In as much as I love electronic generated music, the access to the technology to make it has also spawned mucho crap. I find most techno a.k.a house music to be repetetive, boring and uninspiring. Not to mention there are so many genres and sub-genres it becomes difficult to discern what it all is. (My tastes have always leaned towards industrial influenced and EBM bands that write actual music.) There is an exception to my disdain of “techno” music: Trance. Over the years I’ve developed an ear and a deep love for trance. My first discoveries of the genre came about when a trance musician/ DJ named BT made commercial success with a song called “Blue Skies” that featured vocal samples from Tori Amos. Robert Miles’ “Children” also emerged around the same time. So my interests in the genre have inspired me to post some further details on the subject to explain more about what it is and where it came from. This will be an ongoing post on the topic.
Here is a quote regarding trance inducing music written by Dennis R. Wier. (the whole article can be found here: http://www.trance.ch/papers/music.htm
“Pure’ trance inducing music is simple to produce. All that is needed is at least three or four (or more) individually engaging rhythms. Some kinds of reggae music does this, so do the canons of J.S.Bach. In much so-called generic trance music only two rhythms are used, and only occasionally three. The ‘engaging’ aspect of trance inducing rhythms is important. What may be ‘engaging’ to one person may be repulsive to someone else. Repeating rhythms can be perceived as ‘boring’ but it is precisely this ‘boring’ aspect which is the precursor to trance. If a rhythm is ‘engaging’ and not boring, then trance is certain to occur. How to make a rhythm engaging is implied by trance theory.
One important characteristic of successful trance inducing music is what trance theory would call ‘modulating the dissociated trance plane’. The music of shamans and many aboriginal tribes create effective music which modulates the dissociated trance plane by slightly varying the underlying trance generating loop. Several good examples of this can be heard in the CD ‘Heart of the Forest’ The music of the Baka Forest People of Southeast Cameroon. Several good examples can also be heard in Glen Velez’s Assyrian Rose. el-HADRA: the Mystik Dance has some good attempts at creating the dissociated trance plane, but fails to exploit the opportunities to skillfully modulate it.”
The electronic genre of trance owes it’s roots to tribal music. There’s a power generated in trance inducing rhythms that had spiritual qualities common in shamanism.
Modern trance is a derivative of these ideas combined with an offshoot of House Music. What sets it apart from house and other electronic styles is that trance music contains big epic anthems and themes. The song structure is more along the lines of classical music than modern music’s verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure – A theme, A variation of the theme and a Recapitulation of the theme. (keep in mind these are characteristics and not necessarily strict rules). The music builds, peaks and descends which is usually why a typical trance song will fill a dancefloor for extended periods of time. Trance combines major and minor chord structures to create tension and gives the music a strong sense of emotion. The rhythms are usually simple and repetetive focusing on the 4-on-the-floor kick drum that drives the rhythm.
-To be continued.
