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some thoughts & Max Ochs

2009-04-08T19:00:00Z

I recently came across this interview with Max Ochs (brother of Phil Ochs, and featured in that American Primitive Guitar comp). He says a lot of cool things, including this perspective on the contemporary state of music accessibility:

Touching on the access that recorded music allowed to the other genres that influenced you back in the ’50s, what do you think of the current state of digital music, and the unprecedented access that the Internet has allowed?

I think it’s wonderful, and I think it should be free. I have lots of cassettes of myself playing at a coffee house, of me playing at somebody’s house or at a gig, or at bar, or just sitting in the living room with a bunch of guys and somebody turns on the tape recorder and made a copy for me. And I have a ton of homemade music that I would love to post to a Web site and be like Radiohead, you know, what they did with their last album where they said to download and pay us whatever you think it’s worth. If you wanna take it for free, if you wanna give me a dollar, fifty cents, whatever, it’s fine. And I would really be quite content to do that.

As far as musicians making a living off of selling a record is concerned, do you think that particular model of digital distribution is a good direction for music to be taking?

People are going to get their music one way or another — they have a hunger, an appetite for it. They’re gonna find music and there’s so much of it now. I mean, the Beatles are never gonna disappear — Beethoven, Bach, Blind Willie Johnson, John Fahey — they’re never gonna disappear, they’re here for the rest of civilization’s existence. So it’s a cumulative thing, new musicians will come up and find ways to get their stuff on iTunes that can be downloaded.

But people say, “Don’t you wanna get money for your CD’s?” Well actually, I would be happy if people were listening to my music, at least to the extent that people would invite me to come play at a concert. But even when I wasn’t playing at gigs or at venues, I was still sitting in my kitchen playing for my dog, or on my back steps — I just love to play. I’m not worried about the music industry, it will find a way, it will sort itself out. There will be ways for musicians to make money, you’ll get played for playing when you go to a gig, and the musicians will sell their records at the gigs, and maybe musicians will adopt that Radiohead mode where they put it on the internet and if people want their music, they can download it and pay what they think is fair to pay, what they think it’s worth.

But here’s the other thing: You’re talking to a non-typical musician. Most of the time when you interview a musician, they’re doing it for a living, they’ve committed themselves full-time and they’re really brave leaping into that experience where they’re going to try to see if they can make it as a musician. I never had that much faith in myself, that I could be that competitive in the market. I play just because it brings me great joy, and I’m just grateful that people like to listen. I worked in the anti-poverty agency at a steady job and when I could find the time I would practice my music and write a song, and if I was lucky, I would get a gig. That’s how I bumbled through decades, and all this that’s going on now is wonderful and interesting. It’s like now I’ve been validated to the extent that it seems people enjoy listening to me, and it’s amazing, and great, and I’m so happy that they do.

...

which pretty much sums up how I relate to it, as a musician as well.

Max has a new album out. It's called Hooray for Another Day. The guitar pieces are very unique. And there's some poetry, somewhat in the vein of The Microphones. I'm not nuts about his singing, and you're not going to be blown away by his technique, but the album's definitely worth hearing for the individuality and humanity in the guitar-playing. And in that spirit, you can either buy it from Tompkins Square or pinch it here.

and read this interview with Max at Tompkins Square

cool beans!

2009 Grant and Donation Program

2009-04-05T16:56:00Z

Grant and Donation program

Town of South Bruce Peninsula is pleased to entertain funding requests for the 2009 year
from groups or individuals seeking support for not-for-profit organizations, events and
activities making a unique contribution to the quality of life in our community.

Please note that the organization, event and/or activity for which funding is being
sought must be located in our community, and/or primarily provide benefits for our
local residents.

Special consideration will be given to those events and activities which:

- Exhibit innovation
- Include community outreach and education
- Help create a sustainable community
- Complement the Town's Priorities and Strategic Plan

The Grant and Donation program is also geared to those seeking rental subsidization of
Town-owned facilities (i.e. Sauble Beach Community Centre, Wiarton Arena Auditorium,
etc.)

All applications meeting the criteria will not necessarily receive a grant or the amount
for which they applied.

Application Forms are available at the Town's Municipal Office or on the Town's website
at www.southbrucepeninsula.com

Patrick J. Stock
Manager of Financial Services,
Town of South Bruce Peninsula
E-Mail: pstock@bmts.com
Phone: 519-534-1400 ext. 106,
Toll Free 1-877-534-1400 ext. 106

Is carnival in Brasil !!! 38 grades and all women nudes !!!

2009-02-26T21:28:37Z

Shared by teledyn
Here is the essential difference between the Ontario/NY/England protestant attitude and the latin/S.America world-view. Here, to be 'naughty' they gorge themselves on butter-laden sugar doughnuts and pancakes, then 'absolve' themselves by eating only dull food for 40 days; in Brazil they figure if we're going to get forgiven for our sins, we might as well enjoy a few enroute to the blessing. Both are said to be a "celebration of life" -- why on Earth do we choose the doughnuts??

Buckminster Fuller's Critical Path

2009-02-21T22:03:29Z

Big Gav writes: Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller was an American architect, author, designer, futurist, inventor and visionary who devoted his life to answering the question "Does humanity have a chance to survive lastingly and successfully on planet Earth, and if so, how?" ...

Critical Path was the last of Buckminster Fuller's books, published shortly before his death in 1983 and summing up his lifetime of work. ...

Critical Path covers a wide range of topics, ranging from an unorthodox history of human development since the dawn of recorded history to his views on the purpose of humanity, a review of how Wall Street lawyers undid the New Deal, a history of his own personal development and 'self disciplines", discussions of some of his key ideas like the "geoscope" and the "world game", a chronology of scientific discoveries and artifacts and finally his recipe (critical path) for solving our key problems. Fuller explains in the following excerpt from Critical Path:

Humanity is moving ever deeper into crisis - a crisis without precedent.

First, it is a crisis brought about by cosmic evolution irrevocably intent upon completely transforming omnidisintegrated humanity from a complex of around-the-world, remotely-deployed-from-one-another, differently colored, differently credoed, differently cultured, differently communicating, and differently competing entities into a completely integrated, comprehensively interconsiderate, harmonious whole.

Second, we are in an unprecedented crisis because cosmic evolution is also irrevocably intent upon making omni-integrated humanity omnisuccessful, able to live sustainingly at an unprecedentedly higher standard of living for all Earthians than has ever been experienced by any; able to live entirely within its cosmic-energy income instead of spending its cosmic energy savings account (i.e., the fossil fuels) or spending its cosmic-capital plant and equipment account (i.e., atomic energy)-the atoms with which our Spaceship Earth and its biosphere are structured and equipped-a spending folly no less illogical than burning your house-and-home to keep the family warm on an unprecedentedly cold midwinter night.

Humanity's cosmic-energy income account consists entirely of our gravity-and star (99 percent Sun)-distributed cosmic dividends of water power, tidal power, wave power, wind power, vegetation-produced alcohols, methane gas, vulcanism, and so on. Humanity's present rate of total energy consumption amounts to only one four-millionth of one percent of the rate of its energy income.

Tax-hungry government and profit-hungry business, for the moment, find it insurmountably difficult to arrange to put meters between humanity and its cosmic energy income, and thus they do nothing realistic to help humanity enjoy its fabulous energy-income wealth.

Bucky believed in a transformation of our economic and political systems, via what he called a "design science revolution", which will result in the "conversion of all humanity into an integrated, omniharmonious, economically successful, one-world family", rather than the confrontational political action favoured by other would be transformers of society of his era. (02/20/09)

What is Information?

2009-02-16T09:18:35Z

A very neat and original animated infographic film about the concept of information. It was created by Maya Design, a design consultancy and technology research lab. Although most of us think we know what we mean when we say "information," the movie claims we sometimes confuse the medium with the message.

Do you agree?

The information movie is accompanied by a very similar film about the concept "architecture", in the broadest sense. Watch both movies below.

Music: Is it really therapeutic?

2009-02-11T03:13:16Z

By way of Mind Hacks a tip to an Australian Broadcasting special edition illustrated podcast of All in the Mind dedicated to music therapy.

Music undoubtedly makes us feel good. But is it therapeutic? Does it have a place in healing the psychological, even physical, scars of illness? From the intimacy of a neonatal ward to the ravages of cancer treatment, enter the world of three Australian music therapists pushing the boundaries of medicine. read more »

Sun Ra Sunday

2009-02-02T00:32:00Z

Sun Ra & His Myth Science Arkestra: Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy (Evidence ECD 2036)

Recorded at The Choreographer’s Workshop, NYC, late 1963
Originally released as Saturn 408 (1967) and Thoth Intergalactic KH 2272 (1969)
+++

Of all the outlandish and evocative titles in Sun Ra’s discography, Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy stands out in its audacious, baldly prescriptive claim. But, to be sure, the title is no idle put-on. In fact, Ra had presciently been involved in what would nowadays be known as "music therapy” back in the late-1950s:

[Manager] Alton Abraham arranged through his medical contacts for Sonny to play for a group of patients at a Chicago mental hospital…The group of patients assembled for this early experiment in musical therapy included catatonics and severe schizophrenics, but Sonny approached the job like any other, making no concessions in his music. While he was playing, a woman who it was said had not moved or spoken for years got up from the floor, walked directly to his piano, and cried out, ‘Do you call that music?’ Sonny was delighted with her response and told the story for years afterwards as evidence of the healing powers of music (Szwed, p.92-93).

