It was a musical weekend. On Saturday I attended a one-day session at the University of Colorado on Verdi, taught by Erin Smith, a PhD candidate in Musicology. Smith knows her subject and has also mastered the technology (mostly) of switching from a PC to a DVD player. She started with early operatic forms and used musical samples to illustrate her points. All in all it was a good way to spend most of the day. The highlight of the class was a visit and performance by a CU graduate student who will be performing the role of Violetta in Verdi's "La Traviata" this fall at Mackey auditorium. I wrote her name down in my handy-dandy little pocket notebook, which I unfortunately washed over the weekend. Her name was in there, but now it's all mush, sorry. She gave a delightful performance of the final aria from the first act, then answered questions from the class -- an excellent performance.
This is one of two classes she's teaching, both seeming focused on her interests. Surprisingly, the Music Department at Colorado has offered very few classes through adult or continuing education. I believe there has been one taught occasionally, but little selection. That's a shame with all the talent the Music Department has that there isn't more. Faculty and graduate students have plenty on their plates already, but more would be appreciated.
Sunday my wife and I traveled into Denver for the final performance of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra's 2008-2009 season. Maestro Jeffrey Kahane lead an enormous orchestra and around 250 voices of the orchestra's chorus. The "Resurrection" is one of my all-time favorites. In last week's New Yorker magazine article on Mahler performances, Alex Ross commented about "the phenomenon of the Musical Chill -- the ambiguous tremor of otherness that runs through the body when, for whatever reason, a particular sound overwhelms the reasoning mind." I remember my first "musical chill". I was a senior in college and was being exposed to Mahler for the first time. I remember sitting in my darkened dorm room and listening to the 2nd. It was the second time I had played a newly purchased vinyl recording of Otto Klemperer conducting and it hit me. That was a long time ago but I still remember the effect it had on me. Thanks to Alex Ross for leading me to it's name.
Well, Kahane didn't exactly give me a musical chill this time but he did a wonderful job. Mezzo Sasha Cooke was great in "Uhrlich" and soprano Janice Chandler Eteme's crystalline voice rose above everyone at just the right moments. The orchestra was, as always, outstanding, particularly the brass and the percussion session.
One minor detail disappointed me, though. In 2000 I went to another CSO performance of the "Resurrection". I clearly remember the chorus sitting in darkness and, in unison, opening their music as they began to sing "Aufstehen" in the last movement. The visual and music effect that day did give me a "musical chill". I'm pretty sure the CSO chorus was then also directed by Duain Wolfe. The effect just wasn't quite the same this time as the chorus members just leisurely opened their music as they saw fit. Too bad but if not a full "musical chill" at least a good shiver.
Monday, June 08, 2009
Monday, May 04, 2009
Some end of season catching up.
It's getting to the end of the music season. It will be another dry summer, with only tepid fare at the Colorado Music Festival. They've turned into big fans of "world" music and "themes", so I'll be staying home most of the time. Oh well!
Here are a few comments on the season ending concerts over the last few weeks. The Tasman String Quartet did their farewell concert in Boulder playing the Janacek "Intimate Letters". They did this two years ago, shortly after the Takács Quartet did the same. Janacek has two quartets, "Kreutzer Sonata" and this one. I prefer "Letters" as a performance piece but recordings don't do it justice. As always live prevails. Good luck to the Tasman as they leave Boulder. They'll be missed.
Next up was Britten's "Albert Herring" by the University of Colorado school of music. English sub/super-titles for an English language opera seems like overkill, but in this case they would have been extremely helpful. The male singers were, for the most part, clear and understandable. The female roles though suffered from diction issues. Singing must be hard enough, but singing clearly certainly is harder still. Britten's music here wasn't his best, with no real high points for me. Choosing operas within the reach of undergraduate and graduate singers must be challenging.
The Boulder Philharmonic finished the season with Schubert's "Unfinished" and Jon Nakamatsu playing Brahm's Second Piano Concerto. Both came off well and Nakamatsu received a rousing standing ovation. The Boulder Phil audience is quick to leap to its feet for most performers, but this one was justified. A little bon-bon to start the concert was a short string overture by George Walker, father of the concertmaster Gregory Walker. The music director and conductor Michael Butterman should be congratulated for exposing the audience to this fairly unheard but deserving African-American composer.
The highlight of this stretch of classical music was the season ending Takács String Quartet concert. The surprise of the evening was the inclusion for Menahem Pressler as guest artist. The Takács started with 2 Haydn quartets, or parts of a quartet. Then a Debussy solo piece by Pressler. Still the pianist with the Beaux Arts Trio after 50 years, Pressler is now 85 and a treasure. When he stands on stage with the Takács he seems so short and elf-like, but he has a sprightly spring to his step and clearly enjoys what he is doing. The final work was Dvorak's "Quintet in A Major". I've got a good central seat and could see Pressler's glistening eyes and facial expressions and smiles as he interacted with the Takács. The performance was magical and the audience erupted with cheers. To top of the evening, they played an encore of the second movement of the Brahms Quintet. What an evening!
The next night my wife and I went to Opera Colorado's performance of "Cosi Fan Tutti". It was well sung and interestingly staged, but to me the music is, I hate to say, stale. I think I'm cursed with music memory where themes and tunes constantly recycle in my mind. But for reasons unknown little of this Mozart opera hangs around in my head. I leave the theater empty, so to speak. "Cosi" isn't one of my favorites though I've seen and heard it many times. My wife and I agreed that the next time it comes to town we might just skip it.
Finally, I went to the Boulder Chamber Orchestra's "Pioneers" concert - twice. The conductor, Bahman Saless, is a friend. He asked me to play "name that tune" with the opening piece on the concert, Wagner's "Siegfried Idyll". I went on stage as a "volunteer"; said my name was "Hans von Bülow", an inside joke for Wagner fans; and tried to link parts of the "Idyll" with leitmotifs from the "Ring" operas. It was harder to do that I thought, standing in front of the audience with the orchestra at my back, but I got most of them. Of course I had studied the score and did some background work using Google, a few books, a libretto from a CD which had the translations and a copy of the original scores for "Siegfried". It was fun. The concert came off well, with Andrew Cooperstock performing Beethoven's First Piano Concerto. Cooperstock stepped in at the last week after the Italian pianist chose not to come to the US because of travel warning about the H1N1 flu problem. He did a super job. This was the first time I've seen a pianist use a portable PC in place of a page turner. Cooperstock used a small foot pedal to page through the score.
I've no classical music concerts in my current schedule until a few at the Boulder Chautauqua's Colorado Music Festival, so I'll probably be quiet this summer. I'm still mourning the demise of classical music over the FM radio with KVOD's decision to reduce their transmission power. I noticed on another classical music blog an appeal from Colorado Public Radio, the corporate face for KVOD. They don't appear to be doing well. It shouldn't come as a surprise. The economy isn't doing well and the focus on talk-talk-talk on Colorado Public Radio is driving people like me to mp3 players and occasionally to Internet radio where the choice is much broader and diverse than the tepid music played on KVOD.
I've disabled my ClassicalFM.org's search engine and database. While there were lots of hits to the site from various search engines, with classical music on FM radio drying up, why continue.
Here are a few comments on the season ending concerts over the last few weeks. The Tasman String Quartet did their farewell concert in Boulder playing the Janacek "Intimate Letters". They did this two years ago, shortly after the Takács Quartet did the same. Janacek has two quartets, "Kreutzer Sonata" and this one. I prefer "Letters" as a performance piece but recordings don't do it justice. As always live prevails. Good luck to the Tasman as they leave Boulder. They'll be missed.
Next up was Britten's "Albert Herring" by the University of Colorado school of music. English sub/super-titles for an English language opera seems like overkill, but in this case they would have been extremely helpful. The male singers were, for the most part, clear and understandable. The female roles though suffered from diction issues. Singing must be hard enough, but singing clearly certainly is harder still. Britten's music here wasn't his best, with no real high points for me. Choosing operas within the reach of undergraduate and graduate singers must be challenging.
