Noise, tonality and whatever?

nescivi · Joined: Mar 23, 2005 Posts: 94 Location: Montreal

Futurist music:

there is a cd with some futurist recordings:

The cd is called Musica Futurista, the art of noises
Label: Salon LTMCD 2401
made in England.

I found it in the shop of the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

It contains original recordings of speeches and performances, as well as reconstructed pieces.

also more info on:
www.futurism.org.uk/

elektro80 · Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2005 3:05 pm Post subject:

THX! A great link! Awesome!

seraph · Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2005 1:21 am Post subject:

I added that link to the Links page (it has my approval Very Happy

)
check also this old thread

gravehill · Joined: Apr 12, 2005 Posts: 49 Location: Berlin, Germany

A bit late, perhaps, but here's my two cents to the discussion.

Firstly, since there was a lot of talk about futurism and dadaism, I would like to suggest you to check out www.ubu.com . It's an online archive dedicated to (mainly) dadaism and futurism. There's also plenty of other stuff, not just music. But plenty of free and legal mp3s, too.

As for the concept of noise, I tend to define noise in purely technical terms (white noise, pink, red , whatever...). I understand the point about ethnic and alternative tuning systems being hard to grasp to those who are not used to the particular tuning system. But that's something I wouldn't define as anything to do with noise. It just tends to sound somehow "out of tune" at first, until we get used to the tuning system used.

With my own music, I definitely see that in the future I'm going to explore all kinds of alternative tuning systems much more than in the past. I think there's a HUGE potential for a composer in ethnic/historical/artificial tuning systems and the best thing is that with computers it's as easy to do as just loading an appropriate Scala tuning file and using it.

mosc · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 8:44 am Post subject:

Yes, I'd like to think we are into a new era for alternative tunings. Don't know if you read my review of Hypnotique, but she's into this quite a bit, http://electro-music.com/forum/topic-5985.html

Ponk · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 9:26 am Post subject:

No one has mentioned artists like Masami Akita (aka Merzbow), Russell Haswell or Whitehouse, who make noise that doesn't claim to be anything but noise. Or something like that, I'm not an expert. Anyway, I think their aim is to make music as extreme as possible.

mosc · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 9:38 am Post subject:

Merzbow has been mentioned on the forum a few times, but not in this discussion. Use the forum's search capability. I like his music, but I haven't heard all that much of it.

Ponk · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 9:41 am Post subject:

Yep, surely he's been mentioned, I just thought that a discussion with the topic "Noise, tonality and whatever" has to include his name. Very Happy

gravehill · Joined: Apr 12, 2005 Posts: 49 Location: Berlin, Germany

Hypnotique seems very interesting, indeed. And I think Merzbow just recently(?) released a 50-cd box of old material, if my information is correct.

What I'm looking forward to try tonight is to make experiments with Bach's "newly found" tempered tuning system. Has anyone of you tried it out yet?

mosc · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 10:51 am Post subject:

gravehill · Joined: Apr 12, 2005 Posts: 49 Location: Berlin, Germany

Check out www.larips.com. Very interesting.

In http://www.bestii.com/~mschulter/Lehman_Bach_Neidhardt.txt there's a lengthy explanation along with how to make a Scala file out of it.

mosc · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 1:48 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the links. Very intense. I would like to hear some music using this temperment.

Ponk · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 1:52 pm Post subject:

gravehill · Joined: Apr 12, 2005 Posts: 49 Location: Berlin, Germany

zynthetix · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 7:19 pm Post subject:

Links to the Scala software site and a free VST interpreter for scala files are located in this thread

flowersniffer7 · Joined: Nov 17, 2006 Posts: 53 Location: Allentown PA

I think the negative connotation of the word noise is a completely affected implication... In any definition I have ever read of noise, nowhere does it necessarily describe unpleasant sound or dissonance. Noise is simple an all encompassing word... Much like the word sound... We can put a negative connotation on that as well... as far as: what is unpleasant noise? That is completely subjective. So I guess we can go on and on with semantics, but as Merzbow said, to paraphrase, "if noise is defined as unpleasant sound than pop music is noise to me."

Antimon · Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 8:44 am Post subject:

www.m-w.com on "noise":

"2 a : SOUND; especially : one that lacks agreeable musical quality or is noticeably unpleasant b : any sound that is undesired or interferes with one's hearing of something c : an unwanted signal or a disturbance (as static or a variation of voltage) in an electronic device or instrument (as radio or television); broadly : a disturbance interfering with the operation of a usually mechanical device or system d : electromagnetic radiation (as light or radio waves) that is composed of several frequencies and that involves random changes in frequency or amplitude e : irrelevant or meaningless data or output occurring along with desired information

(...)

6 : a style of rock music that is loud, often discordant, and usually uses electronic noise (as feedback)"

/Stefan

flowersniffer7 · Joined: Nov 17, 2006 Posts: 53 Location: Allentown PA

Antimon · Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 2:17 am Post subject:

flowersniffer7 · Joined: Nov 17, 2006 Posts: 53 Location: Allentown PA

mosc · Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 7:23 am Post subject:

It is interesting that words that have multiple definitions are not always consistent. If noise is the name of a style of music, then it is just a name, like hip hop - there is nothing hip about hip hop; at least as I understand the connotations for the word hip, as in hippy. Music that is categorized as being in the style noise can be downright beautiful and very pleasant. These genre names can be useful, like you say, but they are also very imprecise and sometimes inappropriate.

Another interesting word is bad, which sometimes means good. Another interesting one these days is the word nigga, which can be a friendly jibe or a racist insult depending on the perceived racial characteristics of the speaker.

flowersniffer7 · Joined: Nov 17, 2006 Posts: 53 Location: Allentown PA

bachus · Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 7:34 am Post subject:

seraph · Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 8:30 am Post subject:

well...if you are too open-minded your brains will fall out
Shocked

elektro80 · Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 8:35 am Post subject: