Terje Fjelde
Apologies in advance: After a couple of toots yesterday, I sat down and thought some more about #music, #musicAndTechnology, #musicPerformance and #musicRecording, and I jotted down some personal thoughts on the subject - just scattered fragments, definitely not to be taken as gospel, or even as a cohesive argument. But it's fun to share, so here goes nothing! (1/5)
Apr 19, 2023 at 10:37amWeb
Show threadTerje FjeldeApr 19, 2023

There was a time you could put Jascha Heifetz and Arthur Rubinstein in front of a microphone in a New York studio with vague traffic noise in the background and record an album in an afternoon.

And while those performances are still jaw-droppingly awesome, it's increasingly musical archaeologists who will appreciate their qualities, as modern musicians and audiences seek ever new ways to explore music in terms of tech (like immersive audio) and presentation (like Grimaud/Nitin) (2/5) #music

Show threadTerje FjeldeApr 19, 2023

Personally, I've been pulled in both directions for a while – and I increasingly view recordings and live performances as two separate art forms.

Electric/electronic/amplified music make less and less sense to me in a live setting. Music that has been conceived in a studio setting, with all the minute attention to detail and weighed considerations, becomes a faint shadow of itself in a live performance where 2, 4, 6 or 8 hands and a tape roll can only do so much (3/5) #music

Show threadTerje FjeldeApr 19, 2023

You can't simply plug in a Nord with a Rhodes sound and an effect pedal, play an approximation of your recorded tracks, and expect me to be as moved by that as I am on my headphones by carefully crafted soundscapes with tiny adjustments and sound artefacts that an army of musicians and engineers spent weeks perfecting in the studio.

I probably think recordings do a better job at replicating the qualities of a live perf than most live gigs trying to capture the feel of a rec (4/5) #music

Show threadTerje FjeldeApr 19, 2023

Physical presence is a good thing, but electricity still creates distance, in a way. You can, of course, turn your music into something else and more appropriate for a live format, and yet, the electric experience often ruins it for me anyway. But I've always been far more about nuance and detail than feeling the bass in my bones.

Acoustic music performances / improvisations in a live space, on the other hand, move me ever deeper the older I get, and the more I learn about music (5/5) #music

Show threadRoberta FidoraApr 19, 2023
@terjefjelde There’s a couple of really great books which talk about the spaces in which we listen and how different environments shape recordings that seem like they might be relevant to your thoughts. One is called Records Ruin the Landscape by David Grubbs and the other is Ways of Hearing by Damon Krukowski. The second one is available as a podcast too. https://waysofhearing.bandcamp.com
Ways of Hearing

A six-part podcast exploring the nature of listening in our digital world, produced for Showcase from Radiotopia. Written and hosted by musician Damon Krukowski (Galaxie 500, Damon & Naomi). Produced by Damon Krukowski, Max Larkin and Ian Coss. Sound design by Ian Coss. Executive producer Julie Shapiro. The complete transcript available as an illustrated book from MIT Press (ISBN: 9780262039642).

Ways of Hearing
Show threadTerje FjeldeApr 19, 2023

@RobertaFidora Thanks for that! I'll definitely check them out - I'm always curious about these things.

I have a vague recollection about similar topics being discussed in my "Music and Communication" course way back at uni, but that's more or less misty, out-of-focus brain fog by now (or "general knowledge", as I like to call it), and I couldn't remember any of the books if I tried!

Show threadRoberta FidoraApr 19, 2023
@terjefjelde You're welcome. Sounds like it was an interesting course too! I love reading things on that subject. I think I have some of the same conflicts between live and recorded sound and I'm constantly trying to find ways of describing the different types of transformation and communion during each experience but it always sounds very clumsy.
Show threadTerje FjeldeApr 19, 2023
@RobertaFidora Same, and I often find myself hoist by my own petard when I try to clarify my thoughts. There's certainly no universal truth – what seems to make sense in one setting/genre/mood/time/place/performance doesn't necessarily do so in another.