An Interview with Jean-Jacques Perrey

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Music and a message. Special program presented by your city station in which prominent musicians and artists are interviewed these interviews are presented with the intention of giving our listeners various and cites regarding the interest and aspirations of our guests here and of your for today's program is Dr Thomas Britton your system program manager of your city station. And now Dr Griffin our guest today is Mr John jock parade formerly a medical doctor who comes to us from France and Switzerland and who is now a composer of electronic music Mr parade has written quite a few scores for radio and television commercials and has his own electronic music studio here in New York City his most recent album is called the amazing new electronic pop sound of John Jock's parade and in it we have quite a few interesting facts and electronic music let's listen to one of his compositions called Island in space. Now you heard an example of electronic music. And that was called Island in space now. That brings up a question in my mind Mr Pereira. The piece that we heard sounded rather melodic and yet I've heard some examples of electronic music which sounded completely cut off on us you know now could you wouldn't define for us. Just what electronic music is is there more than one kind of electronic music or all there is many kinds of for that on the music basically in the clinic music is the music which does not come from make a nickel sources. The US is completely electron the king in other words when you play the violin all we need to saxophone it is a mic and the can still spit when you get a sound I would of seen the size a fine instance the sound is basically made and created by and then it turned exhausts which makes the big difference between mechanical and electronic music. I see but. Is there any difference in terms of the. Method that a composer uses that. Make the distinction in the types of music that one hears that are variously called types of electronic music in other words I have I believe I mentioned before in the selection that we just heard I could pick out a very quite a desirable melody the instruments seem to be distorted and you know in some respects but it was music without its firing and it seemed to be. Something that. Consisted of a straight recording of music which had been altered in the recording process now is that what was done in this case I notice you mention the word synthesize Is that what you're referring to when you were synthesize music is a good everybody as is different methods of making in a panic music my method is and I wanted to put electronic music on level of pop music I see I see you know and if you go for instance to an electronic music concept. I wouldn't it's a name that many economists music composers now take themselves too seriously the think that's of course it's a new approach of music that I think that exam says too seriously. Electronic music is not a newly fallen elite of people it's not the need for it. Initiated people it can be also put under to the level of the market and that's what I did with this album I used the electronic sounds on the. Concept of popular music and I see is all of your music in there are of popular music. The last play here I think I also made and also made is a tele music very mysterious things and that many lay my activities a based on Buck sound not hearing what to record what are rather what instruments were used in this recording and this recording for instance you have the on the alien you have the mode synthesizer and you also had special. Effects which they create with concrete music and put the loop I make a loop for instance as a basic reason and other the loop I play the melody and their management Well now what. I what orchestral instruments were used for any use at all oh just the reason section was used as August a lot of the drums and guitar and bass where I used as a reason. And on top of it I use good electronic music or I see I thought that the melodic instruments. Were actual you know our Kestrel instruments that had been recorded and then that this this process of changing ordering the sound was done in the recording studio now it was basically they made a dick sound you had wasn't mended the on the alien young which is a French. Electronic instrument which had been developed fifteen years ago on really on the island yes could you tell us just what an on the level is. Difficult to explain technically but it looks like a little piano it's very small and with a certain process of filtering this the sound you can create and recreate any kind of sound Oh I see in other words you're in a sense it's like an extension of the electric organ as well as the debate the basic. Consent is different because the organ. Is a. Human called the dog and the bunny funny yes the undiminished monophonic Oh I see you can only play model even though you can't see my one other thought I think I see. What I found interesting and you say it was developed fifteen years fifteen years ago here in France. And are you the inventor of the. I was I have been working with the inventor fifteen years ago and I'm thinking of the instrument and we improved it and I also brought this instrument in this country and that was. Nine years ago. That sounds like quite interesting I know that many of our listeners are probably interested in hearing more examples of your music. At the conclusion of this interview I can say that we will have the opportunity to hear several selections from Mr for parathas album but let's get