[NewMusic] game soundtracks

[Matthew Goodheart]

What do they teach you at Berkelee?

On Dec 31, 2007, at 2:18 PM, barry threw wrote:

> There are three major entities in the music making world, the
> composer, the performer, and the audience.  For the entire 20th
> century, we have worked on giving up control from the composer to
> freedom of the performer.

Hmmm. Far more music throughout history has been without audience,  
only people participating in the music, or at least part of the event  
in some way (dancing, sacrificing chickens, etc.). The concert, in the  
way you describe it, is a pretty recent phenomenon. In the West, most  
folks performed their own music, only the court had anything  
resembling a "concert," and church music was largely participatory,  
not to mention "folk" music. Popular concerts (and please someone with  
more info correct this) started in the late 18th century with the rise  
of the middle class. Even in the early 20th century, popular music  
like ragtime was meant to be played by people in their homes, and was  
experienced that way. The 19th century saw the rise of increased  
composer control; previously, musicians had a lot more creative input;  
it was in fact a resistance to indulgent forms of musician input that  
led to composers wishing to exercise more control.  Throughout  the  
20th Century, forms split again and again, ranging from things like  
ultraserialism and new-complexity music, where the performer has very  
little control, to free improv, which arose as are recognizable entity  
in the 50's (with both Sun Ra and Cage/Wolffl, though those folks  
loathed each other) and myriad forms in between, like 3rd stream, etc.

> I currently speak to a group of people that often take this to the  
> extreme: complete freedom of performance.

This has been around about a half-century, too. I forget the guy who's  
score consisted of the words "Play whatever you want"- or Malcolm  
Goldstein's
score which said only "You are the music." But those are from the 60s  
or early 70s.

> However, what interactive media does is breaks down the wall for the  
> third group, the audience. We give up freedom from the composer, and
> performer, to the audience.

That wall got broken a long, long time ago, and many, many times since  
then. Just in the last century; certain events by the Futurists, the  
Dadaists, the Living Theater, a whole bunch of "happenings" in the  
60's, Chris Hardman's Antenna Theater, etc. Actually, interactive  
media restricts the input of the audience far more, is a much more  
mediated environment,  plus it is far more isolating.  I find it more  
like a sophisticated version of "choose your own adventure" books,  
though usually with a lot more  gore and cleavage.

> Of course all the performers freak out  about that just like the  
> composers did..."that ain't art!"


I think its more like folks with a sense of history say "oh, its just  
that old thing, more commercialized, with some shiny new buttons."

mg

Matthew Goodheart
composer ~ improviser ~ pianist
matthew at matthewgoodheart.com
http://matthewgoodheart.com