Re: roots

[matthias@bahianet.com.br (Matthias)]

>>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?

Very interesting, never heard of such!

>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.

Amazing, isnt it: As if Europe had "escaped" form the "barbarian"
repetitive music and then got lost in intelectual ateism until in the 60ies
the "stupidity" in the music broke through again and cures the stiffness -
a rather radical view, easy to see the oposit if one wants.

>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!)

What you enjoy to create is never wrong (as long as it does not hurt 
anyone).
When it comes to play for others, that might change a bit, just a bit.

For me, there are the two phases: walking (traveling to places you only go
once) and resting (come back to the same bed every night), developing and
harvesting. Loops help for both, but are more obvious for the resting.
Some of the nicest recording of mine happened *after* the loop had faded
and I played real solo, but really relaxed and inspired because of the loop
that before. And in those phases we often modulating like classical music
without ever coming back. This "anti-loop" kind of music is very little
explored. It asks for a lot of atention by the listener (not to miss the
bus), while the loop kind just enters mind for free.

>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.

Very well, Kim!

>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?

We have some years left to acumulate and archive that info, I hope !

Matthias