From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V3 #349 Reply-To: alloy@smoe.org Sender: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "alloy-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. alloy-digest Sunday, December 27 1998 Volume 03 : Number 349 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Alloy: Hello EVERYONE !!! [CJMark@aol.com] Re: Re: Alloy: Hello EVERYONE !!! [CJMark@aol.com] Re: Re: Alloy: Jungle Line [CJMark@aol.com] Re: Re[2]: Alloy: Hello EVERYONE !!! [CJMark@aol.com] Alloy: Raymond Scott (Dolby's predecessor?) rant [RThurF@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1998 09:56:25 EST From: CJMark@aol.com Subject: Re: Alloy: Hello EVERYONE !!! Hey Chris.. Welcome to Alloy... and I have a question... is that South Miami Beach? Ciao for now. Mark ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1998 10:00:37 EST From: CJMark@aol.com Subject: Re: Re: Alloy: Hello EVERYONE !!! Happy Belated Birthday Kate.. I'm only now getting to the other 150 pieces of mail so this is a bit late.. sorry! I've been completely buried with work.. 20 hour days.. for the past 4 weeks. Yesterday.. Christmas.. was my first day with some time free. Today I get a late start.. so I'm trying to wade through the mail and reply as best I can. Merry Christmas to all those Alloyed that celebrate it.. and Happy Holidays to all the rest!! Ciao for now. Mark ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1998 10:07:15 EST From: CJMark@aol.com Subject: Re: Re: Alloy: Jungle Line Kate.. I'm there in SoCal in spirit.. my home is there.. but I'm in Florida working on a few projects right now. I just opened a new office with my partner here in Miami Beach. Timing is right.. the air is hot and the skies are blue. The new office is three blocks from the beach and I have my bathing suit in a drawer for quick lunchtime dips in the warm water. At night.. we all head over to Lincoln Road to eat incredible Italian food outdoors. I used to live here in South Florida.. so it's nice to be here again for awhile. But.. I'll be back to Hollywood in a few months. Ciao for now.. Mark ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1998 10:18:16 EST From: CJMark@aol.com Subject: Re: Re[2]: Alloy: Hello EVERYONE !!! Good job John.. The only way to learn a language is by speaking it.. making the mistakes.. and learning from them. I agree that the French can be a bit snobbish in their approach to others speaking the language.. though when I traveled to Paris on a few occasions for work I found that the shopkeepers and others were delighted that I would at least attempt to utter something that resembled French. I think it's primarily in the attitude with which you approach the effort. Laughter is expected.. so just prepare yourself and don't let that stop you.. I was on a vacation and ended up in Italy.. where I stayed for 5 years. Upon my arrival.. pizza.. lasagne .. pasta and ciao was about the extent of my vocabulary. The Italians are wonderful hosts.. however, and a quickly filled glass of Chianti does wonders for speaking a foreign language. I could relate endless stories.. but who has the time?? Ciao for now. Mark ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1998 00:45:56 EST From: RThurF@aol.com Subject: Alloy: Raymond Scott (Dolby's predecessor?) rant One of the Christmas gifts I received from my dear husband is a cd called 'The Music of Raymond Scott - Reckless Nights and Turkish Twilights'. I had asked for this on the recommendation of a friend.. because Carl Stalling - Warner Bro's/Looney Tunes music composer - holds a very special place in my heart :) and bandleader/composer Raymond Scott was one of Mr Stalling's inspirations. What I didn't know was that Raymond Scott was also a prolific inventor & an early innovator of electronic music. I found it extremely interesting, and immediately thought of Thomas who is so similar in many respects. I know that Thomas has always worked very strenuously to develop new ways of achieving his compositional goals through creative uses of technology (the scope of which I still have not fully grasped) and even through complete reworkings and invention... Raymond Scott did so as well. Among Scott's inventions was one of the first (1948) electronic synthesizers which could imitate a chest cough, kitchen clatter, the sizzle of frying steak, and jungle drums. Another was the Clavivox, which was designed to imitate the difficult- to-play Theramin by sliding smoothly from one note to the next on a keyboard without a break. Scott also holds the patent to the automatic scanning radio which tunes in at pre-programmed intervals to radio stations around the country, so that he could hear what was being played. He is credited with developing the first programmable polyphonic sequencer (the foundation of modern dance music), early trigger delays, dual delays, variable envelope generators, an analog waveform generator, and the 'Electronium', which was an "instantaneous composing machine" which could "synchronize entire musical compositions through the complex random generation of sequenced tones, rhythms, and timbres." It was designed solely for the simultaneous and instantaneous composition-performance of new music. It is asserted that, though the Electronium has since been far exceeded by computer devices, the concept of what he was trying to do "was in effect what is now a MIDI-composition studio." I've been trying recently to learn more about Thomas Dolby's composition style, and to me it sounds like he and Raymond Scott even thought of music in much the same way, lifting out different bits & pieces of music that they liked & rearranging them together, working it the way a visual artist works a collage. Scott composed without writing anything down, playing each part on the keyboard for each musician in his band & making him memorize it by rote. It was extremely painstaking for everyone, this music is incredibly intricate. It was as if he were using the band as the elements in a modern-day synthesizer. He would have LOVED Thomas' present set-up, with the sample library, synthesizers galore, etc etc. Incidentally Raymond Scott is still alive & in his 90's (though now in poor health) His last known composition was in 1986, using the MIDI technology which he helped develop. I definitely recommend everyone give his music a listen if you can find it!! Robin T ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V3 #349 ***************************