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Been meaning to read "The Arithmetic of Listening: Tuning Theory & History For The Impractical Musician" by Kyle Gann.
Anyway - in looking for reviews I ran across a few videos from MAKENOISE that review some interesting music books I didn't know about!
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0:30 - Sounds Wild And Broken: Sonic Marvels, Evolution’s Creativity, and The Crisis Of Sensory Extinction by David George Haskell
1:28 - Structure and Synthesis: The Anatomy of Practice by Mark Fell.
"An anthology of pioneer sound artist Mark Fell's work charting his defiantly unorthodox thinking on time, structure, technology, and the relation between academic and popular electronic music."
3:09 - Of Technique: Chance Proceedures on Turntable by Maria Chavez
4:03 - Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm by Dan Charnas
shows how, as the producer behind some of the most influential rap and R&B acts of his day, Dilla created a new kind of musical time-feel. Dilla and his drum machine reinvented the way musicians play.
5:27 - The Sound of the Machine: My Life in Kraftwerk and Beyond by Karl Bartos (a memoir of the Kraftwerk percussionist).
“The problem started when the computer arrived in the studio,” says Bartos. “A computer has nothing to do with creativity, it’s just a tool, but we outsourced creativity to the computer. We forgot about the centre of what we were. We lost our physical feeling, no longer looking each other in the eye, only staring at the monitor. At the time, I thought innovation and progress were synonyms. I can’t be so sure anymore.”
6:26 - Assembling a Black Counter-Culture by DeForrest Brown Jr.
a history and critical analysis of techno and adjacent electronic music such as house and electro, showing how the genre has been shaped over time.
7:35 - Switched On: Bob Moog and the Synthesizer Revolution by Albert Glinsky
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looked up Halim El Dabh
heres a pbs concert by wadada leo smith
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This is the very 1st video of book reviews MAKENOISE put on YT. The reviews weren't very detailed, but still the video points out some books meant to free our mind from boundaries when thinking/listening/using sound as music.
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These 2 books really caught my attention!
Luc Ferrari: Complete Works by Brunhild Ferrari - and Treatise on Musical Objects: An Essay Across Disciplines by Pierre Schaeffer. Both of these books are by, or about, the 2 founding members of GRM (which I had to learn about) in Paris, France!
Some info I found helpful in understanding the importance of GRM, the origin of sound sample plugins!:
INA GRM: The Past, Present and Future of Experimental Music - great article at ableton.
What the GRM brought to music: from musique concrète to acousmatic music - article by Marc Battier for Organized Sound (an International Journal of Music and Technology).
This Video: It Was Called Acousmatic - hearing phenomena, cinema for the ears, Pierre Schaeffer, Luc Ferrari and Francois Bayle, "music concrete" vs. "music abstract", "sound object" and "musical object", active listening.
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Here's the rest of the Books talked about in this video... except the books on Silent Compositions (can't write about them with a straight face).
Electronic Music: Systems, Techniques, and Controls by Allen Strange.
Notations 21 by Theresa Sauer.
features illustrated musical scores from more than 100 international composers, all of whom are making amazing breakthroughs in the art of notation. These spectacularly beautiful and fascinatingly creative visual pieces make not only for exciting music, but for inspiring visual art as well. The scores are accompanied by written contributions from the artists that explore every facet of their creative processes, from inspiration to execution.
An Individual Note of Music, Sound and Electronics by Daphne Oram.
Daphne Oram was one of the central figures in the development of British experimental electronic music. Having declined a place at the Royal College of Music to become a music balancer at the BBC, she went on to become the cofounder and first director of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Intermediary Spaces: Éliane Radigue by Julia Eckhardt.
Éliane Radigue (born 1932 in Paris) is considered one of the most innovative and influential contemporary composers, from her early electronic music through to her acoustic work of the last fifteen years. Influenced by musique concrète and shaped by regular sojourns in the United States, where she discovered analogue synthesisers, her work unfolds an intensity which is at once subtle and monumental.
Sun Ra: Collected Works Vol.1 - Immeasurable Equation by Sun (a unique Jazz musician).
Sound And Light by La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela.
