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Re: gear schmear, music is best



>>Somebody pleeeeez start an interesting thread about music...anything! I'd
>>do it but i'm too busy and exhausted to think at the moment. anything but
>>gear......
>>
>>kim
>


Okay, okay...we've calmed down about the bad simms, since we got our
Echoplex back up and running with the old memory... We are skepticized by
the notion that we have two bad pair and wonder if the Echoplex is perhaps
more finicky about the 30 pin SIMMS that go into it then is advertised in
the manual.  We're going to try the three chip kind next.

One thing that helped calm us was a visit last nite to the local
Presbyterian church where we heard a choir sing the adapted works of a
woman's choral "orchestra" originally performed during WW2 in Japanese
prison camps in Indonesia.  The music was traditional Western
classics...Bach, Mozart...24 pieces, actually, that one of the women who
was a camp organizer and obviously one smart cookie, recalled from earlier
London music days and transcribed with the help of a young woman musician
interned in the camp who was a graduate of the Royal Academy.   The music
was painstakingly written out for the ad hoc prison camp choral and then
practiced every night for several months until it was finally performed at
XMAS 1943 if I remember right.  The Japanese were quite taken with the
beauty and there is a book about the choir just publised, a memoir written
by a Dutch/American woman who was in her early twenties when she and her
sisters were interned.  It's called SONG OF SURVIVAL.  It's an interesting
and quick read.  We can recommend it and the music too.  It has been
recorded.  I didn't get the CD so I can't provide details. The women were
slowly starving to death and by 1944 the choir had disbanded because too
many members had died.  Still, all the camp survivors agreed that the music
was an indisputable morale builder and ultimately life saver.

One thing that struck us as we listened.  The human voice is such a pitch
delicate instrument.  The quavers, wavers, modulations and oh so subtle de
and retunings were just amazing to listen to in the big vaulted church.  We
want a choir at our next gig!  But we seem to want everything, as you
looper designers well know.

It did make us think of one of our favorite "ambient" recordings.  Thomas
Tallis and his motets for 40 voices.  We have an old EMI recording (vinyl)
that serves as an inspiration.

On another note, compositionally, on guitar, we've become quite interested
the last couple weeks with "dropping" thirds.  Just leaving them out.  In
the upper chord sets on guitar, this produces a kind of "primistive"
dronal/model sound...reminds you of dulcimer music.  Check it out.  Try
doubling roots, leaving sevenths or varionts thereon, but dumping that
third.    We've always been fans of the "fourth" sound in jazz that the
likes of McCoy Tyner has exploited, but this sounds different again.

Finally, we had a chance to jam a couple of weeks ago with a harp player
(string kind).  Beautiful instrument but the range and feedback problems
were problematic.  Made us ruminate on the deeper philosophical issue of
adapting instruments to work with all this electronic gadgetry. While the
LOopDoctOrs are quite fond of our solid body guitars, we are disturbed that
the the first thing we thought of was telling this woman to get a solid
body harp. Sure, the feedback thing would be moot, but are we in danger of
eventually all playing the same stringed instrument?  Attack and scale are
different, but how much do you lose by taking the harp and plugging it for
the sake of plugging in?

Best,
The LOopDoctOrs