Re: GouldNet

[mwilliamson@alston.com]

        This is a fascinating post and I thank you for it.  I definitely 
        think GG would have been attracted to the web, etc.  It would 
        have suited his personality beautifully.  Much like the way 
        Timothy Leary became obsessed with the web during his final 
        years.
        
        Here's another thought I've had.  Given that GG was one of the 
        first musicians to embrace digital recording technology, would 
        he have become interested in MIDI technology if he had lived 
        through the 90s?  When Gould died, this technology was still 
        primitive, analog technology having prevailed through the 70s 
        and early 80s and early digital technology being nothing like 
        the "General Midi" system that's available now.  Some of the 
        equipment that's available now (and relatively inexpensively) 
        would have allowed him to match any sound he wanted to any 
        keyboard feel (and we know how particular he was about that) 
        simply by mixing and matching equipment.  Some of the Fastar 
        controllers feel very piano-like and something like a Roland 
        A-30 feels pretty darn close to an 18th century fortepiano, but 
        the sound is strictly a function of what you connect the 
        controller to and what you do with it.  And pitch problems 
        disappear completely, since the digital technology can produce 
        perfect equal temperament or you can custom-assign other 
        temperament systems.  I personally would have loved to see what 
        GG would have done with MIDI technology and the music of Bach.

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: GouldNet
Author:  Katherine Lee <klee@dna.bc.ca> at internet
Date:    2/3/97 4:05 PM


>More thoughts on reading Friedrich's book: has it occurred to anyone else 
>that Gould -- with his deep in the night phone calls lasting hours, his 
>desire for a kind of companionship which would leave his privacy intact -- 
>would have *loved* the Net, especially email? Or do you think he was 
>attracted to the phone specifically because of its vocal nature; the fact 
>that you can, as he often did, use it to sing down, extemporise, 
>impersonate, edit, even, when the need arose, play music down it?
     
Such an interesting question!
     
As a committed telephone conversationalist, lover of solitude and wired 
multimedia producer, I can completely relate to Gould's attachment to Mr. 
Bell's medium of communication.  There's an immediacy and an intimacy that 
I associate with having someone's voice right in my ear, that combines well 
with the built-in privacy and safety factor of physical separation.
     
Words on the computer screen can be effective in conveying the complexity 
of one's thoughts and moods =8A however, as we've probably all experienced, 
there's a greater chance of being misunderstood =8A except for emoticons, 
it's harder to articulate as precisely one's intent, expression, humour, 
and such.
     
I hope this is not too far off-topic, but I think it's in Diane Ackerman's 
book, _A Natural History Of The Senses_, that there's a related discussion 
about how blind people perceive the world, compared to those who are deaf. 
According to social research, those who rely on their sense of hearing to 
understand and communicate with others have a greater sense of connection 
with people, because they have the benefit of hearing the way words are 
used and spoken, whereas people who rely on sight alone are at a 
disadvantage, simply because the subtleties of tone are not accessible to 
them.
     
I'm sure this could lead back into a discussion of the power of music vs. 
anything visual or literary =8A but I know that subject's been covered 
already!
     
Anyway, I just want to add that I'm enjoying everyone's posts =8A and thanks 
for bringing this subject up.
     
     
   _________________________________________________________________________
     
       k a t h e r i n e   l e e    m u l t i m e d i a    d e v e l o p e r
     
      DNA Multimedia Corporation    Tel: (604) 730-0306, ext. 103
   1737 West 3rd Avenue, Ste.230    Fax: (604) 732-7331
                   Vancouver, BC    E-mail: klee@dna.bc.ca
                  V6J 1K7 Canada    http://www.dna.bc.ca