[microsound] musical structure

[Bernhard Living]

As a techno producer the question of structure is a very important one for me. The first question that I need to ask myself is for whom am I making the music? If it’s for a club/dance audience, then the track needs to be built up in a fairly formulaic way. If the track veers too far off from various accepted formula, then it cease to be techno - it also stops being danceable. If I’m making a track for an audience who is expecting something more experimental, then I will take more chances and push at the structural boundaries a lot more. 

Whatever I make, there is still going to be the four-on-the-floor beat (with only small variations), and the music is always built up in eight/sixteen bar sections. There’s a little rule; that is, make a minor change every eight bars, and do something a bit more dramatic every sixteen. It’s a simple and effective way to stop the listener from getting bored!  

For harder forms of techno, then the different sections or parts need to be fairly obvious and more dramatic. For minimal techno, then the changes in the structure should be barely noticeable, with the track slowly evolving and changing through progressive development. A minimal techno track should be built up in such a way that the listener isn’t fully aware that changes are taking place. I think ‘Rotor’ by Thomas Schumacher is a good example of this minimalist approach.

When I think of structure in techno music, I often have in mind those beautiful metal box sculptures by the artist Donald Judd.  

b @ mu mixer




 
On Tuesday, 15 September, 2009, at 06:12AM, "Kim Cascone" <kim at anechoicmedia.com> wrote:
>I'm gathering some info for a lecture I'm giving about structure in 
>laptop music (read: electro-acoustic, noise, microsound, etc).
>
>What sorts of structure do people use in creating their work?
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