The Boulder Philharmonic finished the season with Schubert's "Unfinished" and Jon Nakamatsu playing Brahm's Second Piano Concerto. Both came off well and Nakamatsu received a rousing standing ovation. The Boulder Phil audience is quick to leap to its feet for most performers, but this one was justified. A little bon-bon to start the concert was a short string overture by George Walker, father of the concertmaster Gregory Walker. The music director and conductor Michael Butterman should be congratulated for exposing the audience to this fairly unheard but deserving African-American composer.
The highlight of this stretch of classical music was the season ending Takács String Quartet concert. The surprise of the evening was the inclusion for Menahem Pressler as guest artist. The Takács started with 2 Haydn quartets, or parts of a quartet. Then a Debussy solo piece by Pressler. Still the pianist with the Beaux Arts Trio after 50 years, Pressler is now 85 and a treasure. When he stands on stage with the Takács he seems so short and elf-like, but he has a sprightly spring to his step and clearly enjoys what he is doing. The final work was Dvorak's "Quintet in A Major". I've got a good central seat and could see Pressler's glistening eyes and facial expressions and smiles as he interacted with the Takács. The performance was magical and the audience erupted with cheers. To top of the evening, they played an encore of the second movement of the Brahms Quintet. What an evening!
The next night my wife and I went to Opera Colorado's performance of "Cosi Fan Tutti". It was well sung and interestingly staged, but to me the music is, I hate to say, stale. I think I'm cursed with music memory where themes and tunes constantly recycle in my mind. But for reasons unknown little of this Mozart opera hangs around in my head. I leave the theater empty, so to speak. "Cosi" isn't one of my favorites though I've seen and heard it many times. My wife and I agreed that the next time it comes to town we might just skip it.
Finally, I went to the Boulder Chamber Orchestra's "Pioneers" concert - twice. The conductor, Bahman Saless, is a friend. He asked me to play "name that tune" with the opening piece on the concert, Wagner's "Siegfried Idyll". I went on stage as a "volunteer"; said my name was "Hans von Bülow", an inside joke for Wagner fans; and tried to link parts of the "Idyll" with leitmotifs from the "Ring" operas. It was harder to do that I thought, standing in front of the audience with the orchestra at my back, but I got most of them. Of course I had studied the score and did some background work using Google, a few books, a libretto from a CD which had the translations and a copy of the original scores for "Siegfried". It was fun. The concert came off well, with Andrew Cooperstock performing Beethoven's First Piano Concerto. Cooperstock stepped in at the last week after the Italian pianist chose not to come to the US because of travel warning about the H1N1 flu problem. He did a super job. This was the first time I've seen a pianist use a portable PC in place of a page turner. Cooperstock used a small foot pedal to page through the score.
I've no classical music concerts in my current schedule until a few at the Boulder Chautauqua's Colorado Music Festival, so I'll probably be quiet this summer. I'm still mourning the demise of classical music over the FM radio with KVOD's decision to reduce their transmission power. I noticed on another classical music blog an appeal from Colorado Public Radio, the corporate face for KVOD. They don't appear to be doing well. It shouldn't come as a surprise. The economy isn't doing well and the focus on talk-talk-talk on Colorado Public Radio is driving people like me to mp3 players and occasionally to Internet radio where the choice is much broader and diverse than the tepid music played on KVOD.
I've disabled my ClassicalFM.org's search engine and database. While there were lots of hits to the site from various search engines, with classical music on FM radio drying up, why continue.
Thursday, April 09, 2009
An Interesting Day
Yesterday I attended the University of Colorado's Conference on World Affairs. For the last 10 or 12 year I've been going fairly faithfully, but this year I've not attended as much. The topics were a bit lack-luster and it's the same old crew saying the same old things to an overly crowded audience. However, one session piqued my interest, Siriusly, Podcasts, Pandora and the Future of Radio. It was okay but nothing great. Margot Adler made an interesting comment which confirms what I've thought all along -- "Classical music radio has problems". Colorado Public Radio's classical music station basically went off the air when it changed it's broadcasting power. It was an economic decision due to a shrinking listener base, or that's what was intimated by the session moderator, Dan Meyers from Colorado Public Radio.
Another panelist in this session, Molly Sheridan, mentioned that the "gatekeepers are changing" and with the Internet you don't have to listen to the tepid local NPR broadcasts. You can listen select from thousands of stations world-wide. I completely agree with that, though my lousy Comcast connection still causes me grief.
Margot Adler also pointed out that there are still millions and millions of listeners in cars where the Internet isn't really available. Just this morning I noticed an advertisement for an Internet car radio. It was a device which would do a Blue Tooth connection to your iPhone. It seems like a bit of a kluge to me, so I think I'm going to pass on that one for now, particularly since I don't even have a cell phone.
The panelists' comments also got me thinking about their different view of music. They kept referring to "songs" and "artists" and "tunes" -- what the software and services focus on today. The iPod Shuffle plays stuff randomly -- image listening to an opera or a string quartet that way! As a classical music buff, I'm more interested in the "composer" and the "composition" and music has order. Is it a generational gap or an genre difference or is it just me?
Finally last night I went to this year's final Pendulum concert at the University of Colorado's music school. The quality of both the performances and the compositions by these these undergraduate and graduate students was very impressive. I particularly enjoyed a string quartet by Dustin Rumsey called "Lighting Dreams" and the "Piano Quintet No 1: Scenes from Childhood" by Greg Simon. Simon was the winner of an annual award for the best student composition for this quintet and it seems well deserved. The performing string quartet in both pieces was the Tasman String Quartet. I've enjoyed them many times over these last two years while they studied with the Takács String Quartet. I wish them well as they head off to Champagne-Urbana for further studies.
I normally enjoy the summer in Boulder without all those college kid. The area is a little less crowded. However, I'll be missing the music school students and the Pendulum series.
Another panelist in this session, Molly Sheridan, mentioned that the "gatekeepers are changing" and with the Internet you don't have to listen to the tepid local NPR broadcasts. You can listen select from thousands of stations world-wide. I completely agree with that, though my lousy Comcast connection still causes me grief.
Margot Adler also pointed out that there are still millions and millions of listeners in cars where the Internet isn't really available. Just this morning I noticed an advertisement for an Internet car radio. It was a device which would do a Blue Tooth connection to your iPhone. It seems like a bit of a kluge to me, so I think I'm going to pass on that one for now, particularly since I don't even have a cell phone.
The panelists' comments also got me thinking about their different view of music. They kept referring to "songs" and "artists" and "tunes" -- what the software and services focus on today. The iPod Shuffle plays stuff randomly -- image listening to an opera or a string quartet that way! As a classical music buff, I'm more interested in the "composer" and the "composition" and music has order. Is it a generational gap or an genre difference or is it just me?
Finally last night I went to this year's final Pendulum concert at the University of Colorado's music school. The quality of both the performances and the compositions by these these undergraduate and graduate students was very impressive. I particularly enjoyed a string quartet by Dustin Rumsey called "Lighting Dreams" and the "Piano Quintet No 1: Scenes from Childhood" by Greg Simon. Simon was the winner of an annual award for the best student composition for this quintet and it seems well deserved. The performing string quartet in both pieces was the Tasman String Quartet. I've enjoyed them many times over these last two years while they studied with the Takács String Quartet. I wish them well as they head off to Champagne-Urbana for further studies.
I normally enjoy the summer in Boulder without all those college kid. The area is a little less crowded. However, I'll be missing the music school students and the Pendulum series.
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Two nights of strings
Over the last few nights I attended two concerts, both featuring strings. The first was the the Boulder Chamber Orchestra under the leadership of Bahman Saless. Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola was well played by Annamaria Karacason and Geraldine Walther. Karacason is the wife of Karoly Schranz, second violin for the famous Takács String Quartet and Walther is their violist. It's interesting the see a famous quartet member playing outside her normal role.
The piece that intrigued me the most was Verdi's Symphony for Strings in E minor, a transcription of his only string quartet. At the beginning of the piece Saless commented that according to legend, Verdi composed this quickly to fill some time while waiting for a stop in the rehearsals for Aida. Saless said it seemed to him that the movements were about a murder. First the actual mysterious murder, then the arrival on the scene of the detective, an unknown third movement (to Saless) and finally the resolution with the detective pointing out the guilty. It was an amusing premise that got my imagination going during the performance. When the third movement began it was clear to me that this was the time when all the parties were stewing about worrying if the detective suspected them. There is a beautiful flowing cello section that reminded me of a soprano solo early in Verdi's Simon Boccanegra. Clearly this was the innocent virgin satisfied in her knowledge that she most certainly did not commit the murder. How did Bahman not pick this out?
