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Imperfect Pitch

THEHORN: I enjoyed that; thanks. It reminds me of The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation.

Imperfect Pitch

I've heard the Levin completion on recordings conducted by Runnicles and Pearlman, but not Mackerras. My recollection is that Levin used the Süssmayr version as his point of departure before tweaking it in various ways ( e.g ., changing some of the orchestral passages in Sanctus and Benedictus, exp...

Imperfect Pitch

Hey ravel30: You mentioned a recording, yourself, in your original post. Maybe people just picked up on that (as I did).

Imperfect Pitch

Define "overrated." If it's just another word for popularity, then the topic is just about taste, and invites people to claim that their own tastes are more elevated or sophisticated than the popular majority's - a common definition of snobbery. Otherwise, what's "overrated" about? Who are the "rat...

Imperfect Pitch

Of all the composers I haven't been able to crack, Brahms enjoys the highest public esteem (which is relevant if "overrated" is the measure). So, for me it's Brahms.

Imperfect Pitch

Quite sensible, but the analogy seems a bit tenuous. I don't know much about basketball, but I know baseball has batting coaches (and pitching coaches) who will tell you, "you're dropping your shoulder" or "keep your eye on the ball" or "wait for a fastball" but I don't think they actually teach an...

Imperfect Pitch

How did she teach so many composers without ever composing anything of significance? Is it necessary to be a composer of something of significance, in order to be a good teacher of composition? I don't know. I don't know of any other field of intellectual endeavor where you can learn how to do some...

Imperfect Pitch

karlhenning wrote:
nut-job wrote:How did she teach so many composers without ever composing anything of significance?
Is it necessary to be a composer of something of significance, in order to be a good teacher of composition?

Apparently not. Just look at Nadia Boulanger.

:-)

Imperfect Pitch

Time for some trivia. Sequence of composition: 1. Quartet #12 (Op. 127) 2. Quartets #13, 15 (Op. 130, 132) concurrently 3. Quartet #14 (Op. 131) 4. Quartet #16 (Op. 135) The point being, #15 was written before #14 contrary to what the numbering suggests. Also, Op. 135 was the last complete work Bee...

Imperfect Pitch

Beethoven's late string quartets defy superlatives. Like some of his late piano sonatas, they are simply transcendent.

In terms of recordings: Ken beat me to it, but the Borodin Quartet applies thoughtful phrasing that "breathes" well. The Takács Quartet is also uniformly excellent.

Imperfect Pitch

Congrats to our friend from Central Asia :-)

Imperfect Pitch

I'm quite sure Mozart's Piano Concerto #23, K. 488 is the only one Horowitz recorded. He did so in March 1987, in the twilight of his career. I haven't seen the video but have the CD ( click here ) , which pairs the work with the B-flat Piano Sonata K. 333. If it is true that his technical flubs re...

Imperfect Pitch

Sometimes people leave it to their last gasp (almost) to record a work they love. I was thinking about this earlier, but - not unusually - the wonderful examples I had have since slipped from what in moments of humour I call my mind. Yes, Rostropovich is one example. He didn't record the entire Bac...

Imperfect Pitch

val wrote:Regarding opera, I think he was god in Mozart, but others have been better (Siepi, Brownlee, Prey ...)

Val: In that case you must love Karl Böhm's classic 1968 recording of Figaro, which features both Prey (Figaro) and Fischer-Dieskau (Count).

Imperfect Pitch

Somehow I feel like I have heard this before, or at least its announcement - that Domingo would be "retiring" as a tenor and embarking on a new career as a baritone, bowing to the effects of age upon the human voice. What I wonder, as an amateur keyboardist myself who knows little about vocal techn...

Imperfect Pitch

Keep reading or read harder, you're still in the dark - acoustic instruments can be picked up, projected, amplified, manipulated, processed etc. via a plethora of sound systems and treatments.... And that's what I meant by "electronically aided" in my earlier post. One of us is still in the dark an...

Imperfect Pitch

Hi Sam, and welcome to CMG. It sounds like New Age music. You should find someone who has Shazam on their iPhone to learn the name of the song and artist - or maybe someone here will know.

Imperfect Pitch

You are misunderstanding...it's the 21st century and it's everywhere . ...where have you been? can't believe it needs explaining quite frankly :shock: ...you'll have to google around to learn more since you're out of the loop, here is wiki's page for starts... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroni...

Imperfect Pitch

I remain skeptical of this technology for the reasons cited here. It does not help that Zenph's website reads like a late-night infomercial and is so coy with specifics. But if people enjoy it, I suppose that's all that matters.

Imperfect Pitch

Thanks for the further replies. Here is one last update for those who may be interested: By instrument Keyboard 34% (15/44) Clarinet 16% (7/44) Other 16% (7/44) Voice 11% (5/44) Trumpet 7% (3/44) Violin 5% (2/44) Viola, Oboe, Bassoon, Horn, Percussion 2% each (1/44 each) By category Keyboard 34% (1...

