Medieval Sampling
by Larry R. Larson
Pop music savants tend to think of sampling as a revolutionary new
concept, a postmodern challenge to music culture built upon structured
appropriation.Wrong.A
form of music endemic to late medieval France, the motet, used
multiple quotations from both sacred and "popular" work as building blocks
to construct a larger
musical piece. What began as the introduction of new text (i.e.,
"word," from the French mot) to older music ultimately created more varied
rhythmic patterns. To
13th-century ears, this was like laying down beats around a James
Brown chorus.Medieval composers are said to have reflected the gestalt of
their time, a hierarchical
view of society as cathedral. The question is what today's
sample-based music - whether it's hip hop, trip hop, techno, or acid jazz -
says about our worldview.
Larry R. Larson (lrlarson@halcyon.com) heads a new joint venture
between Laurie Anderson and Interval Research Corp.