The Verdi quartet is an interesting piece with some luscious song like lines which clearly remind you that Verdi is an opera composer. It was performed here a few years ago by either the Takács or the Vinca quartet. On our supposedly all classical FM radio station, essentially off the air in Boulder, the quartet was broadcast 5 times in 2006, 3 times in 2007, 1 time in 2008 and not yet this year. Opera isn't broadcast much save for the Saturday Metropolitan broadcasts, and Verdi's limited broadcast repertoire seems to be snippets of a few of the old favorites. So much for the educational role of public radio.
Last night I went to what would normally be a performance by the Takács String Quartet. Instead, a visiting group, the Albers Trio, performed. Three attractive sisters did a yeoman's job on Mozart's long Divertimento in E-flat, K563, but to me the highlight was a wonderful Serenade for String Trio by Ernst von Dohnányi. I wonder what their early family life was like, with 3 talented musicians? Competion? Pressure? The program notes said they performed as young girls down on the Pearl Street mall in Boulder, so they must have once been somewhat local. They offered an nteresting evening.
The piece that intrigued me the most was Verdi's Symphony for Strings in E minor, a transcription of his only string quartet. At the beginning of the piece Saless commented that according to legend, Verdi composed this quickly to fill some time while waiting for a stop in the rehearsals for Aida. Saless said it seemed to him that the movements were about a murder. First the actual mysterious murder, then the arrival on the scene of the detective, an unknown third movement (to Saless) and finally the resolution with the detective pointing out the guilty. It was an amusing premise that got my imagination going during the performance. When the third movement began it was clear to me that this was the time when all the parties were stewing about worrying if the detective suspected them. There is a beautiful flowing cello section that reminded me of a soprano solo early in Verdi's Simon Boccanegra. Clearly this was the innocent virgin satisfied in her knowledge that she most certainly did not commit the murder. How did Bahman not pick this out?
The Verdi quartet is an interesting piece with some luscious song like lines which clearly remind you that Verdi is an opera composer. It was performed here a few years ago by either the Takács or the Vinca quartet. On our supposedly all classical FM radio station, essentially off the air in Boulder, the quartet was broadcast 5 times in 2006, 3 times in 2007, 1 time in 2008 and not yet this year. Opera isn't broadcast much save for the Saturday Metropolitan broadcasts, and Verdi's limited broadcast repertoire seems to be snippets of a few of the old favorites. So much for the educational role of public radio.
Last night I went to what would normally be a performance by the Takács String Quartet. Instead, a visiting group, the Albers Trio, performed. Three attractive sisters did a yeoman's job on Mozart's long Divertimento in E-flat, K563, but to me the highlight was a wonderful Serenade for String Trio by Ernst von Dohnányi. I wonder what their early family life was like, with 3 talented musicians? Competion? Pressure? The program notes said they performed as young girls down on the Pearl Street mall in Boulder, so they must have once been somewhat local. They offered an nteresting evening.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Bad, bad music
Boulder had snow today, lots of it. My wife and I shoveled several times, yet when I went out late tonight there was at least another inch covering the walk. Why should snow make for bad music? I'm clueless, but Comcast must know. I've been trying to listen to my standard internet radio station, contemporary-classical.com. Tonight, it's musicmusicmic .. rest .. musi ..rest.. musicmu ..rest .. ic .. rest .. music musi ..rest.. etc, etc, etc. You get the idea. I've turned it off but wistfully remember the good old days when my FM radio faithfully broadcast classical music. KVOD went off the air here in Boulder, so it's either CDs or internet radio. Well, I guess I'm stuck with CDs.
I've been using the internet a lot today and had horrible results with ssh. Comcast kept dropping my connections in mid-stream. Scp wasn't much better, with long delays as I tried to move files from my workstation to remote servers.
It must have been the snow, freezing the bits. It couldn't be a faulty Comcast router.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Very old and very new
Over the past two nights I heard two completely different concerts at the University of Colorado: Music of the High Baroque and the Pendulum New Music.
Elizabeth Farr played harpsichord in the first. Two Bach pieces preceded by a suite by D'Angelbert from around 1689. I've listened to a lot of Bach, but only during the Bourée did I remember hearing any of it before -- and that, I believe, was sung by the Swingle Singers years ago. While Farr's playing was wonderful, I found the D'Angelbert hard to digest. While I tried to follow or find a melodic line the ornamentation threw me. I was listening to 300 year old music with ears tuned to the 21st century.
The Pendulum New Music project has been a favorite of mine over the years. You hear stuff you've never heard before - some good, some not so. I had never heard the D'Angelbert harpsichord suite, either, though. Last night's concert was at the CU Atlas Black Box Theater which is equipped with lots of high-tech sound and projection systems. Multimedia music was interspersed with live soloists playing with computers and projections. I was particularly impressed with multimedia presentation of Hunter Ewen's Elements. One section which I think of as "Birds" but which he called "Staccato" was particularly clever. The black and white projection of bird shapes first appeared to be bi-laterally symmetric but I realized as I watched more closely there was more more going on and things were not symmetric, even though the music did seem so. Fun. It would seem to me that Mr. Ewen has a future in TV commercials, at the least.
The "known" composer on the program was Steve Reich. His "Pendulum Music" was, how do I say it, "performed". Three microphones were swung back and forth over special spherical speakers on the floor, generating feedback as they moved back and forth. Music? I think not. I like some of Reich's works and I'm listening to his Music for 18 Musicians as I type this. Unlike the earlier D'Angelbert which hid the theme behind ornamentation, Reich's theme is repeated over and over and over, with small ornamentation or variations. "Pendulum Music" apparently has no relationship to the Pendulum New Music program, only a shared word.
I also enjoyed the combination of a live performer playing alongside taped electronic music. We had two tubas and a violin in 3 separate pieces. Michael Dunn, from the faculty and who gave his own concert the prior week, played well again, this time in a minimalistic "Tapestry for Tuba and Tape" by James DeMar. In the second tuba piece, Ryan Wurst's "Flow II for Solo Tuba and Live Electronics", the tuba player Ed Wagner used something to tap on the bell. To me it sounded as if he was using two different things -- there appeared to be two completely different sounds. However, when I asked Wagner after the performance he said it was just a penny.
Elizabeth Farr played harpsichord in the first. Two Bach pieces preceded by a suite by D'Angelbert from around 1689. I've listened to a lot of Bach, but only during the Bourée did I remember hearing any of it before -- and that, I believe, was sung by the Swingle Singers years ago. While Farr's playing was wonderful, I found the D'Angelbert hard to digest. While I tried to follow or find a melodic line the ornamentation threw me. I was listening to 300 year old music with ears tuned to the 21st century.
The Pendulum New Music project has been a favorite of mine over the years. You hear stuff you've never heard before - some good, some not so. I had never heard the D'Angelbert harpsichord suite, either, though. Last night's concert was at the CU Atlas Black Box Theater which is equipped with lots of high-tech sound and projection systems. Multimedia music was interspersed with live soloists playing with computers and projections. I was particularly impressed with multimedia presentation of Hunter Ewen's Elements. One section which I think of as "Birds" but which he called "Staccato" was particularly clever. The black and white projection of bird shapes first appeared to be bi-laterally symmetric but I realized as I watched more closely there was more more going on and things were not symmetric, even though the music did seem so. Fun. It would seem to me that Mr. Ewen has a future in TV commercials, at the least.
The "known" composer on the program was Steve Reich. His "Pendulum Music" was, how do I say it, "performed". Three microphones were swung back and forth over special spherical speakers on the floor, generating feedback as they moved back and forth. Music? I think not. I like some of Reich's works and I'm listening to his Music for 18 Musicians as I type this. Unlike the earlier D'Angelbert which hid the theme behind ornamentation, Reich's theme is repeated over and over and over, with small ornamentation or variations. "Pendulum Music" apparently has no relationship to the Pendulum New Music program, only a shared word.
