Pre-WWII Avant-garde Music

TockTockTock · 11-01-2011, 11:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blastingas10

How was it not experimental in the beginning? The definition of experiment is "an act or operation for the purpose of discovering something unknown." I'd say the first blues players were doing some experimenting.

Blues music wasn't all that unknown (as far as music composition goes) in the beginning... its sound was derived from the melancholy folk songs that African Americans would sing while they would work. Also, avant-garde music is characterized by being structurally unconventional and (usually, if not always) atonal... blues is not. Personally, I prefer the term "avant-garde" to "experimental" to avoid any confusion... or those just wanting to argue about semantics and genre-naming in music.

Here are two songs that were released in the early 20th Century... one is a delta blues song and the other is an avant-garde/noise piece.

Do you understand what I'm getting at?

blastingas10 · 11-02-2011, 08:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jack Pat

Blues music wasn't all that unknown (as far as music composition goes) in the beginning... its sound was derived from the melancholy folk songs that African Americans would sing while they would work. Also, avant-garde music is characterized by being structurally unconventional and (usually, if not always) atonal... blues is not. Personally, I prefer the term "avant-garde" to "experimental" to avoid any confusion... or those just wanting to argue about semantics and genre-naming in music.

Here are two songs that were released in the early 20th Century... one is a delta blues song and the other is an avant-garde/noise piece.

Do you understand what I'm getting at?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Janszoon

You're acting like blues sprang into existence fully formed at some particular time, but it didn't. It's the product of organically evolving musical tradition and, as such, is essentially the antithesis of "avant-garde" as the term is generally used.

All music has been a product of evolution, Whether it was the evolution of traditional music or the evolution of technology. Music isn't all about technical ability and experimenting, it's about feeling. And I honestly don't see how there is any feeling in that video above. Seems like its all about experimentation.

TockTockTock · 11-02-2011, 08:26 PM

Quote:

And I honestly don't see how there is any feeling in that video above.

Really? I think it feels distant, cold, ominous, and dehumanized.

EDIT: Oh, and "Ionization" is a great song... Albeit, it's not my favorite piece by him, but it's definitely something to be admired.

Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra · 11-02-2011, 09:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jack Pat

Really? I think it feels distant, cold, ominous, and dehumanized.

EDIT: Oh, and "Ionization" is a great song... Albeit, it's not my favorite piece by him, but it's definitely something to be admired.

Not mine, either, but I just had to point out the inventiveness of avant-garde sometimes isn't always veering away from accessibility, and often is reflected in music since.

Also, Blastinggas, the futurists were out to anger people. I imagine what you're saying about 'having feeling' is wrong. Imagine you played a Sex Pistols record do an 80 year old lady in the 70s. Then you ask her if it 'has feeling'...

Same response. Same purpose, really.

Does it make the Sex Pistols musically invalid, or is it you refusing to see the bigger picture?