renaissance poisson

russian artists komar & melamid together with composer david soldier conducted an experiment about most and least wanted music.

The most favored ensemble, determined from a rating by participants of their favorite instruments in combination, comprises a moderately sized group (three to ten instruments) consisting of guitar, piano, saxophone, bass, drums, violin, cello, synthesizer, with low male and female vocals singing in rock/r&b style. The favorite lyrics narrate a love story, and the favorite listening circumstance is at home. [...]

The most unwanted music is over 25 minutes long, veers wildly between loud and quiet sections, between fast and slow tempos, and features timbres of extremely high and low pitch, with each dichotomy presented in abrupt transition. The most unwanted orchestra was determined to be large, and features the accordion and bagpipe (which tie at 13% as the most unwanted instrument), banjo, flute, tuba, harp, organ, synthesizer (the only instrument that appears in both the most wanted and most unwanted ensembles). An operatic soprano raps and sings atonal music, advertising jingles, political slogans, and "elevator" music, and a children's choir sings jingles and holiday songs.[...]

i like accordion and bagpipe. :) also flute, harp, and organ.

via bruceb.

in with the classical. ever since listening to those youtube performances with their miserable sound, i've been on a beethoven kick, with upgraded sound. unfortunately my classical record collection has never recovered from the transatlantic move and the later switch to CDs, so i've been piratey and downloaded lots to help me decide what i want to buy.

and i came across a missa solemnis by bernstein. he did more than one, and i don't know which one this is, but it's exquisite -- i think the tenor might be rene kollo, which would make it the recording with the concertgebouw orchestra, which i definitely should buy anyway.

i sang in a performance of the missa solemnis, 33 years ago. i've never worked so hard musically before or since then (certainly not since then because i gave up making music soon thereafter). it was so difficult, and not made easier by me switching from alto to tenor partway through rehearsals (we lost 2 of our tenors and the balance was all off, and back then i could cover the entire tenor range down to the C below middle C). i still remember how awesome it was when it all came together. i have no idea how good we were in the grand scheme of things, but to my mind, we were damn good; it FELT good. *little smile*.

what's really surprising is how much of the score i still know. not so much the text (my latin has rusted badly), but the music; i can still sing large sections of it, and i actually even still know much of the alto part for the kyrie. that's a long time for remembering something that hasn't been refreshed much (i've listened to the work since, but not a lot, and not in the last 10 years at all). i generally have a good memory for music, but i didn't realise it was this good. that's a cheering thought -- maybe when i go senile, music will stay with me the longest.

which leads down a morbid road, and i better stop it. :)

i haven't thought about that in such a long time, and extra bits and pieces are coming back now -- i used to ponder the text a lot because i was wrestling with singing religious music when i was no longer religious at all, but beethoven's brilliant musical treatment of it (which is quite unusual for a mass) helped a lot with allowing me to come to some sort of peace with it.

so i am trying to create a j-poppy station on pandora, and have seeded it "generously" with what little jpop pandora has available.

and what does it offer me as related? KMFDM and eisbrecher (german industrial alt-metal). say what? dear pandora, your algorithm is b0rken.

rob paravonian's rant about pachelbel's canon in D. hilarious, especially if you've ever played in an orchestra, and generally know a little about music.



i am subscribing to paravonian's youtube feed. :)

via beckyzoole.

one of the ways in which i am weird is that i am completely oblivious to song lyrics. i mean, i can appreciate them when i read them, i can think they're well written, i can even occasionally feel they speak to me. but while the song is played? i don't listen to them. they could be just about anything (not la-la-la; i do pay some attention to the sound of the words; that seems to be more part of the music than part of the lyrics). i don't have any idea whether rap artists glorify violence because i don't think i've ever heard a single rap song's lyrics; the rhythm is so strong that it completely distracts me. oh wait, there was eminem's stan, i did listen to those. ok, exceptions only prove the rule. :) (i like dido, and i recognised her, and that made me pay attention when i first heard stan, so there is a plausible reason for the exception.)

i can actually sing along to a song without noticing the lyrics; again, this is about flow of language, i think. and yes, i can sing along in languages i don't speak. what i like about filk is the togetherness and camraderie; but if i don't watch out and somebody plays well, i get lost in the music just the same, and gone are the funny lyrics.

tonight i was, for some odd reason, listening to the lyrics of a song that actually had some intricacy, which is rare. and i thought what a blessing it is that usually i don't even notice, because the lyrics were HIDEOUS. it was hard to get myself back to appreciating the music because the lyrics sucked so massively. ( click if you want to roll your eyes too )

with all the songs featuring brilliant lyrics, why in the world did it have to be this song that suddenly made me pay attention? *sigh*. but really. the song itself (by james blunt) is interesting. i don't know whether i'll be able to bring myself to buy it though. :)

so i am reading other people's high school graduation music memes, and i am finding that i have no more guilty pleasures when it comes to music. how odd. i remember when i made fun of ABBA, but in secret hummed along to their songs. now there are just ABBA songs i like, and those i don't like. there's no secret humming anymore, i hum right out loud. and man, there is still so much of which to make fun! those costumes! that phil spector sound-alike eurodisco orchestra of synth! (wait, who came first, ABBA or phil spector?)

maybe ABBA has aged really well? naw, probably just more of my anti-social tendencies coming to the fore, *snicker*.

for that ABBA special.

i had forgotten just how completely various ABBA songs earworm me.