I also enjoyed the combination of a live performer playing alongside taped electronic music. We had two tubas and a violin in 3 separate pieces. Michael Dunn, from the faculty and who gave his own concert the prior week, played well again, this time in a minimalistic "Tapestry for Tuba and Tape" by James DeMar. In the second tuba piece, Ryan Wurst's "Flow II for Solo Tuba and Live Electronics", the tuba player Ed Wagner used something to tap on the bell. To me it sounded as if he was using two different things -- there appeared to be two completely different sounds. However, when I asked Wagner after the performance he said it was just a penny.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
The big brass....
The Colorado Symphony performed Bruckner's 7Th symphony over this past weekend. What a sound! Bruckner has always been one of my favorites and his 7Th was wonderful. I'm listening to it again as I type this. At the applause, the maestro, Hans Graf, gave special attention to the euphonium section, the substitutes for the "Wagner tubas" which highlight the second movement and are heard throught. You don't hear the euphonium often, but at the University of Colorado the other night I heard a faculty concert, "The Winsome Tuba", with Michael Dunn on tuba. During the concery there was a performance with Aaron Tindall on the euphonium of "Michelangelo". The composer was listed as both Sigfart Dagsland and Sigvard Dagsland. I prefer the former, chuckle, chuckle. It's the first time I can recall that I attended an all tuba concert. Fun, but not something I'd want to do again in the immediate future. Dunn showed the extreme ranges of the tuba and played well, so to hear both the tuba and euphonium in a duet was fun and an ear challenge -- well done by both.
Back on Bruckner, my favorite Internet music station, contemporary-classical.com, introduced me to a composer that I've never heard of,Albéric Magnard, the "French Bruckner". I ordered his complete (4) symphonies from Amazon and weeks later, from England, they arrived. Perhaps I'm jaded and perhaps I've listened to too many symphonies by all the greats, but I'm really enjoying these new works by Magnard. One might assume that something broadcast on a contemporary classical internet station might be a bit weird, but these symphonies are not. With some similarities to Wagner and Bruckner and Franck, these are tonal, fairly long and thoroughly romantic works that would appeal to most audiences. Too bad Magnard isn't better know, but I'm glad I found out about him. Thank you contemporary-classical.com.
By the way, Magnard was killed in the early days of World War I defending his home against invading or marauding German soldiers. He was reputed to have a temper and personality like his dwarf name-sake from the Ring. His home was burned, apparently along with some of his other compositions.
Back on Bruckner, my favorite Internet music station, contemporary-classical.com, introduced me to a composer that I've never heard of,Albéric Magnard, the "French Bruckner". I ordered his complete (4) symphonies from Amazon and weeks later, from England, they arrived. Perhaps I'm jaded and perhaps I've listened to too many symphonies by all the greats, but I'm really enjoying these new works by Magnard. One might assume that something broadcast on a contemporary classical internet station might be a bit weird, but these symphonies are not. With some similarities to Wagner and Bruckner and Franck, these are tonal, fairly long and thoroughly romantic works that would appeal to most audiences. Too bad Magnard isn't better know, but I'm glad I found out about him. Thank you contemporary-classical.com.
By the way, Magnard was killed in the early days of World War I defending his home against invading or marauding German soldiers. He was reputed to have a temper and personality like his dwarf name-sake from the Ring. His home was burned, apparently along with some of his other compositions.
Friday, February 27, 2009
More Pendulum swings.
I went again to a Pendulum concert the other night at the University of Colorado. The Pendulum series is one of my favorites: all contemporary music that I'm hearing for the first time.
The featured composer this time as Alan Fletcher, the president of the Aspen Music Festival. Milton Babbit, one of his teachers, told him that he was "French" (as opposed to "German") and his music lived up to that designation. A short, Messiaen-like piece "Green" was beautifully played by Hsing-ay Hsu who then with violinist Lina Bahn performed a delightful "Study: Woman Holding a Balance", a musical impression of Vermeer's painting. While in college I had a print of Vermeer's "Milkmaid", so this piece reminded me of college. Fletcher's music is tonal and accessible and fairly short. Since he's a "local" composer for Colorado, you might expect that the so-called classical music station for Colorado, KVOD, would have broadcast something of his. Nope. I then went to my favorite Internet station, http://contemporary-classical.com and looked there for Fletcher. Unfortunately nothing is available there either.
A student composition, Jökulhlaup, by Paul Hembree was another interesting piano piece at this concert. A Jökulhlaup is Icelandic for a catastrophic flood caused by a volcanic eruption under a glacier -- shades of the cartoon move "Ice Age".
The final piece at this Pendulum concert was an violin octet "Gran Turismo" by Andrew Norman. I'm not into video games, the inspiration for the piece, but I could sense the agitation and speed. Another fun composition well played.
The featured composer this time as Alan Fletcher, the president of the Aspen Music Festival. Milton Babbit, one of his teachers, told him that he was "French" (as opposed to "German") and his music lived up to that designation. A short, Messiaen-like piece "Green" was beautifully played by Hsing-ay Hsu who then with violinist Lina Bahn performed a delightful "Study: Woman Holding a Balance", a musical impression of Vermeer's painting. While in college I had a print of Vermeer's "Milkmaid", so this piece reminded me of college. Fletcher's music is tonal and accessible and fairly short. Since he's a "local" composer for Colorado, you might expect that the so-called classical music station for Colorado, KVOD, would have broadcast something of his. Nope. I then went to my favorite Internet station, http://contemporary-classical.com and looked there for Fletcher. Unfortunately nothing is available there either.
A student composition, Jökulhlaup, by Paul Hembree was another interesting piano piece at this concert. A Jökulhlaup is Icelandic for a catastrophic flood caused by a volcanic eruption under a glacier -- shades of the cartoon move "Ice Age".
The final piece at this Pendulum concert was an violin octet "Gran Turismo" by Andrew Norman. I'm not into video games, the inspiration for the piece, but I could sense the agitation and speed. Another fun composition well played.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Brand of Shame
Beethoven famously scribbled out Bonaparte's name on his third symphony and changed it to "Eroica". Historians suggest this was out of disgust. I normally don't comment politically, but after watching Obama's speech to congress, I realized the network was labeling some in the audience with a similar brand of shame and disgust. Open parenthesis, capital R, close parenthesis. (R).
Friday, February 20, 2009
It's that time of the year
Each year about this time the classical music scene in Boulder explodes with opportunities. The Boulder Chamber Orchestra performed nationalistic pieces by the Greek composer Nikos, Skalkottas, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Josef Suk on Saturday February 7Th. Then last Monday night, February 8Th, I listened to the Takacs String Quartet play Haydn's "Emperor" quarter and Schubert's Quintet, D956 with Judith Glyde. A wonderful evening. I skipped the next night's performance by the CU (University of Colorado) Wind Band due to lethargy, but heard the CU Orchestra perform on Thursday night. I'm always amazed at the quality that this student orchestra demonstrates under the leadership of Gary Lewis. The highlight for me was Ilya Goldberg's performance in the Sibelius Violin Concerto. Ilya lived with us for a short time and I've followed his performances ever since. He did a wonderful job and interestingly, just as he got into an early extra fast passage the shoulder support on his violin slipped. He slightly grimaced but didn't appear to miss a note. Bravo
The next night, Friday February 13th, I went to a performance of the Tasman Quartet. They are the quartet currently studying with the Takacs at CU and are now in their second year. They again performed the Schubert Quartet D810 with strong dynamics and a wonderful tone. The next night my wife and I had friends over for dinner and then attended the Boulder Philharmonic. Butterman. Misha and Cipa Dichter performed Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos, K365 smoothly, then Michael Butterman lead the orchestra in a rousing performance of Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony.
I rested for two nights then I heard Bizet's "Pearl Fishers" at Opera Colorado. I had prepared for it a bit by listening to the complete opera a few times. Clearly the highlight was the tenor-baritone duo "Au fond du" but I was very pleased with the entire opera. Listening ahead of time helped and I enjoyed the whole thing, contrary to my impression that I'd be bored after the duet.
