Instrumentality

Way back when I was writing music using MIDI: what we call now "virtual instruments" or "software synthesis," but at the time was largely in physical devices, often rack-mount ROMplers (a samPLER using Read-Only Memory chips to store the waveform data).

And my thought was that I should really learn to play a few of the instruments I was simulating: so as to get an understanding of the language of that instrument, how it was normally played, what is idiomatic and what is difficult, and thus produce more realistic MIDI compositions.

Some years later I was mixing bands and pit orchestras and that thought came around again in slightly different clothes: I should learn to play an instrument (other than keyboard) so I could understand and gain sympathy for what the musicians I was working with are going through, and learn how to better support them.

Forward several more years, and what changed is that I now had funds. A steady day job -- which also meant my free time was presenting in a form that made possible daily practice sessions with the instruments I could now afford. I wasn't mixing shows any more, and my own (MIDI-ish) music had moved in different directions, so what was left was mostly that largely inchoate desire to actually try a brass instrument, or even a violin, and find out if I could actually play it.

In the back of my mind was a new thought; that I could continue to compose with virtual instruments, but I could "pad out" the tracks with live recordings (the same way I was already using found sounds and samples and other sonic raw material.)

After about eighteen months of learning on what has turned into a growing collection of musical instruments I started on the first composition that would be designed from the start around recorded parts. And what happened? On closer examination that particular piece had the peculiarity that I could -- technically -- perform every part on it. There would be no MIDI, no synthesis, no found sounds. All would be actual musical performance.

The most surprising part is that it doesn't sound that bad.




(The other funny hilarious thing is that almost none of my new collection of instruments figured into it. Mostly, it became possible because back in my budget days the instruments I could afford were recorders.)