While the term “music therapy” may conjure up some kind of dulcet, inoffensive, New-Age-y pabulum, the Cosmic Tones marshaled here are anything but easy-listening. Ra practices a kind of electro-shock treatment to the soul, seeking to, as with the catatonic mental patient, “touch the unknown part of the person, awaken the part of them that we’re not able to talk to, the spirit” (Szwed, p. 257). Ra did not consider the Arkestra to be musicians so much as “tone scientists” (Szwed, p. 112) whose investigations and manipulations of musical phenomena could help mankind in its earthly struggles. “People are disturbed and need your help 24 hours a day,” he would lecture the band (quoted in Szwed, p. 374).

People are just like receivers, they’re like speakers, too, like amplifiers. They’re also like instruments because they got a heart that beats and that’s a drum. They’ve got eardrums too, and they some strings in there, so they actually got harps on each side of their head. If you play certain harmonies, these strings will vibrate in people’s ears and touch different nerves in the body. When the proper things are played in each person, these strings will automatically tune themselves properly and then the person will be in tune. There will be no discord, they will be tuned up perfectly, just like each automobile have to be tuned according to what kind of automobile it is. My music does have a vibration somewhere within it that can reach every person in the audience through feeling (quoted in Szwed, p. 345).

Electro-shock treatment is also an appropriate metaphor in that electronic technology was always an important tool in Ra’s medic bag. On Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy, Ra eschews the piano altogether for the mewling whine of the Clavioline (an early keyboard synthesizer) and the swirly Hammond organ. Further, electronic echo is slathered onto the proceedings by recordist/percussionist Tommy “Bugs” Hunter, who had accidentally discovered the effect while fooling around with the Ampex 602 tape recorder he had purchased at a pawn shop in 1962. By plugging in a cable from the output jack into the input on the machine, massive reverberant echo was produced.

I wasn’t sure what Sun Ra would think of it…I thought he might be mad – but he loved it. It blew his mind! By working the volume of the output on the playback, I could control the effect, make it fast or slow, drop it out, or whatever (quoted in Szwed, p. 187).

Astonishingly, all of this proto-psychedelia was created years before Timothy Leary and the hippies discovered LSD and invented “acid rock.” While Ra sought the kind of change in consciousness that psychedelics promised (and, later, he certainly profited to some extent from the hippies’ taste for spacey freakouts), he abjured drugs and forbade his musicians from indulging themselves. And no matter how outrageous his music might sound, it was never merely a free-form “freakout.” No, the members of the Arkestra were sober, disciplined scientists conducting advanced research and revealing their findings.

Much of the music on Cosmic Tones appears to be in the form of brief conducted improvisations (a form that would later be refined and expanded on Other Planes of There (1964) (Evidence ECD 22037, 1992) and The Magic City (1965) (Evidence ECD 22069, 1993). Unusual instrumentation (and a conspicuous absence of brass instruments) predominates: besides Ra’s electronic keyboards, Marshall Allen concentrates on oboe and flute while John Gilmore plays bass clarinet and percussion exclusively. Known for his prowess as a tenor saxophonist, Gilmore’s brilliant solo on the quasi-rhumba, “Adventure Equation” demonstrates his remarkable virtuosity and inventiveness on the notoriously recalcitrant bass clarinet. Interestingly, the Arkestra rarely plays all at once, giving the music a contemporary-classical, chamber music quality, albeit with that “Saturn Sound” that is so unique to Sun Ra.

“And Otherness” opens the album with middle-eastern-sounding oboe and clip-clopping log drums before throbbing, low-register “space chords” assert themselves amongst the horns and Clavioline. Pat Patrick enters with herky-jerky blasts on the baritone saxophone before gently flowing, antiphonal horn lines bring the piece to an open-ended close. “Thither and Yon” again features some snaky oboe, this time with echoey minimalist percussion tapping, scribbled flute ornamentation, and Ronnie Boykins’s forceful pizzicato and delightfully singing arco bass. “Moon Dance” stands out as an almost funky strut with its repetitive bass riff, lackadaisically propulsive drums and small percussion, and Ra’s occasionally soaring, soulful organ. “Voice of Space” is a kind of an improvised concerto for Ronnie Boykins’s bowed bass, accompanied by stabbing organ chords, clattering percussion, and thick, heaving echo. Danny Davis shines on alto saxophone, weaving wiggly filigrees in the background or more aggressively battling the hissing reverb feedback that always threatens to overwhelm. At one point, Boykins’s bass tremolos merge imperceptibly with Ra’s rumbling organ which then duets with Gilmore’s woody bass clarinet – a moment of group mind at its most sublime.

So does Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy live up to its restorative claims? The usual disclaimers apply: any medication can affect people in different ways and the potential side effects are unpredictable. You may experience dizziness and disorientation, but this is normal. Thankfully, overdosage is rarely fatal. In any case, if you find yourself suffering from psychic imbalances, this can be an effective cure.

+++

This CD also contains Art Forms Of Dimensions Tomorrow, recorded in 1962 and tenuously connected to Cosmic Tones in venue and in the prevalence of Tommy Hunter’s echo machine. Otherwise, it is its own thing and worthy of close examination. But that will have to wait for another day.

Amateur - Stakeout Fakeout

2009-01-28T08:00:00Z

New Music Canada Track of the Day. Craig Norris: "...he will do for the accordion what Owen Pallett and Final Fantasy did for the fiddle."

Meditation and the neuroscience of inner peace

2009-01-03T08:00:00Z

SharpBrains has an interesting interview with neuroscientist Andrew Newberg who discusses his ongoing research into the brain science of meditation.

As we reported last year, research into meditation is really gathering pace and is suggesting that the practice has some immediate and remarkable benefits for our cognitive abilities that are clearly reflected in changes in brain function.

Most of the lab work has focused on how meditation enhances attention while most of the clinical research work on meditation has focused on its ability to prevent relapse in severe depression.

However, Newberg mentions some ongoing work where they're attempting to apply some of the lab work to boosting cognitive function in people who presumably have dementia or age-related cognitive difficulties:

Scientists are researching, for example, what elements of meditation may help manage stress and improve memory. How breathing and meditation techniques can contribute to health and wellness. For example, my lab is now conducting a study where 15 older adults with memory problems are practicing Kirtan Kriya meditation during 8 weeks, and we have found very promising preliminary outcomes in terms of the impact on brain function. This work is being funded by the Alzheimer's Research and Prevention Foundation, but we have submitted a grant request to the National Institute of Health as well.

Also, I just that Time magazine had a special issue on the practice and science of meditation in 2003 which is fully available online, including a funky, if not slightly over-simplified, guide to the neuroanatomy of meditation.

Link to SharpBrains interview with Andrew Newberg.
Link to previous Mind Hacks piece on neuroscience of meditation.
Link to 2003 Time special issue of meditation.

Dr. Martin Luther King on the importance of Jazz

2009-01-20T17:22:20Z

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Opening Address to the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival

God has wrought many things out of oppression. He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create—and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy that have allowed man to cope with his environment and many different situations.

Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life's difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph.

This is triumphant music.

Modern jazz has continued in this tradition, singing the songs of a more complicated urban existence. When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow through his instrument.

It is no wonder that so much of the search for identity among American Negroes was championed by Jazz musicians. Long before the modern essayists and scholars wrote of racial identity as a problem for a multiracial world, musicians were returning to their roots to affirm that which was stirring within their souls.

Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down.

And now, Jazz is exported to the world. For in the particular struggle of the Negro in America there is something akin to the universal struggle of modern man. Everybody has the Blues. Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody needs to love and be loved. Everybody needs to clap hands and be happy. Everybody longs for faith.

In music, especially this broad category called Jazz, there is a stepping stone towards all of these.

Brain concepts and divorce rates

2008-12-26T19:12:00Z

In my recent book, Splendors and Miseries of the Brain, I argued that one of the root causes of human misery can be traced to the fact that our acquired, post-natal, brain concepts– be they that of a house, a car, a symphonic rendering or a lover - are a synthesis of all the experiences that we have had of that particular attribute. But the individual example – of a car, or a house or a lover - that we experience at any given moment may not satisfy the synthetic concept, thus leading to disappointment and misery.

Disappointment can be defined as a failure to come up to expectation. But expectation with respect to what? A synthetic brain concept of course.

I recently read an interesting account of Japanese divorce rates which seems, on the face of it, to support this view in an important domain. Apparently, Japanese divorce rates have soared in the past few years. Husbands and wives are, seemingly, deeply disappointed with one another.

What is it that has brought this sudden increase about?

According to a BBC report, it is the retirement of the husband in a society where longevity has improved (aided as well by a new law which allows a divorced woman access to her husband’s pension). The retirement creates, according to the report, the opportunity for the married couple to spend more time with each other. Apparently, especially disastrous has been the post-retirement cruises in foreign lands, when the spouses find themselves even closer to each other.

Proximity of course increases the opportunity for experiencing something different from the synthetic brain concept of a lover, or a husband, or a wife that an individual may have; hence increases the opportunity for disappointment as well.

After all, Dante was never disappointed with Beatrice because he virtually never spent any time with her. All he did was to see her on two or three occasions. She smiled at him on one and not the other. She then married a rich banker and died young. He did not experience her long enough to be disappointed with her. Instead he could exalt his brain concept of her. He tells us as much in La Vita Nuova: I shall write of "la gloriosa donna de la mia mente" (the glorious lady of my mind) as no man has written of any woman.