The next night I went back to CU for the finals of the Bruce Ekstrand Graduate Student Performance Competition. The judges had to choose between a pianist, a soprano, a harpist, a flutist, a violinist (my friend Ilya Goldberg), and a piano duo. It was a very difficult choice as they were all excellent. Judging such diverse instruments must have been very tough. We in the audience were given a ballot for a separate survey. Try as I did, it was nearly impossible for me to rank one over the other, particularly as a non-musician but devoted listener. I finally selected the harpist but the judges selected the flutist, Melissa Lotspeich, followed by the piano duo of Miroslava Mintcheva and David McArthur. The rest of the audience selected the piano duo. I'm certain that was based on their rousing performance of Bolcom's "The Serpent's Kiss".
Last night, February 19th, I again went to CU for Julia Fischer and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. The two Bach violin concertos and Walton's "Sonata for Strings" were okay, but I enjoyed Britten's "Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge". It's another piece I had recently listened to, so perhaps listening to a piece ahead of time increases my enjoyment, though I've heard both Bach pieces many times.
Tonight we might go to the Boulder Chorale's performance of Haydn's "Lord Nelson Mass", but maybe not. The Upstart Crow's performance of the little known Shakespeare play "The Two Noble Kinsmen" might just beat out the Haydn.
I'm lucky to live in Boulder and have so many musical opportunities open to me. I need to rest my ears a bit so we'll head to the mountains for some skiing. The CU Pendulum series is up again next week.
The next night, Friday February 13th, I went to a performance of the Tasman Quartet. They are the quartet currently studying with the Takacs at CU and are now in their second year. They again performed the Schubert Quartet D810 with strong dynamics and a wonderful tone. The next night my wife and I had friends over for dinner and then attended the Boulder Philharmonic. Butterman. Misha and Cipa Dichter performed Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos, K365 smoothly, then Michael Butterman lead the orchestra in a rousing performance of Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony.
I rested for two nights then I heard Bizet's "Pearl Fishers" at Opera Colorado. I had prepared for it a bit by listening to the complete opera a few times. Clearly the highlight was the tenor-baritone duo "Au fond du" but I was very pleased with the entire opera. Listening ahead of time helped and I enjoyed the whole thing, contrary to my impression that I'd be bored after the duet.
The next night I went back to CU for the finals of the Bruce Ekstrand Graduate Student Performance Competition. The judges had to choose between a pianist, a soprano, a harpist, a flutist, a violinist (my friend Ilya Goldberg), and a piano duo. It was a very difficult choice as they were all excellent. Judging such diverse instruments must have been very tough. We in the audience were given a ballot for a separate survey. Try as I did, it was nearly impossible for me to rank one over the other, particularly as a non-musician but devoted listener. I finally selected the harpist but the judges selected the flutist, Melissa Lotspeich, followed by the piano duo of Miroslava Mintcheva and David McArthur. The rest of the audience selected the piano duo. I'm certain that was based on their rousing performance of Bolcom's "The Serpent's Kiss".
Last night, February 19th, I again went to CU for Julia Fischer and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. The two Bach violin concertos and Walton's "Sonata for Strings" were okay, but I enjoyed Britten's "Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge". It's another piece I had recently listened to, so perhaps listening to a piece ahead of time increases my enjoyment, though I've heard both Bach pieces many times.
Tonight we might go to the Boulder Chorale's performance of Haydn's "Lord Nelson Mass", but maybe not. The Upstart Crow's performance of the little known Shakespeare play "The Two Noble Kinsmen" might just beat out the Haydn.
I'm lucky to live in Boulder and have so many musical opportunities open to me. I need to rest my ears a bit so we'll head to the mountains for some skiing. The CU Pendulum series is up again next week.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Les Nuits D'Été
The song cycle "Les Nuits D'Été" by Berlioz was sung last night by Julie Simpson as part of the University of Colorado's Music Faculty Series. What a treat! Some people have commented to me about their negative reaction to Berlioz. Some of his works might be a bit over-blown, but not this song cycle. He only has 28 works with opus numbers, so for someone who lived to be 65, his output wasn't prodigious. Simpson has a silky voice and she hit a home run with her deliverance. She also sang "Arianna a Naxos" by Haydn and the witch's scene from Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel", assisted by Kara Guggenmos and Jennifer DeDominic. It was a wonderful concert.
"Les Nuits D'Été"has only been broadcast on my local , now non-reachable, classical station, KVOD, 11 times since the beginning of 2004. 6 broadcasts were between 8 PM and midnight, and 5 between in the 1 AM and 4 AM. What a shame that listeners in the Denver area don't get much chance to hear this wonderful cycle.
"Les Nuits D'Été"has only been broadcast on my local , now non-reachable, classical station, KVOD, 11 times since the beginning of 2004. 6 broadcasts were between 8 PM and midnight, and 5 between in the 1 AM and 4 AM. What a shame that listeners in the Denver area don't get much chance to hear this wonderful cycle.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
The University of Colorado's "Pendulum" series
Last night I went to a concert of the University of Colorado's "Pendulum New Music" series, presenting the best of new music from both students and faculty. It has always been fun to hear new compositions from unknown composers and last night was rewarding.
A guest faculty composer, Ed Knight from Oklahoma City, had his "Trio for flute, viola, and piano" played for the first time. It was an interesting tonal work well worth hearing again. As it progressed I could believe that Knight would do well writing for the movies. What made this piece even more interesting was that the he went on stage and said a few words about it. The evening's program merely named the piece but Knight gave names to the 4 movements. I cannot just image an event or setting just by listening to the music, particularly one which I've never heard before. But Knight's description of the work being influence by the Internet added immensely to its appeal. "Spam", with a hint of the darkness and even a worm made the first movement come alive. While I don't know much about "Classmates.com" or "Matchmaker.com", his brief explanation put substance to the second and third movements. "Ebay bidding war", once named could be imagined musically and was realized with the final spoken word "Sold". It was much fun.
"Pendulum New Music" has always been enjoyable and it's pleasing to hear the student and faculty compositions. It is to the composition faculty's credit that the music comes off as well as it does. The students say a few words about their work and take applause afterwords. Greg Simon's "Prometheus in the Dead Zone" was exciting, but the other works by Matthew Browne and Mary Mixter should be complemented also. Kudos to all involved.
A guest faculty composer, Ed Knight from Oklahoma City, had his "Trio for flute, viola, and piano" played for the first time. It was an interesting tonal work well worth hearing again. As it progressed I could believe that Knight would do well writing for the movies. What made this piece even more interesting was that the he went on stage and said a few words about it. The evening's program merely named the piece but Knight gave names to the 4 movements. I cannot just image an event or setting just by listening to the music, particularly one which I've never heard before. But Knight's description of the work being influence by the Internet added immensely to its appeal. "Spam", with a hint of the darkness and even a worm made the first movement come alive. While I don't know much about "Classmates.com" or "Matchmaker.com", his brief explanation put substance to the second and third movements. "Ebay bidding war", once named could be imagined musically and was realized with the final spoken word "Sold". It was much fun.
"Pendulum New Music" has always been enjoyable and it's pleasing to hear the student and faculty compositions. It is to the composition faculty's credit that the music comes off as well as it does. The students say a few words about their work and take applause afterwords. Greg Simon's "Prometheus in the Dead Zone" was exciting, but the other works by Matthew Browne and Mary Mixter should be complemented also. Kudos to all involved.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
It's been a while.......
I've been still trying to find a decent replacement for my old FM radio. Since KVOD, the Denver all classical music station, essentially went off the air, I've been trying Internet stations from a few different systems. While the broadcast fare from KVOD was tepid, at least all I needed to do to hear it was turn on the radio and there it was -- oh, for the good old days.
While having breakfast the other day it dawned on me that I could listen to some classical music on my TV. Comcast has several stations, so I thought to try them out. They were pretty innocuous but okay. Then I noticed that Comcast also believes in only playing parts of a composition. If a composer only wanted his audience to hear the 2nd movement he wouldn't write a first. It's a petty peeve of mine --- if you broadcast a composer's work of art, play the entire thing!
I've been very happy with the music broadcast over the Internet using the Live365's network, particularly contemporary-classical.com which broadcasts 20th and 21st century composers. I've heard some incredible music on contemporary-classical.com that I've never heard before. Stations like KVOD never took the risk of exposing their listeners to this stuff, instead broadcasting the same old masters over and over and over. Even broadcasting 24 hours each day, they just couldn't risk contemporary music.
