Some of our favorite changes
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An open letter from Alice Russell. June 21, 2011, Brookline, Massachusetts. 1. DO NOT make insulting, mean spirited remarks about anyone or their work; there are a plethora of sites where you can rant unfettered. If you attack someone personally, your comments will be removed. You can post it, but I'm not paying for it. Go elsewhere, and let those artists who are actually interested in discussion and learning have the floor. 2. There will be NO posting of or links to copyrighted material without permission of the copyright owner. That's the law. And if you respect the work of people who make meaningful contributions, you should have no problem following this policy. 3. I appreciate many of the postings from so many of you. Please don't feel you have to spend your time "defending" the LCC to those who come here with the express purpose of disproving it. George worked for decades to disprove it himself; if you know his music, there's no question that it has gravity. And a final word: George was famous for his refusal to lower his standards in all areas of his life, no matter the cost. He twice refused concerts of his music at Lincoln Center Jazz because of their early position on what was authentically jazz. So save any speculation about the level of him as an artist and a man. The quotes on our websites were not written by George; they were written by critics/writers/scholars/fans over many years. Sincerely, Alice
An open letter from Alice Russell. June 21, 2011, Brookline, Massachusetts. 1. DO NOT make insulting, mean spirited remarks about anyone or their work; there are a plethora of sites where you can rant unfettered. If you attack someone personally, your comments will be removed. You can post it, but I'm not paying for it. Go elsewhere, and let those artists who are actually interested in discussion and learning have the floor. 2. There will be NO posting of or links to copyrighted material without permission of the copyright owner. That's the law. And if you respect the work of people who make meaningful contributions, you should have no problem following this policy. 3. I appreciate many of the postings from so many of you. Please don't feel you have to spend your time "defending" the LCC to those who come here with the express purpose of disproving it. George worked for decades to disprove it himself; if you know his music, there's no question that it has gravity. And a final word: George was famous for his refusal to lower his standards in all areas of his life, no matter the cost. He twice refused concerts of his music at Lincoln Center Jazz because of their early position on what was authentically jazz. So save any speculation about the level of him as an artist and a man. The quotes on our websites were not written by George; they were written by critics/writers/scholars/fans over many years. Sincerely, Alice
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Some of our favorite changes
I was playing through the examples starting on page 68 , experimenting around with using different registers. If you play them on guitar they will sound an octave lower than they are written. This could change the character of the lines..or maybe not, but it’s worth ‘dinking’ around with.
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I could certainly be mistaken, but I believe that guitar is always "down" an octave but that if it were notated for guitar in the absolute pitch, it would be difficult to read, the notes would be up in the stratosphere way above the lines. I suspect that the illustrations probably are meant to illustrate relative things where the octave difference may not matter . . . however, I believe there may be some psycho-acoustic considerations in regard to register where things get muddier or more difficult to distinguish pitch-wise if they are significantly lower in octaves . . . there is also a phenomenon called synesthesia, I believe, this is a word in regard to something akin to sensory transpositions or confusions that can have general applications, like the practice of saying "the sweetest sound", we don't normally taste sound [although I once did briefly back in the early seventies], and I believe some people sense colors with notes, for example . . . maybe the register difference is very different for people with non auditory perceptions of or associations with the auditory . . .
I also wonder if there is some difference in how far the perceivable or barely perceivable overtones go out if it is lower or higher register . . . if the note is high enough, maybe I don't hear as many overtones if the note is significantly lower? This would seem to make sense, although I don't know if that is so or if the registers we are normally in make that much of a difference . . .
At one time I did some multitrack recording and had the ability to do things like double-speed a track . . . one of the things I think I found was that it wasn't really, at least to me, sounding like a mere change of there just being faster playing, higher octave pitch, and shorter duration and faster decay, I believe it may have sounded qualitatively different than those factors alone accounted for . . . maybe someone else has some experience with that and whether it is so . . .