In one version of the famous Majnun-Leila legend, when after a long separation Majnun had the opportunity of seeing Leila, he said ”Be gone from me. My concept of Leila is so much more beautiful than you”. He did not want to experience her!

In one of her love songs, the legendary Egyptian singer, Oum Kalthoum, declares: “I suffer in your presence; I need the mercy of distance.”

Just in case there is any misunderstanding – this is not a Japanese phenomenon at all. According to a Daily Mail report in 2006, there has been a similar tendency in Britain. Also, not all couples who see a lot of each other become disappointed; in a highly variable system there is bound to be a percentage whose brain concept of their lover or spouse is never disappointed But a sufficiently large number do so to make the divorce rates in Western societies approach about 48%, significantly greater than in Japan. Their acquired brain concept of what a spouse or partner should be is, apparently, not satisfied by their experience of the spouse or lover.

www.profzeki.blogspot.com

The original sex machine

2008-12-26T22:00:00Z

New Scientist has a completely charming article on 'Elektro' - the world's first celebrity robot who wowed the crowds at the 1939 New York World's Fair with his mechanics that produced a remarkable interactive experience for the time.

The article is by Noel Sharkey, an AI and robotics researcher, who recounts the robot's amazing story as he moved from mechanical marvel, to forgotten relic, to museum centrepiece.

One curious part of the story is that Elektro tried the classic B-list celebrity tactic of using sex to revive a flagging career - appearing in a proto soft porn film in the 1960s.

The movie was entitled Sex Kittens Go to College, and you can see Elektro featured in the trailer. The movie is remarkable largely for the fact that it is so soft as to be completely safe for work - presumably relying on the strategy rediscovered by millions of bloggers that simply mentioning sex in the title gets attention regardless of the content (see above).

However, there's also some great colour newsreel footage of Elektro in action at the World's Fair and you can see how impressive he was.

The NewSci article describes some of the technology that drove Elektro. The mechanics of the 'voice recognition' system are a particularly inventive hack.

The incredible ingenuity of Elektro's design was topped off by his sleek exterior. There was no remote control. Instead, the robot relied on a combination of motors, photoelectric cells, telephone relays and record players to perform 26 preprogrammed routines, each one initiated by voice commands from a human co-star. These were spoken into a telephone connected to the robot's chest, where circuitry converted each syllable into a pulse of light and transmitted it to a photoelectric cell. A second circuit added up the syllables and triggered relays to operate the corresponding electromechanical functions: a command with three syllables, for example, would start the robot's routine, and four syllables would stop it. As part of these routines, Elektro would raise and lower his arms, turn his head, move his mouth, count on his fingers and even smoke a cigarette and puff out smoke.

The robot could also respond to questions by using relays to switch between a bank of phonographs playing 78 rpm voice recordings that were hidden behind a curtain. This gave Elektro a vocabulary of 700 words and an extensive repertoire of banter: "I am a smart fellow as I have a very fine brain of 48 electrical relays," he would tell the crowd. "It works just like a telephone switchboard. If I get a wrong number I can always blame the operator. And by the way, I see a lot of good numbers out in our audience today."

Link to NewSci article on Elektro.
Link to trailer for Sex Kittens Go to College.
Link to footage of Elektro at the 1939 World's Fair.

Triadic Chromatic Approach lines

2008-12-15T07:37:57Z

I wrote this as an exercise for myself, to better to hear the differences when the different types of triads are used with Garzone's Triadic Chromatic Approach.

(click on image to enlarge)

West Coast? East Coast? Hip-Hop Explained

2008-12-13T14:56:38Z

In the realm of popular music, perhaps no genre has been as popular in recent years as hip-hop. However, hip-hop is hardly a new phenomenon, so in this article, we’re going to take an in-depth look at its history and try to make sense of it all.

A Brief History Lesson

As it was originally known, hip-hop was a movement in New York City in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It revolved around four key areas: MCing (now known as rapping), DJing, graffiti art and b-boying (breakdancing).

While all four areas were important, the two that we will focus on are MCing and DJing, as they have the most relevance to audio.

Hip-hop’s roots come from a DJ scratching a record to create a looped beat while an MC raps along to the beat. While much has changed over the years, the essential idea of rapping to a looped beat is still the foundation for most hip-hop songs. Many music producers still follow these old techniques, loading up an old soul record and creating a new track.

However, hip-hop advanced beyond this in 1983 when Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force began using synthesizers and drum machines to create entirely new tracks.

Download audio file (AfrikaBambaataaLookiForThePerfectBeat.mp3)

Excerpt from Afrika Bambaataa - Lookin’ For The Perfect Beat

While there is much that took place along with this, and many artists such as Run-DMC, LL Cool J and others helped to define the genre, let’s fast-forward to 1987.

In 1987, in Compton, CA, an important move was taking place. Where previously hip-hop had been politically and socially motivated, a new sub-genre was forming: gangsta rap. A group known as N.W.A., consisting of Dr. Dre, MC Ren, Ice Cube and Eazy-E released an album titled “Straight Outta Compton.” Dr. Dre provided the production for the album, consisting almost entirely of rolling basslines and drums.

Straight Outta Compton was a smashing hit, despite (or perhaps because of) lyrics dealing with police brutality, drug dealing, gang-banging, and racial profiling. While the group eventually disbanded over financial disputes, N.W.A.’s legacy would help shape the future.

Dr. Dre would later sign with Suge Knight’s Death Row Records, along with an up-and coming rapper named 2Pac Shakur, ushering in the era of West Coast Gangsta Rap. Dre remains quite influential in the industry today, widely recognized as a pioneer in hip-hop and music production.

Download audio file (2PacCaliforniaLove.mp3)

Excerpt from 2Pac - California Love

Meanwhile, back on the East Coast, a similar movement was happening. Perhaps most notable was Sean “Puffy” Combs’ departure from Uptown Records, taking newly signed rapper The Notorious B.I.G. (Biggie) with him to found Bad Boy Records. Now competing with Suge Knight’s West Coast powerhouse Death Row, the industry would be shaken when 2Pac and Biggie were both violently murdered.

This, while not immediately, would lead to the downfall of gangsta rap as a genre, and move hip-hop into the popular music genre where it remains today.

Let’s end the history lesson here. There is much more that could be said, with artists along the way that I have overlooked, but this is just meant to be a brief outline to provide context. Additionally, the closer we move to our present time, the harder it becomes to analyze the music from a historical standpoint.

Musical Elements

In hip-hop, there is remarkable freedom when making music. However, there are some fundamental elements that are found in nearly every hip-hop song. The first, and far-and-away most important element is drums. The drums lay the foundation for the track, and give the artist a rhythm to work with. Many of the top producers have their own drum libraries that they swear by, giving them their unique sound. Producers such as Timbaland, and The Neptunes are famous for their unorthodox drum sounds and rhythms.

Download audio file (SnoopDoggDropItLikeItsHot.mp3)

Excerpt from Snoop Dogg - Drop It Like It’s Hot

The second most important part of hip-hop is the use of loops. As with much of popular music (as opposed to classical music), the both musical components and structural elements are looped or repeated in patterns, giving hip-hop a coherent feel. This is quite important, and it’s the main reason that sampling works with hip-hop so well.

Taking a previous song, using turntables or a sampler to take a piece from that song, and then replaying it, is one of the foundations for hip-hop.

Those are really the two key pieces for hip-hop. There have been points in hip-hop’s history where some element popular at the time was expected, but over the years, the genre has expanded greatly and now it includes any of the following (and more):

Traditional instruments (Piano, Strings, Brass)
Synthesized instruments
Basslines
Vocal samples

Some other notable producers have made important contributions to the genre. Here’s a quick rundown of some famous producers and their contributions.

Dr. Dre is most famous for his use of rolling basslines with synthesizers on top of them.
Timbaland is most famous for his use of synthesized instruments on top of rhythmically irregular beats.
The Neptunes are most famous for their use of the Korg Triton’s instruments, coupled with unique drum sounds. They also blend rock with hip-hop quite often.
Scott Storch is perhaps most notable for his use of Arabic instruments in his songs.
Kanye West is famous for using vocal samples from other songs to form a new one.

There are many other producers who deserve a mention, but these are a few that I feel have the most unique sound to them. Hip-hop has always been a genre to borrow from other genres such as techno, latin and reggae, and thus is much more accepting of new ideas.

Regional Breakdown

East Coast is probably the hardest to broadly define these days, as the underground movement in NYC is still quite prominent, and they rely largely on sampling. Much of their music is produced using an MPC. As far as more popular sound goes, they definitely aim far more for up tempo, more dance style tracks.

Download audio file (MarcoPoloNostalgia.mp3)

Excerpt from Marco Polo - Nostalgia

South is all about two things. The first, is dirty south style music, relying heavily on horns and snare rolls. This style of music is probably best heard through artists like Young Jeezy, giving the music
a slow, southern drawl.

Download audio file (YoungJeezyPutOn.mp3)

Excerpt from Young Jeezy - Put On

The second style from the south is the simple club song. Differing from East Coast sound, the South’s club sound is much more simplistic, and usually has a certain dance that is meant to be associated with it. Songs like “Walk it Out”, “2 Step”, “Crank Dat”, etc, show this style.

