[Fmpro] Quote I read today

[Christopher Alpiar]

Yea I agree, only main stream film music often involves years of study  
and refining of craft and mainstream rap often includes years of  
smoking weed and hitting a button on a casio :p

I think of the hacks that have fooled us: 3 6 mafia who won an  
OSCAR!?!!?!?! Over the music from Crash!?!? lol that was a sad sad day

But I do believe that rhythmic music can be music. Rhythm is the  
*only* thing needed to make music. Harmony is essentially only very  
fast sympathetic rhythms in the end ;-)

I studied for 3 years the music of Ghana with Master Drummer Abubakari  
Lunna. This man is African royalty, as being a master drummer is ONLY  
achieved from being born into it. He taught me so much, and during the  
lessons of Ewe and Dagomba (Damba) music I heard all the rhythm of all  
modern music and had realizations that it all came from there. Really.  
Every rhythmic concept in modern western pop music forms: all  
different hip hop, jazz, swing, blues, rock, all are direct  
derivatives of rhythms found in African music. And with an African  
American invention - the drum set - came a way for one man to create  
what it would have taken many men to play.

That experience was an epiphany for me. I realized that my saxophone  
was simply 44 drums that followed a tonal path of 12 tone chromatic  
tuning. And combining that with awareness of the affect of tension and  
release in harmony is the core of how I look at music. Of course  
understanding European harmony and rules going back to Gregorian Chant  
is important to be balanced and grounded, but it all comes down to  
rhythm tension and release ;-)

Christopher Kennedy Alpiar
Cinematic Composer
937.294.0900 (Dayton Studio)
310.339.9603 (Los Angeles)
877.294.0912 (Toll Free)
www.alpiar.com


On Apr 18, 2008, at 11:47 AM, Eric Goetz wrote:

> On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 8:20 AM, John Stone  
> <buddhastone at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> May I pipe in please?
>
>
> Thanks for speaking up, John.  Hip hop (it hasn't been called rap  
> since the
> 80's guys) is one of the most important and influential forms of  
> music in
> the world today.  All around the world, it has become the voice of the
> oppressed.  There's a great world music program every Tuesday from  
> 6-9pm,
> PDT on KEXP, a public radio station that broadcasts in Seattle and  
> NY (or on
> the web at http://kexp.org/).  The host Derek Mazzonne, is extremely
> well-informed and in touch with what's going on in the world, music- 
> wise.  I
> listen fairly regularly and am consistently blown away by the stuff he
> shares.  There is some amazing music (dare I say, art?) that is  
> being made
> out there in the world today.  Some of it is extremely virtuosic and  
> complex
> in it's structure.  Much of it is a fusion of hip hop and  
> traditional music
> of the region.
>
> Please don't confuse hip hop, with what you see/hear on TV.  Just as
> main-stream film music is mostly crap, the same is true with hip  
> hop.  There
> is amazing music being made in both genres.  You just have to look  
> hard to
> find it.
>
> Eric