-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: pd-list-bounces@iem.at [mailto:pd-list-bounces@iem.at] Im Auftrag von martin brinkmann Gesendet: Montag, 20. Juni 2011 22:12 An: pd-list@iem.at Betreff: Re: [PD] Pd performance at TED
On 06/20/2011 01:43 PM, Marco Donnarumma wrote:
Ingo, thanks for your explanation, I think to understand how he's playing.
i do not think i do (completely), though i have only watched it twice so far. it seems that everything is based heavily on live-looping. at first i thought he was using some kind of midi/parameter-looping, like recording the chords first, and the filter/fx/whatever parameters in a second pass, but after watching it the second time, i noticed, that the chords (including sound parameters) repeat exactly while he was doing something else, like it would be the case with audio-looping. i can not tell if the chords/melodie are presets triggered with the buttons (thats probably what i would do) or played in a completely open way, maybe using a preset scale or something similar. and i wonder how he managed to sync the drumloop (if it is one, and not something recorded using the buttons/wind controller) to the chord loops recorded earlier. (in-ear) monitor and some kind of metro/click track would of course explain this.
All lines are played live. There is no pre-recorded drum loop. He is using audio looping only. The drums are played note by note. He starts out with a HiHat (selected with the fingering of his windcontroller) triggered by the breath controller to play the rhythm. Then he adds the other drum sounds on top of it. Just as you would do when you program a drum pattern with a regular drum computer. He has a visible metronome on his "phone" that allows him to keep the tempo. Every instrumental line is added by playing it into the audio looper. The chords are fixed chords moving in parallel and are used like a melodic line. There is no sequencing! The looper seems to have several tracks that can be selected and turned on or off by some buttons. This is the reason for the coloured lights. To make an overdub with a specific instrument you need to know which instrument you will be playing. One of the buttons seems to merely toggle through the tracks of the looper. So a visible feedback (coloured LEDs) for the musician is inevitable.
There are accelometers fixed to his hands which he uses for filtering. So the point of this is not the gestural control but to simply add some extra controllers as a wind controller is usually limited to a small number of parameters: notes, volume (breath control), pitchbend and maybe one or two more controllers located on the mouthpiece or some special buttons, sliders or pressure sensors that could be used for other things.
Using more parts of the body than just the usual woodwind fingerings opens up the sound possibilities while still having the traditional woodwind controls. BTW these take years of practicing! So you don't want to sacrifice your skills by using the standard controls for other things than what they are meant to be in a standard way. That's the real reason for involving the whole body in his playing - to expand the number of available controllers.
i think this uncertainty of what is going on 'on stage' is a general problem with electronic music, which was (obviously) not solved with this performance either, since even people who know about this stuff have only vague ideas of what is happening. for an audience with a background in electronic/computer/whatever music, a authentic and satisfying performance might be less challenging though.an obvious example is live coding, where it is totally clear to the audience what is happening. but even a 'laptop gig' becomes less boring, when you can see what is happening on the screen (of course only if there is something happening), for example in a mirror behind the performer. (works very well in very small venues as far as i have experienced)
Well, I really don't know why there is a reason fort he audience to know what is going on. Does a violin player - when he plays a Mozart concerto - have to explain what position he is playing on the left hand and which bow stroke he uses? Does it make a difference to the audience if he is using "spiccato" or "ricochet" on this particular phrase? Does the audience have to know how a piano was built in order to appreciate and enjoy piano music?
There is way too much technical thinking going on in a lot of electronic music. Instead of using technology to make expressive musical applications in the sense of e.g. a flute that has been around for thousands of years people go away from basic, emotional traditional musical expression and put technology first. I do not think that this kind of music can ever replace the empiric musicality that has been around since there is mankind.
This might be a very personal take, but if movement is secondary in
gestural
control, why one uses gestural control at all?
I have explained above what the movement of the body does.
it is probably not secondary all the time, but only when he is doing something else (with the wind controller for example), and the previously recorded loop plays on. and even if it is only 'secondary', movement/dancing is certainly very helpful to stay in sync.
bis denn! martin
Absolutely! Movement of the body to the music - called dance - is as old as music itself. This "beat jazz" is a kind of music where you simply do it and don't question it just for the sake of putting things into drawers like art, pop, jazz, crap! There's not choreography and it's no ballet.
Ingo