1,791 Matching Annotations
  1. Jun 2023
    1. Only Stravinsky and Milhaud were able to use these new resources in such a way as to give rise to great works of art. Stravinsky concentrated on the rhythmic possibilities of the music, whereas Milhaud was attracted more to its "inner voice," especially the expressive potential of its instrumenta-tion, in particular the eloquent use of percussion. Excerpts from the above-mentioned chapter of his Etudes help us to follow the genesis of La creation du monde: Their primitive African herita~e still remains deeply anchored in the souls of Amencan Negroes, and thereto lies the source of their formidable sense of rhythm as well as their profoundly moving gift for a kind of melody that only people who have been long oppressed know how to utter. The first examples of Negro music were spirituals, religious songs sung by slaves and based on popular tradition. These songs have the same sort of melodies as are found in, for example, W. C. Handy's "Saint-Louis Blues" .... All have the same ten-derness, sadness, and profession of faith as do songs like "Go Down Moses," in which the slaves compared their fate to that of the Jews in bondage in Egypt and cried out to Moses to save them. Such reflections by Milhaud already indicate that his use of jazz ele-ments in La creation du monde was anything but superficial. But let us continue to read what he says about his choice of instruments: In addition to their dance music, with its unique improvisational quality, the Blacks also adapt jazz to theatrical spectacle in a most felicitous manner. ... In Liz a, an operetta by Mr. Maceo Pinkard, the orchestra consists of a flute, a clarinet, two trumpets, a trombone, an assortment of percussion instruments all handled by one player, a piano, a string quartet in which the viola is re-placed by a saxophone, and a double bass .... Moreover, Black jazz is far removed from the slick sophistication of so much contemporary American dance music. It never loses its primitive African character; the intensity and repetitiousness of the rhythms and melodies produce a tragic, desperate ef-fect. And it is this capacity to arouse deep emotions in its listeners that puts it in the same category as the greatest works of art.
    1. All digital transitions have had losers, some of whom we may care about more than others. Musicians seem to have a raw deal in the streaming age, receiving fractions of pennies for streams when they used to get dollars for the sales of physical media. Countless regional newspapers went out of business in the move to the web and the disappearance of lucrative classified advertising. The question before society, with even a partial transition to digital books, is: Do we want libraries to be the losers?

      Will libraries have the same problems with the digital transition that music and journalism have had?

  2. May 2023
    1. A few more apps have arrived since this was first published - I thought I would include three I've actually used the most.

      • AirScrobble delivers a particularly powerful capability for scrobbling automatically... consecutively... to Last.fm as it identifies tracks playing ambiently. I set it in front of my TV for half of 100 Gecs' recent Boiler Room set and was quite astonished at the result.
      • Finale is another Last.fm client which can fundamentally serve as an updated experience from Last.fm's own iOS offering. Its included tools also make pretty collages and can really deliver for those with friends on the service.
      • MusicBox is my next favorite of Marcos Tanaka's music apps (behind MusicHarbor.) I've used it in place of the Apple Music API-enabled Siri Shortcuts suite I thought I was going to have to make (and could never figure out.) See Federico Viticci's review for more details.
    1. Circles and Time: A Theory of Structural Organization of Rhythm in African Music

      cannot mark up text in frames - hence the markup on the referencing toc page

    1. Throughout, rhythmic accompaniment would be provided by a player shaking a tin filled with small stones. One standard pattern, as demon- strated by Sililo, is among the most basic and widespread drum patterns of traditional Nguni music. @ @dad o & el

      (see notated rhythm)

    1. My (Entirely-Unsolicited) Thoughts on the most Casual Crue™'s 10th:

      Ya know, my memory isn't so great anymore, but I remember my then best friend and most respected music authority resting pretty confidently in an argument about this sound, and those who peretuated it: that it was by nature/declaration substanceless, and therefore, those invested in it were either just superficial or.. idek anymore. Ingenuine, maybe?

      I don't think I was even placating with him when I mostly went along with it - it did seem important to invest in more abrasive (read: edgy bs) pursuits. I thought I was resisting "nostalgia" and even invested most of my twenties trying to start an online culture/electronic music magazine in direct editorial opposition to regurgitation. Imo, though, any actual exposure to self-described "vaporwave" makes it very plain how utterly useless it is to cry nostalgia because - crucially - whatever form of it that may or may not be an established marker of this voice is completely devoid of the illness that has absolutely pervaded, destructively, throughout all manner of expression and exploitation in the past 10 years.

      It is just not a constraining or negative force, here. I would propose, even, that it's been made, here, into the most powerful form of critique there possibly could be.

      And the grief!!! and the mania!! In any sort of ... worldly-participatory context, it should not be some gargantuan leap for even the most cynical, repressed, bitter 50-something white music writer army to make the connections, here. Our tears are fucking digital, idiot.

      ...ANYway, sorry. I don't actually have any business talking about music, but I can express my big, soppy as hell appreciation for the nigh-inconceivable amount of quantitive life force for which this milestone is a handy opportunity to reflect.

    1. Scritti Politti – British post-punk band, named in honour of Gramsci. The name is a rough Italian translation of political scripts/writings.

      !?

  3. Apr 2023
    1. Ever since I started making short films, I have always been work-ing with Yonrimog as music director. She is a great musician and a dear friend of mine.

      She works with Yonrimog who is a music director.

    1. 音樂出口有一項重要的概念叫「觸發城市」(trigger city),意思是你在某個城市的成功將會開啟其他市場的曝光和機會。這類型城市因為長期作為區域性、甚至全球性的流行指標,有能力塑造音樂潮流、並影響其他市場。比方說,台北是華語音樂的一個觸發城市,倫敦是能夠影響歐洲的一個觸發城市。如果你在洛杉磯超級受歡迎,意謂著你有能力紅遍全球。

      對於音樂產業來說,城市比國家的概念更有用