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What other art forms dictate events as a function of time? Dance, I suppose. I must be missing something obvious. Maybe spoken word slams. Most other art forms

What other art forms dictate events as a function of time? Dance, I suppose. I must be missing something obvious. Maybe spoken word slams. Most other art forms that are performed over a period of time are not a function of time, but a function of dependency. In a play, you say your line after another actor finishes. Even in a movie it's the same way - it's not locked into an actual tempo until the editing process. Exceptions are the films where the music is written first, like Fantasia (this is a sorely ignored medium; I'd love to see a live-action film scored to a pre-written John Williams or Michael Giacchino score; where they have the freedom to pull in actual musical forms). It's odd to consider music written like this - where snippets of a piece are written in all sorts of conflicting tempos, and then finally assembled during "editing" into something cohesive (although I guess this is how the Norwegian megapop songwriters kind of do this). I think there's a lot of opportunity for introducing more tempo-based notation into other artforms. What if an internal pulse were introduced into a play? What else could sheet music be applied to if you kept everything except for the instruments and pitches/melody/harmony? Could you rehearse/perform a debate, a game, a dinner party...?

roymurdock 10y ago
> It's odd to consider music written like this - where snippets of a piece are written in all sorts of conflicting tempos, and then finally assembled during "editing" into something cohesive (although I guess this is how the Norwegian megapop songwriters kind of do this). Sample-heavy (hip-hop, house) musical genres have been doing this for a while. They'll take old 90 BPM records, sample em, pitch em/speed em up, or cut samples in such a way that they fit into new time signatures, keys, tempos, etc. The really good producers will take a bunch of samples and mash em up into a new work. I think a lot of popular art forms have an internal tempo, whether their creators are conscious of structuring the tempo or not. All stories (music, movies, books, plays) have "shapes" [1] which incorporate a component of tempo. It would be interesting to make it explicit though for an art form where language rather than music is the main form of expression. Musicals are a happy medium here, a completely time-based dinner party or play might end up more like Jeopardy and less like free-flowing art. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ
beat 10y ago
I was just noting tempo in other art forms last night. I went to a theatrical performance of the play The Lion in Winter (the perfect Christmas story for anyone who has ever wanted to lock their families in a dungeon for the holiday, or gets sick of parents openly playing favorites with kids just to spite each other). I kept comparing it in my mind to the film version, starring Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn. The film version just feels faster and snappier than the theatrical version did. Same dialog, same characters, same scenes, just faster. The movie was less funny and more dramatic than the play.

roymurdock 10y ago

> It's odd to consider music written like this - where snippets of a piece are written in all sorts of conflicting tempos, and then finally assembled during "editing" into something cohesive (although I guess this is how the Norwegian megapop songwriters kind of do this). Sample-heavy (hip-hop, house) musical genres have been doing this for a while. They'll take old 90 BPM records, sample em, pitch em/speed em up, or cut samples in such a way that they fit into new time signatures, keys, tempos, etc. The really good producers will take a bunch of samples and mash em up into a new work. I think a lot of popular art forms have an internal tempo, whether their creators are conscious of structuring the tempo or not. All stories (music, movies, books, plays) have "shapes" [1] which incorporate a component of tempo. It would be interesting to make it explicit though for an art form where language rather than music is the main form of expression. Musicals are a happy medium here, a completely time-based dinner party or play might end up more like Jeopardy and less like free-flowing art. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ

beat 10y ago

I was just noting tempo in other art forms last night. I went to a theatrical performance of the play The Lion in Winter (the perfect Christmas story for anyone who has ever wanted to lock their families in a dungeon for the holiday, or gets sick of parents openly playing favorites with kids just to spite each other). I kept comparing it in my mind to the film version, starring Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn. The film version just feels faster and snappier than the theatrical version did. Same dialog, same characters, same scenes, just faster. The movie was less funny and more dramatic than the play.