Download audio file (UnkWalkItOut.mp3)

Excerpt from Unk - Walk It Out

The Midwest is more of a newcomer into the mainstream music scene for hip-hop. It relied originally on a large underground following, although many of those artists have branched into mainstream. Not to say the music is more meaningful, but there is often a much clearer message to the song. The beats also vary widely, with artists like Kanye West relying totally on sampling, and other artists like Common, Lupe Fiasco, Twista and others using various elements from other styles.

Download audio file (KanyeWestStronger.mp3)

Excerpt from Kanye West - Stronger

The West Coast style is about chilling out and partying, and being tough on the streets, drawing from the gangsta rap genre. Probably most notable with artists like The Game, but also with the deceased 2Pac Shakur, the style of music is different than the rest of hip-hop. Perhaps most prevalent in the ‘90’s, although still popular today, West Coast music came to define the use of bass in hip-hop. Led by Dr. Dre’s innovations in the studio with using synthesizer lines on top of rolling basslines, West Coast songs like “California Love” illustrate the West Coast’s style to the fullest.

Download audio file (TheGameLetsRide.mp3)

Excerpt from The Game - Let’s Ride

Wrap-Up

Wrapping up our overview of the hip-hop genre, let’s summarize some key points:

Drums are important! If you spend most of your time on one part of the track, focus on your drums. There are many songs that don’t have anything but drums and vocals, so give them their due attention.
Looping is the backbone of hip-hop. It gives the music a coherent feel and helps form your track.
Experiment with various instruments. There are many instruments out there, so don’t just stick to the same ones for each track.

While I didn’t mention this above, it’s also important to note that the less dynamic your rapper (or singer) is, the more you will probably have to compensate with instrumentation. For example, if you have a singer (or a rapper and a singer) for a track, odds are you can skimp on the instrumentals, as the singing will add most of the flavor to your track.

However, if you only have a rapper, whose vocals are somewhat dry, you’ll have to add more instrumentation to make the song full.

Happy recording!

Sun Ra’s Chart Explained

2008-12-05T18:57:03Z

Following the momentous appearance of the Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of Marshall Allen at the Palais Royale in October 2008, local astrologer Julie Simmons ran down the founding father’s chart on morning jazz program, AM/FM with Ron Gaskin, that until recently, broadcast on CKLN FM. With little or no prior knowledge of the man or his music , she nonetheless, hits some solid notes in providing an insight to the enigma that is Sun Ra.

"Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative"

2008-11-13T15:21:00Z

"Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative"
- as presented by John Oswald to the Wired Society Electro-Acoustic Conference in Toronto in 1985.

Musical instruments produce sounds. Composers produce music. Musical instruments reproduce music. Tape recorders, radios, disc players, etc., reproduce sound. A device such as a wind-up music box produces sound and reproduces music. A phonograph in the hands of a hip hop/scratch artist who plays a record like an electronic washboard with a phonographic needle as a plectrum, produces sounds which are unique and not reproduced - the record player becomes a musical instrument. A sampler, in essence a recording, transforming instrument, is simultaneously a documenting device and a creative device, in effect reducing a distinction manifested by copyright.

Free samples

These new-fangled, much-talked-about digital sound sampling devices, are, we are told, music mimics par excellence, able to render the whole orchestral panoply, plus all that grunts, or squeaks. The noun "sample" is, in our comodified culture, often pre-fixed by the adjective free, and if one is to consider predicating this subject, perhaps some thinking aloud on what is not allowable auditory appropriation is to be heard.

Some of you, current and potential samplerists, are perhaps curious about the extent to which you can legally borrow from the ingredients of other people's sonic manifestations. Is a musical property properly private, and if so, when and how does one trespass upon it? Like myself, you may covet something similar to a particular chord played and recorded singularly well by the strings of the estimable Eastman Rochester Orchestra on a long-deleted Mercury Living Presence LP of Charles Ives' Symphony #3 [1], itself rampant in unauthorized procurements. Or imagine how invigorating a few retrograde Pygmy (no slur on primitivism intended) chants would sound in the quasi-funk section of your emulator concerto. Or perhaps you would simply like to transfer an octave of hiccups from the stock sound library disk of a Mirage to the spring-loaded tape catapults of your Melotron [2].

Can the sounding materials that inspire composition be sometimes considered compositions themselves? Is the piano the musical creation of Bartolommeo Cristofori (1655-1731) or merely the vehicle engineered by him for Ludwig Van and others to manoeuver through their musical territory? Some memorable compositions were created specifically for the digital recorder of that era, the music box. Are the preset sounds in today's sequencers and synthesizers free samples, or the musical property of the manufacturer?[3] Is a timbre any less definably possessable than a melody? A composer who claims divine inspiration is perhaps exempt from responsibility to this inventory of the layers of authorship. But what about the unblessed rest of us?

Let's see what the powers that be have to say. 'Author' is copyrightspeak for any creative progenitor, no matter if they program software or compose hardcore. To wit: "An author is entitled to claim authorship and to preserve the integrity of the work by restraining any distortion, mutilation or other modification that is prejudicial to the author's honor or reputation." That's called the 'right of integrity' and it's from the Canada Copyright Act[4]. A recently published report on the proposed revision of the Act uses the metaphor of land owners' rights, where unauthorized use is synonymous with trespassing. The territory is limited. Only recently have sound recordings been considered a part of this real estate.

Blank tape is derivative, nothing of itself

Way back in 1976, ninety nine years after Edison went into the record business, the U.S. Copyright Act was revised to protect sound recordings in that country for the first time. Before this, only written music was considered eligible for protection. Forms of music that were not intelligible to the human eye were deemed ineligible. The traditional attitude was that recordings were not artistic creations, "but mere uses or applications of creative works in the form of physical objects."[5]

Some music oriented organizations still retain this 'view'. The current Canadian Act came into being in 1924, an electric eon later than the original U.S. Act of l909, and up here "copyright does subsist in records, perforated rolls and other contrivances by means of which sounds may be mechanically reproduced."

Of course the capabilities of mechanical contrivances are now more diverse than anyone back at the turn of the century forecasted, but now the real headache for the wrters of copyright is the new electronic contrivances, including digital samplers of sound and their accountant cousins, computers. Among "the intimate cultural secretions of electronic, biological, and written communicative media"[6] the electronic brain business is cultivating, by grace of its relative youth, pioneering creativity and a corresponding conniving ingenuity. The popular intrigue of computer theft has inspired cinematic and paperback thrillers while the robbery of music is restricted to elementary poaching and blundering innocence. The plots are trivial: Disney accuses Sony of conspiring with consumers to make unauthorized mice[7]. Former Beatle George Harrison is found guilty of an indiscretion in choosing a vaguely familiar sequence of pitches.[8]

The dubbing-in-the-privacy-of-your-own-home controversy is actually the tip of a hot iceberg of rudimentary creativity. After decades of being the passive recipients of music in packages, listeners now have the means to assemble their own choices, to separate pleasures from the filler. They are dubbing a variety of sounds from around the world, or at least from the breadth of their record collections, making compilations of a diversity unavailable from the music industry, with its circumscribed stables of artists, and an ever more pervasive policy of only supplying the common denominator.

The Chiffons/Harrison case, and the general accountability of melodic originality, indicates a continuing concern for what amounts to the equivalent of a squabble over the patents to the Edison cylinder.

The Commerce of Noise

The precarious commodity in music today is no longer the tune. A fan can recognize a hit from a ten millisecond burst,9 faster than a Fairlight can whistle Dixie. Notes with their rhythm and pitch values are trivial components in the corporate harmonization of cacophony. Few pop musicians can read music with any facility. The Art of Noise, a studio based, mass market targeted recording firm, strings atonal arrays of timbres on the line of an ubiquitous beat. The Emulator fills the bill. Singers with original material aren't studying Bruce Springsteen's melodic contours, they're trying to sound just like him. And sonic impersonation is quite legal. While performing rights organizations continue to farm for proceeds for tunesters and poetricians, those who are shaping the way the buck says the music should be, rhythmatists, timbralists and mixologists under various monikers, have rarely been given compositional credit.[10]

At what some would like to consider the opposite end of the field, among academics and the salaried technicians of the orchestral swarms, an orderly display of fermatas and hemidemisemiquavers on a page is still often thought indispensible to a definition of music, even though some earnest composers rarely if ever peck these things out anymore. Of course, if appearances are necessary, a computer program and printer can do it for them.

Musical language has an extensive repertoire of punctuation devices but nothing equivalent to literature's " " quotation marks. Jazz musicians do not wiggle two fingers of each hand in the air, as lecturers often do, when cross referencing during their extemporizations, because on most instruments this would present some technical difficulties - plummeting trumpets and such.

Without a quotation system, well-intended correspondences cannot be distinguished from plagiarism and fraud. But anyway, the quoting of notes is but a small and insignificant portion of common appropriation.

Am I underestimating the value of melody writing? Well, I expect that before long we'll have marketable expert tune writing software which will be able to generate the banalities of catchy permutations of the diatonic scale in endless arrays of tuneable tunes, from which a not necessarily affluent songwriter can choose; with perhaps a built-in checking lexicon of used-up tunes which would advise Beatle George[11] not to make the same blunder again.

Chimeras of sound

Some composers have long considered the tape recorder a musical instrument capable of more than the faithful hi-fi transcriber role to which manufacturers have traditionally limted its function. Now there are hybrids of the electronic offspring of acoustic instruments and audio mimicry by the digital clones of tape recorders. Audio mimicry by digital means is nothing new; mechanical manticores from the 19th century with names like the Violano-virtuoso and the Orchestrion are quaintly similar to the Synclavier Digital Music System and the Fairlight CMI (computer music instrument). In the case of the Synclavier, what is touted as a combination multi-track recording studio and simulated symphony orchestra looks like a piano with a built-in accordian chordboard and LED clock radio.

