Oh Melody where have you gone...?

[Dufay]

One thing that I think has been left out is the question of longevity..here we are bringing up Bach 300+ years after his death.For music to surpass the era it was produced in it needs to touch people at a
core level, and the "trad" elements including, and probably especially melody seems to be what works best.Gregorian chant anyone?

[Meffy]

rockin1: Valid and well put.

[whyterabbyt]

Meffy quoth Where has Melody gone? Why, all over the world! Don't you people watch cartoons?

She's the drummer in this picture, ya sillies:

Thats a cover story. She was actually flyin' one of these...

[whyterabbyt]

See:

[Meffy]

Thats a cover story. She was actually flyin' one of these...

Heavenly little gizzy there. Those Hanna-Barbera toons get all the perks... it's wrong, I say, but that's commercial success for ya.

[edit] Oh, a DIFFERENT Melody! Thought never entered my tiny mind. :-) A marionette show?

[clueless]

Où es-tu Melody...



Ah! Melody

Ah, but she died in her golden Rolls, didn't she?

no, she died in a plane crash near...Sunderland!

[clueless]

clueless quoth AFAIK You can also thank him for G flat and F sharp producing the same intonation when you press them on your controller keyboard...

Thus buggering up harmony good and proper.

depending on musical context, of course. makes yer piano roll in Sonar somewhat more predictable in use. "ever tried 12 tone non-diatonic harmony using a pure tempered scale?" as i said to someone just the other day...

[Markleford]

Almost anyone with a musical talent can learn to compose classical...but very few can compose electronica

Bullshit. Try comparing the userbase of electronic versus classical composition forums for an actual metric. You'll find that there are numbers of people writing electronica by orders of magnitude over classical.

Part of this is merely preference: electronic is the pop music of our day. Part of it is the entrance price: it's quite easy to buy a copy of FL or Orion or Reason or ACID and be ready to go. (Though GPO rocks as an affordable starter classical package!)

But when it comes down to it, composing electronica is as easy as putting a bass line over a drum beat. And both of those can be loops. Electronica dramatically lowers the bar for inclusion in the world of "composers".

So, Do you honsetly think that Bach or Mozart would understand and succefully compose electronica if they were alive today??

Yes. And why not? And why do the two have to be mutually exclusive?

It takes a certain kind of brainfunktion/type to appreitiate electronic sounds...not everyone can do it...but almost anyone can understand classical.

More crap. So it takes no knowledge or sensitivity to understand the combined timbres of 80+ orchestral instruments with all their different articulations, modulations, and techniques?

And somehow a TB-303 with two waveforms and few knobs is a complete mystery to a classical composer?

You have a serious misunderstanding of the depth of knowledge required to compose for a large ensemble. Using a string patch does *not* make you a symphonic composer, just as using an electric piano doesn't make you a jazz composer.

You simply lack the knowledge to make these claims.

On the other hand, I'm not tearing down electronica. Great electronica is an achievement, a true artform. But average electronica is infinitely easier to produce than average classical.

At least this is what I belive...not sure if it's true.

At least you admit it. Passionate belief is commendable, but wishing doesn't make it so. I'd claim that your assertion is most definitely *not* true, and can assemble some logical data as evidence.

- m

[rockin1]

And somehow a TB-303 with two waveforms and few knobs is a complete mystery to a classical composer?

You have a serious misunderstanding of the depth of knowledge required to compose for a large ensemble. Using a string patch does *not* make you a symphonic composer, just as using an electric piano doesn't make you a jazz composer.

You simply lack the knowledge to make these claims.

Bravo Markleford...

[Stupid American Pig]

Melody is a slut

[dystonia_ek]

Melody and rhythm are overrated.

[Panda]

Well, i don't think i have much to add here after marlefords comments...

But i do think it's a shame that there's this battle going on between classical and modern (electronic) adepts...

But well, what can you do?[/quote]

[clueless]

Melody and rhythm are overrated.

only the mediocre ones

[mayan]

Winter must be getting very long...We have the "loops are bad/loops are good/no, loops are bad/no, asshole, loops are good" thread; we have the "drugs are bad/drugs are good/drugs are really, really bad/drugs are -um- er...what were we talking about" thread; and now we have the "melody is good/melody is not as good as you think it is" thread.

Now, I can get as subjective as the next person but it seems to me that the level of discourse should be directed toward trying to understand and learn from different points rather than trying to convince others of the rectal-tude of our own point of view coz this is a highly relative universe and there ain't one person who's truth is gonna be correct 'cept for that one person...although we can certainly expand our little narrow apertures by trying to grasp what others are saying.

Alright, rant over...long, long ago, I started listening to Xenakis, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Pharoah Sanders, St. Terry Riley etc. They blew my mind...totally and irrevocably altered my way of hearing. Similarly, somewhat more recently, I started listening to some of the turntablists, DJs and electronic folk coming down the pike and -again- my mind was blown. I realized that this was a whole different and utterly new way of hearing and making music. I'm still delighted by Mozart and blown away by Bach but my horizons are so much broader. I realize this is my own particular path and that the best way I know of to clear a room -even today, is to put on an Eric Dolphy record or Muhal Richard Abrams, but so be it. There is as much integrity and creative power in that stuff as not. I chose to make electronic music - in part because I'm too lazy or not properly wired to grasp much harmonic theory and partly because what floats my boat is the genetic make-up of the mitochondria of sound - and how to alter, splice and recombine it. I like timbres and textures. So sue me.

And let's don't forget, music has yo way different purposes. Some of the electronic stuff is for dancing. I don't care if it all sounds the same or similar as long as it gets my butt shaking. Would I sit down and listen to it in an easy chair? Probably not. Then again, the chances of my shaking my booty to Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (?) are probably narrowed by substance imbibed (see, aforementioned drug thread).

In short (or long), I can see where the discussion lies but not the internecine argument.

[vurt]

someone else said it but im afraid i cant be arsed goin back through the thread to find who
its about havin fun and enjoying what you do.its not a competition and personally i feel that if anyone thinks it is then theyre in it for the wrong reasons(or the right reason depending on your view of money)
either way classical is not better than electronica, electronica is not better than pop,pop is not better than rock and rock is not better than classical.theyre just different.
its the same as saying im a better human than you.its obvious that were just different
as i see it listen to stuff you like dont listen to stuff you dont like.
there is no good n badd just like and not like.because i dont like something doesnt make it bad,or because i do doesnt make it good
ive met melody from captain scarlet (actually et the whole "cast" cept for captain black as he was off having his arms replaced