unhillbilly

Sign of the times

Anecdotal evidence of our aspirational brand for societal evolution in USA has diminished:

Recent tribute to You Forgot It In People …

Our minds were positively altered because by You Forgot It In People. Twenty years later after first hearing, there still are tracks that bring us to tears.

TL; DR: ♥️ Middle Kids and Mduo Moctar deliver.

We appreciate all of the artists covering this challenging work. There are a couple of gems on this album from folks perhaps unfamiliar to you.

For the original album tracks having the most emotional impact upon us, it’s a challenge for anyone to offer something either new or even sufficiently affirming given the source material and the variety of textures in all the live performances by Broken Social Scene.

There were two such occasions:

Cause = Time by the Middle Kids

Stars and Sons by Toro y Moi

We’re Still Here

Appreciation of souls in Lisboa girding their loins.

A gender-ambiguous character on Pink Street in Lisbon has skated backwards into the photo frame. — Joy on Pink Street

Composers: Achieving Repetition Equalibrium

I have no authority for saying so, but from what I’ve read and listened to, this I believe:

Humans are highly developed pattern recognition engines.
Human brains react positively to a new pattern when it is repeated.
Upon repeated exposure to this new pattern, human brains ignore the original pattern and instead focus on subtle differences among the original pattern and it’s repetitions.

If the signal is of musical form, how is this exploited by composers and music arrangers?

Here’s my simplistic take:

One strategy is to alter the “top” (melody) and repeat the “bottom” (harmonic structure). Not unlike classical composers “Theme and Variation” motif. See Mozart, et al.

Another strategy is: alter the “bottom” (harmonic structure), and repeat the “top” (melody). It’s most prevalent in jazz and to some degree in modern rock and hip-hop.

(insert photo of most representative composer here)

Of course this is a sophomoric generalization and a vast over-simplification. But it’s something to think about when inventing an arrangement.

(so many more references to musical works)