The composer who plucks a blade of grass and with cupped hands to pursed lips creates a vibrating soniferous membrane and resonator, although susceptible to comments on the order of "it's been done before", is in the potential position of bypassing previous technological achievement and communing directly with nature. Of music from tools, even the iconoclastic implements of a Harry Partch or a Hugh LeCaine are susceptible to the convention of distinction between instrument and composition. Sounding utensils, from the erh-hu to the Emulator, have traditionally provided such a potential for varied expression that they have not in themselves been considered musical manifestations. This is contrary to the great popularity of generic instrumental music ("The Many Moods of 101 Strings", "Piano for Lovers", "The Truckers DX-7" etc.), not to mention instruments which play themselves, the most pervasive example in recent years being pre-programmed rhythm boxes. Such devices, as are found in lounge acts and organ consoles, are direct kin to the juke box: push a button and out comes music. J.S.Bach pointed out that with any instrument "all one has to do is hit the right notes at the right time and the thing plays itself." The distinction between sound producers and sound reproducers is easily blurred, and has been a conceivable area of musical pursuit at least since John Cage's use of radios in the Forties.

Starting from scratch

Just as sound producing and sound reproducing technology becomes more interactive, listeners are once again, if not invited, nonetheless encroaching upon creative territory. This prerogative has been largely forgotten in recent decades. The now primitive record-playing generation was a passive lot (indigenous active form scratch belongs to the post-disc, blaster/walkman era). Gone were the days of lively renditions on the parlor piano.

Computers can take the expertise out of amateur music making. A current music-minus-one program retards tempos and searches for the most ubiquitous chords to support the wanderings of a novice player. Some audio equipment geared for the consumer inadvertently offers interactive possibilities. But manufacturers have discouraged compatability between their amateur and pro equipment. Passivity is still the dominant demographic. Thus the atrophied microphone inputs which have now all but disappeared from premium stereo cassette decks.[12]

As a listener my own preference is the option to experiment. My listening system has a mixer instead of a receiver, an infinitely variable speed turntable, filters, reverse capability, and a pair of ears.

An active listener might speed up a piece of music in order to perceive more clearly its macrostructure, or slow it down to hear articulation and detail more precisely. Portions of pieces are juxtaposed for comparison or played simultaneously, tracing "the motifs of the Indian raga Darbar over Senegalese drumming recording in Paris and a background mosaic of frozen moments from an exotic Hollywood orchestration of the 1950's (a sonic texture like a "Mona Lisa" which in close-up, reveals itself to be made up of tiny reproductions of the Taj Mahal."[13]

During World War II concurrent with Cage's re-establishing the percussive status of the piano, Trinidadians were discovering that discarded oil barrels could be cheap, available alternatives to their traditional percussion instruments which were, because of the socially invigorating potential, banned. The steel drum eventually became a national asset. Meanwhile, back in the States, for perhaps similar reasons, scratch and dub have, in the Eighties, percolated through the black American ghettos. Within an environmentally imposed, limited repertoire of possessions a portable disco may have a folk music potential exceeding that of the guitar. Pawned and ripped-off electronics are usually not accompanied by user's guides with consumer warnings such as "this blaster is a passive reproducer". Any performance potential found in an appliance is often exploited. A record can be played like an electronic washboard. Radio and disco jockeys layer the sounds of several recordings simultaneously.[14] The sound of music conveyed with a new authority over the airwaves is dubbed, embellished and manipulated in kind.

The medium is magnetic

Piracy or plagiarism of a work occur, according to Milton, "if it is not bettered by the borrower". Stravinsky added the right of possession to Milton's distinction when he said,. "A good composer does not imitate; he steals." An example of this better borrowing is Jim Tenney's "Collage 1" (l961) in which Elvis Presley's hit record "Blue Suede Shoes" (itself borrowed from Carl Perkins) is transformed by means of multi-speed tape recorders and razorblade. In the same way that Pierre Schaeffer found musical potential in his object sonore, which could be, for instance, a footstep, heavy with associations, Tenney took an everyday music and allowed us to hear it differently. At the same time, all that was inherently Elvis radically influenced our perception of Jim's piece.

Fair use and fair dealing are respectively the American and the Canadian terms for instances in which appropriation without permission might be considered legal. Quoting extracts of music for pedagogical, illustrative and critical purposes have been upheld as legal fair use. So has borrowing for the purpose of parody. Fair dealing assumes use which does not interfere with the economic viability of the initial work.

In addition to economic rights, moral rights exist in copyright, and in Canada these are receiving a greater emphasis in the current recommendations for revision. An artist can claim certain moral rights to a work. Elvis' estate can claim the same rights, including the right to privacy, and the right to protection of "the special significance of sounds peculiar to a particular artist, the uniqueness of which might be harmed by inferior unauthorized recordings which might tend to confuse the public about an artist's abilities.

At present, in Canada, a work can serve as a matrix for independent derivations. Section 17(2)(b) of the Copyright Act of Canada provides "that an artist who does not retain the copyright in a work may use certain materials used to produce that work to produce a subsequent work, without infringing copyright in the earlier work, if the subsequent work taken as a whole does not repeat the main design of the previous work."

My observation is that Tenney's "Blue Suede" fulfills Milton's stipulation; is supported by Stravinsky's aphorism; and does not contravene Elvis' morality or Section 17(2)(b) of the Copyright Act.

Aural wilderness

The reuse of existing recorded materials is not restricted to the street and the esoteric. The single guitar chord occuring infrequently on H. Hancock's hit arrangement "Rocket" was not struck by an in-studio union guitarist but was sampled directly from an old Led Zepplin record. Similarly, Michael Jackson unwittingly turns up on Hancock's follow-up clone "Hard Rock". Now that keyboardists are getting instruments with the button for this appropriation built in, they're going to push it, easier than reconstructing the ideal sound from oscillation one. These players are used to fingertip replication, as in the case of the organ that had the titles of the songs from which the timbres were derived printed on the stops.[15]

So the equipment is available, and everybody's doing it, blatantly or otherwise. Melodic invention is nothing to lose sleep over (look what sleep did for Tartini). There's a certain amount of legal leeway for imitation. Now can we, like Charles Ives, borrow merrily and blatantly from all the music in the air?

Ives composed in an era in which much of music existed in a public domain. Public domain is now legally defined, although it maintains a distance from the present which varies from country to country. In order to follow Ives' model we would be restricted to using the same oldies which in his time were current. Nonetheless, music in the public domain can become very popular, perhaps in part because the composer is no longer entitled to exclusivity, or royalty payments‹ a hit available for a song . Or as This Business of Music puts it, "The public domain is like a vast national park without a guard to stop wanton looting, without a guide for the lost traveller, and in fact, without clearly defined roads or even borders to stop the helpless visitor from being sued for trespass by private abutting owners."

Professional developers of the musical landscape know and lobby for the loopholes in copyright. On the other hand, many artistic endeavours would benefit creatively from a state of music without fences, but where, as in scholarship, acknowledgement is insisted upon.

The buzzing of a titanic bumblebee[16]

The property metaphor used to illustrate an artist's rights is difficult to pursue through publication and mass dissemination. The hit parade promenades the aural floats of pop on public display, and as curious tourists should we not be able to take our own snapshots through the crowd ("tiny reproductions of the Taj Mahal") rather than be restricted to the official souvenir postcards and programmes?

All popular music (and all folk music, by definition), essentially, if not legally, exists in a public domain. Listening to pop music isn't a matter of choice. Asked for or not, we're bombarded by it. In its most insidious state, filtered to an incessant bass-line, it seeps through apartment walls and out of the heads of walk people. Although people in general are making more noise than ever before, fewer people are making more of the total noise; specifically, in music, those with megawatt PA's, triple platinum sales, and heavy rotation. Difficult to ignore, pointlessly redundant to imitate, how does one not become a passive recipient?

Proposing their game plan to apprehend the Titanic once it had been located at the bottom of the Atlantic, oceanographer Bob Ballard of the Deep Emergence Laboratory suggested "you pound the hell out of it with every imaging system you have."

~ John Oswald, 1985

This paper was initially presented by Oswald at the Wired Society Electro-Acoustic Conference in Toronto in 1985. It was published in Musicworks #34, as a booklet by Recommended Quarterly and subsequently revised for the Whole Earth Review #57 as 'Bettered by the borrower'.

------

Footnote 01

Mercury SR90149. The question of user (as opposed to listener) accessibility to the recording is a bit complicated, and the answer varies from country to country. Recordings fixed before 1972 are not protected by federal copyright in the U.S., but in some cases are protected under common law and state anti-piracy statutes. Symphony #3 was published and copyrighted in 1947 by Arrow Music Press. That the copyright was assigned to the publisher instead of the composers was the result of Ives' disdain for copyright in relation to his own work, and his desire to have his music distributed as widely as possible. At first, he self-published and distributed volumes of his music free of charge. In the postscript of 114 Songs, he refers to the possessor as the "gentle borrower." Sometime following these offerings, Ives granted permission for the publication of his music in the periodical New Music with the condition that he pay all the costs.

