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Improvisation

Improvisation IntroductIon Improvisation Some nights I couldn’t get anything interesting out of the synthesizer and then there were those magical nights when it seemed every new sound was a source of inspiration. . . . A tiny movement of a wire or knob could make a huge difference. Filters were imperfect and the stray capacitance of my hand changed things. . . . Broken modules were frustrating, but with experimentation I found they could produce even more interesting sounds. . . . No longer interested in making tapes, I just wanted to experience new sounds, to find the elusive combination of timbres that would enable transcendence. . . . I was living with a machine and it was becoming part of me [1]. o writes Trevor Pinch of his first synthesizer, painstakingly cobbled together in 1973 from plans in a hobbyist magazine. In our technologically mediated world, most of us value our computers, phones, cars and saxophones for their rational utility—their ability to get a job done efficiently, predictably and reliably. For playfulness, exuberance and inspiration—in love, art, food or music—we turn to people, not machines. But Pinch speaks of his instrument not as one would a typical machine, http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Leonardo Music Journal MIT Press

Improvisation

Collins, Nicolas
Leonardo Music Journal , Volume December 2010 (20) – Dec 1, 2010
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Publisher
MIT Press
Copyright
© 2010 ISAST
Subject
Introduction
ISSN
0961-1215
eISSN
1531-4812
DOI
10.1162/LMJ_x_00001
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

IntroductIon Improvisation Some nights I couldn’t get anything interesting out of the synthesizer and then there were those magical nights when it seemed every new sound was a source of inspiration. . . . A tiny movement of a wire or knob could make a huge difference. Filters were imperfect and the stray capacitance of my hand changed things. . . . Broken modules were frustrating, but with experimentation I found they could produce even more interesting sounds. . . . No longer interested in making tapes, I just wanted to experience new sounds, to find the elusive combination of timbres that would enable transcendence. . . . I was living with a machine and it was becoming part of me [1]. o writes Trevor Pinch of his first synthesizer, painstakingly cobbled together in 1973 from plans in a hobbyist magazine. In our technologically mediated world, most of us value our computers, phones, cars and saxophones for their rational utility—their ability to get a job done efficiently, predictably and reliably. For playfulness, exuberance and inspiration—in love, art, food or music—we turn to people, not machines. But Pinch speaks of his instrument not as one would a typical machine,

Journal

Leonardo Music Journal – MIT Press

Published: Dec 1, 2010

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