Composers <-> Performers

Hey everyone,

it seems to me that one of the biggest weaknesses of a lot of the
music that gets posted here is that it's midi stuff. Now, I have
nothing against electronic music, but if it's supposed to sound like
real instruments, then it's usually better to have real instruments!

So I got to wondering...

Why don't we network composers and performers? If we built a list of
everyone who is willing to play something, maybe we could start to
write for what's available. Virtual ensembles could be created via
multi-tracking. Besides the obvious aural results, asking someone to
invest time into a performance is a great way to get valuable feedback.

Just a thought...

-Chris B.

Hmm...interesting idea here, Chris. It's very good in theory, but I
forsee several difficulties in practice:

1)Not too many of us here are in possession of microtonal acoustic
instruments.
2)Given the plethora of scales and tunings being explored on this
site (not to mention the broad differings of opinions on the merit of
any given scale), I'm not sure if there would be enough performers
with instruments of the same tunings to constitute an "ensemble".
3)Multi-track exchanges over the internet are difficult at best,
since everyone's using different software and not everyone has the
capabilities of recording onto their computers.
4)There is also the problem of notation: some consensus would have to
be reached between the theoretical composer and all the theoretical
performers as to what system to use. I can't even begin to go into
the issues of this subject, which has been (and is still being)
debated at great length over on the "tuning" forum, but needless to
say it'd be quite a task to get everyone to agree.

I don't mean to pooh-pooh your idea, I'm sure others are more
optimistic than I...heck, if someone wanted to write a fairly simple
prelude for the 22-tET guitar using some type of numerical tablature,
I'd be more than happy to learn it and record it. But I think we've
got a ways to go before we can form any "virtual ensembles".

-Igs

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Chris Bryan"
<melandchris@g...> wrote:
>
> Hey everyone,
>
> it seems to me that one of the biggest weaknesses of a lot of the
> music that gets posted here is that it's midi stuff. Now, I have
> nothing against electronic music, but if it's supposed to sound like
> real instruments, then it's usually better to have real instruments!
>
> So I got to wondering...
>
> Why don't we network composers and performers? If we built a list
of
> everyone who is willing to play something, maybe we could start to
> write for what's available. Virtual ensembles could be created via
> multi-tracking. Besides the obvious aural results, asking someone
to
> invest time into a performance is a great way to get valuable
feedback.
>
> Just a thought...
>
> -Chris B.

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Chris Bryan"
<melandchris@g...> wrote:
>
> Hey everyone,
>
> it seems to me that one of the biggest weaknesses of a lot of the
> music that gets posted here is that it's midi stuff. Now, I have
> nothing against electronic music, but if it's supposed to sound like
> real instruments, then it's usually better to have real instruments!
>
> So I got to wondering...
>
> Why don't we network composers and performers? If we built a list of
> everyone who is willing to play something, maybe we could start to
> write for what's available. Virtual ensembles could be created via
> multi-tracking. Besides the obvious aural results, asking someone to
> invest time into a performance is a great way to get valuable feedback.

Yes! quite possibly more important for composers to connect to than
one-of-a-kind microtonal instruments is to willing performers.

...I humbly offer my technique on musical saw to anyone wanting to
write some 'virtual chamber music' including it. (The musical saw,
similar in sound to a theremin, has a range of approx. three
continuous octaves.) Will attempt to play in any tuning system you
can conceive and write in. If I am a good boy and do some practicing
this summer, I might also be of use on quartertone clarinet and/or
tricesimoprimal (31-equal) bassoon.