The contemporary-classical.com web site went off the air a week or so ago. Two musicians associated with the group "Alarm Will Sound" were staying at our house while rehearsing for a Denver performance. I was telling one of them about the music broadcast on contemporary-classical.com. Later that day I went to check out the web site and instead found a note "Will the owner of this site please contact his ISP". Since I was about to renew my annual membership with Live365, I wasn't sure I wanted to re-up if the main station I was interested in was going away. Using Live365's contact form, I asked what they knew about the site. I got no response. A few days later, still no contemporary-classical.com web site, so I sent another query. The day after the second request to Live365 I noticed that the Contemporary-classical.com web site was back up. The next day Live365 finally responded (twice, separately) and said all was fine, just clear my browser cache. Give me a break! This was not a caching issue. Anyway, I'm back and happy listening to some very interesting contemporary classical music.
Right now I'm listening to Roy Harris's Symphony #7 on Live365/contemporary-classical. Was it broadcast on any of the stations I monitor in the last 5 years? Nope. Harris's 3rd, 4th, 6th and 9th, yes, but not the 7th. Such is the state of broadcast classical music in some of cities around the country.
While having breakfast the other day it dawned on me that I could listen to some classical music on my TV. Comcast has several stations, so I thought to try them out. They were pretty innocuous but okay. Then I noticed that Comcast also believes in only playing parts of a composition. If a composer only wanted his audience to hear the 2nd movement he wouldn't write a first. It's a petty peeve of mine --- if you broadcast a composer's work of art, play the entire thing!
I've been very happy with the music broadcast over the Internet using the Live365's network, particularly contemporary-classical.com which broadcasts 20th and 21st century composers. I've heard some incredible music on contemporary-classical.com that I've never heard before. Stations like KVOD never took the risk of exposing their listeners to this stuff, instead broadcasting the same old masters over and over and over. Even broadcasting 24 hours each day, they just couldn't risk contemporary music.
The contemporary-classical.com web site went off the air a week or so ago. Two musicians associated with the group "Alarm Will Sound" were staying at our house while rehearsing for a Denver performance. I was telling one of them about the music broadcast on contemporary-classical.com. Later that day I went to check out the web site and instead found a note "Will the owner of this site please contact his ISP". Since I was about to renew my annual membership with Live365, I wasn't sure I wanted to re-up if the main station I was interested in was going away. Using Live365's contact form, I asked what they knew about the site. I got no response. A few days later, still no contemporary-classical.com web site, so I sent another query. The day after the second request to Live365 I noticed that the Contemporary-classical.com web site was back up. The next day Live365 finally responded (twice, separately) and said all was fine, just clear my browser cache. Give me a break! This was not a caching issue. Anyway, I'm back and happy listening to some very interesting contemporary classical music.
Right now I'm listening to Roy Harris's Symphony #7 on Live365/contemporary-classical. Was it broadcast on any of the stations I monitor in the last 5 years? Nope. Harris's 3rd, 4th, 6th and 9th, yes, but not the 7th. Such is the state of broadcast classical music in some of cities around the country.
Friday, December 19, 2008
On the reliability of Internet Classical Music
With the demise of over-the-air classical music in Boulder, I'm now listening to more and more classical music over the Internet. It's not as easy as just turning on the radio and it doesn't work in my car, but it's better than nothing, or even worse, the talk-talk-talk news-news-news nonsense. One major downside of listening over the Internet is the technological addition of lots of rests. Rests in music are very important - they indicate that the musician(s) should to stop and wait a bit. Composers use them for emphasis, transitions, surprise and emotion. There's the famous rest in the adagio of Samuel Barber's String Quartet, opus 11, often performed as the "Adagio for Strings". The strings ascend to a tense dissonance, then stop and return in a mild tonal lower key. If my memory serves, it was played during the time of Kennedy's assassination as a reminder of how life can be cut short. Rests make music music.
But Internet music has interspersed rests where they shouldn't be. They aren't really rests, rather they are transmission breaks. I've been listening to my favorite Internet station, Contemporary-Classical.COM at night. Frequently, very frequently in the middle of some music there's a break. I know it's not supposed to be there, but there it is anyway. Sometimes it's a short one, more often not 2, 3 or more seconds -- disruptive. I don't believe it's the fault of Contemporary-Classical.COM because I hear the same "rests" in other Internet music: Pandora, LastFM, ShoutCast stations, KING live streaming and others. I'm convinced that it's the same "rests" that I see while using the secure shell, SSH, to access another system on the Internet. I'm typing away and ...... everything stops. My keystrokes don't get reflected back and I'm stuck. All too often I get a message that the remote server has disconnected my session. Since I'm somewhat familiar with the Internet technology and I monitor stuff, I see breaks in the connection from my cable modem to the Comcast router which is my gateway to the Internet. SSH breaks and so does Internet music.
On a slightly different subject, some of my initial exposure to some of these Internet music services have left me disappointed with their notion of what constitutes a classical "tune". I was startled to hear the 3rd movement of Mahler's Second Symphony ("Resurrection") played as a stand-alone fragment sandwiched between two non-related selections. The technologists who put these services together need to view classical music through other than a popular lens. Media companies push laws to protect their intellectual property but never seem to protect artistic intent. If Mahler wanted just some of his music to be played independently without context, then he would have written "tunes" and not symphonies.
But Internet music has interspersed rests where they shouldn't be. They aren't really rests, rather they are transmission breaks. I've been listening to my favorite Internet station, Contemporary-Classical.COM at night. Frequently, very frequently in the middle of some music there's a break. I know it's not supposed to be there, but there it is anyway. Sometimes it's a short one, more often not 2, 3 or more seconds -- disruptive. I don't believe it's the fault of Contemporary-Classical.COM because I hear the same "rests" in other Internet music: Pandora, LastFM, ShoutCast stations, KING live streaming and others. I'm convinced that it's the same "rests" that I see while using the secure shell, SSH, to access another system on the Internet. I'm typing away and ...... everything stops. My keystrokes don't get reflected back and I'm stuck. All too often I get a message that the remote server has disconnected my session. Since I'm somewhat familiar with the Internet technology and I monitor stuff, I see breaks in the connection from my cable modem to the Comcast router which is my gateway to the Internet. SSH breaks and so does Internet music.
On a slightly different subject, some of my initial exposure to some of these Internet music services have left me disappointed with their notion of what constitutes a classical "tune". I was startled to hear the 3rd movement of Mahler's Second Symphony ("Resurrection") played as a stand-alone fragment sandwiched between two non-related selections. The technologists who put these services together need to view classical music through other than a popular lens. Media companies push laws to protect their intellectual property but never seem to protect artistic intent. If Mahler wanted just some of his music to be played independently without context, then he would have written "tunes" and not symphonies.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Pandora
Another Internet classical music provider I've been told about is Pandora. Friends that have used it say it's good but my experience has not been so. Like all these so-called stations they use lots of JavaScript to make things work. Perhaps I'm handicapping myself by trying to protect myself, but I use FireFox with the NoScript add-on enabled. I also run under Linux and the KDE windowing system. It appears that the techies at Pandora must be MAC or Windows enthusiasts and never look at their stuff from a Linux-based browser. After telling Firefox/NoScript to allow Pandora's script, when I try to listen to something I get a funny smudge on my screen and nothing else. Certainly no music. So much for Pandora.
Many of these stations (and lots of other web sites) are using secondary web measuring tools like google-analytics, double-click and quantserv. I've got my browser configured to ignore these annoying and intrustive scripts. It's always seemed to me that sites that rely on these tracking tools are just lazy and unwilling to look at what their own servers generate in terms of logging. Why should the end user suffer additional network traffic after loading these pages which contains hidden links to other measuring sites. I'm old-fashioned I guess, but I don't approve of it.
