Dan Visconti writes:
What is the Trojan horse that draws us into the intuitive world of art, and makes for an understanding greater than rational apprehension alone can provide for? It’s the raw, sensual nature of the experience itself, which remains stubbornly indivisible, unique, and present.
So eloquent. Go read the whole thing. This is what I believe in.
From Boom’s Dungeon:
These days it seems that every young composer who writes non-tonal, athematic, dissonant music is routinely described as an avant-garde composer, even though the music does not push (let alone cross) any formal or aesthetic boundaries that are less than half a century old.
It might seem like semantics; but, Boom (Mr. Boom?) is right. That word means something, and it’s not an aesthetic.
This is from today’s amazing Chamber Music Today post:
In an age when noise and unpleasant/irrational/blurred stimuli bombard us every day, the Tallis Scholars’ sound in this sort of brightly reverberant performance space restores our belief in clarity — restores our belief in the fidelity of human communication across large distances in space and time. It is as though high signal-to-noise ratio becomes an aesthetic and cultural emblem of Civilization itself.
In ≈2000 beautifully written words the CMT guy both reviews a spectacular performance by The Tallis Scholars and explains why being a lossless-snot is not just a philosophical idea, but a physiological preference.
Then, THEN, he breaks down the misconception about the actual range of human hearing and shows, with charts, how much better 192 kS/s sound is than the current standard 44.1 kS/s.
As if that’s not enough for one post, there’s extensive links to sources and further reading. Slam dunk.
I can’t say how much I loved reading this post enough. Sure, it’s right in my wheelhouse; but, it’s also an example of what I wish more reviews were. We all know that [NameOfMusicGroup] is likely to put on a great performance — performance-reviews that call-out poor efforts are rare these days. What the CMT guy did was really listen to a performance, then spun it around in his head and came up with some very interesting comparisons to recorded music and some ideas about how we can make everything better. This post was so much better than 99% of what ends up in my RSS feed-catcher. I wish there were more like it.
Attention Saxophonists, and those who are saxophone-curious, RED ALERT! Five (5!) top-quality CDs by the great dutch headbandista are available for free download on his website. Do not hesitate. Clicky, cliky!
Alex Kall thinks every band should record binaurally.
Binaural audio is the free range organic produce of the recording industry. It doesn’t rely on harsh chemicals or fertilizers (like heavy EQ or processing) to sound right.
That’s a great analogy.
I like the idea because it forces your group to be truly good.
I know that I can’t completely remove this misinformation from the planet, and I don’t want to be a Van Hœt; but, it needs to be corrected. Like inadvertent bigotry, mispronounciations, and wearing loafers with suits, there’s no way to fix these problems without talking about them. So let’s get on with it:
Brahms, fading from liver cancer after he buried Clara Schumann, the love of his life, wrote some organ preludes based on hymns, including two settings of, “Oh World, I Must Leave Thee.”
This is (probably) not true. Not the organ preludes part; the part about Clara Schumann. You see, she was 14 years older than Johannes and she was, literally, the best pianist on the planet. Brahms said in his letters that he was affectionate towards her; but, we should think of it in a friendly mentor/mother-figure sort of way. Johannes watched her children while she was away on performance tours and such. There’s no evidence that they were more than friends. Brahms was a bachelor, and Clara was the significantly-older-than-him widow/idol. That’s all we know about their relationship. So knock it off with the Kardashianing of poor Clara.
I feel better.
Hildegard Kleeb and Roland Dahinden’s CD Prelude for Meditation comes with a recommendation that one should experience this music at a low volume. Kleeb and Dahinden knew that a low volume encourages people to be quiet, slow down, relax, and listen. And not only to listen to the music, but to everything else too.
I’m not sure what all of this means; but, I can’t help but applaud the level of deep-listening the CMT guy does.
The controversial musician T.I. has released his first single after being released from prison.1 Here Ye, Hear Ye features a backing-track by The Neptunes’s Pharrell Williams. Williams is featured on the first verse of the track (operating under the name Sk8brd).
Speaking of verses, that’s all there is. No choruses, no instrumental breakdowns, none of it. It’s hard to even call them verses. The segments are very long and contain neither the musical or literary hooks that normally define the verses.
The song is 706 words of pure poetry more-or-less aligned to an electronic, nostalgic, synthesizer beat. The only repeated line comes at the very end and is the most poignent:
If wishes had wings, they’d all make it to heaven and we’d all be kings.
T.I.’s flow is impeccable. If he can manage to stay ou of prison and stop getting in gun-fights he has the talent to make a lot of art-music like this.
Grab it from iTunes or Amazon.
T.I. violated the terms of his probation which he was operating under since being released from prison in 2010 for a 2009 federal weapons charge. ↩
Kevin Nottingham has assembled a non-exhaustive list of the works by Isaac Hayes that have been sampled by hip-hop artists. Let’s just say: there’s a lot of them.
There’s a .zip file of .mp3s to download too. Hayes’s music is the epitome of funky-soul. If you’re into super-smooth ninth chords (I am) this is for you.
Colin Holter wrote this on New Music Box today:
“Someone built a better mouse trap” I can handle; “eff all y’all” is harder to swallow. Without denying that organizations have the right to handle their competitions however they want and can withhold the prize with no legal liability, I’m going to come right out and say it: Awarding no prize is a bitch move.
Outside of a few major international competitions, I see no reason for musicians to subject themselves to the degrading process of competing against each other.
Try this: instead of sweating every detail of a compulsory work in hopes to impress a three-judge panel who may, or may not be actual musicians; go make music that you really enjoy and can connect with on a deep emotional level.
Someday you are going to die and no one is going to care about what crummy little competition you won. Don’t waste your time.
Continuing the little debate I have been having with David on our podcast (you do listen to our podcast, don’t you?), and with various Eighth Blackbird apologists on twitter I submit the words of the indelible G. Bruce Boyer:
It is both delusional and stupid to think that clothes don’t really matter and we should all wear whatever we want. Most people don’t take clothing seriously enough, but whether we should or not, clothes do talk to us and we make decisions based on people’s appearances.1
On the other hand, there are people, particularly in the fashion industry, who take clothing too seriously. We aren’t doing biomedical research or working on some nuclear collider. Clothing is not everything in life and it won’t solve problems of famine and overpopulation. It’s a fine balance you have to strike and that’s what I try to do.2
I think G. Bruce Boyer is my spirit animal.
Emphasis mine. ↩
h/t Put This On. ↩
Kim Krieger from sciencemag.org writes:
The researchers then modified the recordings of fingernails and chalk, removing or attenuating various frequency ranges. They also modified the sounds by selectively extracting either the tonal, musical-pitch parts or the scraping, growling, noiselike parts of the sound. Some listeners were told the true source of the sounds, whereas others were told that the sounds were part of contemporary musical compositions. The same listeners then rated the pleasantness or unpleasantness of the sounds while the researchers measured physical indicators of distress: the listeners’ heart rate, blood pressure, and the electrical conductivity of their skin.
This research could be very useful for composers who want to control the audience’s comfort level throughout their compositions. I think it is especially useful information for film composers.
Very clever. And it works! I can’t stop singing it!
(h/t Roger Evans)
The free song of the week on iTunes is Here and Heaven from the new album The Goat Rodeo Sessions. The group of performers consists of Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile.
I’d call the style of music bluegrass you’re not embarrassed to own. There’s some nicely tuned vocals and an instrumental section that reminds me of the opening credits for Deadwood. Anything that reminds me of Deadwood is already off on the right foot by me.
It’s free! Go get it!