EMUSIC-L Digest Volume 59, Issue 02 This issue's topics: (i) Keyboardless Performance; (ii) Dance etc. (2 messages) (i) Keyboardless Performance; (ii) LXP-1 Faults Dance Companies money dances (2 messages) Music fur dance (2 messages) Non-Drum Rhythms pah-day-dew (3 messages) Your EMUSIC-L Digest moderator is Joe McMahon . You may subscribe to EMUSIC-L by sending mail to listserv@american.edu with the line "SUB EMUSIC-L your name" as the text. The EMUSIC-L archive is a service of SunSite (sunsite.unc.edu) at the University of North Carolina. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1993 03:32:20 CST From: John Eichenseer Subject: Re: (i) Keyboardless Performance; (ii) Dance etc. >If I get a chance this week I'll type up a report of this dance/theatre >performance piece without a keyboard (but with a Peavey PC 1600, and MAX of >course). Would love to see it. >I'll not make it too >long or (as one accusation stated) narcissistic, so I guess I'll be >skipping the bits about tricks for getting quality backstage help when >playing in gay venues, and the hassles of stage-managing belly dancers. Hey! This is Valuable Information. I would rather read about this than the PC Soundcards thread, which I have been skipping with enthusiasm. >I brought the rig back this morning and powered it on, and the LXP-1 was >fine. This is what's confusing me. Hardware doesn't fix itself. I might suspect faulty power; how were the mains there? >(I programmed up a >placebo reverb since we were playing in a large theatre where the natural >reverb of the venue was fine for vocals) hee... how 'bout a rack of placebo amplifiers to make everybody think the show is loud and rockin, d00d. [notes on the necessity of shmoozing, politicking] >You just have to do this stuff if you're taking it seriously. Who you know >is very important. But of course, once you know them, *what* you know >(experiences insight, creative skills) are needed as well. > >John Eichenseer does dance stuff as well; I'd be interested to hear how his >experiences resemble or differ from mine. Interesting enough post to draw me out of the woodwork for a sec... I would say that I have penetrated (oops) the dance scene from a slightly different angle. I guess I did a fair amount of socializing and, ah, investigating the scene - especially when I was just getting familiar with the people and places, and how dance and theater work. I never really got into the heavy sociopolitics, though, largely because music for dance is only one of many many interests I have musically, and was never really the focus of my personal direction. As well, I sometimes get pretty tired of certain archetypes and personalities among these communities... but that's just aesthetics. That said, I agree that you have to get to know a lot of people and just be generally intertested and active on the scene to make contacts. Once I knew some people, my reputation seemed to pretty much carry me through at a comfortable pace which then tapered off as I pursued things less and less. These days I just do dance gigs when I get calls - a few big ones a year, I would say, which is about right for me. I think that writing and producing music for dance and theater is one of the most interesting and rewarding things a composer can do. You learn a helluva lot, whether you want to or not, about this thing called "art" - and business, and people, and music. Try to find people whose work you like; I think it is important to be genuinely enthusiastic and interested in your projects. Most cities seem to have an underground scene of sorts; get involved with independent productions that are doing interesting things. Once you get a foot in the door, you can meet more people and find out what hoopy flotsam is goin' down. To leave off with another name drop, I would like to point out that James McCartney does a lot more dance music than I do these days, and probably has a far more sophisticated map of the socio-political structures of the Austin scene. :-) I don't know if he still reads this list, but he does hang around the max list and rmms... maybe we can conjure him up. -jhno ....... . . .. . . . . . . . . Joh n E i c h e n s e e r D e l i c a t e E a r (512) 458-6474 eichen@trilogy.com . . . . . . . .. . .... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1993 16:03:35 +0000 From: Nick Rothwell Subject: Re: (i) Keyboardless Performance; (ii) Dance etc. >Would love to see it. I'll do it when I get a chance. >Hey! This is Valuable Information. I would rather read about this than the >PC Soundcards thread, which I have been skipping with enthusiasm. Indeed. What do I care about the Sound Bladder? Actually, we were very lucky. This was an AIDS charities' benefit thing with lots of acts on in the evening. Being a benefit gig, everyone helps for free, well, everyone that's there, which in this case meant no-one. A couple of months ago, when I first heard about this, I agreed to be involved, and to perform, on two conditions. One was that I could find a dance performer to work with (since I've not done pure music gigs for years, and won't except for certain kinds of project). Two was that Ali McArthur of Stageworks could do the technical provision and rigging, since he's the best in Scotland IMHO, and I could tell even then that without good tech. crew this would be a disaster. So, no Ali => no CASSIEL. I was assured that there would be lots and lots of gear (lighting, sound) and loads of helpers. We turned up at mid-day for get-in and tech., to find the place deserted apart from a pitifully inadequate collection of lights, and Ali (on his own) putting up the best rig possible given the stuff that we seemed to have access to. I won't go into the details of the rest of the organisation (except to say that the gear we were provided with was in a bit of a state: even the Mackie 16-channel desk was broken), but it was clear that there would be little in the way of stage management and no gophers to help out. However, we were lucky: since a lot of the publicity and so on had been circulated throughout the gay community (with the drawback of stigmatisation, especially since there was no publicity through standard arts channels and media, despite my repeated urgings to do so) it was essentially a gay event. So, we had good stage help: a couple of Canadian girls, from Vancouver, were making their way across Scotland, found out about the club night, and tried to cute their way in past the door security. Nice try, but no, a couple of gorgeous 20-year-old women cannot cute their way into a gay club. It doesn't work. So, they were allowed in on the condition that they would gopher for the stage acts earlier in the evening. I cornered one of them (name of George-Elaine) as my personal stage hand, looked after her, bought her a drink, and got top-notch stage-help from her. And that's about it really. >I might suspect faulty power; how were the mains there? Fine for everything else, and I did have a spike suppressor in the rig (though I might go for some kind of UPS sometime). >Interesting enough post to draw me out of the woodwork for a sec... Aren't they always, John? >As well, I sometimes get pretty tired of >certain archetypes and personalities among these communities... but that's >just aesthetics. Oh, from a purely aesthetic perspective, I have no problem with dancers at all, no Sir. But politically, yes, it can be a problem. Avoid the cliques, they aren't worth the trouble. >These days I just do dance gigs when I get calls - a few big ones a year, I >would say, which is about right for me. Hmm, I hardly ever get calls, and only do maybe a half-dozen performances a year, mainly when I can summon up the steam and get decent performers to get involved. But without money, there's not much I can do. >I think that writing and producing music for dance and theater is one of >the most interesting and rewarding things a composer can do. Ah, yes, however, I've found that music for dance and music for theatre are very different things, and the artists involved in the two disciplines work very differently, in terms of the way a piece progresses (either development or performance) and in terms of the structural landmarks. I have a good feel for dance, but theatre is very difficult for me to get my head around; perhaps my artistic skills are just unsuited to it. >Try to find people whose work you >like; I think it is important to be genuinely enthusiastic and interested >in your projects. Definitely. >To leave off with another name drop, I would like to point out that James >McCartney does a lot more dance music than I do these days, and probably >has a far more sophisticated map of the socio-political structures of the >Austin scene. :-) I don't know if he still reads this list, but he does >hang around the max list and rmms... maybe we can conjure him up. Dunno; I report bugs in his MAX objects but he doesn't bite...! Oh: I forget to mention the belly dancers, didn't I? God, what a rabble. Nick Rothwell | cassiel@cassiel.demon.co.uk CASSIEL Contemporary Music/Dance | cassiel@cix.compulink.