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Friday, February 11, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
The Medium is the Message
In Marshal McLuhan's piece the medium is the message, I found this quote to be the most persuasive:
"If the criminal appears as a nonconformist who is unable to meet the demand of technology that we behave in uniform and continuos patterns, literate man is quite inclined to see others who can not conform as somewhat pathetic". (207)
McLuhan goes on to say that cultures where roles are given instead of jobs allows more freedom to "create their own spaces" (207) I think about the difference between jazz and say classical music. In classical music, there are more guidelines for a piece that aid in a forming a specific interpretation on how the piece should sound. For this reason the piece is consistent because it is the musician's job to play it in such a way. In jazz on the other hand, the music is less defined and less rigid. A jazz musician may be presented with a tune and he will play it whichever way he interprets it. Tempo, dynamics, articulations, etc, are not usually predetermined thus allowing the jazz musician to roam free within his own space and that of the song. Furthermore, "uniform and continuous habits" (207) are discouraged in jazz, replaced with freshness, spontaneity, and improvisation. In the end, a classical piece is set and determined based on centuries of the "right reading" of it while a jazz song is seldom played the same way twice.
"If the criminal appears as a nonconformist who is unable to meet the demand of technology that we behave in uniform and continuos patterns, literate man is quite inclined to see others who can not conform as somewhat pathetic". (207)
McLuhan goes on to say that cultures where roles are given instead of jobs allows more freedom to "create their own spaces" (207) I think about the difference between jazz and say classical music. In classical music, there are more guidelines for a piece that aid in a forming a specific interpretation on how the piece should sound. For this reason the piece is consistent because it is the musician's job to play it in such a way. In jazz on the other hand, the music is less defined and less rigid. A jazz musician may be presented with a tune and he will play it whichever way he interprets it. Tempo, dynamics, articulations, etc, are not usually predetermined thus allowing the jazz musician to roam free within his own space and that of the song. Furthermore, "uniform and continuous habits" (207) are discouraged in jazz, replaced with freshness, spontaneity, and improvisation. In the end, a classical piece is set and determined based on centuries of the "right reading" of it while a jazz song is seldom played the same way twice.
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