back to our discussion. You mentioned certain techniques that you use you say you synthesize the sound could you explain that. In terms of a that I lay person would understand a person who is not either an electronic engineer or a musician but understand. This is a difficult thing to explain the goal because. It's a very complete with technique. But basically you know that the sound is a vibration these is a frequency yes there is and three thought I made to the fullest sound the frequency and the volume and the timbre right also the attack of the sound can be different you can have a slow at. Best to see that right so the sound is. Made created from the instrument. And from the the mind of the composer right to the instrument and from the instrument to the tape recorder Yes Now which of those aspects of the components of the tone shall we say. Are actually altered electronically when you synthesize these times for example you mention the time for. The volume. And the frequent the frequency and frequency the know so you know OK now let's take for example an A for forty I believe that it's called I Want To Hear one hundred forty vibrations per second all right and we'll say at a given volume. Twenty disability twenty decibels. That's about how loud could you know that this week or to. An automobile horn depending on from where you how we are. And of course the timer or the Imperial you know never finds any of the characteristic sound of a particular instrumental a violin a violent sound different from a trumpet even though they both may be playing a tone the same train the same eight hundred forty shall we say. Now when you sense the size the tone. Do you alter the frequency and the Tambor and the volume or what no when we synthesize let's assume it's for forty yeah and twenty decibels Yes the timbre can be changed filter I mean filter I see and also through attack the attack can be different it can be a softer. Shock but that aura Berkus of attack can have functions blue. But oh. Look I think I'll give you I said I think. It's really difficult to explain when you don't have the instrument here but yes of course I can understand that but that's basic That's basically what synthesizing the sound Yes Now are there any other techniques that you use in the actual creation of these sound combinations or using your and so used also very funny discovery you know you heard about music concrete in France of course music can create is the for instance you take a sound from an automobile home. And you played it backwards are you playing it. The speed a half speed so it changed completely the concept of the route and I developed a kind of library of sounds in my studio in which I have every kind of noises and this noises I can feel tell them treat them such a way that you want to call them as legitimate sounds for instance I can transform in that I will automobile horn into an elephant. And they from crying and in front would allow them roaring you know and I have a system of loops Feinstein's to make a basic of them but. I. Get many tick tapes pretty god the sounds and I put them together in the rhythm of course you have to measure exactly yes the length of the tape because the length of the tape makes the length of the sound right if you are for instance and. The seven half seven half inches for inches per second and if you want to establish a rhythm of one two three four you have to measure exactly how long it will be the quarter not of the eight yes and then you make it look at its own look you know that's also give a very strange sound in that if you heard it and I don't in space at the beginning it is a loop which creates a kind of feeling of strange strange reason but then completely different from the legitimate. Reason that it can give you the drive and get thousand of these things together and now the question has. Arisen in my mind in regard to electronic music. As far as the composers of shall we say the esoteric type kind of music. Shall we see those composers who feel that they are making some contribution to the field of music. And they compose electronic music is there a relationship between electronic music and traditional music in terms of the basic fundamentals or the components of music for example in terms of form in terms of harmonic structure of melodic the structure rhythm see all of the components of music that are used by the composers which we shall call the traditional composers those who use the regular orchestral instruments and regular notation I mean something that has that has developed over a period of of you know a thousand years you might say now it seems to me that many of these composers of electronic music are apparently throwing all this out the window and it seems that way when I think that we're of course I respect all these sweats you know I am I don't think it's that it's not good discourse it's it does is own way of expression it's a new expression of. I don't think music with no he's an expression of. Rhythm and Milla Dick. But thems but. It seems to me that it is not at the level of the public you know it's too complicated all it is not enough legitimate yet to be understood as a musical is God right I respect all the. Concepts of music because I've been myself at the beginning involved in such research you have to start with something but after after a while I just realize that it would be more a son and more. Easy and more nice to make it momin a deacon my approach to the public yes I can I can tell from having heard the selection that we played on the air I can tell that you certainly. Are concerned about having some semblance