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1993 15:46:51 +0000 From: Nick Rothwell Subject: (i) Keyboardless Performance; (ii) LXP-1 Faults If I get a chance this week I'll type up a report of this dance/theatre performance piece without a keyboard (but with a Peavey PC 1600, and MAX of course). It took a while to get into the right mindset but I think it was very worthwhile; I'm wondering whether I should go back to keyboard at all right now. More later on that if/when I get a chance. I'll not make it too long or (as one accusation stated) narcissistic, so I guess I'll be skipping the bits about tricks for getting quality backstage help when playing in gay venues, and the hassles of stage-managing belly dancers. (I was only trying to get out of having to make the tea and coffee.) The real reason I'm here is to try and dig up some electrical engineering insight. During the tech. rehearsal yesterday the LXP-1 went belly-up. Overload LED full on, power/MIDI LED full on, nothing over the audio apart from clicking at a few Hz with random bits of chorusing or delay. I cycled power and checked connections several times to no avail. I assumed a state of advanced and irreversible f*ckedness, due to a blown switched-mode power supply or something, and had to go ahead and perform without it. Luckily the '1 wasn't as critical as the LXP-5 or the Wavestations, and as it happened I'd brought in a QuadraVerb anyway to lend to a ballet director who desperately wanted some reverb for her vocalist (I programmed up a placebo reverb since we were playing in a large theatre where the natural reverb of the venue was fine for vocals) so I patched the QV into the main desk and got by at half-speed using that. I brought the rig back this morning and powered it on, and the LXP-1 was fine. This is what's confusing me. Hardware doesn't fix itself. One possibility is that the DI boxes were delivering phantom power or something, but I consider that unlikely since the technical crew were competent and besides, phantom power would get the mixer narked, not the effects. The other possibility is that there's a sporadic hardware fault in the LXP-1. I'll open it up and check for obvious loose connections or dodgy solder joints, but if anyone out there is more knowledgeable with this sort of thing than I am and could give an educated guess as to the cause, I'd much appreciate it. Meanwhile, because I picked up the QuadraVerb after our tech. run I had nowhere to pack it with the rig after the evening show so I had to take it along as I headed off to a late night ceilidh in the company of a lovely contemporary dancer whom I met when she was performing an Arts Council commission earlier this year. For some reason I seemed to forget all about the QV afterwards and left it behind in her car, so I'll have to see her again next weekend to pick it up. How could I have been so absent-minded? Nick Rothwell | cassiel@cassiel.demon.co.uk CASSIEL Contemporary Music/Dance | cassiel@cix.compulink.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1993 14:49:14 -0400 From: Don Meissner Subject: Dance Companies Here's a suggestion to anyone interested in writing music for dance companies: The American Dance Festival (ADF) has a program called Young Choreographers and Composers (YCC). This program pairs choreographers and composers together for a four week residency in the summer at Duke University. The composers are selected by the choreographers, not vice versa. Also, in your application you must demonstrate an ability to write for live musicians. I'm working with one of the ADF choreographers now, but not in the YCC program. He tells me that it's somewhat disconcerting to work with a total stranger, but I'm sure it can be productive. Deadline for applications is February 18. Good Luck! Don Meissner dmeissner@delphi.com (I have no affiliation with the ADF) American Dance Festival 1697 Broadway Room 900 New York, NY 10019 212-586-1925 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1993 15:24:16 GMT From: ANDY MCDONOUGH Subject: money dances thanks to all for the dance thread, your interest and good insight. well..it seems that there is a community of dance/music people around. i found the recent talk of funding very interesting... i suppose a absolute necessity in these times. as a US citizen i have a council on councils of "councils on the arts" who offer grants and fund various projects. this probably (it does ) tracks with the who's who that we've talked about. around these parts the trick seems to be to know how to be in the right position to be ready to apply to get considered for a grant....or short circuit the system by just getting hired by someone who has. this has been my good fortune in the past. my first comopsition for dance uses sounds of popular acoustic and electronic instruments (all from synths) in unusual percussion-type roles (some sounding only one