aesthetics of "tape" (CD these days) music

Everyone has an opinion about this. I've heard everything from "I like
tape music concerts. The lights go dim, there's no visual distractions,
and it's just me and the music and I can really focus in on it" to
the opposite point of view "Tape music concerts suck!!! I can't stand
them!!! Get some performers, get some dancers, this is boring; if I
wanted to do this I'd just listen to a CD in my living room!! And what
could be more @#$%@#$% ridiculous than applauding a pair of
speakers?!?!?!"

I can see both points of view. I would say that whether people "start
chatting" or not depends more on the venue than whether or not you're
playing tape music: if a concert was in a brewery, I'm guessing people
would chat away, whether you're just playing CDs, or you've got a DJ doing
all kinds of funky @#$% @#$%@#$%. As a composer, you'd want to to keep
that in mind: it's a compositional constraint, as it were. The usual
solution is to turn the volume way up so that any "chatting" is more like
screaming, which adds to the fun fun fun "we're all going to get laid
tonight" vibe that everyone seems to love about loud bars. The good
news is that in this kind of venue, people don't usually have the sorts
of virulent complaints I outline above. On the other hand, when I've
done concerts in a "concert hall", people are usually attentive, and
even if they hate it, they don't "chat".

(And by the way: I don't think it's necessarily bad that music is a
background ambient thing. Many great pieces were written for that
purpose: virtually all early operas, Mozart divertimenti and such, and
so on. the idea of "being attentive" only came into being relatively
recently. And I like the idea of having fun chatting with my friends,
then once in a while noticing, hey this music in the background is groovy
stuff!)

It's true that multi-channel stuff is great; I just got back from a
festival in Montreal of 8-channel music (where I had a 19tet piece
played, incidentally). That was a lot of fun. In that case, there's
more of a "reason" to have a "tape" music concert, since most people don't
have a 16-, 10-, 8-, or even 4- channel speaker setup in their home. So
it's not something they could just do in their living room. On the other
hand, 8- speakers can involve moving and renting expenses, etc. etc.

In any case, I think what has worked pretty well, is to have variety on a
program, especially in a concert hall: "tape" music interspersed with
works with dancers, or works with video, or works with live instruments
and electronics, or what-have-you. With some wicked installations just
out in the lobby.

Personally, I think that really long concerts of stereo tape music are
bad, generally speaking, but I think the genre has it's good points (see
above), and I don't support trashing it altogether. In a similar
fashion to the way that we don't want to throw out all of the vintage
analog synths just because there's digital now.

CB

Playing "tapes" can be OK, I think. It's a bear to get an ensemble
together, sometimes, no?

But I've been noticing a weird glitch more and more, lately. People
I've seen who were great to listen to live, I mean REALLY great,
awesome, epiphanous, life-changing good music, somehow can't seem to
get it on "tape". Whether it's the self-consciousness that can get
amplified in the studio, or the relative flatness and remove of the
medium, I don't know. But I've seen several acts in recent years
that I wanted to follow around for a week or two to study what they
were doing, live, because they had such 'thing', an immediate
connection to something bigger than them, or something like that.

And then some folks can make really great records, but they don't
have a discipline or a strategy (!?) for putting on a concert.

But mostly I'd really rather see somebody play, just like I'd rather
have conversation face-to-face than in some email. I used to LOVE
to talk on the phone, but I hate it now; and cel phones are pretty
much unbearable.

The Muzak idea I'm a little less happy about. "Music that you're
not supposed to listen to", is what the founder (of Muzak) called
it. I think it's a problem, because it dehumanizes the musician
and encourages hostility in the listener to music they
don't "like". Maybe?

in recent months i know of two performers who refuse to perform live or record for a public audience.
one was a recording that is probably one of the best pieces of music i have ever heard.
despite hours of trying to convince them , they would not let it see the light of day.

they also enjoy music more than most of the people i know because they no longer have to have any concern with playing politics to get shows.
ambassadorbob wrote:

>Playing "tapes" can be OK, I think. It's a bear to get an ensemble >together, sometimes, no?
>
>But I've been noticing a weird glitch more and more, lately. People >I've seen who were great to listen to live, I mean REALLY great, >awesome, epiphanous, life-changing good music, somehow can't seem to >get it on "tape". Whether it's the self-consciousness that can get >amplified in the studio, or the relative flatness and remove of the >medium, I don't know. But I've seen several acts in recent years >that I wanted to follow around for a week or two to study what they >were doing, live, because they had such 'thing', an immediate >connection to something bigger than them, or something like that.
>
>And then some folks can make really great records, but they don't >have a discipline or a strategy (!?) for putting on a concert.
>
>But mostly I'd really rather see somebody play, just like I'd rather >have conversation face-to-face than in some email. I used to LOVE >to talk on the phone, but I hate it now; and cel phones are pretty >much unbearable.
>
>The Muzak idea I'm a little less happy about. "Music that you're >not supposed to listen to", is what the founder (of Muzak) called >it. I think it's a problem, because it dehumanizes the musician >and encourages hostility in the listener to music they >don't "like". Maybe? >
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--
Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island <http://anaphoria.com/>
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU <http://www.kxlu.com/main.html> 88.9 FM Wed 8-9 pm Los Angeles