tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post1195209773916099111..comments2024-03-29T07:38:17.008-05:00Comments on The Music Salon: "Listening Habits Have Changed"Bryan Townsendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-88114914592064356312014-04-23T19:32:36.683-05:002014-04-23T19:32:36.683-05:00Hi Christopher and welcome to the Music Salon. I h...Hi Christopher and welcome to the Music Salon. I hope you make many more comments. Like you, I also grew up listening to recordings because I didn't live where there was a proper concert hall and symphony orchestra. I heard much of the orchestral repertoire on disc long before I ever heard it "live". I really understand exactly where you are coming from. One huge benefit of listening, especially to contemporary music, on disc is that you can listen to it multiple times. I can recall an occasion listening to a performance of Webern's Five Pieces for Orchestra played by the Montreal Symphony and, what with the rustling of programs and the lady next to me opening a candy wrapper agonizingly slowly, I wished I were home instead! So I take your point!<br /><br />Yes, recordings are, or should be, perfect. But I heard a very fine French horn player describe digitally edited recordings as like Frankenstein's monster: stitched together from pieces and then brought to artificial life.<br /><br />I think in the last paragraph you meant to say that your stereo at home might NOT present the whole "concert hall sound"?<br /><br />To add to what you are saying, a while ago I bought a big box of the complete works of Mozart, which I am listening my way through, one disc a day. Before the days of digital recording this would have been very expensive. But now these cheap boxed sets make it possible to become familiar with a huge amount of music.<br /><br />But I still think my statement was literally true: concert halls ARE designed the way they are to make them ideal places to hear music. If they are not, it is because there can be annoying audience members, inexpert musicians and the alternative of perfect (or supposedly so) recordings you can listen to at home.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-44174836502424212672014-04-23T17:41:52.906-05:002014-04-23T17:41:52.906-05:00Hi there. A link brought me to this blog and I'...Hi there. A link brought me to this blog and I've spent quite some time now reading through past posts. It’s nice to see such detailed, informed commentary on classical music and I wish I had discovered this blog ages ago. Now I’d like to respond to this remark (and you are welcome to delete this opening paragraph from the comment now that you have read my appreciation):<br /><br />“concert halls are designed the way they are to make them ideal places to hear music.”<br /><br />Yes and no. I am fortunate to do my concertgoing in Helsinki, where we have a state-of-the-art concert hall (<i>Musiikkitalo</i>) that was just inaugurated a couple of years ago, and ticket prices are low because the Finnish state heavily subsidizes culture. However, I mainly find myself going to concerts for social reasons, not musical ones. I like to see old friends, but at the post-concert beer we usually talk about the recordings we have recently acquired.<br /><br />You see, as younger people who discovered classical music through recordings, we've become used to hearing the music played "perfectly" because recording sessions can be done in several takes and then edited together to get the best results. Even a good orchestra performing in a good hall is going to slip up in some small way that is glaring to one who knows the piece well.<br /><br />Furthermore, listening at home allows me to enjoy the music without the distraction of curmudgeons around me. I enjoy mainly music of the 20th century avant-garde or contemporary composers, and even if the concert hall supposedly has perfect acoustics, it is ruined by the conservative concertgoers on either side of me disparaging the music under their breath or loudly flipping through their programme bookets instead of listening in a focused way. My stereo at home might present the whole “concert hall sound” but it does allow me to listen to the music with undistracted wonder.Christopher Culverhttp://www.christopherculver.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-35696507143400715642013-05-24T06:10:46.050-05:002013-05-24T06:10:46.050-05:00M. Chiasson, thanks for your contribution. I somet...M. Chiasson, thanks for your contribution. I sometimes make provocative statements and I welcome comments that take me to task. Truth, after all, is something arrived at through group effort. Starting with your mention of the Chopin ballade, actually, I have written about both the First Ballade and the Fourth Ballade. It was the fourth that was said, by Robert Schumann, to be inspired by a poem by Adam Mickiewicz which I discussed in this post: http://themusicsalon.blogspot.mx/2013/05/chopin-ballade-no-4-in-f-minor-op-52.html<br /><br />Next, yes Mozart did indeed want a lot more double basses in his orchestra, but this is, as you say, about having good support in the bottom of the range--it does not relate to the rhythmic problem that was my real point.<br /><br />Finally, yes, I have gotten pushback before when commenting on the relative peacefulness of the 19th century. I can only conclude, since the Pax Brittanica was simply an historic fact, that there must be some ideological reason to claim it was not.<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pax_Britannica<br /><br />I am not claiming that the 19th century was free of conflict--there are no such centuries--just that it was relatively peaceful when compared to the adjacent eras of the Napoleonic Wars and the First and Second World Wars. What possible reason could there be for denying these obvious facts?Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-70398059412699482912013-05-23T22:25:55.790-05:002013-05-23T22:25:55.790-05:00What? Pax Brittanica!? What is this colonialist hi...What? <i>Pax Brittanica</i>!? What is this colonialist historical invention? Actually, 19th century, war stopped to be between nations to become war <i>in</i> the nations : civil war. France's revolts (1848), American Civil War (1861-1865), Canada's Patriots' War (1837-1838), Poland, and so on. Don't you know that Chopin's First Ballad is inspired by Adam Mickiewicz, strongly influenced by Polish insurrection?<br /><br />You say that music of our time is «mechanical, physical, somatic». Well, that's because musicians have now the means to go to their end. Mozart wrote in a letter that he wanted at least 20 contrabasses in his ideal orchestra – the subwoofers of classical era! He might have LOVED our subwoofers.<br /><br />You may have your conservative views, but please stop bending history to them!Frédéric Chiassonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01892128202669285452noreply@blogger.com