It seems he had been incensed to find that, according to its custom, New Music has taken out a copyright in the composer's name for the part of his Fourth Symphony that it had issued. Ives stalked up and down the room growing red in the face and flailing the air with his cane: "Everybody who wants a copy is to have one! If anyone wants to copy or reprint these pieces, that's fine! This music is not to make money but to be known and heard. Why should I interfere with its life by hanging on to some sort of personal legal right in it?" (From Charles Ives and His Music, by Henry and Sidney Cowell [Oxford University Press, 1955], pp. 121-2.) Later in his life Ives did allow for commercial publication, but always assigned royalties to other composers.

Ives admired the philosophy of Ralph Waldo Emerson who, in his essay "Quotation and Originality" said, "A man will not draw on his invention when his memory serves with a word as good; and, what you owe to me--you will vary the phrase, but I shall still recognize my thought. But what you say from the same idea, will have to me also the expected unexpectedness which belongs to every new work of nature.

Footnote 02

The words emulator and mirage accurately describe the machines which bear their names. Window Recorder is a more ambitious cognomen for a device that can store longer programs than can most samplers, and therefore bridges the sense of the terms sampler and digital recorder. At the other end, digital delay units are in effect short-term samplers.

Footnote 03

The following quotes are excerpts from a forum which took place during January 1986 on PAN, a musicians' computer bulletin board. Hensley: the opinion of the legal profesionals was that, because the hardware served to limit the number of possible sounds, and because it was not only possible but probable that two individuals could independently program identical sounds...because of all that, patches for synthesizers did not fall into the realm of material for which a copyright could be effectively protected.

R. Hodge: If everyone "has" and is using a particular sound, then what good is it? (Well that wouldn't make it bad, but it would lose its impact.)

SPBSP: What good is a great sound if it is available to the "masses"? Well...what good is a Hammond B-3, a Stratocaster, a Fender Rhodes, or a Stradivarius? Great players and programmers give sounds freely, confident perhaps that it's not the size, it's the motion. Dave at Keyboard: I don't think a sound should be thought of in the same terms as a book, or a musical composition. Really fine work in any field would be greatly diminished by changing a word, removing a note, or resculpturing an appendage. A sound is more subjective, more like a recipe.

Bill Monk: My outlook has been that, while a patch is copyrightable (melodies are, though they are produced with far fewer parameters), it doesn't really matter. Those interested in "stealing" patches are probably unlikely to be able to make their own or to alter the stolen one in any significant way. But I can make plenty more with a little time and effort. It's the continuing ability that counts, not just having a few great patches.

M. Fischer: At this point it is not entirely clear that "sounds" are copyrightable, but a strong case can be made for their protection under copyright. The closest reported legal decision was one involving the Chexx hockey game (booing and cheering noises). That case held the sounds to be protectable sound recordings. Southworth: Various DX-7 programmers have told me that they "bury" useless data in their sounds so that they can prove ownership later. Sometimes the data is obvious, like weird keyboard scalings or inaudible operators, and sometimes it's not, like the nonsense characters (I seem to recall someone once thought they were Kanji) in a program name. Of course, any pirate worth his salt would find all these things and change them...Synth programmers are skilled craftspeople just like violin makers, so if they go to the trouble of making new and wonderful sounds that other people can use, they should be compensated for their efforts. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as just selling the damn violin.

I also found the following quote on Sweetwater, a swapping network for the Kurzweill sampler (heavily promoted as a great piano mimic): "We cross-sampled most of the Emulator II's library (nothing is sacred)..." And then there's this quote from Digidesign's promo literature for the Sound Designer (software support for the Emulator): "Sound Designer's `pencil' lets you draw waveforms from scratch or repair sampled sounds. Have a click in a sound sampled from a record? Just draw out the waveform..."

Whose record? Samples are recordings and theoretically are copy-protected as such. But as PAN correspondent Bill Monk says, being able to prove ownership and actually going to court over a voice are two different things.

Footnote 04

A Charter of Rights For Creators, Report of the Subcommittee on Revision of Copyright. This is the latest of sixteen studies published by the Canadian government in anticipation of a revised Canada Copyright Act. It follows From Gutenberg to Telidon, the final statement from the preceding party in power. The following quotes are from A Charter of Rights for Creators:

There is more at stake in the exploitation of a work than economic reward. Creative works are very much the expression of the personality of their authors. There is an identification between authors and their works. The Subcommittee agrees with the many witnesses who stated that creators cannot be fully protected unless their moral rights are recognized and enhanced.

Another consequence of the language used in the present Act is that moral rights appear to be protected only during the life of the author, rather than the usual term of life of the author plus fifty years. If moral rights are to be recognized as being as important as economic rights, the term of protection should be the same. (P. 6.) Witnesses before the Subcommittee also supported the recommendation in From Guttenberg to Telidon that: unauthorized modification of the original of an artistic work should be an infringement of the moral right of integrity, even in the absence of evidence of prejudice to the artist's honor of reputation. The Subcommittee agrees that this recommendation should be adopted together with its limitations relating to physical relocation, alteration of the structure containing the work, and legitimate restoration and preservation activities.

The Subcommittee wishes to make clear, however, that respect for works of the mind and their creators should not take the form of paternalism. Creation is after all one of the most self-assertive pursuits that can be imagined, precisely because it is a process fraught with considerable risk. Artists and other creators will always have to go through a struggle in which many fail and where there cannot be any guarantee of success. (P. 7.)

Footnote 05

Of the numerous works covered by the Copyright Act, only one--a musical work--is specifically defined. All the others are described by way of examples--a method of legal drafting which gives scope for flexibility if circumstances change. Because musical works are presently defined as "combinations of melody and harmony, or either of them, which have been printed, reduced to writing, or otherwise graphically produced or reproduced," much contemporary music may not be protected by copyright because it is never written down: It is time for the law to apply the orientation of criteria of fixation as flexibly to musical works as it does to other works. It is irrelevant that a musical work is fixed by recording as opposed to written notation. A law revised in this manner would be consistent in treating, insofar as possible, all subject matter in the same manner. (Pp. 30-31.)

The present law assimilates sound recordings to musical, literary, or dramatic works, This categorization is outdated. It is time to protect sound recordings as a separate category of subject matter. In addition, the law should specify that the protection of a sound recording is totally independent of what is recorded. It is irrelevant whether what is recorded is a work which is protected by copyright or is in the public domain. For example, bird sounds do not constitute subject matter protected by copyright because such sounds are not works. But a sound recording of the same bird sounds would be protected as falling within the new category of copyright subject matter suggested in this recommendation. (P. 49.)

(References to the U.S. Copyright Act are taken from This Business of Music, by Shermel and Krasilovsky (Billboard Publications, 1979) and A Treatise on the Wages of Sinning for Sound, by Tom Schulteiss.)

Footnote 06

This is Chris Cutler's poignant phrase, from File Under Popular (November Books, 1985), which also includes a good analysis of attemped definitions of popular music, and a definition of folk music integral to the use of that term in Plunderphonics:

First, the medium of its musical generation and perpetuation is tradition and is based in human, which is to say biological, memory. This mode centers around the ear, and can exist only in two forms: as sound and as memory of sound.

Second, the practice of music is in all cases an expressive attribute of a whole community which adapts and changes as the concerns and realities it expresses--or as the vocabulary of the collective aesthetic--adapt and change. There is no other external pressure upon it.

Third, there can be no such thing as a finished or definitive piece of music. At most there could be said to be "matrixes" or "fields." Consequently, there is also no element of personal property, though there is of course individual contribution. (File Under Popular, pp. 133-4.)

Footnote 07

Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Betamax decision on a suit by Walt Disney and Universal Studios against Sony. The courts decided that home taping off air television was breaking the law. Curiously, the record industry never filed a similar suit against audio recorder manufacturers. "Parasitic and predatory," says Stanly Gortikov, President of RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), regarding the blank tape industry. "Home taping has exploded. The shrapnel of that explosion drains the lifeblood of the musical community...it renders weak the recording companies whose works have become a worldwide means of communication."

Our subhead "Blank Tape Is Derivative, Nothing of Itself" is by David Horowitz, of Warner Communications (from "The War Against Home Taping," in Rolling Stone, Sept 16, 1982, p. 62).

Footnote 08

George Harrison was found guilty of subconsciously plagiarizing the 1962 tune "He's So Fine" by the Chiffons in his song "My Sweet Lord" (1970).

In his speculative story Melancholy Elephants (Penguin Books, 1984), Spider Robinson writes about the pros and cons of rigorous copyright. The setting is half a century from now. Population has increased dramatically, with many people living past 120. There are many composers. The story centers on one person's opposition to a bill which would extend copyrights to perpetuity. In Robinson's future, composition is already difficult, as most works are being deemed derivative by the copyright office. The Harrison case is cited as an important precedent. Then, in the late 1980's, the great Plagiarism Plague really gets started in the courts, and from then on it's open season on popular composers. But it really hits the fan at the turn of the century, when Brindle's Ringsong is shown to be "substantially similar" to one of Corelli's concertos.

Robinson points out that the currently prevalent system of composition has a limited number of specifiable notes which can be combined in a large but finite number of ways:

Artists have been deluding themselves for centuries with the notion that they create. In fact they do nothing of the sort. They discover. Inherent in the nature of reality are a number of combinations of musical tones that will be perceived as pleasing by a human central nervous system. For millennia we have been discovering them, implicit in the universe--and telling ourselves that we "create" them. To create implies infinite possibility. As a species, I think we will react poorly to having our noses rubbed in the fact that we are discoverers and not creators. (P. 16.)

