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Post by Dave Dexter on Jul 24, 2018 21:08:04 GMT
If electricity stopped working and computers all melted and you were forced into only using those technologies available to Mozart (for example), how would your output be affected? No samples or DAWs. Ink and manuscript with acoustic instruments. Everything hand-written and copied and no recording tehcnology.
It goes without saying that I would be borked, at least for a decade or two, so for solidarity I hope some of you would be as well.
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Post by Bob Porter on Jul 24, 2018 21:48:23 GMT
Dave, let's consider how and why you got into composing in the first place. Your in is that you are a guitar player. They may not admit it, but I think every guitar player ever has toyed with writing something. Some take a fancy to it, and some don't. No one has ever needed musical training or great instrumental skill to write music. Though instrumental skill sure helps. Because you play music, you listen differently than people who don't play. You were affected by film music and came to understand the power of music and film put together. Fortunately for you, you don't need electricity. Sure, it's hard to get good distortion and delay on an acoustic, but then it can do things an electric can't. You would find some way to write something, I have no doubt.
Consider Richie Heavens, who basically opened Woodstock. Just him and his guitar and a song he wrote. All the big names that were supposed to open were stuck in traffic. Electricity for the sound system made it possible to have a large crowd, but the same thing could have happened in a coffee house.
Dave, once bitten by the composing bug, you are a victim for life. You wouldn't be borked, just redirected.
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Post by fuguestate on Jul 24, 2018 22:27:02 GMT
A good part of my early compositions were pencil-and-paper only, including my Sonatina in E-flat, one of the few compositions I'm quite proud of. Most of my early work was done with only piano, pencil, and paper.
Of course, lacking modern computer aids to music-making, my progress would have been a lot slower. I wouldn't have had the easy access to the resources I needed to advance my skill -- online resources, scores, a way to reach across the world to you guys to get the feedback I needed, etc.. And I wouldn't have been able to write most of my fugues, because they are complex enough that I can't easily play them myself, and in the process of writing them I went through so many edits and revisions on the computer that if I had done it with pencil and paper, it would have taken years. If not longer.
But I agree with Bob, that given the urge to compose, we'd just be redirected, not stopped.
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Post by Mike Hewer on Jul 25, 2018 7:05:51 GMT
I suppose I'd be ok as I tend to write with a mixture of DAW, quill and imagination anyway. One of the best things I ever did was to get my own custom size ms printed and because the ms is large (40 staves and measuring 42X60cm), writing on it invites exploration, I can draw wave forms and sound combinations across the whole of the acoustic spectrum, such is the visual metaphor. This large ms weaned me of DAW composition - which I needed after media work - and back into the old way, which is the best way for orchestral music that needs no sync. I do use a piano though, but that's old tech, as are guitars!..so you'd be fine Dave. You'd just have to get Salieri to do your orchestrating, just don't take on a commission from him.
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Post by Dave Dexter on Jul 25, 2018 10:08:19 GMT
Dave, let's consider how and why you got into composing in the first place. Your in is that you are a guitar player. They may not admit it, but I think every guitar player ever has toyed with writing something. Some take a fancy to it, and some don't. No one has ever needed musical training or great instrumental skill to write music. Though instrumental skill sure helps. Because you play music, you listen differently than people who don't play. You were affected by film music and came to understand the power of music and film put together. Fortunately for you, you don't need electricity. Sure, it's hard to get good distortion and delay on an acoustic, but then it can do things an electric can't. You would find some way to write something, I have no doubt. Consider Richie Heavens, who basically opened Woodstock. Just him and his guitar and a song he wrote. All the big names that were supposed to open were stuck in traffic. Electricity for the sound system made it possible to have a large crowd, but the same thing could have happened in a coffee house. Dave, once bitten by the composing bug, you are a victim for life. You wouldn't be borked, just redirected. That's very kind of you to say, Bob, but I wasn't trying to throw myself a pity party! - I rely on DAWs, to a lesser extent on samples although these days I could just use a monophonic tone for everything, and have to compose in the piano roll. It's a little sad to think about, but I no longer consider myself a guitarist - I'm a composer who plays guitar and I'm thinking purely in terms of my orchestral, choral, classical work. I could certainly find workarounds in 1810 but the days of freedom, where I could open a project, compose something and have the parts and score ready for musicians to play in 24 hours, would be over. That's true of anyone to an extent, you'd need an army of copyists to achieve what a computer and printer can now, but the creative side of my work and the clerical would be severely stymied. Those among us who can work traditionally, like Mike for sure and presumably you based on your musical background, would be less hindered and I'm just curious at the scale of this hindrance to us all.