pitch in various rhythms) throughout the piece. i am thinking about adding a midi controller/dancer on stage to add some realtime continous improvisation. <= maybe you see why i want to grow these ideas WITH a dance ensemble rather than just pass it on a tape. any ideas, reactions, farts-in-the-wind are welcome :-) ....andy ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Dec 1993 10:20:58 +0000 From: Nick Rothwell Subject: Re: money dances >around these parts the trick seems to be to know >how to be in the right position to be ready to apply to get considered for a >grant.... Getting considered for grants ... hmm, that's deeper waters. Putting in grant applications is like playing chess with an unseen opponent when you don't know the rules. >or short circuit the system by just getting hired by someone who >has. this has been my good fortune in the past. That's the sort of game I'm playing right now; everything hinges on reputation and track record, so getting involved with, and mentioned in the same breath as, someone established is the best thing you can do. My current Scottish Arts Council application had its names selected carefully. >i am >thinking about adding a midi controller/dancer on stage to add some realtime >continous improvisation. That's the way to go, I'm convinced. I'm finding that young dancers coming online now are interested in music and dance improvisation to develop work rather than choreographed dance and pre-composed music. Seems to come out of current trends in the workshops. Doing this kind of thing is difficult with electronic pop-music stop-and-go instruments like those on the market right now, whereas percussionists are in demand for dance work these days precisely because they can adapt and react quickly in workshop situations. I aim to get there with synthesisers, and I'm getting the tools online and running now, but it's a challenge. Nick Rothwell | cassiel@cassiel.demon.co.uk CASSIEL Contemporary Music/Dance | cassiel@cix.compulink.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1993 18:49:22 CST From: John Eichenseer Subject: Re: Music fur dance >>Interesting enough post to draw me out of the woodwork for a sec... > >Aren't they always, John? Oh, I dunno. Maybe I should post another Yanni review to liven things up a bit... >Hmm, I hardly ever get calls, and only do maybe a half-dozen performances a >year, mainly when I can summon up the steam and get decent performers to >get involved. But without money, there's not much I can do. Yeah, I guess I established a relationship with a few good choreographers/performance artists early on, and have kept doing their shows (from time to time). The disadvantage is that by not actively going out and observing the Scene, I might be missing lots of great new stuff out there... >Ah, yes, however, I've found that music for dance and music for theatre are >very different things, and the artists involved in the two disciplines work >very differently, in terms of the way a piece progresses (either >development or performance) and in terms of the structural landmarks. I >have a good feel for dance, but theatre is very difficult for me to get my >head around; perhaps my artistic skills are just unsuited to it. Definitely different. I guess I haven't workied in theater proper for some time. Some of the projects I have worked with have been labelled, oh, "movement plays," or something like that. Basically dance with enough plot and imagery thrown in that "dance" doesn't seem to cover it any more. I haven't done anything with actual *dialog* in ages. >Oh: I forget to mention the belly dancers, didn't I? God, what a rabble. Oh, sure, toy with us. ____________ >From a different message: >Is there a MAX list? I could really benefit from eavesdropping on such >a list. I'd even post my Roland GR-50 objects when I'm finsihed (if and >when). I am on the Netjam list but no traffic in months. I'm sure Nick as already mailed you this, but here for general dissemination is the welcome wagon: ________ Welcome to the max-edinburgh mailing list! If you ever want to remove yourself from this mailing list, send the following command in email to "Majordomo@dcs.ed.ac.uk": unsubscribe max-edinburgh John Eichenseer Here's the general information for the list you've subscribed to, in case you don't already have it: OPEN LIST This is a mailing list for MAX, Opcode's Mac-based graphical programming system for MIDI and multimedia applications. In fact, there are two lists: "max" addresses the entire readership, including lists elsewhere, whereas "max-edinburgh" contains the addresses of individual readers who have subscribed here. Requests for subscription, and other requests, should be directed to max-edinburgh via the MajorDomo mail server: this is the list where your address will be entered. Articles should be mailed to max@dcs.ed.ac.uk: this will ensure that they will go to all readers on max-edinburgh and elsewhere. seeya, jhno ....... . . .. . . . . . . . . Joh n E i c h e n s e e r D e l i c a t e E a r (512) 458-6474 eichen@trilogy.com . . . . . . . .. . .... ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Dec 1993 10:21:20 +0000 From: Nick Rothwell Subject: Re: Music fur dance >Oh, I dunno. Maybe I should post another Yanni review to liven things up a >bit... zzZZZZZzzzzzz ... >The disadvantage is that by not actively going >out and observing the Scene, I might be missing lots of great new stuff out >there... It's important to see what's going on in terms of new talent, new trends, and so on, and also important to keep fuelling the creative projects by seeing new material and ideas, correlating them together, and so on. This is all apart from the usual networking which is equally important. >I >haven't done anything with actual *dialog* in ages. I've not (yet) done anything with dialogue (although dialogue in dance is getting common these days), but even in a silent, movement piece, theatre people work completely differently from dance people, even on the same kind of piece. It's something worth bearing in mind... >>Oh: I forget to mention the belly dancers, didn't I? God, what a rabble. >Oh, sure, toy with us. Not very interesting actually, but having a dozen of them onstage, and then at the end of their piece, they all head off through the stage door to the front of the auditorium, getting in the way of a set of performers coming in to get ready for their piece, causing such a jam that we had to bring the house lights half up and I (who ended up stage managing parts of the evening performance as well as performing) had to bring the next act off-stage while the mess was being sorted out. And they were all wearing those bloody finger cymbals so the racket they made while they were sorting themselves out... Worth it, though; earned a good number of karma points that evening (them's the currency of the performance arts scene when there's no "real" money to be had). Nick Rothwell | cassiel@cassiel.demon.co.uk CASSIEL Contemporary Music/Dance | cassiel@cix.compulink.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1993 15:48:23 +0000 From: Nick Rothwell Subject: Re: Non-Drum Rhythms >Hmmm... so you can. I hadn't thought of that. That would require a bit >of patience, though, to match up wave sequence durations with vector >envelope times. No? Have you been doing this? Yes, with (all together now:) MAX. I use MAX's ramp generators to do vector mixes, and/or do it with a MIDI beat sync parser. Nick Rothwell | cassiel@cassiel.demon.co.uk CASSIEL Contemporary Music/Dance | cassiel@cix.compulink.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1993 15:47:12 +0000 From: Nick Rothwell Subject: Re: pah-day-dew >i have recently completed a short composition for electronic >instruments that i think would lend itself to dance. i have a >fair amount of stage experience, but i couldn't call any of it >"serious" dance. any ideas as to how to get the ear of potential >interested parties? Are you interested in dance as an artistic medium, or just as a medium to have your music heard/used? If the latter, I would suggest that you're going to have some problems; some knowledge of the way dancers and choreographers work (and think) is essential sooner or later in order to maintain a creative dialogue. if the former, then you should do the knowledge: go to the dance performances, make notes of the performers, choreographers, commissioners, admins, festival and group directors and composers, do the networking in the bar afterwards, catch the reviews, check out the workshop circuit, get to the funding policy meetings, and so on. I've been at this for a couple of years and have met, oh, maybe fifty dancers in the UK and know the work of a couple of dozen UK companies (plus major US and European ones), can recognise probably over 100 names and faces in the dance scene, know a half-dozen dance/arts critics well enough to go drinking with, and so on and so on, and I calculate that I'm about half-way to having the Scottish Central Belt dance scene mapped out politically. You just have to do this stuff if you're taking it seriously. Who you know is very important. But of course, once you know them, *what* you know (experiences insight, creative skills) are needed as well. John Eichenseer does dance stuff as well; I'd be interested to hear how his experiences resemble or differ from mine. Nick Rothwell | cassiel@cassiel.demon.co.uk CASSIEL Contemporary Music/Dance | cassiel@cix.compulink.