Many of these stations (and lots of other web sites) are using secondary web measuring tools like google-analytics, double-click and quantserv. I've got my browser configured to ignore these annoying and intrustive scripts. It's always seemed to me that sites that rely on these tracking tools are just lazy and unwilling to look at what their own servers generate in terms of logging. Why should the end user suffer additional network traffic after loading these pages which contains hidden links to other measuring sites. I'm old-fashioned I guess, but I don't approve of it.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Last.FM
I've stumbled upon another Internet classical music broadcasting system that seems pretty good, Last.FM. I haven't figured out all of its capabilities yet, but I does seem to have a lot of interesting music fitting my tastes. The pieces tend to be relatively short though I'm now listening to Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians" which is 52 minutes long. The music is broadcast by a player imbedded within the Last.FM HTML page, though there are other ways to listen. If you go away from the Last.FM page you are listening to you loose the music, but if you pop into another Firefox tab, the playing continues. There is a way to use the Last.FM player in Linux, but the installation is by configuring and compiling from a tar ball. I tried installing it, but it complained about my system and wouldn't compile. Their in-page player buffers the music, so the occasional breaks I was hearing on Live365 and ShoutCast, caused by Comcast's router connectivity issues, don't appear as obvious. But if you inadvertently go to the Last.FM page playing the music and follow a link from there your music is gone.
Last.FM has "stations" which appear to be collections of similarly catalogued music. At first glance their classical listings aren't all that deep, but I've found their contemporary classical selections to be fairly extensive. I guess that shouldn't be too surprising given the nature of the site and the content.
Is the new "contemporary classical" music any good? I'm now listening to "The Storm" by Wojciech Kilar. Last.FM has a succinct biography of the composer being played, a dynamic Web 2.0 ajax feature. Kilar is a contemporary Polish composer mentioned along-side Pendereski and Gorecki. In checking on FM broadcasts, a Kilar composition was broadcast 4 times on 3 different stations over the last 5 years. The FM radio is not the way to get exposed to his music it seems.
Last.FM has "stations" which appear to be collections of similarly catalogued music. At first glance their classical listings aren't all that deep, but I've found their contemporary classical selections to be fairly extensive. I guess that shouldn't be too surprising given the nature of the site and the content.
Is the new "contemporary classical" music any good? I'm now listening to "The Storm" by Wojciech Kilar. Last.FM has a succinct biography of the composer being played, a dynamic Web 2.0 ajax feature. Kilar is a contemporary Polish composer mentioned along-side Pendereski and Gorecki. In checking on FM broadcasts, a Kilar composition was broadcast 4 times on 3 different stations over the last 5 years. The FM radio is not the way to get exposed to his music it seems.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Contemporary classical music and Geirr Tveitt
I went again to the music school at the University of Colorado (CU) for a concert Wednesday night. It was their Pendulum series, featuring contemporary music which included some student compositions and Stravinsky's "Les Noces". Some of was good, some not so good. CU's faculty and students are a great resource and most Tuesday nights find me there for recitals and performances. It's a wonderful thing to have access to such talent. To hear contemporary music "in the raw" is a great thing.
Since I can't hear my local FM station any more and since they discontinued playing any substantial contemporary music anyway, the Internet is my only source of exposure to new "contemporary classical" music other than local performances. I've been listening to contemporary music over the Internet though a site http://contemporary-classical.com/. This site is part of the Live365.com "network" which I started listening to when I had a wireless media center device. I got rid of that and now just listen to the "live365" network using one of my computers. Unfortunately, live365 got fancy and have their own "player", so I can't use my small handheld Nokia, my preferred device for listening at night,
Contemporary-classical.com introduced me to Geirr Tveitt, a Norwegian composer who lived until 1981. I've never heard of him until I came upon the end of one of his pieces being broadcast on Contemporary-classical.com. A day later I went to Amazon and ordered two of Tveitt's Cd's. As is often the case, you get additional music on the CD which you hadn't intended to buy but which came with the piece you did want. In this case, it was Tveitt's "Variations on a Folksong from Hardanger for two pianos and orchestra" from 1939. I ended up liking this much more than his Piano Concerto #4 "Aurora Borealis" which is what I ordered. I recommend the "Variations".
Tveitt's broadcasts on FM radio? Pretty skimpy. KVOD played the Piano Concerto #4 three times in the last 5 years and always late a night. KING and KUSC seem to like Tveitt much more, though, surprisingly, WQXR hasn't played him at all in the last 5 years. And my favorite "Variations"? It has not been broadcast at all by any of the stations I monitor. Too bad.
Since I can't hear my local FM station any more and since they discontinued playing any substantial contemporary music anyway, the Internet is my only source of exposure to new "contemporary classical" music other than local performances. I've been listening to contemporary music over the Internet though a site http://contemporary-classical.com/. This site is part of the Live365.com "network" which I started listening to when I had a wireless media center device. I got rid of that and now just listen to the "live365" network using one of my computers. Unfortunately, live365 got fancy and have their own "player", so I can't use my small handheld Nokia, my preferred device for listening at night,
Contemporary-classical.com introduced me to Geirr Tveitt, a Norwegian composer who lived until 1981. I've never heard of him until I came upon the end of one of his pieces being broadcast on Contemporary-classical.com. A day later I went to Amazon and ordered two of Tveitt's Cd's. As is often the case, you get additional music on the CD which you hadn't intended to buy but which came with the piece you did want. In this case, it was Tveitt's "Variations on a Folksong from Hardanger for two pianos and orchestra" from 1939. I ended up liking this much more than his Piano Concerto #4 "Aurora Borealis" which is what I ordered. I recommend the "Variations".
Tveitt's broadcasts on FM radio? Pretty skimpy. KVOD played the Piano Concerto #4 three times in the last 5 years and always late a night. KING and KUSC seem to like Tveitt much more, though, surprisingly, WQXR hasn't played him at all in the last 5 years. And my favorite "Variations"? It has not been broadcast at all by any of the stations I monitor. Too bad.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Listening to "Internet" classical music
A few weeks back I received email from someone on the KVOD staff. She had found my web site which catalogs KVOD's and other classical FM radio playlists and said she liked my site. She asked if I could get KVOD after they switched to a newer, much weaker frequency. I told her No, KVOD was too weak and that I had given up on trying to listen to it either at home or in the car. Try new stuff she suggested. Spend $350 and get a Squeezebox to hear Internet Radio! Try an HD Radio, after I buy a new one for each of my rooms where I have radios. She reminded me of George Bush after 9/11 telling us to go out and spend!
Using the internet to listen to classical music is possible, but it's a bit of a weak soup. Sure I can listen to KVOD on any of my computers, but why would I do that? The Internet makes available stations from around the world, so why listen to cow-town Denver? I've tracked their broadcasts for years and they prefer broadcasting predictable "popular" easy-listening music, almost always short. They've shrunk their broadcasts of contemporary classics and really push the pap.
So given that I have a world-wide choice of internet classical music, what's the problem? Connectivity, in a word. I'm a Comcast subscriber and have been for many years. They are okay, but while listening to internet music, I get frequent breaks in the music. It just stops for a while, then comes back. It really adds to the music, inserting 'rests' where the composer forgot to write them. ;)
I use SSH to connect to my server to maintain my web sites. All too often I'm in the middle of a session and my keystrokes stop. A high percentage of the time I'm just thrown off and I have to start all over again. I've been noticing this for years with SSH so I wrote a little perl program to ping my external router, the one that my Comcast-supplied modem is connected to. My techie friends tell me that I should always be able to ping my router and that it should always be there. Such is not my case. I've seen it go away for fairly lengthy periods of time, with the blinking lights on the modem confirming what my computer tells me. At other times it just comes and goes. In the last 10 minutes or so, 78% of the pings got through fine, and the rest of the time I had between a 20% and 100% packet loss. Fortunately I can listen to my own mp3 library and avoid these unexpected 'rests' in the music.
Using the internet to listen to classical music is possible, but it's a bit of a weak soup. Sure I can listen to KVOD on any of my computers, but why would I do that? The Internet makes available stations from around the world, so why listen to cow-town Denver? I've tracked their broadcasts for years and they prefer broadcasting predictable "popular" easy-listening music, almost always short. They've shrunk their broadcasts of contemporary classics and really push the pap.
