Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ncar!mephisto!gatech!artsnet!mgresham
From: mgresham@artsnet.UUCP (Mark Gresham)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: Music symbolism (was Re: Mira Balaban, among other things)
Keywords: music, symbolism
Message-ID: <842@artsnet.UUCP>
Date: 28 May 90 13:59:18 GMT
References: <13102@venera.isi.edu> <10293@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> <16182@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <10340@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> <16283@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <1990May11.134638.22866@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> <844@swan.ulowell.edu> <13419@venera.isi.edu>
Reply-To: mgresham@artsnet.UUCP (Mark Gresham)
Organization: ARTSNET  Atlanta, GA  USA
Lines: 47

In article <13419@venera.isi.edu> smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu (Stephen Smoliar) writes:
>[...].  How does a string quartet keep themselves coordinated?  Each
>member has his own "program;"  but that program is "clock sensitive."  How
>do they agree on the ticks of the "reference clock" which keeps them together?
>Note that I deliberately chose a string quartet because in such an ensemble
>there is not necessarily the single "authority figure" you would find leading
>an orchestra.  For much chamber music, this responsibility MUST be shared;  but
>we know very little about HOW it is shared.
>
>Now we can make the matter even MORE interesting by taking the parts away.  Now
>we are in the domain of jazz.  There is still a good deal of coordination going
>on;  but that coordination need not necessarily be explained in terms of the
>"charts."  If we can obtain a better understanding of how such musicians
>communicate (strictly on matters of clock synchronization without getting
>knee-deep in questions of emotion and "meaning"), we may find some valuable
>insights concerned with the coordination of independent problem solving agents.

This makes me think of a rehearsal technique I've used with the
Atlanta Meistersingers, which is to have them stand in a circle to
sing, but facing *out*.  And it works.  Perhaps it isn't as much
of a visual matter (i.e., seeing subtle prepratory movements) as
one might imagine, but a matter of anticipation and sampling
results of that in an auditory manner for adjustments.  (Clock
ticks maintained internally (memory and measurement), adjusted
by perception and fuzzy logic.
  (Study the filght of birds in groups, he said, sudden changes in
the group pattern all at once (?) to unexpected situations.)
  Memory.  How much does the experience of a specific piece in 
rehearsal or previous performance affect the ability at
synchronizing the "clocks" of the group?  Improvization: calling
up long-term memories of well-digested riffs, etc. -- playing out
of old habits.  Jazz example cited above, musical symbols of score
replaced by commonly held experiences and methods -- old habits
(individual, collective) played out in familiar or newly
recombined manners.  Memory again.  And anticipation: we behave
as if the sun will rise tomorrow, that the laws of gravity will not be
repealed.

Cheers,

--Mark

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Mark Gresham  ARTSNET  Norcross, GA, USA
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