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Re: Fripp and Eno
>
> Thanks Mark,
>
> I read and enjoyed the third chapter. Is the whole research paper
> available online?
I'm not sure, I didn't get that far into the paper.
>
> I think it's little more than a footnote, but I found the title of
> that Ussachevsky piano looping piece. It's a live performance at the
> Museum of Modern Art in 1952 that was broadcast on radio, so I'd say
> it's the first live looping I'm aware of. The title is "Sonic
> Contours" by Vladimir Ussachevsky. It was performed and broadcast live
> and is basically piano played through a tape delay. Otto Luening also
> participated in the concert, but "Sonic Contours" is only credited to
> Ussachevsky. The length of the delay and amount of feedback varies
> over the performance (maybe at the hand of Luening?). At times the
> delay is very short producing a slap back echo effect, but at the 5
> minute mark, the delay is lengthened and the there is sufficient
> feedback that several layers of people piano are heard simultaneously.
I would like to point out that in the time I've been reading these emails,
I've noticed that there are a lot of varying ideas about what looping is.
Many seem to prefer that loops are short & don't seem to think that a lot
of sample time/memory is needed; some think looping is all about mangling
a sample as much as possible & so on. All of these are cases, of course,
of electronic looping, & I would of include actual tape looping techniques
in this category.I however, prefer loops that are rather long so that it
isn't obvious that a loop is restarting since for me this usually just
ends up so repetitive that I get quickly bored listening. Mangling the
loops helps sometimes along with various filtering & such. I'd also like
to point out that looping as such is not at all a recent idea as there are
also mechanical loopers. The player piano is one & of course there is the
beautiful tradition behind the toy box or music box. It took me ages as a
kid to figure out how the hell my mother's jewelry box could play
"Beautiful Dreamer " for what seemed like hours & yet it had no wires or
antennae.
A story I heard while in school in Nashville was about a violinist who had
to prepare a piece for an orchestra audition. He couldn't find someone to
play piano for him to rehearse with so he had a local music box maker
construct a music box with the piano part, which he brought with him to
the audition & explained how he had rehearsed the piece. The group was so
amused by his ingenuity that they made him do the audition with the music
box. They then told him that although they could see he had practiced
well, they were far more interested in acquiring the music box...... they
were just joking of course & did hire him but with the proviso that he
would when asked do his bit with the music box as a novelty bit.
> Amazon has it as an 99 cent mp3 download:
> http://www.amazon.com/Sonic-Contours/dp/B000S4B8YK
>
> On Sun, Oct 10, 2010 at 8:17 AM, Mark Showalter
> <folkstone57@operamail.com> wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > History can be tedious indeed. However, most things that are
> > informative can be tedious.In fact, I believe the literal
> > translation of the word is: Incredibly boring tedious
> > information that accumulates over the years & can be summed up in
> > two words, " Who cares? "
> >
> > I remember a fellow while I was in school in Nashville who used
> > answering machine message tapes to record loops & then play two
> > or more on different cassette players in his room to create
> > aleatoric music. I started using the same technique but recorded
> > the loops onto an 2" eight track I had at the time. My friend
> > told me of a composer he had heard who used tape loops to both
> > record & perform & I believe the name was Ussaschevsky.
> >
> > As an interesting side note, once I started using the answering
> > machine tapes a local Radio Shack almost resorted to banning me
> > from their store as they were the only inexpensive source of
> > these tapes & the bloody things broke so often I was constantly
> > returning them. When asked why I was having such a problem with
> > the tapes, I replied I was a Music Major at Belmonte College & I
> > was using the tapes to compose aleatoric music. The idiot who was
> > apparently the manager of the store said that using their tapes
> > for that purpose was not covered by any Radio Shack guarantee, I
> > asked him to show me in writing where Radio Shack had this policy
> > specifically stating that recording aleatoric music voided their
> > guarantee. What was surrealistic at the moment was the sound
> > system was playing the Hungarian composer Ligeti's
> > "Atmospheres"........ and yes, there was a guy standing in the
> > shadows dressed in black smoking a cigarette too..... and an old
> > priest with a large black hat walked into the store carrying a
> > even larger black satchel.... very strange........
> >
> > According to Seamus Online:
> >
> > Ussachevsky was one of the most significant pioneers in the
> > composition of electronic music, and one of its most potent
> > forces. He produced the first works of “tape music,”
> > a uniquely American synthesis of the French musique-concrète and
> > the German pure electronic schools.
> >
> > However, doing a search on Fripp's diary using Ussaschevsky name
> > did not produce any results.
> > If interested, you might also take a look at the following link:
> >
> > livelooping.org/researchpaper/Chapter_3.pdf
> >
> >>
> >> History can be tedious. I'm pretty sure that Vladimir Ussachevsky
> >> performed a piano piece by Otto Luening in the fifties that clearly
> >> used the sound on sound tape recording technique that would later be
> >> used by Terry Riley and even later by Fripp & Eno. I don't have the
> >> title, but I'm pretty confident on this. The Ussachevsky recording
> >> that I heard wasn't very interesting and I don't think it's really
> >> that important who was first. Riley really explored looping as an
> >> instrument, and I think he's really the first looping composer and
> >> performer.
> >>
> >> On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 10:15 PM, Toby G <carpet8@mac.com> wrote:
> >> > I wonder if the first record player, tin can recording device or
>whatever,
> >> > carved one groove at the same radius the first time it was tested.
>Like,
> >> > they didn't think to make it a spiral?
> >> >
> >> > t
> >> >
> >> > ----- Original Message -----
> >> > From: Gareth Whittock
> >> > To: loopers-delight@loopers-delight.com
> >> > Sent: Friday, October 08, 2010 10:10 PM
> >> > Subject: RE: Fripp and Eno
> >> > Not many people know this but I invented looping by placing a piece
>of
> >> > cardboard over the erase head of a WEM copicat tape delay unit.
> >> > It was only much later that I discovered that other people had also
> >> > discovered it using other means ;-)
> >> >
> >> > Peace
> >> >
> >> > G
> >> >
> >> > ________________________________
> >> > From: mark@markfrancombe.com
> >> > Date: Sat, 9 Oct 2010 00:40:05 +0200
> >> > Subject: Re: Fripp and Eno
> >> > To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
> >> >
> >> > thats right actually...
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 11:10 PM, andy butler
> >> <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk> wrote:
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > mark francombe wrote:
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > Stockhausen is known to have used the technique
> >> >
> >> > afaik Stockhausen had a completely different technique
> >> > using just one tape deck with an actual loop of tape.
> >> >
> >> > The tape heads were reordered, so instead of going
> >> > Erase>Rec>Playback like in a regular deck
> >> > they were changed to
> >> > Playback>Erase>Record.
> >> >
> >> > andy
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > --
> >> > mark francombe
> >> > www.markfrancombe.com
> >> > www.ordoabkhao.com
> >> > twitter @markfrancombe
> >> > http://vimeo.com/user825094
> >> > http://www.looop.no
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Art Simon
> >> simart@gmail.com
> >> myspace [dot] com/artsimon
> >
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > Mark Showalter
> > Minden Jot!
> >
> > myspace.com/folkstone57
> > http://www.last.fm/music/Mark+Showalter
> > <a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com" target="_blank"><img
> >
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> >
> >
> > --
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
>
>
>
> --
> Art Simon
> simart@gmail.com
> myspace [dot] com/artsimon
>
Mark Showalter
Minden Jot!
myspace.com/folkstone57
http://www.last.fm/music/Mark+Showalter
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