MOTM

On Sun, 30 Jul 2000 elhardt@... wrote:

>   Those AH people were acting like technology is holding back their
> music.  Infact there is probably too much technology now, which is why
> people who have zero musical training or knowledge are flooding this
> earth with pointless noise.  The other thing is that they were talking
> about lack of innovation in analog modulars.  The problem is an analog
> modular today still needs the same types of modules it did 30 years
> ago to function and create sounds.  To get really sophisticated, then
> you have to start going to digital, and there is no lack of innovation
> there.

  This is the prime reason why I can never stay on AH.  That would-be
musicians blame the lack of tools when they should be blaming their lack
of skill.  A composer friend from Japan once said to me that the true
musicians find their music despite the tools at hand.  Amid our discussion
I made a statement to her that holding Michaelangelo's chisel does not
make one a sculptor, and (though I think I goofed the Japanse diction of
the sentence and it ended up sounding like 'A sculptor, you are not
Michaelangelo's chisel' which made her laugh though she understood what I
was meaning to say) she said something rather odd, "music requires no
tools."  To this day I'm not entirely sure what she meant but my guess is
that music to her is a pure rapport with one's heart (she used the term
'kokoro' which means about a billion things in Japanese, all references to
the heart/soul/constitution) and that took me rather out of my view on the
matter.

  One of these days I'll figure out what she meant, though I think I know.

> Take away their drum machines, sequencers and Midi and watch 99% of
> them fall flat on their faces.

  When the technology becomes a crutch, it is time to step back and see
why one became so dependent on it.  I mean, electronic music existed prior
to MIDI, right?

Crow, who hopes he isn't dragging too much AH into the pure realm of MOTM

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