[78-L] OT Musical genres^

[Julian Vein]

JD wrote:

> I was a bit  amused by the responses that assumed you were talking about 
> instruments when you mentioned "devices." This is a difficult question to 
> have answered without a working knowledge of  orchestration, composition, 
> musical sytyles and a gang of other related subjects. Jeff above gave an 
> accurate answer in mentioning 12 tone (serial) writing which has long been 
> in  use and doesn't always have to sound threatening or difficult to absorb. 
> But that's only one of many options available to the composer. In addition 
> to the musical style used part of the answer lies in the orchestration, the 
> type of tonal color the composer decides upon.
> 
> A simple answer to your "Red Indian" question might be the use of what we've 
> come to recognoze as a Native American sound; the familiar repeating tom-tom 
> beat (BOOM boom boom boom, BOOM boom boom boom,etc.) combined with 
> instruments written in fifths. It's rather trite but all will recognize it. 
> Similarly for Asian or Chinese music using the pentatonic (five note) scale. 
> Recently I  viewed an old film on  that used a pentatonic melody against 
> traditional harmony to depict the Orient. Even though it sounded more 
> western than asian the effect was there subtly.
> 
> If you  think back to many of the films (particularly from the thirties 
> through the fifties)    which open with a view of a large city and its 
> hbbub of people  and traffic  you may recall that a very similar musical 
> style and orchestral sound  was utilized in many of these scenes. Most of it 
> sounds very Gershwinesque...think of parts of  "An American in Paris" as a 
> simple example of this style. In scenes depicting sea voyages,  sailing 
> ships or the south seas you again will find a great similarity in the 
> writing. Lots of woodwinds and strings sounding very breezy and sunny.

> Jack Daney
>       To be a musician is a curse, to not be one is even worse
======================
I suspected that some answers to my question would be incomprehensible 
(to me at least). It's like a mathematician trying to explain complex 
formulae to a greenhorn. I've watched TV programmes about maths and come 
away none the wiser. Not because I didn't understand the explanations, 
but because none was given. Rather like programmes about pornography, 
which stop short at the most interesting point!

The worst examples I can think of is when Hollywood incorporates a scene 
purporting to be in London, and is always accompanied by variations on 
"The British Grenadiers".

      Julian Vein


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