MOTM

>From: JWBarlow@...
>There's been a lot of talk about Subotnick on the list lately and I was
>wondering if you'd ever heard of him? I've always been sort of ambivalent
>about W. Carlos stuff. I do like Bach, and heard the album Switched On Bach
>when it first came out (and liked it). But in a lot of ways it kind of
>reminds me of Ferente and Ticher (sp?) and Esquivel for classical music fans!
>Subotnick quickly started adding non-electronic instruments to his
>recordings, but his early (late 60s) recordings like "Silver Apples of the
>Moon" "The Wild Bull" and "Touch" show how EM can be used in non-traditional
>ways to generate music. Maybe others can list a few pieces of EM that show
>different approaches to music which might not be that be well known!
>

I'm a huge fan of Subotnick's early works! He has a couple of CD reissues
on Wergo, one compiles "Silver Apples" and "Wild Bull", his two absolutely
essential pieces from the 60's, originally recorded for Nonesuch, the 2nd
has "Touch", which features some really cool use of rhythmic sequencers and
modulars, along with "Jacob's Ladder", a later piece for Soprano and
interactive MIDI electronics, which I find considerably less interesting
than his analog pieces. I'm constantly amazed at how contemporary his
pieces from the 60's sound today, he was really exploring some interesting
places.

As for Carlos, while I think there is an element of exotic easy-listening
to her work, I still really admire her attention to arrangement and
performance, especially given how primitive her tools were while recording
SOB. I think it's a really musical interpretation of Bach, and I think
something like this was necesssary for the time to get people to accept the
synth as a musical intstrument.

The real Esquivel of the Moog wood have to be Dick Hyman! I love his Moog
records, though they are pretty cheesy.

________________________________________________________
Dave Trenkel : improv@...  : www.peak.org/~improv/

"...there will come a day when you won't have to use
gasoline. You'd simply take a cassette and put it in
your car, let it run. You'd have to have the proper
type of music. Like you take two sticks, put 'em
together, make fire. You take some notes and rub 'em
together - dum, dum, dum, dum - fire, cosmic fire."
                                            -Sun Ra
________________________________________________________

In a message dated 10/31/99 10:53:39 AM, improv@... writes:

>I'm a huge fan of Subotnick's early works! He has a couple of CD reissues
>on Wergo, one compiles "Silver Apples" and "Wild Bull", his two absolutely
>essential pieces from the 60's, originally recorded for Nonesuch, the 2nd
>has "Touch", which features some really cool use of rhythmic sequencers
>and
>modulars, along with "Jacob's Ladder", a later piece for Soprano and
>interactive MIDI electronics, which I find considerably less interesting
>than his analog pieces. I'm constantly amazed at how contemporary his
>pieces from the 60's sound today, he was really exploring some interesting
>places.


Yes, I generally like his strictly EM pieces (maybe his analog pieces if I 
were to think about it) more than the mixed medium pieces of instruments and 
EM. I don't know the piece Jacob's Ladder though, but I remember liking Touch 
a lot!

>As for Carlos, while I think there is an element of exotic easy-listening
>to her work, I still really admire her attention to arrangement and
>performance, especially given how primitive her tools were while recording
>SOB. I think it's a really musical interpretation of Bach, and I think
>something like this was necessary for the time to get people to accept
>the
>synth as a musical instrument.


Yeah, I wasn't commenting on the work so much as the way it was marketed at 
the time and the place the work occupies historically -- I remember when I 
first really heard about synths (in about 70 or so) it was Switched On Bach 
and ELP. When I took electronic music courses in about 80, it was interesting 
to realize what a long and established history EM had. There is a reason that 
SOB is a recording that almost every one near my age knows that recording, 
and nobody knows Subotnick, Cage, Xenakis, or Stockhausen -- it is certainly 
a great introduction to EM. 

As I recall, Silver Apples of the Moon was the first EM piece to be 
commissioned for an LP. I guess one of the things I'm getting at is that SOB 
is a great demonstration of the instrument and the new palette of sounds 
(similar to the Wanda Landowski harpsichord recordings of the Two Part 
Inventions going in the other direction historically). Subotnick's pieces are 
composed specifically for the Buchla (or at least composed on them) and so 
are starting from the ground up.


>The real Esquivel of the Moog wood have to be Dick Hyman! I love his Moog
>records, though they are pretty cheesy.

You are sooooo right! I stand corrected!
And I actually like both Esquivel and Ferante and Ticher (in a perverse sorta 
way) -- though Esquivel is much more the genius of arrangements. I also like 
Stereolab!
JB

In a message dated 99-10-31 18:10:02 EST, you write:

<< Subotnick, Cage, Xenakis, or Stockhausen - >>



john,
they may be old but the classics never go out of style......they do however 
languish in obscurity........
when i listen to the best of that era`s work, i wonder why i even am 
interested ( as little as i am anyway ) in stuff like midi!!!!! actually, i 
know the reasons, simplifies some things like algorithmic computer control 
considerably over my old semi-homebrew / kit lash-up from p***  (which is 
actually about all i use midi for).
probably the fact that i don`t play keyboards also is a major factor. i 
concede the point that if i were a "working musician" doing gigs that a midi 
setup would be very handy keyboard-wise but also that it is not inherently 
"electronic music" but rather music that uses electronic keyboards,IMHO. midi 
doesn`t preclude that ( "pure" e.m. ) use but i rarely see it used that way ( 
of course, i live in a cave and don`t get out much either!!!! ).  :^)
best,
dave

Funny you should mention algorithmic control.

This weekend, I was cleaning out some old floppy discs and I came upon a
copy of Cool Shoes' 'Sound Globs," a pretty cool piece of algorithmic
composition software. Unfortunately, it was a DOS/MPU-401 package only. Is
anyone using/aware of any AC software that runs under Windows? Sure would
work well with my new modular...


		-----Original Message-----
		From:	DAVEVOSH@... [mailto:DAVEVOSH@...]
		... simplifies some things like algorithmic computer control
...

In a message dated 99-11-01 09:20:20 EST, you write:

<< using/aware of any AC software that runs under Windows? >>



sorry, no..........
best,
dave