our experience, perceptions, feelings and judgments are interesting things . . . there was something rather interesting recently in regard to our perception of the size of the moon at the horizon, it has always seemed bigger there to me as opposed to up in the sky, but not to my father. A recent online article explained that our mind "sees" it as larger but it is not larger due to going through more lower atmosphere . . . nor is it larger if we measure it off with something like a stick . . . rather our mind is doing some processing that involves past information that items on the horizon are farther away than items elsewhere, and so our mind seems to actually enlarge the moon [if I understood correctly] . . . perhaps my father, who is more logical than I am, with his accounting degree and all, perhaps part of his mind tells another part of his mind not to enlarge the moon at the horizon, in any event, I believe that he and I may have been seeing the moon differently due to unconscious processing we brought to or did not bring to our identical or somewhat identical sensory perceptions . . .
similarly, I suspect that are psycho-acoustic aspects to register that I am not aware of or educated about and that there may be things that vary among individuals, for example, my young son may have a condition where he hears pitches that a typical child might not, sort of like the old idea of the silent dog whistle, he can become distressed by music for reasons that do not appear to involve or be adequately traceable to high volume or emotional intensity . . . he does not live with me and due to distance, I do not see him as often as I would like and I do not know as much about this as I would like to, but from what I understand, part of this may arise from a heightened awareness of higher pitches or overtones . . . perhaps a register difference is going to mean much much more to one person than to another?? . . . and perhaps there may be conventions or inherent experiences of higher pitch involving more excitement or tension or anxiety, there may even be some considerations like that in composition or constructing a solo . . . so maybe even if it is the same in relative terms, the register does make a difference?
I suspect that the different register of a guitar may not be that significant in regard to what was probably meant to be illustrated in the illustration vis-a-vis the Concept but perhaps the matters you mention are of great importance and things I myself will reflect on and experiment a little with . . . and maybe someone else has some education, experience or insight?
I also wonder if there is some difference in how far the perceivable or barely perceivable overtones go out if it is lower or higher register . . . if the note is high enough, maybe I don't hear as many overtones if the note is significantly lower? This would seem to make sense, although I don't know if that is so or if the registers we are normally in make that much of a difference . . .
At one time I did some multitrack recording and had the ability to do things like double-speed a track . . . one of the things I think I found was that it wasn't really, at least to me, sounding like a mere change of there just being faster playing, higher octave pitch, and shorter duration and faster decay, I believe it may have sounded qualitatively different than those factors alone accounted for . . . maybe someone else has some experience with that and whether it is so . . .
our experience, perceptions, feelings and judgments are interesting things . . . there was something rather interesting recently in regard to our perception of the size of the moon at the horizon, it has always seemed bigger there to me as opposed to up in the sky, but not to my father. A recent online article explained that our mind "sees" it as larger but it is not larger due to going through more lower atmosphere . . . nor is it larger if we measure it off with something like a stick . . . rather our mind is doing some processing that involves past information that items on the horizon are farther away than items elsewhere, and so our mind seems to actually enlarge the moon [if I understood correctly] . . . perhaps my father, who is more logical than I am, with his accounting degree and all, perhaps part of his mind tells another part of his mind not to enlarge the moon at the horizon, in any event, I believe that he and I may have been seeing the moon differently due to unconscious processing we brought to or did not bring to our identical or somewhat identical sensory perceptions . . .
similarly, I suspect that are psycho-acoustic aspects to register that I am not aware of or educated about and that there may be things that vary among individuals, for example, my young son may have a condition where he hears pitches that a typical child might not, sort of like the old idea of the silent dog whistle, he can become distressed by music for reasons that do not appear to involve or be adequately traceable to high volume or emotional intensity . . . he does not live with me and due to distance, I do not see him as often as I would like and I do not know as much about this as I would like to, but from what I understand, part of this may arise from a heightened awareness of higher pitches or overtones . . . perhaps a register difference is going to mean much much more to one person than to another?? . . . and perhaps there may be conventions or inherent experiences of higher pitch involving more excitement or tension or anxiety, there may even be some considerations like that in composition or constructing a solo . . . so maybe even if it is the same in relative terms, the register does make a difference?
I suspect that the different register of a guitar may not be that significant in regard to what was probably meant to be illustrated in the illustration vis-a-vis the Concept but perhaps the matters you mention are of great importance and things I myself will reflect on and experiment a little with . . . and maybe someone else has some education, experience or insight?