So given that I have a world-wide choice of internet classical music, what's the problem? Connectivity, in a word. I'm a Comcast subscriber and have been for many years. They are okay, but while listening to internet music, I get frequent breaks in the music. It just stops for a while, then comes back. It really adds to the music, inserting 'rests' where the composer forgot to write them. ;)
I use SSH to connect to my server to maintain my web sites. All too often I'm in the middle of a session and my keystrokes stop. A high percentage of the time I'm just thrown off and I have to start all over again. I've been noticing this for years with SSH so I wrote a little perl program to ping my external router, the one that my Comcast-supplied modem is connected to. My techie friends tell me that I should always be able to ping my router and that it should always be there. Such is not my case. I've seen it go away for fairly lengthy periods of time, with the blinking lights on the modem confirming what my computer tells me. At other times it just comes and goes. In the last 10 minutes or so, 78% of the pings got through fine, and the rest of the time I had between a 20% and 100% packet loss. Fortunately I can listen to my own mp3 library and avoid these unexpected 'rests' in the music.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
On the good old radio and choice
FM radios used to be a big feature of my life. Now that I'm thinking about them, I count 6 in my house and one in both of our cars. One used to be next to my bed. I faithfully listened to KVOD's classical music every night as I went to bed. Many nights I would put in earphones so as not to waken my wife and listen well into the wee hours. Sometimes my wife would shoo me into a guest room where I could listen and read. There's a nice Bose stereo system in the family room next to the kitchen where I used to listen to choral music every Sunday morning on KVOD. It's funny that so little choral music was broadcast at other times. There was a portable radio in my basement work room next to an exercise bike and a stereo system in my office. While driving KVOD was always tuned in. Now with KVOD's switch to all-talk, all-opinions, all-noise, all-the-time it all gone.
Actually KVOD can still be heard on a different frequency. It is still broadcasting classical music, just on a very very very week transmitter, probably an old tube model they dug out of some one's attic. It reminds me of my college days when I had a classical music program every Sunday night on the school station. I remember it was a 10 watt transmitter that served the local 10 or 20 blocks surrounding campus. KVOD's transmitter is probably in the same range, it seems.
In talking with other classical fans like myself, the complaint is the same. No KVOD and hence no classical music. No Metropolitan opera. There's plenty of talk, though. The station management knows the market well and acts always in the listener's best interest. Public radio needs to be competitive, so KVOD has given us a competitive choice with two public radio stations broadcasting over FM so we fortunate Coloradans can hear "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition" and the news and news and news. Two stations offering us talk and talk and talk. Isn't it wonderful. I now have a choice of two stations broadcasting public radio and, after a tumultuous few months, just two major investment banks. Such are the virtues of capitalism.
Actually KVOD can still be heard on a different frequency. It is still broadcasting classical music, just on a very very very week transmitter, probably an old tube model they dug out of some one's attic. It reminds me of my college days when I had a classical music program every Sunday night on the school station. I remember it was a 10 watt transmitter that served the local 10 or 20 blocks surrounding campus. KVOD's transmitter is probably in the same range, it seems.
In talking with other classical fans like myself, the complaint is the same. No KVOD and hence no classical music. No Metropolitan opera. There's plenty of talk, though. The station management knows the market well and acts always in the listener's best interest. Public radio needs to be competitive, so KVOD has given us a competitive choice with two public radio stations broadcasting over FM so we fortunate Coloradans can hear "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition" and the news and news and news. Two stations offering us talk and talk and talk. Isn't it wonderful. I now have a choice of two stations broadcasting public radio and, after a tumultuous few months, just two major investment banks. Such are the virtues of capitalism.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
On Internet Radio Genres .....
With the demise of radio broadcasts of KVOD's classical music, I've found it necessary to go more online for music enjoyment. ShoutCast.COM is one and Live365 is another. They both might fill the bill. I'll focus on ShoutCast first.
ShoutCast is a central interface to several thousand servers running broadcasting software delivering music in all forms -- all different genres. With this clear diversity of interest in music, I began thinking of listeners' choices and usage patterns. What genres are hot and what are not? Classical music fans appear to be diminishing at concerts, so is it the same over the Internet?
To address with ShoutCast.com's data, I wrote a little perl routine to access it and save each one of the 19 different genre's top 20 "stations" page. The routine analyzed each page's HTML and extracted the number of current listeners and the number of potential slots, the maximum number of concurrent listeners an individual server can handle.
The following table, with some percentages, are what I observed:
You can also question what the "classical" genre designation means. On one other Internet radio site, the only "classic" music was "Classic Rock"! Sampling various "stations" I've found that very often it means "light" orchestral music or "contemporary" easy-listening piano music. Opera seems to be represented fairly well and some seem to be streamed in their entirety. As an aside, it is the world-wide Internet ShoutCasters are listening to. Sometimes the stations make announcements in their native language. Hungarian I don't understand!!
It's probably an open question whether or not classical audiences are shrinking. In my experience, they are "greying" and attendance is smaller -- but that's just my personal observation. Older people are generally less Internet savvy, so I guess the ShoutCast numbers aren't really surprising. It is interesting technology.
Shoutcast.Com also provides down loadable software to "run your own radio station". I installed and configured it on my Linux box. It works quite well. I was able to wire in my entire private collection of mp3s but I haven't decided whether I want to run it in addition to my other base application. With a radio, the announcer would choose what to broadcast. But what if you have all the control? Sometimes I like surprises, sometimes not. In my base music application, somewhat similar to iTunes but hand-grown and much older, I can either select specific composers and pieces, choose from some random selections or accept a mystery piece. That all appears to be a bit more work under ShoutCast's server, but clearly possible.
ShoutCast is a central interface to several thousand servers running broadcasting software delivering music in all forms -- all different genres. With this clear diversity of interest in music, I began thinking of listeners' choices and usage patterns. What genres are hot and what are not? Classical music fans appear to be diminishing at concerts, so is it the same over the Internet?
To address with ShoutCast.com's data, I wrote a little perl routine to access it and save each one of the 19 different genre's top 20 "stations" page. The routine analyzed each page's HTML and extracted the number of current listeners and the number of potential slots, the maximum number of concurrent listeners an individual server can handle.
The following table, with some percentages, are what I observed:
So how does the classical music audience rank? 2.4% of all the listeners at the point where I took the measurements. I've done it at a few different points during the day and 2.4% is pretty consistent. For all of ShoutCast's total 400 thousand current listeners, that's still a pretty small audience.
Current % of Total % of
Genre Users Total Slots Total
---------------- ------- ----- ------ -----
Alternative 14419 3.4% 74709 5.5%
Classical 10110 2.4% 30973 2.3%
Comedy 1634 0.4% 10865 0.8%
Country 8917 2.1% 48355 3.6%
Dance 42693 10.2% 125477 9.3%
Funk 8992 2.1% 43823 3.3%
Jazz 14898 3.6% 49916 3.7%
Metal 8508 2.0% 36024 2.7%
Mixed 3338 0.8% 11996 0.9%
Pop 52327 12.5% 136385 10.1%
Rap 19169 4.6% 79631 5.9%
Rhythm and Blues 21522 5.1% 79925 5.9%
Rock 52511 12.5% 147951 11.0%
Talk 5224 1.2% 34151 2.5%
Techno 31127 7.4% 80498 6.0%
TopTen 80941 19.3% 201824 15.0%
World 10723 2.6% 48000 3.6%
70s 9401 2.2% 35881 2.7%
80s 22273 5.3% 70788 5.3%
TOTALS 418727 100.0% 1347172 100.0%
You can also question what the "classical" genre designation means. On one other Internet radio site, the only "classic" music was "Classic Rock"! Sampling various "stations" I've found that very often it means "light" orchestral music or "contemporary" easy-listening piano music. Opera seems to be represented fairly well and some seem to be streamed in their entirety. As an aside, it is the world-wide Internet ShoutCasters are listening to. Sometimes the stations make announcements in their native language. Hungarian I don't understand!!
It's probably an open question whether or not classical audiences are shrinking. In my experience, they are "greying" and attendance is smaller -- but that's just my personal observation. Older people are generally less Internet savvy, so I guess the ShoutCast numbers aren't really surprising. It is interesting technology.
Shoutcast.Com also provides down loadable software to "run your own radio station". I installed and configured it on my Linux box. It works quite well. I was able to wire in my entire private collection of mp3s but I haven't decided whether I want to run it in addition to my other base application. With a radio, the announcer would choose what to broadcast. But what if you have all the control? Sometimes I like surprises, sometimes not. In my base music application, somewhat similar to iTunes but hand-grown and much older, I can either select specific composers and pieces, choose from some random selections or accept a mystery piece. That all appears to be a bit more work under ShoutCast's server, but clearly possible.
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