[microsound] musical structure

[David Powers]

Greetings,

I use the same kinds of structures in my classical/jazz/experimental
piano playing as I do in electro-acoustic laptop music. Types of
structures I have used include:

*post-serial/pseudo-mathematical /aleatoric: composition occurs within
an artificial framework characterized my numerical constraints (as in
my PI-day piece)
*traditional classical (sonata, rondo, etc.)
*harmonic cycles (jazz standards)
*narrative/signifying: defining large segments of a piece that are
intended to convey a general type of mood or idea (I associate these
structures with Gustav Mahler and Charles Mingus especially)

In more mnml, beat oriented music, I define structure us:
1. Plateaus: Generally consistent, repetitive sound structures that
may or may not evolve slowly
2. Events: Singular, unique sounds or groups of sounds that only occur
once, or a limited number of times
Plateaus and Events may or may not occur simultaneously
A typical structure for a dance record might be: Plateau - Event - Plateau
I believe the Plateau/Event structure might also apply to other forms
of repetitive, minimal, ritual types music, such as certain
improvisations I do with acoustic musicians in a 'world jazz' type
context.

~David

On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 4:28 PM, Adam Davis <technohead3d at googlemail.com> wrote:
> A creative structure I like to employ is to have the music as it's own
> instrument a lot of the time. To overdub recycled source material/music
> alongside the original, untreated source material/music. To process and
> re-process, to extract and re-extract are my personal indulgences in rhythms
> that are not as obvious as a regular pulse along time, rather, more
> conceptual rhythms; the rhythm of the chain (including the "daisy chaining"
> of effects processors), the rhythm of the recycling; the rhythm of the
> feedback of the music as it's own instrument. Further to this structure, I
> like to contemplate potentially infinite recycling, remixing and results
> from one source, or, to go even deeper, infinite recycling from infinite
> sources, where such thoughts fill me with euphoric feelings that contribute
> to the blissful tones and atmospheres of some works.
>
>
>
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