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- Joined: Tue Sep 05, 2006 9:17 pm
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- Posts: 8
- Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 9:20 pm
- Location: Florida
after I posted, one of the things that occurred to me was that there are differences in the timbre of a note depending upon where you play it, without regard to what pitch it is in . . . this is perhaps especially so with guitar but I also believe that non-guitar players, Lester Young on tenor sax, for example, make/made a good bit of use of alternate fingerings of the "same" note . . .
synesthesia is a word for a number of things, for example, it can be a poetic type device, if someone says "I heard the sweet sound of your voice", they probably don't mean they tasted the person's voice. but it can also mean that you actually did taste the voice, an experience of things like tasting or hearing sounds . . . thesia probably has to do with feeling and syn with a bringing together or change, I am just guessing though . . . if I remember correctly I may have been wondering if people with that capacity see or taste differently in regard to register . . . I was perhaps just ruminating on ways that difference in register might be something more than just a mathematical thing or a number of vibrations per second . . .
if you are interested in synesthesia, there is a wikipedia on it
I suppose that a lot of these words involve conventions . . . I bet if you look up pitch, there will be material on it, sometimes people say "that singer has perfect pitch" and mean the person sings 100% so to speak on key, but there is a different concept that means recognition or ability to execute in an absolute sense . . . there are conventions as to what concert pitch is, interestingly this was once more subject to change, if you had perfect pitch or whatever the term is for the concept I am thinking of, you would recognize that the string quartet is a little "flat" even if each instrument has its strings tuned correctly vis-a-vis itself and is "in tune" with each other . . .
I am not recalling what I posted before but I suppose, upon reflection, that you could have definite synesthetic experiences of music without having real good pitch . . . in any event, I think I was thinking more in terms of how we each may have somewhat different receiving equipment and then have it go through mental processors, some of which we are aware of some of which maybe not very aware of . . .
perhaps I am being presumptuous, but the Concept seems to me to be focused on some other considerations yet open our minds to possibilities which include some of these things . . . some of our thinking or experience of music may have some roots in technological limitations, you did not have recordings of performances when a lot of music thought of as "good" music arose and was evaluated, theorized about . . . I believe there was always improvisation and performance variation but going out on a limb, I don't know but doubt we have any idea whether Beethoven played piano with a touch more like Floyd Cramer or Thelonious Monk . . . and now we have this additional information in regard to all sorts of people . . . [I once wrote something a little satirical or like Borges about "Shakespeare the Juggler", the idea, which was facetious, was that while he was alive Shakespeare was primarily known as a juggler, people saw him do that, they talked about him doing that but they did not have film or video cameras back then and so what we are left with now is just this bunch of dramatical plays, because plays could be written down . . . nowadays it is totally different, you can maybe get on youtube and watch some cellphone camera video of Pearl Jam in Peking last night . . . ]
I suppose we may even have some distortion or limitation based on communicative ideas like that that note is "flatted", it was perhaps easier to say things like "we are in C natural but in measure 7 we are going to flat the A", to note a variation from preconceptions about what our notes are going to be, this has to do with convention or ease of communication, perhaps a bit like not notating the guitar part in absolute pitch because it would be too high above the lines and difficult to read . . . it may help get an idea across to say things like "the A is flatted" but it may carry this notion that there was an A and something was done to it . . . that that note is an abberration or a square peg in a round hole or a misfit, a rebel with or without a cause, values that might not have to be placed on it . . . if you have ever studied French or Spanish, they often put an adjective AFTER the noun, like "rive gauche" or "rio grande", if you are new with one of those languages, there is a common experience of "wow, they are picking up the adjective from in front of the noun and moving it to behind the noun" when to a francophone or hispanophone, they are doing no such thing, there are no stevedores or longshoremen or teamsters moving the French or Spanish adjectives, they are just showing up after the nouns, because this is what French or Spanish adjectives often do . . . and although my understanding of the Concept is yet rudimentary one of the key things is that it has me re-examining what I am bringing to music from the past and what grooved experiences or assumptions I have been limited by or playing out of or hobbled by . . . and this is primarily in regard to pitch choices rather than things like register, attack, sustain . . . yet it seems to have certain natural consequences, an opening in one area may open other things . . . I used to always have a yellow toothbrush, it helped me differentiate mine from someone else's passing toothbrush, after a while this got grooved in me almost like "my toothbrush must be yellow" and there came a time where I became aware of that and abandoned it and it maybe affected a little more than just the color of my toothbrush . . . but I probably have plenty of analogous "yellow toothbrushes" and the Concept may be a way of realizing options . . . again, I am not a professional or an academic and I really don't know much
synesthesia is a word for a number of things, for example, it can be a poetic type device, if someone says "I heard the sweet sound of your voice", they probably don't mean they tasted the person's voice. but it can also mean that you actually did taste the voice, an experience of things like tasting or hearing sounds . . . thesia probably has to do with feeling and syn with a bringing together or change, I am just guessing though . . . if I remember correctly I may have been wondering if people with that capacity see or taste differently in regard to register . . . I was perhaps just ruminating on ways that difference in register might be something more than just a mathematical thing or a number of vibrations per second . . .