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Post by Dave Dexter on Jul 25, 2018 10:17:13 GMT
I suppose I'd be ok as I tend to write with a mixture of DAW, quill and imagination anyway. One of the best things I ever did was to get my own custom size ms printed and because the ms is large (40 staves and measuring 42X60cm), writing on it invites exploration, I can draw wave forms and sound combinations across the whole of the acoustic spectrum, such is the visual metaphor. This large ms weaned me of DAW composition - which I needed after media work - and back into the old way, which is the best way for orchestral music that needs no sync. I do use a piano though, but that's old tech, as are guitars!..so you'd be fine Dave. You'd just have to get Salieri to do your orchestrating, just don't take on a commission from him. "G#?" "Of course." My current full scores oblige me to make custom page sizes in Logic, now I'm writing for 5 percussionists. Not quite up to 60cm though. I'm sure I've seen a handwritten Williams score from Phantom Menace that's a two-foot sheet covered in red ink and genius. I think the handwritten side of things will forever be a mystery to me, though.
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Post by Bob Porter on Jul 25, 2018 12:04:03 GMT
Dave I was only suggesting that you are a composer because you play guitar. And really, it's hard to pity someone with 96 gigs of ram Mendelssohn used to go out and sit under a tree and scribble down a score for orchestra. Then give it to and assistant to write out properly. Some of those scribbles are still around. Without electricity I'm sure there would be fewer composers. Hard to say if music would be much different. Well no distortion guitar. Drat for me. It's kind of how I relax.
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Post by Dave Dexter on Jul 25, 2018 13:13:41 GMT
Dave I was only suggesting that you are a composer because you play guitar. And really, it's hard to pity someone with 96 gigs of ram Mendelssohn used to go out and sit under a tree and scribble down a score for orchestra. Then give it to and assistant to write out properly. Some of those scribbles are still around. Without electricity I'm sure there would be fewer composers. Hard to say if music would be much different. Well no distortion guitar. Drat for me. It's kind of how I relax. The equivalent of 96gb ram in the 1800s was two pots of ink. I spent ages yesterday trying to discover if the slight but definite change in my recording tone was amp, cab, mics, preamp or interface. Fortunately I think it's the amp. My very first re-valving is imminent, then back to the overdrive - not the distortion, I'm not 18 anymore.
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Post by BootHamilton on Jul 25, 2018 20:15:35 GMT
Well... as for me, it would be akin to being thrust-back 55+ years to my parents' baby grand, wherein I began playing and writing as best I could. I just wouldn't be looking forward to that first Wurlitzer EP + Fender Tremolux (GOD, I wish I still had that beautiful little lump of cream-colored, Tolex-covered magic).
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Post by Bob Porter on Jul 25, 2018 21:20:32 GMT
Dave I was only suggesting that you are a composer because you play guitar. And really, it's hard to pity someone with 96 gigs of ram Mendelssohn used to go out and sit under a tree and scribble down a score for orchestra. Then give it to and assistant to write out properly. Some of those scribbles are still around. Without electricity I'm sure there would be fewer composers. Hard to say if music would be much different. Well no distortion guitar. Drat for me. It's kind of how I relax. The equivalent of 96gb ram in the 1800s was two pots of ink. I spent ages yesterday trying to discover if the slight but definite change in my recording tone was amp, cab, mics, preamp or interface. Fortunately I think it's the amp. My very first re-valving is imminent, then back to the overdrive - not the distortion, I'm not 18 anymore. Ah yes, what eh? Overdrive! How about fuzz instead. I have an old Fuzzface. I also have a blackface Super Reverb. Don't hardly get to play it much. I also have the Princeton solid state. Same watts, half the guts.
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