So, just got back from the pub and wanting to share the new Prince album with my better half, and what do you know it - every drop and change landed on the half minute.

Seriously - I know you're all half my age and I am approaching that scene at the start of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but if you watch the counter [I am your King, and you are my Subjects] and see the seconds tick over.

And it is for this reason i have copy and pasted some text. Om Shante.

Time and Fire represents a quest for a more complex and evolutionary language capable of sustaining its argument over longer stretches of time. This has led to a highly intense musical fabric which presents the listener with a very rapid turnover of material, but less in the way of obvious structural signposts. The musical ideas are seldom more than momentary, flaring up brightly for a time, only to be consumed by those coming after.

The stabilising influence offsetting this inferno of ideas is the regular division of time - the concept of pulse, whether manifested as the periodic repetition of individual sound events or the internal micro-pulses within the spectral evolutions of the sounds themselves. Much of the most complex material in the work is underpinned by a subtle but tangible ‘beat’ which determines the placing of the main events and creates the possibility of expressive changes of tempo. It is this regular division of “time” upon which hang the apparent complexities of the white-hot surface of the music - the “fire”.

Time and Fire was composed between 1987 and 1990 in the Electroacoustic Music Studio of the University of Birmingham. It was awarded second prize in the Bourges Electroacoustic Music Competition in 1991.

OK.

Maybe I need a drink or maybe you drank too much. Is this actually supposed to make any sense?

mrsquirrel said:

So, just got back from the pub and wanting to share the new Prince album with my better half, and what do you know it - every drop and change landed on the half minute.

Seriously - I know you're all half my age and I am approaching that scene at the start of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but if you watch the counter [I am your King, and you are my Subjects] and see the seconds tick over.

And it is for this reason i have copy and pasted some text. Om Shante.

The stabilising influence offsetting this inferno of ideas is the regular division of time - the concept of pulse, whether manifested as the periodic repetition of individual sound events or the internal micro-pulses within the spectral evolutions of the sounds themselves. Much of the most complex material in the work is underpinned by a subtle but tangible ‘beat’ which determines the placing of the main events and creates the possibility of expressive changes of tempo. It is this regular division of “time” upon which hang the apparent complexities of the white-hot surface of the music - the “fire”.

My reply will be below.

airth said:

OK.

Maybe I need a drink or maybe you drank too much. Is this actually supposed to make any sense?

Really? You didn't understand this. Here's my explanation: Lovesexy, now that's my jam and my jelly. I had a quarter pounder with cheese slammed in my belly. You can tell Tony M I got a bunch of Star Trek Next Generations Uniforms, and I ate 15 Power Generations before it was time to have a pickle score. Everything I said made sense, so it really don't matter but I'm not trying to be rapping, just some toe tappin Got a photographer that can't be the host with the most or some Mr Nelson toast or some Tony M rappin' bout Manure boast.

And that explains the original posters post exactly!

Come to bed dear.

Remember kids, always hit the preview post button first!

Hey back at'cha Mrsquirrel . First time I read your post I thought you were two sheets to the wind LOL. But after the third or fourth time through it, I think (?) I started to get the gist of it.

So I got out my mp3 player and listened to “AOC” closely with my eyes on the timer. It took several listens but from 1:00 to 2:00-2:15 of the track, there does seem to be alternated 30-second intervals with the lyrics and what I can only describe as a vocal rise ("woooop" sound):

• 1:00 - main lyrics (start)
• 1:15 - vocal rise
• 1:30 - main lyrics (resume)
• 1:45 - vocal rise
• 2:00 - main lyrics (resume)
• 2:15 - vocal rise (and lyrics...)

The pattern is short-lived, breaking form at 2:15, after which time the rise can be heard regularly at 15-second intervals (approximately) therafter, and the singing kind of breaks out into unique structures placed less evenly, but still with some balance, along the remainder of the track. These two elements, or "events", are also heard before the one-minute mark but in a more irregular fashion. The "main events", as mentioned in the Time and Fire passage, I loosely interpret to mean one-time, distinct, discrete musical elements, such as Ida's spoken intro at the beginning, or the bass synth (?) line (2:45), as examples. I found a number of such events placed at the start of 15-second "signposts" throughout the song.

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You made a very interesting observation, though I don't think the changes you hear at half-minute marks on "AOC" were intentionally arranged that way. (Well, maybe--in the sense that the song sounds like it's based on eight-beat measures (I haven't read sheet music in forever. Feel free to correct me), and certain musical elements were repeated at intervals of four measures for a portion of the the song...four measures of eight beats each covers 32 beats, which basically translates out to approximately 30 seconds of music.) My guess is Prince consciously or intuitively alternated those and other elements on the track to create a pleasing repetitive pattern in the design of the “fabric”—weaving a musical tapestry for the listener.

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Cool thread. And quite a mental challenge. Don’t know if I understood you correctly but I sure tried my best. This turned out to be an interesting exercise in practicing awareness of time, frequency and placement. The summary of Time and Fire you provided was complex but beautifully written, and actually quite useful (once I figured it out) in helping me to understand what it was you were trying to explain. I’d never before tried breaking down any song, let alone one of Prince’s tunes, into parts and structure. Strangely, it kind of heightened my experience of "AOC"...by forcing me to be “in the moment”, perhaps. Trippy. But I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thank you for your kind words, I had actually stolen that from an established electroacoustic composer who gave me an F for plagiarism.

Tee hee!