  
employer is irrelevant.  Even if I personally think a particular  
selection sucks, that is not the point.

The second situation is a little less straight-forward.  I think I  
would be criticized if I tried to be someone who I am not.  If I tried  
to, say, play pop music or jazz it would fall flat.  I don't try to be  
a musician who can play anything or do anything.  People describe me  
as "classical", "neo-classical", and "electronic" and that's what I  
do.  (I enjoy many forms of music that I wouldn't attempt to play  
myself.)

If someone asked me to do some "Slayer" -- I'd probably sing a couple  
bars -- "Let me take you down -- dead before you hit the ground..." --  
and then inform them that they just heard the reason I don't do  
Slayer.  :)

My favorite Slayer song is "Divine Intervention".  I have not  
attempted to perform this myself -- plus I don't think it would work  
on theremin.

-- Kevin