Tag: examples

Elements and boundaries of music

The main elements of traditional music are:

  • melody – determines the sequence of sounds of different pitches and durations,
  • rhythm – arranges the sound material in time, usually repeated,
  • dynamics – regulates the sound intensity,
  • agogics – determines the speed of the piece, i.e. tempo and its changes,
  • articulation – determines the way the sound is produced,
  • harmony – arranges overlapping sounds in various types of combinations,
  • color – determines the overall emotion or mood.

When we use these attributes then we can compose many different songs… but when we do this, could we analyze in an exact way to reproduce any song?

We can reproduce approximately by determining these parameters (in the score). Problems arise with emotions. My former co-workers, programmers, couldn’t find the reason for an International Chopin Competition. I explained that in piano playing there are many subtle combinations of these elements beyond the score.

Boundaries

Just in case, I touch on the difference between the avant-garde and the experimental. The avant-garde expands the boundaries of traditional music, while the experimental should go further beyond the boundaries.

One of the first musicians who intertwined popular entertainment music with an experimental approach was Paul McCartney with The Beatles. In the middle-part at the end of the song “A day in the life” he added growing noise played by the orchestra.

Now – can someone tell me – is it correct if we define this song using notes and lyrics? What is these weird parts? Aren’t they necessary?

Where are the Boundaries of music?

The most basic definition is that music is “organized sound”… and…
… in traditional music such as classical the most important element is sheet music to organize the sounds. Over time, many technologies of recording have emerged and people were allowed to create more complicated compositions. That was one of the main reasons that Sound Art or Noise Wall was born (someone might not agree with this, but I think that these type of experiments with sounds and noise were from the beginning of humanity). These possibilities cause someone to think a song is a piece of music while someone else might think a song is not organized… in his mind… and this is not music.

Am I understand boundaries of music?

I think that most listeners of music have had more than one moment in his life when he asked himself – is this noise a music? After longer time he starts to think: this is obviously music. Between avant-garde and experimental is also thin boundary. But are they a boundary for an open mind? Maybe it is only time before one organizes sound in his mind? Is an experiment only a part of avant-garde or not?

What defines a song called a musical experiment?

I don’t know and I agree with many people that there is no universal definition of experimental music. For me – a song with such a name must distort elements of traditional music so much that the average listener has a problem calling it music at all. The definition is very relative and fluid in the long run, because people’s tastes change and tolerance increases.

My favorite experiments of the beginning of XXI century

In my personal taste, experimental music should have very strongly hidden melodies, or extensive portamento, or very unusual sounds, or very broken rhythms.

Additionally (and very personally) – I don’t prefer ambience (too slowly changing music), experimental articulations of classical instruments and abstract jazz. Here is the list of my best discoveries in this topic:

  • Qba Janicki & Obsequies – Autolysis – it is a bit like a mosaic of sounds with parts of music of many sources. Emotional, expressive with many levels of loudness. Good quality, big complexity and many changes in time. It is impressive that whole piece creates a great unity.
  • Wilder Gonzales Agreda Music For Dreamers, Real Music For Real People – Peruvian musician created many albums but on these two I hear mostly that he is a master of broken rhythm and weird (but wonderful) timbres.
  • John Macdougall Parker (St Celfer) created not only his own style, but he created his own instrument. His widely diverse music has many different, strange elements like – portamento, many kinds of distortions, floating changes of timbres (including changes of character of sounds). He learned to correctly use every specific feature of discovered effects – his instrument has infinite potential

I omit many experimental music that I love (I have even my favorite noise wall) – but these three are the most significant for me.

A quick overview of St Celfer’s opuses

John MacDougall Parker began his musical career relatively late, at the age of over 30. Does that mean he was lazy? Nothing like this! He was a hardworking, all-round successful man. He studied history, he received a Master of Fine Arts in painting (visual artist as eyekhan and gnitcelfer), he was an olimpic rower, many times a coach of olimpic rowers, and director of sport’s rower institutions… but… he was able to drop everything and, as an ambitious person, become an artist in one of the least appreciated and most demanding varieties – experimental music.

Musician but not as a St Celfer

As an experimenter, John used many pseudonyms relative to type of experiment. His first publish playing was as a Dj Taint with Djing in Spongeworthy and also he has been co-creating music in the He Goatan. Much more long musician manifestation were as jenghizkhan (2001 – 2022) and as earcon (2004-2013). As jenghizkhan he composed stylistically wide (often harsh and sharp) complex songs using many electronic instruments and other devices, sometimes with microphone. Earcon was more easy to listening to because the core of his songs were simpler rhythms made on a Elektron Monomachine. In my impression, jenghizkhan created songs more aggressive and menacing with many irregularities, earcon created songs more traditional, like music for party – more nice for common people.

Man From Planet Risk (as a proof)

In experimental music it is very difficult to assess quality and level, and that is why in most cases it is the professional musician who becomes the experimenter, because he does not have to “convince” that a given experimental piece has value. But… John Parker as Man From Planet Risk proved that he is a professional musician! In my opinion, a professional musician should create music that appeals to a simpler audience – music that is almost “made to order”, music that meets a given commercial goal. Album Escaping Chixalub were popular in New York and had a chance to promote themselves all over the world. On this album he combined elements of traditional styles such as trip hop, rock, punk and metal.

The reason of St Celfer (Step.4D instruments)

Much could be written about all of John’s collaborations and projects but the most interesting is his incarnation which has been for 2016 year. It was a time of inventing Step.4D – an instrument made from many musical devices like theremir, turnables and guitar pedal. He can play music life alone but sounds like group activity.

Review of StC Lives

These albums like: “Step​.​4D Symphony”, “StC Lives I: 51-61-74”, “StC Lives I I: 4BC” are St Celfer’s first steps with his instrument. For me, they are not just experiments where John wanted to push the boundaries of sound and music. He created very interesting but hard to understanding songs. When someone is stubborn – the tresure is to find many portamentos melodies with very untypical timbres changable in time. Next albums like “Step​.​4D Motifs” and “StC v earcon” were more traditional songs with many untypical elements.

Review of more traditional St Lives

In a next step, John composed a set of songs for performances. Among others (for example – the most “traditional”) songs: “Finale dois”, “Fifty one”, “Pink me Bjork” are almost typical songs but in a new – expanded aestetic “from the future” – teoretically they are very advanced avant-rock with classic but sounds very “cosmic”. John played them in many performances and everytime songs sounds different. It is a mistery of Music that every realisation of these songs are so different but despite everything, it’s the same music – in his concerts bonduaries of exceptable variations are very elastic.

Alcatraz Music Hour

For me this project – over dozen of around hour long tracks – are a symbolic escape from inner prison. This is a quintessense of an artistic John’s road. He had so many incarnations as the directions where he wanted to be over himself, over his ego, over his mind prisoned by language. What characterizes these songs are the fact that these sounds attract attention, are catching focus and they hypnotize. These are a kind of tauching of not easy percepting.

I thought U thought I

As a final stage of Alcatraz Music Hour, John processed his own conception to even higher artistic level. He cutted Hohm’s creations to small songs and he added descriptions with images. These comments are a kind of philosophical poetry, manifestations of art’s concept, abstractive conclusions about reality. This is impossible to define in one sentence what’s these text are but they force to hard thinking and meditation. These are a kind of tauching of not easy thinking. It’s almost impossible to prove, but I think these songs are the height of intellectualism – it may take several listens of an advanced listener to understand their “content”.