Together, they have created large-scale works for light and sound of many hours' duration--full of slow-moving microtonal sounds bathed in magenta hues and shadows--that have influenced styles as diverse as the Velvet Underground and Minimalism.
Computer Music Tutorial by Curtis Roads
covers all aspects of computer music, including digital audio, synthesis techniques, signal processing, musical input devices, performance software, editing systems, algorithmic composition, MIDI, synthesizer architecture, system interconnection, and psychoacoustics.
Microsound by Curtis Roads
sound particles lasting less than one-tenth of a second. Recent technological advances allow us to probe and manipulate these pinpoints of sound, dissolving the traditional building blocks of music—notes and their intervals—into a more fluid and supple medium.
Foundations of Computer Music by Curtis Roads
Thirty-six articles written in the 1970s and 1980s cover sound synthesis techniques, synthesizer hardware and engineering, software systems for music, and perception and digital signal processing.
Composing Electronic Music: A New Aesthetic by Curtis Roads
spatialization as an integral aspect of composition and focuses on sound transformation as a core structural strategy. In this new domain, pitch occurs as a flowing and ephemeral substance that can be bent, modulated, or dissolved into noise. Similarly, time occurs not merely as a fixed duration subdivided by ratios, but as a plastic medium that can be generated, modulated, reversed, warped, scrambled, and granulated
Free Jazz, Harmolodics, and Ornette Coleman
musical philosophy of "Harmolodics," an improvisational system deeply inspired by the Civil Rights Movement
Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music by Christoph Cox
Via writings by philosophers, cultural theorists, and composers, Audio Culture explores the interconnections among such forms as minimalism, indeterminacy, musique concrète, free improvisation, experimental music, avant-rock, dub reggae, Ambient music, HipHop, and Techno.
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@ABitRusty -
Thanks!
I watched a <a style="color: #0000ff" href="
Decided to go back through the books listed in all 3 of the book review videos.
I expanded titles & added small jacket excerpts to what was presented in the video time stamps - hopefully for a better idea of what the books are about.
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I think some of the techniques help form a soundscape. Not a fan of juwt listening to them for the sake of liatening.. They seem especially useful in movie soundtracks. Of course liked how they have been used in the common ground recordings. The old bush recording the gloaming made uses some of them too.
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@ABitRusty -
I agree.
They can definitely set a mood.
Think I look at so many different things as expressive tools, but yeah - a whole composition centered on them is just too much for me. Hate to say it, but to be perfectly honest, I viewed the Kate Ellis video I posted in your Common Ground Ensemble Thread - like it was a demonstration of technique... suppose I should listen again. 🤭🙄
I'm still driven by melody & rhythm - seasoned with herbs & spices!
I realize it's an oxymoron, but I even want some form of melody & rhythm in 'ambient' music - at least a slight feeling of pulse/groove & simple changes in pitch. (lol)
Doesn't mean I don't want to think outside the box for enhancing acoustic music.
Growing up listening to the MOOG used in music, electronic music, great Sci-Fi, great nature sounds and even the sounds/rhythms involved with riding horses - easy to become fascinated with Musique Concrète!
Actually, just a synopsis & highlights from these books/articles (with a little extra reading) is VERY helpful to me. I have too much going on to read books front to back, and some are RIDICULOUSLY expensive - but quite a few of the books reviewed in the videos pertain to Musique Concrète, it's history, rivals & the creative musical ideation behind it all!
I think I have a little better understanding of where the music editing/creating software & sound sample plugins all started, now.
Oops, sorry... wee hours of the morning & I'm probably not making any sense. 🤭
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I ran across some REALLY COOL OLD BOOKS!
...the best part?
THIS ONE you can read online, directly from the book - for FREE (link are to Internet Archive.org)!
These 2 books look interesting (if you are interested in late 19th/early 20th Century American music history). Both are by Richard D. Wetzel, who donated a massive collection of rare books & recordings to the Ohio University Libraries - he was also a faculty member (Richard D. Wetzel Collection).
THIS ONE can be read at the Internet Archive (for free, if you sign up - I did, you can even view old films!). "Oh! sing no more that gentle song : the musical life and times of William Cumming Peters (1805-66)"
William C. Peters (1805-1866) - excerpts from the Library of Congress:
William Cumming Peters was a composer, arranger, organist, and music publisher.
