{"id":85,"date":"2021-08-31T12:48:04","date_gmt":"2021-08-31T12:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phil-c.com\/wphi\/?p=85"},"modified":"2025-11-08T13:30:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T13:30:03","slug":"what-multitrack-recording-tells-me-about-music-and-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phil-c.com\/wphi\/2021\/08\/31\/what-multitrack-recording-tells-me-about-music-and-life\/","title":{"rendered":"What multitrack recording tells me about music (and life)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>TL;DR: <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Almost all of the pleasure of <strong>music <\/strong>comes from playing <em>in real life<\/em>, with other people. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Almost all of the pleasure of <strong>life <\/strong>comes from doing it <em>in real life<\/em> with other people.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Musicians are constantly, unconsciously adapting to subtleties of pitch, timing, phrasing, intensity, breathing, &#8230; and that&#8217;s what makes a performance worth listening to.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the years, I&#8217;ve spent a lot of time (far too much) putting together multitrack recordings, and I&#8217;ve come to realise that there&#8217;s almost no value in them other than a personal challenge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>One exception: If I&#8217;ve arranged a piece for brass ensemble and I just want to hear whether or not it works (ok: to <em>satisfy myself<\/em> that it works). This isn&#8217;t a <em>performance<\/em> &#8211; more <em>demonstration<\/em>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The other exceptional exception was during the lockdown months, where I just needed a musical challenge &#8211; and to some extent wanted to emulate playing music with people. This isn&#8217;t a <em>performance<\/em> &#8211; more <em>desperation.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Enjoyment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;d like to define three classifications of musical enjoyment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Qualities inherent in the music<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Added value from the subtleties of performance\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Personal interpretation<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Unique qualities of the performer and instrument<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>For a perfomer: Musical interaction \n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>ensemble, harmony, teamwork, friendship, fun.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Social interaction\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Knowing or identifying with the performer or other performers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Appreciation of skill\/talent\/confidence\/charisma<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>For the listener: Vicarious (imagined) enjoyment<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Nearly one out of four<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I guess the multitrack experience just-about renders some of the quality of the music. But, to be honest, it&#8217;s so very difficult to get the parts in tune and together that I&#8217;m not sure you&#8217;re going to end up with justice to the music itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There&#8217;s almost no <em>interpretation<\/em> because of the mechanical way that you have to put these things together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Clearly no interaction. Trying to coax some kind of sympathy <em>now  <\/em>from a recording of yourself from earlier that day is really quite depressing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I guess there&#8217;s an element of skill, and I guess somebody might think that the guy doing the multitrack recording is actually enjoying it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why do it?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>First, it&#8217;s often just interesting to get some kind of rendition of the music. As I mentioned above: Often it&#8217;s nice to hear what a new arrangement sounds like before you inflict it on your friends! Sometimes (<a href=\"https:\/\/phil-c.com\/wphi\/2003\/08\/31\/william-tell-in-2003\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/DAKOvIXJW5U\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>) it&#8217;s reasonable to assume that nobody will put the effort into performing it, so this is the only way you&#8217;ll hear it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then there&#8217;s the element of challenge. This isn&#8217;t musical, it&#8217;s just a technical, personal goal that breaks up the relentless playing of Bach cello suites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I guess there&#8217;s also some showing off. But, really, if you&#8217;re somebody like me you&#8217;d go a long way before you found somebody who cares &#8211; and, irritatingly, even further to find somebody who appreciates how bloody difficult it is, who cares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Conclusion: Multitrack is a demonstration, not a performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">An allegory for life?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Life: The individual exists in the context of the surrounding people, things, smells, history, information, memory, hormones, world&#8230; The value (magic) in an individual&#8217;s <em><strong>life <\/strong><\/em>is in their interaction with those people and that universe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>joy <\/strong>of making music is in <em>making music with people<\/em>. The joy of <em>consuming <\/em>music is more subtle: It&#8217;s partly vicarious. It&#8217;s <em>being moved<\/em>. A concert or a gig is about experiencing the <em>people <\/em>performing and the imagination\/mastery\/message of the composer. (That&#8217;s why &#8220;AI generated&#8221; sounds are not music)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>People: In life, a person is the relationship that others have of him or her. If I evaporate, Helena will still have her version of me; all of my friends will still have their version of me. (If I was an author or politician or attractive or famous, millions of people would have their mes.) Whoever I am, if I evaporate, the only fraction of me that&#8217;s missing is my fraction. Likewise, in performance it is the relationships that make the magic. A quartet has six two-way relationships &#8211; and four with each listener. But a multitrack recording has <em>none<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">All recorded music<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I would suggest that most <em><strong>studio recordings <\/strong><\/em>are joyless. But that&#8217;s a discussion for another day. Just one example: Listen to Hiromi live. Then listen to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pnISpahN2dM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">this<\/a>. Then listen to <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/track\/2IqkEGwnzPU5TNhX9GaTpG?si=6bc99f2d534e42d1\">the studio recording<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TL;DR: Over the years, I&#8217;ve spent a lot of time (far too much) putting together multitrack recordings, and I&#8217;ve come to realise that there&#8217;s almost no value in them other than a personal challenge. Enjoyment I&#8217;d like to define three classifications of musical enjoyment: Nearly one out of four I guess the multitrack experience just-about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-multitrack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phil-c.com\/wphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phil-c.com\/wphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phil-c.com\/wphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phil-c.com\/wphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phil-c.com\/wphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/phil-c.com\/wphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":225,"href":"https:\/\/phil-c.com\/wphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions\/225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phil-c.com\/wphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phil-c.com\/wphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phil-c.com\/wphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}