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1993 12:38:47 -0500 From: idealord Subject: Re: pah-day-dew > > >i have recently completed a short composition for electronic > >instruments that i think would lend itself to dance. i have a > >fair amount of stage experience, but i couldn't call any of it > >"serious" dance. any ideas as to how to get the ear of potential > >interested parties? > > Are you interested in dance as an artistic medium, or just as a medium to > have your music heard/used? If the latter, I would suggest that you're > going to have some problems; some knowledge of the way dancers and > choreographers work (and think) is essential sooner or later in order to > maintain a creative dialogue. if the former, then you should do the > knowledge: go to the dance performances, make notes of the performers, > choreographers, commissioners, admins, festival and group directors and > composers, do the networking in the bar afterwards, catch the reviews, > check out the workshop circuit, get to the funding policy meetings, and so > on. I've been at this for a couple of years and have met, oh, maybe fifty > dancers in the UK and know the work of a couple of dozen UK companies (plus > major US and European ones), can recognise probably over 100 names and > faces in the dance scene, know a half-dozen dance/arts critics well enough > to go drinking with, and so on and so on, and I calculate that I'm about > half-way to having the Scottish Central Belt dance scene mapped out > politically. > Nick's giving this good advice away for free? :) My friend Don Meissner does exactly this and his star has been steadily rising in the New York dance/performance art community. Schmoooozing - damn - now he's got me doing it - spent all of Thursday night hanging out with these types. They won't listen to your tapes - but if you can get introduced (key word here!) they'll hang with you... and eventually you can get them to listen :) - it's the only way - bulk mailings - forget it... Jeff Harrington idealord@dorsai.dorsai.org ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1993 16:03:06 +0000 From: Nick Rothwell Subject: Re: pah-day-dew >Nick's giving this good advice away for free? :) Actually, a lot of it is common sense, and besides, anyone who is really interested in dance as a medium will be doing some of this stuff anyway. It's actually quite rarely that I do the merchandising bit; I tend to make the "social" contacts first and follow up when I have a better feel for the artistic interests and motivations of the person involved. >My friend Don Meissner does exactly this and his star has been steadily >rising in the New York dance/performance art community. The problem, in the UK at least, is a chronic shortage of money (don't blame me: I didn't vote Conservative) and a predilection on the part of the English and Scottish Arts Councils to award large quantities of money to well-established acts with track records, rather than awarding small amounts to "new talent". I'm currently hunting grants in the $5000 mark, quite modest, but have just been turned down by the SAC in favour of 5 projects (out of 20 applicants) which are getting $25000 each by my reckoning. >They won't listen to your tapes Oh they will actually, probably in the car; the tape will then get shoved into a glove compartment behind a couple of pairs of point shoes (oh, sorry, we're talking contemporary here aren't we?) and forgotten for six months. It's largely a matter of luck if they then find and listen to the tape again just when they're looking for that kind of material. > - but if you can get introduced (key >word here!) they'll hang with you... Get introduced? Luxury. If you can't introduce yourself to people you aren't going to get far. Apart from anything else, every introduction lets you fill in a bit more of the network. >bulk mailings - forget it... Probably worth doing as well, although the "official" networks are geared towards choreographers and dancers rather than musicians, visual designers, and so on; and official networks are geared to successful, track-record acts. But I do the occasional tape blitz; I have dozens of addresses for dance companies throughout the UK and Europe, mostly through mailshots from the London Dance Mafia, and it can't hurt for when you do actually meet them face-to-face. Nick Rothwell | cassiel@cassiel.demon.co.uk CASSIEL Contemporary Music/Dance | cassiel@cix.compulink.co.uk ------------------------------ End of the EMUSIC-L Digest ******************************