Message-ID: <alpine.NEB.2.00.1102061738420.26598@panix3.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.wvu.edu>, Wryting-L <WRYTING-L@listserv.wvu.edu>
Subject: PipaBiwa and Slover
Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2011 17:40:42 -0500 (EST)
PipaBiwa and Slover Listen to the pipa: Listening to biwa recently; it relates to the pipa and oud. So thinking through biwa through pipa, and for once pipa pieces that can hold their own without falling back into Chinese traditional sounds. So it relates to the old pipa tradition - a somewhat different instrument, played with a large pick, held horizontally. But then it's reversed again, I'm not using picks at all, opting for nylon-wound pipa ADE, and nylon a, instead of metal; my nails remain intact. So then the nail techniques are from everywhere, including cura cumbus, saz, classical guitar, all oddly picked themselves. So then the music has a lot of rat-a-tat and puncta combined with banjo and ukulele techniques thinking through martial pipa but more likely tales of the Heike. http://espdisk.com/alansondheim/pipabiwa1.mp3 http://espdisk.com/alansondheim/pipabiwa2.mp3 http://espdisk.com/alansondheim/pipabiwa3.mp3 Then there's the din software, described by James Morris (thanks!), which I installed in Ubuntu, not without difficulty; it's used as you might suppose for a drone piece that's only 160k mp3, since it's going into a Second Life installation; it's somewhat interesting. You can 'play' the software in interesting ways, and its quirkiness - which reminds me of AudioMulch - is fascinating. http://espdisk.com/alansondheim/slover.mp3