of melody that a person can listen to and can react to and and since you use the guitar bass and drums that gave it a underpinning which can help the listener to relate directly to your music I mean we can hear the harmonic changes and we can hear the rhythm and of course we can certainly hear the melody. I find that when you're trying to get music is use and that way we are really using the same techniques that are used in shall we say traditional music composition except that we are altering the tumblers of the of the sounds of the words we are really extending the range yes in a sense yes I think. Well that that that in itself I find interesting and I think that it has you know artistic merit. The thing that has often bothered me when I've heard electronic music before and I've heard extended compositions of electronic music which were written in. In an almost concerto Grosso manner with a standard Symphony Orchestra well and none of it seemed to be. Understandable to me and and of course I don't consider myself to be completely devoid of any in appreciation of dissonances and and forms and music which aren't immediately obvious to the ear now with with a Haydn symphony it's quite obvious what the principal theme is and what the secondary theme is and when the development starts and when we have the recapitulation and so on and the form is usually quite obvious the the harmonies are quite obvious and the rhythms are quite obvious and the melodies and and I daresay that that's one of the reasons why his music has has lasted over you know some two hundred years you know but I'm wondering if we might project into the future do you have any ideas as to the directions that electronic music is going to take do you think Oh I think it's going to be it's going to be within a few years a complete change in musical expression because more and more of the public will in the the end it can take sounds and you can you can foresee the future of for instance in twenty or twenty five years of a complete symphony written for the clinic music that's possible because. It has to happen you know we cannot stop the technique we can to stop the evolution of artistic mind and some of these days we can foresee that there won't be any more. There will be of course. Concepts we wish to a bit of and be on the O's and they are they will still be played in a legitimate way but there will be other composers will bring with you they will bring something else to the ear of the people of course they are the hands on their time now that's why it's very difficult to understand them but some of these days I think that electronic music would become a part of the life. And the you think that spells the end of live performances of music oh no no because you will always need an end and stage. The man to play the. The synthesizer those to play the electronic instruments the same way. You know I I mean I have the impression that. In order to you know synthesize the music or to alter in any way it requires a huge studio full of electronic equipment is that not so well for now yes because the synthesizers are not operated somewhere else and in a studio but ultimately you I think I believe that you will have the concepts of. For instance seven or eight synthesizers on stage that will play together and not in this in the size of but also electronic instrument like the Ideally you know on Martineau. Somebody will make a concert though make a symphony off out of synthesizers of all electronic instruments they say can bet my life on it that will have on I would also venture to say that when that happens chances are the they forms that. Are used and have been used in music in the past of the present they will probably undergo asked changes because if you change the nature of the music if you change your whole rationale and musical composition it would seem to me that one would also follow the whole idea until I don't think that you mean the humans didn't hear mixing from the UK a study with the leaders didn't need high end and shadows and timelines and HOLMES But that would be something else I could be a new expression the way other words were actually giving them to the public eye richer musical Now that to select from yes that which and why the stuff but. This sounds This sounds very interesting in fact I'm rather interested in hearing some of the other selections which are on this in this album and we shall have the opportunity to do so very briefly. Because me. Well are there any additional comments that you wish to make before we go I would like to say that the. On the commercial way. Using the area more and more electronic music. Whether the public realizes it or not I sometimes we don't realize it yet well Mr pray I don't want to cut you off and I certainly hope that I haven't but our time is moving and I would certainly like to thank you for your very interesting comments about electronic music so I want to thank you once again and I wish you the best. Of luck in your thank you Aaron he did. Well as one musician to another we all do thank you very much Neil and come and now we shall hear to selections from Mr parade's album The first is for Zsa Zsa's which I'm sure you'll recognize as a popular nursery rhyme tune rather and the other is Brazilian flower. Thank. You. Ily. Ily. Ily. Ily. Ily. You. OK. You are. You are you are you a. To. Talk to. You about listening to music and the message you know special program presided by your city station in which prominent musicians and artists are interviewed their host for today's program was Dr Thomas Griffin the Assistant Program Manager of your city station.