Floyd Pepper, God of Bass
The Aeolian Harp is an instrument played only by the wind. It’s somewhat akin to the wind chime, with the exception that there is no percussive element. The wind produces a result known as the von Kármán vortex street effect; an anomaly that creates a periodic vortex downstream. This causes the string to vibrate. I was reading about the Zadar Sea Organ in Croatia when I came across it. What I was most amazed about was its long history of references. While the Aeolian Harp is created specifically to be played by the wind, the idea has been written about since the advent of stringed instruments. Seems the wind has been singing to us throughout the ages. Homer relates that Hermes made the lyre and that the wind could play it. Two romantic era poems written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (not to be confused with Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, whom I wrote about earlier this month) are about the Eolian Harp and Henry David Thoreau wrote about it in his first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Ian Fleming included one in Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang!
One of my favorite things to do is just sit peacefully and listen to the earth sing.
The Aeolian Harp is fascinating, and its principles of using the wind without any other intervention than its own strings vibrating gives it the impression of nature singing. That’s not really the case though, is it? The air is still being channeled through a human mechanism. While it may, on the one hand, be incredibly random, the notes have still been pre-selected, and there is, at least, a bit of certainty about the general sound that we can expect from such an instrument. Its almost like a puppet for the elements. The Zadar Sea Organ, which is basically an Aeolian Harp for the ocean, would be part three of an all-Earth musical, along with his cousin the pyro-organ.
Emily Howell is the name of a program designed to compose music without human intervention. Here is a quote from Jenna Mattox, a Freshman at Nazareth College of Rochester at the time of writing; “Music shouldn't be about who created it, but the emotions and passion it can inspire. Music is still music, regardless of who or what created it.” Quite the statement, and while I’m not sure what side of the fence I lay on when it comes to what constitutes as music and whom or what is responsible for its creation, I thought it was interesting to hear a student of the computer sciences make such a claim. What I do think, is that while Emily may produce music without any human intervention beyond its original construction, there is still an element of predictability. Is it still, not just an elaborate puppet? What element passes through Emily’s “Aeolian Harp” of code to produce harmony?
This, of course, brings me to the whole point of today’s blog.
My favorite bass player, hands down, without a doubt, is Floyd Pepper from Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. I’ve been watching reruns of him play since I was a small child. I still can’t find a better rendition of Lady Be Good. Floyd has a style and character to his playing and singing that has been my icon for what a bass player should aspire to be, and what I hold all comparisons against. You can never be Floyd. You can only get closer to perfection.
Floyd is a Muppet. The person who controls Floyd isn’t even the person playing the bass guitar. Jerry Nelson, Matt Vogel, and John Kennedy are listed as his main performers, but there is no mention of who is responsible for his actual musical performance. I submit that this is completely irrelevant. Floyd is playing that bass in my mind and in my heart.
So how do we explain Floyd? Floyd plays at the most tangible of our experiences. Floyd is part of the notion that when we know it’s an act, we are more likely to participate in the imaginative fantasy that it portrays, whereas, when there is some element of misunderstanding, or an unexplained phenomenon, we are more likely to distrust, and revolt. Emily Howell is part of a hierarchy of horror movies and sci-fi flicks that tells us “one day the computers will take over.” The Aeolian Harp, while today, may seem innocent, at one point was the instrument of the Gods, communicating their mysticisms.
Floyd? Floyd’s just a bass player, and if you’re cool enough, he might honor you with a pair of shades. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, do yourself a favor and watch Floyd do his thing.
Here he is playing my favorite rendition of Lady Be Good: