issue02

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
******************************