PROBES #22.2
Auxiliaries
Curated by Chris Cutler
The PROBES Auxiliaries collect materials related to each episode that try to give a broader – and more immediate – impression of the field. They are a scan, not a deep listening vehicle; an indication of what further investigation might uncover and, for that reason, most are edited snapshots of longer pieces.
We have tried to light the corners as well as the central arena, and to not privilege so-called serious over so-called popular genres. In this auxiliary, Asian instruments find their way into all sorts of unexpected situations, both at home and abroad.
Chris Cutler's survey of the incorporation of exotic instruments into western musical vocabularies moves from the Caribbean to East Asia, considering, en route, the curious case of world music as a commercial and ideological category.
Chris Cutler tackles the issue of noise - and what we mean by it – before examining the toy symphonies and the musical career of the infamous toy piano.
Transcript
Transcript of PROBES #22, curated by Chris Cutler.
Chris Cutler finishes his survey of the importation of exotic instruments, looking past their sonorous and timbral values, to the way they are deployed as vectors of meaning, language and symbolic representation.