if you are interested in synesthesia, there is a wikipedia on it
I suppose that a lot of these words involve conventions . . . I bet if you look up pitch, there will be material on it, sometimes people say "that singer has perfect pitch" and mean the person sings 100% so to speak on key, but there is a different concept that means recognition or ability to execute in an absolute sense . . . there are conventions as to what concert pitch is, interestingly this was once more subject to change, if you had perfect pitch or whatever the term is for the concept I am thinking of, you would recognize that the string quartet is a little "flat" even if each instrument has its strings tuned correctly vis-a-vis itself and is "in tune" with each other . . .
I am not recalling what I posted before but I suppose, upon reflection, that you could have definite synesthetic experiences of music without having real good pitch . . . in any event, I think I was thinking more in terms of how we each may have somewhat different receiving equipment and then have it go through mental processors, some of which we are aware of some of which maybe not very aware of . . .
perhaps I am being presumptuous, but the Concept seems to me to be focused on some other considerations yet open our minds to possibilities which include some of these things . . . some of our thinking or experience of music may have some roots in technological limitations, you did not have recordings of performances when a lot of music thought of as "good" music arose and was evaluated, theorized about . . . I believe there was always improvisation and performance variation but going out on a limb, I don't know but doubt we have any idea whether Beethoven played piano with a touch more like Floyd Cramer or Thelonious Monk . . . and now we have this additional information in regard to all sorts of people . . . [I once wrote something a little satirical or like Borges about "Shakespeare the Juggler", the idea, which was facetious, was that while he was alive Shakespeare was primarily known as a juggler, people saw him do that, they talked about him doing that but they did not have film or video cameras back then and so what we are left with now is just this bunch of dramatical plays, because plays could be written down . . . nowadays it is totally different, you can maybe get on youtube and watch some cellphone camera video of Pearl Jam in Peking last night . . . ]
I suppose we may even have some distortion or limitation based on communicative ideas like that that note is "flatted", it was perhaps easier to say things like "we are in C natural but in measure 7 we are going to flat the A", to note a variation from preconceptions about what our notes are going to be, this has to do with convention or ease of communication, perhaps a bit like not notating the guitar part in absolute pitch because it would be too high above the lines and difficult to read . . . it may help get an idea across to say things like "the A is flatted" but it may carry this notion that there was an A and something was done to it . . . that that note is an abberration or a square peg in a round hole or a misfit, a rebel with or without a cause, values that might not have to be placed on it . . . if you have ever studied French or Spanish, they often put an adjective AFTER the noun, like "rive gauche" or "rio grande", if you are new with one of those languages, there is a common experience of "wow, they are picking up the adjective from in front of the noun and moving it to behind the noun" when to a francophone or hispanophone, they are doing no such thing, there are no stevedores or longshoremen or teamsters moving the French or Spanish adjectives, they are just showing up after the nouns, because this is what French or Spanish adjectives often do . . . and although my understanding of the Concept is yet rudimentary one of the key things is that it has me re-examining what I am bringing to music from the past and what grooved experiences or assumptions I have been limited by or playing out of or hobbled by . . . and this is primarily in regard to pitch choices rather than things like register, attack, sustain . . . yet it seems to have certain natural consequences, an opening in one area may open other things . . . I used to always have a yellow toothbrush, it helped me differentiate mine from someone else's passing toothbrush, after a while this got grooved in me almost like "my toothbrush must be yellow" and there came a time where I became aware of that and abandoned it and it maybe affected a little more than just the color of my toothbrush . . . but I probably have plenty of analogous "yellow toothbrushes" and the Concept may be a way of realizing options . . . again, I am not a professional or an academic and I really don't know much