Making Music

I was reminded recently of a conversation that my brother and brother-in-law had on the way to ski at Purgatory (Now Durango Mountain, I guess) in 1977. I remember where we were, even. Greg was driving, Rob was in the front passenger seat, Doyle and I in the back. We were just passing Mancos, which is strange, because we usually went through Farmington.

Doyle and Rob were talking about music, and Rob said something like "In the future, computers will make the music." As a musician, I didn't like the sound of that. Doyle said, "Yes, but they'll still need musicians to program the computers."

I thought of this when I put together the attached musical snippet. It isn't much, and it isn't finished by any means, but it shows what can be done with a computer and some sound files. The piece has an Alan Parson's Project feel to me, and is built up from little snippets of music recorded by other people and arranged and modified by me. The piano part, for instance, was heavily modified sound-wise, and sped up. The main string section is a repeating, two measure phrase that has a command to change the pitch when I want a new chord. The drum section is two repeating measures of different patterns. I could add drum fills and percussion, but I lost interest.

The photos are of the program, called Cakewalk Sonar. It's what I use to do all my recording, but usually I'm playing the instruments. I found the exercise interesting, but not that pleasing. I realize there's nothing any more "cheating" about making music like this than a composer using musicians, or a director editing a completed film, but I still don't find it that satisfying.