Peters opened the first piano and music store in Pittsburgh in the 1820s, and also worked there as a music teacher, clarinettist, organist and composer. Peters moved to Louisville in 1832 and started a music school and circulating music library.
If interested, look for this where you order used books - "Frontier Musicians on the Connoquenessing, Wabash, and Ohio: A History of the Music and Musicians of George Rapp's Harmony Society (1805-1906)" - lengthy book review pdf here.
I found another very cool one (not free) that has Birthdays of Musicians, with quotes, some signed portraits and snippets of melodies - like ideas jotted down at dinner! "The Music of The Poets: A Musicians Birthday Book" (1908) by Keeling. The ones I saw on ebay ship from the UK. I found a cheaper (smaller scale) paperback reprint at amazon. I love old books, but trying not to buy any (I'm downsizing) - we'll see how disappointed I am.
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Received my paperback copy of "The Music of The Poets: A Musicians Birthday Book" (1908) by Keeling, yesterday. 😊
IT'S WONDERFUL! Small poems & prose relating to music, as well as small phrases of notation on composers' Birthdays! There's an index of the Musicians AND an index of the Poets - very helpful!
Doesn't have the charm of an old book, but everything is in it (including the few hand written names from the original owner). Every page is interesting! Think I'll kill 2 birds with one stone & for once in my life I might actually store our family & friends' Birthdays in it - AND USE IT (which I wouldn't do to an antique)! 🤗 I'm terrible at remembering dates, don't want to store them on my phone or laptop & I always loose those little pocket reminders!
I do wish it was hardcover. It's not a size/shape (6.75"x7.75"x1") that I might readily find among any of my books that are destined to be repurposed. 🤔... seems a good excuse to attempt a binding I've always wanted to try - with some unique spline stitching.
I can now personally recommend this book. 😊
- Emily
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Sundays at Lenas is a book youll want if your are interested in transcribed session tune recordings. Mary McNamara released this a couple years ago. LOTS of great tunes. You can buy HERE or at Custys music in Ennis. I think Mary has a website with it too. As a bonus.. there is a cd with the recordings.
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@ABitRusty I am adding this link to your review of the Sundays at Lena's book. It is Mary McNamara's site. There is more info here, and a short video as she thumbs through the book to show some pages, as music is playing. Your review piqued my interest so I checked it out. I wanted to see some of the book and googled the title and found her website. 😁
http://www.marymacnamara.net/shop.html
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Don't be afraid to start a new thread with this topic. This is getting long. You can give the new one on this topic the same title, WITH a little addition:
Great Music Book Reviews/Suggestions - Not String Specific (PART 2)
Just wanted to let it be known. You can add to this one, but feel free to start another with (Part 2) at the end of the title, 😁.
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ABitRusty said
Sundays at Lenas is a book youll want if your are interested in transcribed session tune recordings. Mary McNamara released this a couple years ago. LOTS of great tunes. You can buy HERE or at Custys music in Ennis. I think Mary has a website with it too. As a bonus.. there is a cd with the recordings.
In addition... This podcast from Tunes From Doolin episode is Mary MacNamara playing tunes discussing music and also her book.. the aboce listed book...
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@ABitRusty 😂😂😂 I did not notice tht in your first post you mentioned her website! In my reply I did provide a link to her website, but I didn't notice you mentioned it. 😂😂. 70 yer old eyes!
I love how she played in the podcast. I kind of scrolled forward in it to find where the music was being played. I will go back and watch/listen to the entire podcast when I have more time. Thanks. I never heard of her, but then, I am not familiar with names of most fiddlers.
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@Mouse . no worries. and i didnt give a link to her website but did to itma website so thanks for the link!
Here is some of my favorite music of hers to add to the topic. Its a playlist so all the tunes on that album release. She is a concertina player but the fiddle youll hear is Martin and PJ Hayes I believe she said on the podcast. I know Martin plays but i also think she said PJ did... And BTW... the podcast link is also talked about in ELCBKs tunes from doolin topic on here... think were doing a good job of discussing Doolin on here lately ! 😁