Footnote 09

The ten millisecond figure is not based on any psychophysical research I've seen, but rather is a duration near the faster threshold of musical sense, which is approached by the examples given in hit parade recognition contests.

Footnote 10

Unlike the more traditional vehicles of creative expression such as writing, drama, or art, the new media of the twentieth century--records, films, broadcasts, computers--often require more equipment and a large and diversified creative team. Creation is no longer a craft but also an industry. This change not only involves new forms of economic organization, but reaches into the creative process itself. For example, in a sound recording the creative aspects include the choice of works, the contribution of musicians and performers, the work of sound mixers, and so on. Here the contribution of each team member is distinct but not separable from the final product; the outcome is greater than the sum of its parts. (A Charter of Rights for Creators, p. 13.)

Footnote 11

The Beatles, especially Harrison, are an interesting case of reciprocity between fair use and the amassing of possession and wealth. "We were the biggest nickers in town; plagiarists extraordinaire," says Paul McCartney (Musician, Feb. 1985, p. 62). He owns one of the world's most expensive song catalogs, including a couple of state anthems. John Lennon incorporated collage techniques onto pieces like "Revolution 9," which contains dozens of looped, unauthorized fragments taped from radio and television broadcasts. George obviously wasn't "subconsciously" plagiarizing in the case of his LP Electronic Sound. This release consisted of nothing more than a tape of a demonstration electronic musician Bernie Krause had given Harrison on the then-new Moog synthesizer.

Krause: "I asked him if he thought it was fair that I wasn't asked to share in the disc's credits and royalties. His answer was to trust him, that I shouldn't come on like Marlon Brando, that his name alone on the album would do my career good, and that if the album sold, he would give me `a couple of quid.'" The record was released with George's name in big letters, while Krause's was obscured.

Footnote 12

The PAUSE button on home cassette recorders is used for editing and collaging on the fly, i.e., selective editing in real time. This has led to a connoisseurism of the personality of the PAUSE on various decks. Each makes a different-sounding edit. Some can be operated more quickly and precisely than others. Several composers prefer the long-discontinued Sony TC 153-158 line to all others.

The Sony saga of consumer-targeted digital recorders is an interesting case of maintaining the pro/amateur gap. The relatively inexpensive PCM-F1 portable digital/analog converter was probably bought by more professionals than home recordists. It was essentially compatable with, and could substitute for, much more expensive professional equipment. Sony discontinued the F1, replacing it with the 701 E, which was not portable and did not have mic inputs. But it could still be adaped as a professional studio convertor. So Sony emasculated it, introducing the 501 E, similar but for most purposes studio-incompatible.

Footnote 13

Quoted from Jon Hassell's essay "Magic Realism." The passage refers in an evocative way to some appropriations and transformations in Hassell's recordings. In some cases this type of use obscures the identity of the original, and at other times the sources are recognizable.

Footnote 14

He" invented the technique of `slip-cueing': holding the disc with his thumb whilst the turntable whirled beneath, insulated by a felt pad. He'd locate with an earphone the best spot to make the splice, then release the next side precisely on the beat...His tour de force was playing two records simultaneously for as long as two minutes at a stretch. He would super the drum break of 'I'm a Man' over the orgasmic moans of Led Zeppelin's `Whole Lotta Love' to make a powerfully erotic mix...That anticipated the formula of bass drum beats and love cries...now one of the cliches of the disco mix." (Referring to DJ Francis Grosso at the Salvation club in New York in the mid-seventies, from Disco by Albert Goldman. Also referred to in "Behind the Groove," by Steven Harvey, in Collusion #5.

Footnote 15

I have been unable to relocate the reference to this device which had, for example, a "96 Tears" stop. According to one source, it may have been only a one-off mockup in ads for the Roland Juno-60 synthesizer.

Footnote 16

"A musical note like the buzzing of a titanic bumblebee which sped through space," was one account of the sounds that radio amateurs were receiving along the east American seaboard in 1914, a year after the "Rite of Spring" riot. No one knew what these sounds were until one experimenter recorded them on a hand-cranked Edison cylinder phonograph. When he accidentally played the recording back with the machine undercranked, he heard the slowing turning cylinder resolve the high-pitched whistles into the dots and dashes of Morse code.

Further investigation revealed that an American radio station was broadcasting these signals to German U-boats off the coast. A war happened to be going on at the time. The U.S. Navy seized the station, and a lid of secrecy was clamped on the recordings until recent times, when the Freedom of Information Act allowed the National Archives to make them available.

The Freedom of Information Act has made the titanic bumblebee available, but Alvin the Chipmunk, a character created by means of a specific tape recorder technique--double speed playback of the human voice--continues to retain exclusive rights.

Ottawa jazz co-op III

2008-11-04T02:14:00Z

I've been to lots of jazz musician get-togethers in my day, but only on the weekend did I attend one at which the question arose: "How do you set the mandate for the pre-feasibility study?"

Not long after came this: "The draft mission statement... that will be the subject of the next meeting."

Full marks if you knew that I was at a meeting convened on Sunday by singer Michel Martin, who is keen to create an Ottawa Jazz Co-operative -- an initiative I wrote first about here. The attendees included singers Martin, Jozée Devoua, Karen Oxorn, Cyndi Kennedy, Helen Glover, bassist Howard Tweddle, saxophonists Doug Martin, Ralph Hopper and Bernard Stépien, as well as the group's facilitator Mark Goldblatt of the Canadian Co-operative Association.

Martin's goal is to have Ottawa-area musicians join a co-operative, which would manage a venue that would feature a full-out jazz policy. The meeting I attended was more a brainstorming session than anything else, surveying Ottawa's jazz scene, and I've Ctrl-v'd Martin's summary below. In future postings, I'll throw my two cents out there regarding points that were raised and Martin's project as a whole.

Martin's group is meeting again in two weeks - at noon on Sunday, Nov. 16, at the Bank Hotel (18 Eddy St. in Gatineau, Hull sector), when discussion will flow from a draft mission statement that Martin is to create.

Weaknesses of Local Jazz Community

shortage of gigs
lack of reasonable pay for gigs
small rooms
lack of solidarity among musicians
not enough resoursces for musicians eg. listings of musicians and their instruments
no booking agency for jazz muscians including amateurs
absence of mentoring and apprenticeship
lack of organization among musicians

Strengths of Local Jazz Community

J-Sing
Festival including its roster of volunteers and sponsors
Jazzworks: jams, scholarships, jazz camps
many jamming occasions
Peter Hum's blogging re: development of the community
some venues eg Cafe Paradiso,Vineyards,etc.
good talent
large bank of good women singers
spillover from active, well-organized blues community with large audeince
computerized jazz listings
two universities with music programmes and a jazz audience
several high school stagebands and dedicated music teachers
Capital Vox Jazz Choir (24 singers)
high-quality players, eg Tim Bedner, Jean-Pierre Allain, etc.

Co-ops in general

one vote for each member
culture of consultation, listening, trust, solidarity, working for good of all
humble beginnings do not preclude success or even greatness

Finances: Sources of capitalization

donation of equipment eg. piano,drums, PA
once-only $25 membership fees, limited liability of members
services and in-kind contributions eg piano-tuning
preferred non-voting shares sold to some members and record stores ,music stores,sheet music stores,piano stores,jazzfest sponsors and volunteers
supporting memberships of $25 sold to non-musicians,not voting
donations of money
grants and contributions from governements
angel investors
sales of sponsorships and advertising in our venue and on our website
services of physical renovations
credit union or Caisse Desjardins loans up to (60 per cent)

Finances: Revenues

tickets and cover charges
food
alcohol
cds(if co-op starts recording)
grants,contributions,low-interest long-term loans

Finances: Operating expenses

paying musicians
marketing
advertising
website
lease
donation of space
liquour licence
local business taxes
bar staff including manager
bar equipment and cash registers and computers

Possible Activities of Co-op

operating a venue or making favourable arrangements with an existing venue or both
resource to local cultural, recreational, community centres
engage with governments
booking our members in other venues
education and teaching and teaching and conferences
touring in Ottawa Valley
rcording members
hiring touring ''stars''
hiring ex-Ottawans eg Nathan Ceplinski, Petr Cancura, etc.
mentoring
minimal bureaucracy and process
outreach to schools, university, colleges, music teachers, seniors' residences
practice and rehearsal time and space including informal gatherings in off-hours
jamming opportunities
collaboration with festival and Jazzworks
permitting occasions for related musics: Latin,r+b,soul,swing ,jump,big bands

Important Miscellany:
Some people made important observations during the meeting that don't fit the above categories but deserve to be retained, such as:

Mark Goldblatt re-iterated what he perceives as the viable nature of this enterprise;
That the summary of the mtg be sent to the participants in a draft from so that additions or changes could be made
That documents heretofore be sent out bcc
That analysis be done of other co-ops around the world;subseqeuntly, Bernard has agreed to do this analysis and report to a mtg of the leadership group
Other Cdn cities,even large ones like TO and MTL have same problems for their jazzmen as does Ottawa; size is less an obstacle that lack of organization; in this case, size does not matter
Classical music is foreign and a cultivated taste;nevertheless, it is well-organized with symphonies, operas, etc. Jazz does not lack an audience, but rather organization
Much gratitude was expressed to Michael Goldblatt, who will continue to be available for consultation via e-mail.

