Re: Critiquing the critics (was: Re: Responding to "gig spam")

["James Pokorny" <j.pokorny@worldnet.att.net>]

Andre wrote:
>So, for instance, if someone doesn't understand North Indian Classical
>music, they might think that the sitar player is running up and down a
>bunch of scales while the tabla player does some random patterns.  They
>can certainly express these opinions if they like.  But someone who
>knows what ragas and teehai's (sp?) are will have a different take on
>it.


I'll accept that spelling, Andre :-)  Another would be "tihai."  For those
unfamiliar with the term, it's Hindi for "thrice" and refers to a rhythmic
cadential device in Indian music.  A phrase and a small 'gap' of silence is
repeated three times so that the final beat of the phrase coincides with 
the
first beat (the "one") of the rhythmic cycle (or sometimes at other
important points in the cycle).  Tihais can become very mathematically
complex, often starting a cycle or so ahead of their final endpoint.  
Tihais
are sometimes precomposed, but should ideally be improvised.  It takes 
quite
a bit of concentration to execute them correctly.  I just returned from a
couple months of musical study with my teacher in North India.
Unfortunately my "teehais" evoked more "tee-hees" than they did nods of 
deep
appreciation ;-)

On-topic content:  I played some recordings for my teacher and his son and
nephews (all musicians) of loops I'd done using traditional raga motives
played on Indian instruments in conjunction with the EDP, e-bow, etc.  My
teacher found them a bit too repetitive, though he did like the "reverse"
function.  His son and nephews were more excited by the possibilities of
looping, as well as the ability to overdub several instruments at once.  
But
I don't think any of them are convinced enough to try to snare an EDP or
Repeater.  :-)

My 2 paisa,
James