Experimental Music

Jan 31 16:58 UTC 1997

This is the experimental music item.  Feel free to talk about late 20th
century classical ala Cage, Xenakis, ambient, Future Sound of London, free
jazz, Ornette Coleman, and experimental pop, Brian Eno, Bill Laswell, John
Zorn, etc.

response 2 of 205:

Feb 2 06:02 UTC 1997

When I have some time I'll have to write about Harry Partch, I'm a big fan 
of his work.

response 4 of 205:

Feb 26 13:01 UTC 1997

A good book on the subject that I'm reading currently is "New Sounds: A 
Listener's Guide to New Music" by John Schaefer. He divides music by styles
instead of labels like "performance art" and "Minimalism." Each section has
a brief history of a style followed by a discography. I've found a lot of
cool music I want to try already and some that I never really thought of
before (like the Beatles "White Album" in the electronic section for its
use of tape manipulation in "Revolution No. 9").

response 6 of 205:

Feb 26 15:55 UTC 1997

re #4 I used to listen to revolution #9 just about every day after High
School.  I would like to read that book it sounds fascinating.  Does it
go into music concrete (tape manipulation & splicing)?

response 8 of 205:

Feb 27 17:58 UTC 1997

Hmmm if you want to try out FSL you might listen to lifeforms first from what I
have heard of "Dead Cities"  Lifeforms is a more varied album. FSL is in a bit
of rut now.

response 10 of 205:

Mar 1 09:38 UTC 1997

I've found ambient music to be very intriguing.  It's tangential to
conventional music-- the emphasis is more on creating an environment for an
experience than stating a thought (especially a complete thought).  I usually
like this genre of experimental music as compared to free jazz.  My mind
wanders and gets lost in it.  It also sometimes augments my feelings of
loneliness (which sometimes I need).  Free jazz seems very emotionally stable
to me-- which at times makes it hard for me to appreciate.  I usually take
it best in a classical form-- say a la Spirogyra or some other elevator music.
To be honest, I think free jazz is more fun to play than to listen to because
it's the musicians that seem to be most involved in the experience. 
Literally, they are musically conversing with each other.  Free jazz is also
the most demanding to play, however; it requires you to improvise as freely
as you would carry on a complex discussion.

I think it would be unfair to leave Jimi Hendrix out of the forum here. 
Granted, most of his experimentations were probably drug-inspired, or rather,
came about by the perspective of a drug-induced state, but he is well known
for his experiments on the electric guitar.  His music foreshadowed heavy
metal, he made at least one musical quotation (see "Smashing of Amps"), and
he did try to create musical experiences.

Re: #4.  Minimalist music, I think, is a description of style rather than a
mere label.  It's the basics, pure and simple.  Although not all composers
utilize the minimalist style, many are ending their pieces with basic musical
elements.

response 12 of 205:

Mar 2 09:33 UTC 1997

I'm more curious about current and semi-current experimental, at the
moment:  Zappa, Zorn, Glass, Frisell, Tape-beatles, Negativland, Anderson
(Laurie), Belew, Oswald...

response 14 of 205:

Mar 2 19:59 UTC 1997

Matthew:

The Tape-beatles are a sound-collage/multi-media-performance band from
Iowa.  The album _The Grand Delusion_ (1993) is a fine example of their
audio talents.

response 16 of 205:

Mar 2 20:07 UTC 1997

Matthew:

I recently picked up Zorn's _The Classic Guide to Strategy_.  It ought to
keep me busy listening for a few years.  I couldn't resist buying an album
where people employed duck calls and buckets of water to produce music...

response 18 of 205:

Mar 5 09:58 UTC 1997

Who's Harry Partch?

response 20 of 205:

Mar 5 13:19 UTC 1997

I found this cool CD and book set at Schoolkid's. I don't remember the
exact name of the CD compilation, but it was music with new experimental
instruments. Each track is new and uses a different instrument. The set
sells for $30, but it's for sale at $27 right now.

response 22 of 205:

Mar 6 14:40 UTC 1997

Re #18:
Harry Partch was a composer who basically decided that western music was
headed in the wrong direction, and broke away from it.  He went on to develop
his own tuning system (based on 43 notes to the octave), his own instruments,
his own forms, etc.

response 24 of 205:

Mar 8 19:51 UTC 1997

I'll repeat what orinoco wrote in #22, but I'll be more long-winded 
about it.
 
Harry Partch was a middle-of-the-century American composer who 
decided to scrap Western music and build his own.  He came up with 
his own scale & notation system -- if I remember correctly, he felt
there was something more "ancient" or "natural" about the system 
he developed.  And he built his own instruments, leaning heavily towards
percussive things.  He wrote a book, GENESIS OF A MUSIC, which you can
probably browse at Borders to get a sense of his theoretical 
underpinnings.
 
Partch also had some ideas about performance; he had a concept of 
performance as musical theatre, with the instruments on stage and 
the musicians as actors in costume.
 
The problem with developing your own instruments and your own 
tuning and notational system is that your work is going to have trouble
outliving you.   Partch died in 1976.  About five years ago there was
some foofaraw when Partch's instruments were turned over to 
Dean Drummond & his group Newband; Drummond & co. were going to 
duplicate all the instruments and start touring & recording Partch's
work.  But outside of that initial publicity burst, and one short 
Partch composition on a Newband CD, I have heard nothing.  
Probably some web searching is in order.
 
Cribbing from a CD booklet for THE MUSIC OF HARRY PARTCH:
   "By all accounts, Harry Partch (1901-1976) was an extraordinary
character.  A truculent, hard-drinking independent who shunned the 
musical mainstream -- even the avant-garde musical mainstream -- and
lived much of his life in the California desert, he fashioned 
instruments out of surplus airplane fuel tanks, Pyrex chemical jars, 
artillery shell casings, bottles and old keyboards.  Partch invented
his own tuning systems (dividing the scale into 43 notes) and took 
at least as much inspiration from the percussive, ritualized music
of the Far East as he did from Western Europe;  his music combines 
rhythmic and tonal sophistication which a direct, near-primitive
mysticism.  The result, as listeners to this CRI compact disc reissue
will quickly discover, is some of the most distinctive music 
yet produced in the United States."
                      (as they say on The Tonight Show: more to come...)