Braxtopedia

2008-10-20T04:35:04Z

Anthony Braxton/Graham Lock interview (edit)
Quartet (Coventry) 1985
Leo : 1993

Outside of the music itself, one of the key elements of Anthony Braxton’s art has been his ongoing effort to articulate it. From the earliest stages of his career, he has tried to maintain and foster, in the face of extreme opposition, his own context for the appreciation of his creative work. Sometimes eloquent, sometimes obscure, rarely at a loss for words — Braxton has, more than any other musician of his ilk, provided ample written and spoken explanations of what he is up to, for those inclined to pursue them.

As a result, there is an astonishingly rich cache of information available to anyone with access to a decent internet connection and/or a library card. In this post we are highlighting some key locales for the intrepid Braxton fan, whether casual tourist or seasoned traveler.

The first and best stop has to be Graham Lock’s essential book, Forces in Motion. We have named-checked this work multiple times over the course of the past few weeks, and that’s because it is an invaluable resource to Braxton’s music, and to Braxton’s thoughts on his music. That it is also an unbelievably delightful and engaging read is somewhat miraculous, and a testament to the fruitful collaboration between Lock and Braxton. Writer Hank Shteamer spent some time spelling out his love for Forces in Motion; we agree wholeheartedly with his profound admiration for it, and encourage all readers to first consult Hank’s post, then rush out and buy your own copy. (Mersh note: D:O is now an Amazon affiliate.)

The other crucial source is Jason Guthartz’ lovingly comprehensive Restructures.net, the motherlode of online Braxtonalia. Many of you will doubtless already be familiar with this site, but for the uninitiated, be forewarned: you can lose days here. Foremost at Restructures is the detailed and up-to-the-second Braxton discography, which not only runs down the basic discographical details, including an album index and composition index, but also includes individual links to the graphical representations of each Braxton composition. There is also a thorough-going collection of links (scroll down to the B section for a long list of Braxton links). Most recently, and most relevantly given the Mosaic box, Jason has, with the kind permission of the original authors, uploaded the liner notes to each of the Arista albums that make up the Mosaic set:

New York, Fall 1974
Five Pieces 1975
The Montreux/Berlin Concerts
Creative Orchestra Music 1976
Duets 1976
For Trio
For Four Orchestras
Alto Saxophone Improvisations 1979
For Two Pianos (this actually links to a section from John Litweiler’s The Freedom Principle)

These notes are not included in the Mosaic liners, so this is a considerable trove, and we owe our thanks to Jason for making it available. Mosaic commissioned Mike Heffley, author of The Music of Anthony Braxton, to pen a new set of notes. Some of what Mike wrote ended up on the cutting room floor, and he’s posted these outtakes for the curious here [pdf].

Those wishing to advance their Braxton studies at the deep blogger level are advised to head speedily in the direction of If you know what I’m saying. Under the direction of centrifuge, late of the now-defunct Church Number 9 (and very much more recently a new daddy), this blog has been singlehandedly and singlemindedly running down the Braxton oeuvre with intellectual vigor and huge ears. Cent’s own Braxtothon took place last year: he listened to the albums in chronological order and related his thoughts on each. Follow from the beginning…

Brian Olewnick, blogging at Just Outside, also chronicled some thoughts on Braxton’s output in a series of posts in 2007. We find Olewnick to be consistently one of the most sensitive and fair-minded writers on music, and we recommend that you check out his reactions and reminiscences (in tempo) on For Alto; Circle/Paris Concert and The Complete Braxton; Saxophone Improvisations/Series F and others from the same period; the Sackville Trio and Duet; New York, Fall 1974; and the balance of the Arista LPs.

One can also go right to the source: Braxton’s Wesleyan site provides links to a large number of his research papers, as well as a section on his Trillium R opera.

For more of Braxton in his own words, follow this link for a 1971 recording of an interview in which he relates his attempt to say as little as possible in as many words as possible (or something to that effect), to short-circuit those that would misinterpret him; and the two long audio sections here, from 1985, which feature words and music, principally “Comp. 26B.” The WFMU blog featured a couple of smashing Dortmund 1976 tracks in a post from earlier this year, in addition to the Coventry interview that we’ve copped here. One can also see, hear, and/or read Braxton’s keynote address from last year’s Guelph Jazz Festival.

And so on. We welcome suggestions for further AB investigation in the comments, particularly any YouTube hits of consequence.

Coming up soon: contest #2 (how’d you like to win one of these?) and some contributions by folks in a better position than us to comment on listening to and playing with Braxton.

Economic Development Committee Members Needed

2008-09-24T01:35:00Z

Help Develop Our Future

Do you live or own a business in the Town of South Bruce Peninsula?
Are you interested in building a vibrant and prosperous community?

Consider becoming a member of the Town of South Bruce Peninsula Economic
Development Committee. The Committee reports to Council on important issues
such as revitalization, strategic planning and community improvement. The
Committee "Terms of Reference" is available at www.southbrucepeninsula.com
or by contacting Town Hall.

Interested parties are encouraged to submit a written letter of interest to the
undersigned.

Malcolm McIntosh, CAO
Town of South Bruce Peninsula
315 George Street, PO Box 310
Wiarton ON N0H 2T0
519-534-1400
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

TERMS OF REFERENCE

PURPOSE:

The purpose of the Economic Development Committee is to facilitate the development of
new business opportunities in the Town of South Bruce Peninsula. The Committee will
also look for ways and means of expanding the employment opportunities of the residents
of South Bruce Peninsula.

The Committee will make non binding recommendations to the Municipal Council, or it's
Committees, on business development, or employment expansion possibilities in the
Town. The Committee will consist of two at large public appointments and the Mayor as
the Council representative. The Mayor will have a vote on all matters. The Committee
will elect a Chair from amongst themselves and will meet on a monthly basis, or as
required by the Chair.

ACTIVITIES:

The Economic Development Committee will be responsible for undertaking the
following:
-making recommendations on implementing the South Bruce Peninsula Economic
Development Strategy
-facilitating the implementation of plans to expand existing businesses opportunities, and
encourage new businesses to come to South Bruce Peninsula
-assist in providing advice to local businesses
-ensure communication between the Chamber of Commerce and the Council
-assist in human skills development
-provide advice on training programs
-The Economic Development Officer will assist the Committee in carrying out its duties
as required

REPORTING TO COUNCIL:

The Economic Development Committee, through the Chair, will report to Council and its
Committees as required, on an on going or as needed basis. The Chair and the
CAO/Clerk will prepare a monthly report on the activities of the Committee to update
Council on the progress of the Committee. Minutes of the Committee meeting will be
provided to Council for consideration.

Last modified: February 12, 2007

Dancing The Questions

2008-09-20T20:37:00Z

The following citation, from E.E. Evans-Pritchard's classic 1937 ethnography "Witchcraft, Oracles And Magic Among The Azande" would do nicely on Transpontine's excellent "History Is Made At Night" blog:

"A witch-doctor does not only divine with his lips, but with his whole body. He dances the questions which are put to him. A witch-doctor's dance contrasts strikingly with the usual ceremonial dance of the Azande. The one is spirited, violent, ecstatic, the other slow, calm, restrained. The one is an individual performance organized only by traditional movements and rhythm, the other a collective performance.

(...)

It is important to notice that witch-doctors not only dance but make their own music with hand-bells and rattles, so that the effect in conjunction with gong and drums is intoxicating, not only to the performers themselves, but also to their audience; and that this intoxication is an appropriate condition for divination. Music, rhythmic movements, facial grimaces, grotesque dress, all lend their aid in creating a proper atmosphere for the manifestation of esoteric powers. The audience follow the display eagerly and move their heads to the music and even repeat the songs in a low voice when they are pleasing themselves rather than adding to the volume of the chorus. It would be a great mistake to suppose there is an atmosphere of awe during the ceremony. On the contrary, everyone is jovial and amused, talking to each other and making jokes. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the success of the witch-doctor's profession is largely due to the fact that he does not rely entirely upon the settled faith of his audience, but makes belief easier by compelling their surrender to sensory stimuli.

We have to remember, moreover, that the audience is not observing simply a rhythmic performance, but also a ritual enactment of magic. It is something more than a dance, it is a fight, partly direct and partly symbolic, against the powers of evil. The full meaning of a seance as a parade against witchcraft can only be fully grasped when this dancing is understood. An observer who recorded only questions put to the witch-doctors and the replies which they gave would leave out the whole mechanism by which the answers are obtained, and even the answers themselves. A witch-doctor 'dances the questions'.

(...)

Every movement in the dance is as full of meaning as speech. All this jumping and leaping embodies a world of innuendo. A witch-doctor dances in front of one spectator or gazes intently at another, and when people see this they think that he has spotted a witch, and the object of their attention feels uncomfortable. Spectators can never be quite certain about the meaning of the witch-doctors behavior, but they can interpret in a general way from his actions what he is feeling and seeing. Every movement, every gesture, every grimace, expresses the fight they are waging against witchcraft, and it is necessary for the meaning of a dance to be explained by witch-doctors as well as by laymen to appreciate its full symbolism."

These are immensely important paragraphs: as early as 1937 they bind together issues of embodiment, rationality, movement and meaning. Not only does Evans-Pritchard conceive the witch-doctor's dance as a semiological system, he also allows the witch-doctor's dance to enrich our understanding of rationality and meaning. The dance may mimic the questions: but the questions anticipate and the answers mimic the dance. Discourse jumps, leaps and grimaces, becomes sweat-soaked, smelly, intoxicated.