[PD] "computer music" WAS: Re: Pd at a livecoding event on the BBC

Jaime Oliver jaime.oliver2 at gmail.com
Tue Sep 22 01:58:14 CEST 2009


On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 1:52 PM, Mathieu Bouchard <matju at artengine.ca>wrote:

>
> On Tue, 8 Sep 2009, Fernando Gadea wrote:
>
>  So they say that good piano players play with the whole body (same for
>> guitar or any physical instrument, I guess).
>>
>
> Is it because it makes the music any better, or because what musicians are
> after is not just the music but also the dance that a musician makes with
> the instrument?
>

Well, the word dance proposes a different kind of engagement to the kinds of
actions we make when we perform, although it keeps the idea that the whole
body resonates with sound (in sort of a more overt way than listening). I
think what musicians are after is to forge a 'craft' or 'technique' that
allows them to control sound as they intend to hear them; to attain the
ability to control minute details according to what you are hearing as an
almost immediate response. and continuing the dance resonance idea, it is
somehow reversed: it is to want sound to resonate to our bodies. and to
follow the feedback idea: it is to want sound to resonate to our bodies to
resonate with sound to resonate to our bodies,,,,loop

Physical interaction is just the common way we interact with the world most
of the time, and so it makes sense to want to control sound in that way too
and it's just harder with computers, because we usually lack the right
interfaces to do it. I think most of the appeal of live performances with
physical interaction is that we share the same kind of bodies and perceptual
systems and so we can relate to the way sounds are being
produced/controlled.

finally on the things about the whole body. well, it is hard to imagine a
body which is separate than any of its parts or of the mind itself.

I'm writing on a related subject so comments are appreciated...

nice debate,

J
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