----- Original Message ----- From: David W. Fenton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 11:09 PM Subject: Re: [Finale] TAN Blessing or Curse in disguise?
> On 5 Mar 2003 at 22:30, Mr. Liudas Motekaitis wrote: > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: David W. Fenton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 8:12 PM > > Subject: Re: [Finale] TAN Blessing or Curse in disguise? > > > On 5 Mar 2003 at 10:46, Tim Thompson wrote: > > > > > > > No matter what you do with a MIDI performance, the sounds are still > > > > electronically produced, and most importantly, must be electronically > > > > amplified through some sort of speaker system to be heard. > > > > > > I'm not so certain about that. The room can greatly color the sound > > > to make it more acceptable. > > > > But MIDI *performances* are not what we are talking about. . . . > > We're not? Seems to me that was what Dennis was talking about, > composer controlled MIDI performances (where the composer acts as > "conductor" of MIDI data, providing shape, phrasing and any other > parameters that the controllers at his disposal allow). > > I take the attitude here that we should take the best the technology > has to offer and consider whether that is artistic and moving. If so, > then we can't dismiss the technology out of hand. > > If, on the other hand, we choose to take the worst that MIDI has to > offer and argue against that, well, we've constructed a straw man, > partly because Dennis wasn't really arguing for that in the first > place, but also because 90% of everything is crap and you can't > dismiss the 100% just because only 10% rises above the mundane. > > Well, I guess you can, but it won't make you look like a very serious > debater. > > -- > David W. Fenton | http://www.bway.net/~dfenton > David Fenton Associates | http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc Dennis's "composer-controlled MIDI performance" is not what I meant by MIDI *performances*. To perform something is to do it in real time. This is (was) the essence of the art called music since its beginnings. Now, for the first time in musical history, we have the ability to manipulate this time element in ways which were hitherto impossible. This ties in with recording as well, which is the predecessor of synthesizers and MIDI, and samplers. But Dennis is talking about taking the ability to cut and paste notes (and other controller aspects such as dynamics and tembre) with a mouse and to glue together a "composer-controlled MIDI performance". This is the same thing as the acoustic MIDI piano that this all started from. My argument is that it is *not* a performance. Dennis is now softening some of his terminology and has begun talking about a "MIDI Demo". The MIDI Demo is something that can be very useful, in my opinion as well. It has its place. But when Dennis begins to deify MIDI (I mean here the cut-and-paste capabilities of parameters in addition to things like editing tembral characteristics and patching things in innovative ways etc.) as the ultimate in expression, more capable than humans, then I have a problem with that. The value of things like being able to morph one instrument's sampled notes into another intstrumnet's sampled notes is being depicted as being superior in expressive capablities than if this were being done in ensemble by humans. This is embarrassing. To make ensemble with the aid of a mouse-click is like trying to find a formula for love. Futile. It is the equivalent of a mix. Dennis has discovered the Multitrack Studio Mixing Console, and is claiming it can create ensemble. I have worked in a studio for six years, and I can tell you from much experience that the only thing it can create is an acoustically engineered Frankenstein of otherwise acoustic human effort. Darcy wrote of his traumatic experience with the bad Broadway production. There we have it again. The balance was made unnaturally by a "mastermind" sitting at a mixing desk. It is philosophically the exact same thing as a MIDI/Synth/Sampler rendering of a score. But capabilities of playing over and beyond the natural range of the instruments? It seems to me that Dennis feels he is confined in a physical world in which his freedom of compositional thought is being hampered by the very physics of the world in which he lives. We may find analogies of this position in the tuning debates which arose from equal temperament.a couple of hundred years ago (oh, its more now, how time flies!). Then, it was considered by many to be an extension of compositional freedom at the cost of natural tuning. It was a trade-off. So maybe Dennis is trading off that which we have known so far, namely, a feeling of realtime ensemble, for a few MIDI/Sampler effects, like extension of the natrual range of instruments, which he feels are worth this trade-off? When he writes his 24 Preludes and Fuges for Impossible Registers, I want front-row seats. Oh, that's right, there won't be any performance, silly me. We'll all just have to buy the CD... Liudas _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
