Week 3 - Gordon Monro

Whilst Gordon's talk was interesting I couldn't help but think how I'd like to hear a presentation from a composer who has less to do with numbers and more to do with music. It seems the last three presenters have all been more into sound, noise and numbers. It's good to have diversity and I have learnt a lot from all three of the presentations.

I've noticed a lot of people mumble that they are not liking the content or music presented. I have enjoyed it all. I can't help but think it's good that people don't enjoy everything. Why do we have to enjoy music anyway?

I found Gordon's second piece that he played for us interesting in that the visuals didn't seem to fit with the music. I'm referring to 'Red Grains'. 1
The one with the Lego and lasers. The visuals were quite fiery and terrestrial. Whereas, the music made me feel like I was in a cave at the beach watching moths flutter around R2D2.

WORKSHOP

I found Glen Branca's 3rd Symphony titled, 'Gloria,' to be an interesting exploration of the physical manifestation of symmetry and form by exploring the relationship of dissonance and consonance. The overtone series is something now that I am keen to explore myself. 2

Here is a link to a biography of Glen Branca -

http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://mitglied.lycos.de/RaFuchs/jazz/branca/index.htm&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dglen%2Bbrancas%2B%2B%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DGGLG,GGLG:2005-43,GGLG:en 3

The other work played I didn't even bother to write it's name down. I just didn't like it. I found it boring and annoying.

Creative Communication

The key thing I learnt from the CC class this week was about 'ORGANISATION'. 3 How important it is to have all files, samples and tracks in their respective folders, correctly labled and categorised for efficient retrieval. I look at how disorganised my HD is and I think I really should do something about it. I've ordered an educational copy of Cubase SX. I'm pretty keen to get my hands on it.

http://www.steinberg.net/35_1.html 4

Audio Arts

I haven't had much to do with Patchbays before so it was a good lesson on learning about the different aspects and applications of them.


1. Gordon Monro."Artist Talk." Lecture presented at Electronic Music Unit, EMU Space, University of Adelaide, 16/03/2006

2. Glen Branca, Symphony no. 3, "Gloria". CD

3.Christian Haines. "Creative Computing Lecture." Lecture presented at University of Adelaide, 16/03/2006

4. Cubase SX 3, Home » Products » Music Production » Cubase SX3, Date accessed 03/04/2006