OFF: GONG in LA, 6/2/99

[Doug Pearson]

On Thu, 3 Jun 1999 19:44:42 EDT, Chuck Rosenberg <Chuckrecs at AOL.COM> wrote:

>In a message dated 99-06-03 15:18:25 EDT, you write:
>
><< Fortunately, in the US, one inevitably gets to see Hawkwind up close and
> personal in fairly small clubs.  Indeed, Dave has always appeared to favor
> cheap flatware for this purpose.  I was raiding the silverware drawer and
> cranking up the delay the day after I first saw Hawkwind (fall '89) and saw
> how Glissando Guitar works!         -Doug  >>
>
>---Interesting. Allen's style must be pretty unique, though, 'cause I've
>never heard anything like it in HW or anything else.

Check out the break (after all the verses are through) in "Horn of Destiny"
(last song on 'Chronicle of the Black Sword').  Dave's playing glissando
guitar there, and also sweeping the knife up the fretboard with the delay
turned on for those swooping noises.  I think it sounds very much like
Daevid Allen there.  I can't recall any specific instances of glissando
guitar on 'Palace Springs' or 'California Brainstorm', but I do remember
Dave using that technique quite a bit on those two US tours; I'll have to
give those a listen when I get the chance.

>BTW, what is the origin/meaning of the word "glissando"? Chuck

On Thu, 3 Jun 1999 20:13:46 -0500 Christopher Bruce
<kaduflyer at WORLDNET.ATT.NET> wrote:

>***Glissando*** is a classical music term; in notation it refers to
>moving the pitch evenly up or down from one note to another without
>reference to any interval scale, though usually from one 12-tone note
>to another, it is frequently used in microtonal or atonal music and on
>analog synths in electronic music. The proliferation of MIDI digital
>synths has made it more difficult for the player to "gliss" very
>widely, only a couple of notes up or down usually, using the 'pitch
>wheel'. Its a much easier proposition on stringed instruments and
>voice, especially fretless strings like the cello and violin.

To clarify a bit, Glissando refers to moving the pitch evenly, BUT
DISCRETELY, from one note to another, in effect playing all the notes on
your chosen scale (usually a 12-tone one, as Chris states) between the
original and final notes.  This is actually easy to do with MIDI, but
impossible (OK, next-to-impossible) to do with a fretless instrument.  It's
also difficult to do on an analog synthesizer, as a quantizer is required
to convert all the tones in between two adjacent notes on a scale into the
closest of those two notes.

If the movement is done CONTINUOUSLY, instead of discretely, it's
Portamento, NOT Glissando.  This is easy to do with fretless instruments,
trombones, and analog (voltage-controlled) synthesizers, but difficult (if
not impossible) to do on fretted instruments or digital (MIDI-controlled)
synthesizers, except by using the pitch wheel, as Chris states.

>   Aside from Daevid Allen and Dave Brock from HW, the only other
>instances I can point to as examples are Jimmy Page of led zeppelin
>(Whole Lotta Love, Dazed & Confused)

The glissando-like sounds that Jimmy Page gets on these songs are mostly
from bowed guitar (similar, but not *quite* the same) or Theremin (not a
guitar at all!).  I don't think he played Glissando guitar in the
Brock/Allen sense (but I could be wrong).

>and Bill Buitenheys
>(ex-Architectural Metaphor, on their Oddyseum Galacti CD), Bill used a
>#1 Phillips screwdriver held by the tip with the handle touching thestrings.

Sonic Youth also used this technique (with drumsticks, too) on their early
albums ('Confusion is Sex', 'Bad Moon Rising', etc.).

>BTW-  Mary and I are back on the list after a couple of years ...

Welcome back, guys!  Good to see you again!!

and lastly, on Fri, 4 Jun 1999 01:20:04 +0100, Chris Warburton
<desdinova at EARTHLING.NET> wrote:

>At 19:44 03/06/99 EDT, you wrote:
>>---And what is a speculum? Too lazy to get the dictionary right now, Chuck
>
>speculum // n. (pl. specula / /)
>1 Surgery an instrument for dilating the cavities of the human body for
>inspection.

Uh, this generally refers to a specific cavity of the human body that the
(vast?) majority of the members of this list do not possess (and those few
who do are probably disgusted that we would have to ask)!

>2 a mirror, usu. of polished metal, esp. (formerly) in a reflecting
telescope.

In an entirely practical sense, I've been told that fabricating Specula
from plastic instead of metal has been one of the greatest achievements of
modern medical technology.  I certainly don't have any first-hand
experience to base this on, however.

>3 a lustrous coloured area on the wing of some birds, esp. ducks.
>[Latin, = mirror, from specere ‘to look’]

Is this from one of those dictionaries whose only definition of "merkin" is
"a cloth rag used to clean the insides of a gun or cannon"?

        -Doug
         ceres at sirius.com