Re: Latin, and roots

[kflint@annihilist.com (Kim Flint)]

>AH! Sometimes, these "off-topic" subjects are just exhilarating!
>A little Latin lessons is always good and fun (well probabaly the only
>time it was any fun for me).

Well, thanks to Dan, we now have the correct plural forms of a few looping
favorites! So from now on, I want you all to use:

Echoplex/Echoplecis
Vortex/Vortices

(did I get that right this time?)


>By the way, I got an idea: I was listening to an old piece of music wich
>is " marche pour la ceremeonie des turcs" from Jean Baptiste Lully (it is
>a late XVIIth century composer who was the "maitre d'ouuvre" of all the
>french music under the reign of Louis XIV). This piece is a long
>orchestrated phrase that repeat itself, and grow in intensity, even though
>the player don't play really louder. That could be somekind of an ancestor
>to repetitive, or minimalistic music that lead to specific looping process
>we use quite daily. What do you al think starting a whole thing about the
>roots of looping?
>

Repeated phrases, with rising and falling intensity, have been a part of
music for a long, long time I think. Its in music from all over the world,
in all different cultures. If anything, a bit less in European Classical
music, but its certainly present there too.

I may even hazzard that this sort of repetition is an important part of
making something "musical." I know I often find myself losing interest in
music that keeps going on to something new with out ever repeating
anything, while music that does repeat on various levels keeps me involved.
Seems to happen in experimental/academic music where the composer is trying
to explore some new idea while apparently forgetting some of the old ones.
(oddly enough, I enjoy creating music like that; I should heed my own
advice I think!)

Technology gives us new instruments that make repetition easier. It also
lets us approach this concept in new ways that were never there before.
This is what the various looping tools we discuss are all about, and what
the attraction is.

I think the question still remains from a few weeks ago. How did the
technology driven approach get started? Who were the first ones to make
tape loops? It seems there were quite a few people doing this by the mid to
late sixties, but where did they get it from? I've heard that the first
tape delays were done in radio stations, but I don't know who or when. And
who were the early ones applying it to music? For that matter, did it
really start with tape? Was there anything before that?

kim

______________________________________________________________________
Kim Flint                   | Looper's Delight
kflint@annihilist.com       | http://www.annihilist.com/loop/loop.html
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