Imperfect Pitch

If we are talking categorically, as opposed to isolated works, and further focusing on music that is widely loved by others, Puccini operas and anything by Brahms come immediately to mind.

Imperfect Pitch

Thank you, absinthe and some guy , for your explanations. I think I am getting the gist of it slowly but surely. James : By your comments about "pickups, microphones, amplification, speakers" etc., I wonder if you have in mind electronic reproduction of music (but correct me if I'm misunderstanding...

Imperfect Pitch

"Ars Nova,'' the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra's contemporary classical music program, opens its 2009 season this week in Seoul featuring electronic music. "Do you think electronic music is difficult? Cell phone ring tones and other tunes you come across on a daily basis are electronic music. Come a...

Imperfect Pitch

Happy birthday moldyoldi-er.

:-)

Imperfect Pitch

Lance: Vladimir Horowitz plays three of them on this "Encores" CD. Click the image, then press the Play button next to tracks 5-7 to sample them.

Imperfect Pitch

Who knows? Perhaps the LP will outlast the CD format. This comment, which would have been unimaginable 10 years ago, now seems more likely than not; although perhaps for a different reason than Lance had in mind. I think CD's will eventually give way to digital downloads of the lossless and unprote...

Imperfect Pitch

O’Connell made $530,044 in salary and benefits during the fiscal year that ended in June 2008. The four other members of the full-time stage crew -- two carpenters and two electricians -- had an average income of $430,543 during the same period So, these folks earned a combined $2.25 million in FY0...

Imperfect Pitch

Congrats living_stradivarius. I wonder why you have a _ between your first and last screen names when the system will accept a space? It's one of those things that seems silly to ask except in a thread like this, so please forgive the intrusion :-) I am easily amused by screen names. I didn't know ...

Imperfect Pitch

Thank you for the replies so far. I am surprised there is only one vote each for violin and viola, and by the heavy woodwind representation. Here is a summary of results at present: By instrument Keyboard 31% (12/39) Other 18% (7/39) Clarinet 15% (6/39) Voice 13% (5/39) Trumpet 8% (3/39) Violin, Vi...

Imperfect Pitch

Congrats living_stradivarius. I wonder why you have a _ between your first and last screen names when the system will accept a space? It's one of those things that seems silly to ask except in a thread like this, so please forgive the intrusion :-) I am easily amused by screen names.

Imperfect Pitch

Just for fun, I'd like to get a snapshot of what instruments my fellow Chatterbox-ers play. If Other, please elaborate. Voice is a little tricky as everyone sings to a degree. Check the box if you have had formal voice training or if you otherwise consider yourself to be a vocalist. Karaoke alone d...

Imperfect Pitch

karlhenning wrote:Popular music is much broader in time and style than you're trying to torque it.

Certainly, "popular music" can mean different things in different contexts. Language, and music analysis, both have their limitations - with or without torquing.

Imperfect Pitch

karlhenning wrote:
Imperfect Pitch wrote:As a genre, popular music is, a priori, modern.
♫ Away in a manger, no crib for a bed . . . .

Hardly popular in the "heavy metal etc" sense, but feel free to sing your Christmas carols any way you like :-)

Imperfect Pitch

popular music has always been "modern" in ways that formal music analysis cannot account for Something to this, although: 1. I shouldn't say always . 2. Nor should I say always "modern." So I guess, I am agreeing that there are at times things 'going on' in some applications of popular music, which...

Imperfect Pitch

Popular styles of music are very conservative in their musical language. If you ever get to see the printed score of heavy metal etc you will be amazed once striped of all of the extra musical elements that contrive to make it appear modern, just how old fashioned the bare fundamentals of the music...

Imperfect Pitch

1. Vladimir Ashkenazy, Chopin Etudes, 1959/60 cycle. Was available on various Russian labels including Melodiya (via BMG) but is now out of print, I believe. http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/410ABEN4KCL._SL500_AA240_.jpg 2. Oscar Shumsky, misc. works by Fritz Kreisler. The pictured CD is out o...

Imperfect Pitch

John F wrote:That's the Soviet recording, imported into the US by Artia - and I agree that it's outstanding, one of Ashkenazy's highest achievements on records.

Yes indeed; and here he is in concert from roughly the same era as that 1959/60 cycle, before he embarked on a conducting career:

Imperfect Pitch

John F: Either you are taking succinctness to new heights or your (blank) post somehow got erased. Care to re-submit? :-)

Imperfect Pitch

jbuck919 wrote:Does it really make any difference whether it is strictly genetic or not?

I'm just trying to decide if I should order a copy of Hooked-on-Absolute-Phonics, or the equivalent. If there is a glimmer of hope, I might :-)

Imperfect Pitch

Absolute pitch is wired in at birth Is that true? I thought it could be acquired. Here is Wikipedia's take (-of-the-moment) for what it's worth: Nature vs. Nurture Many people have believed that musical ability itself is an inborn talent. Some scientists currently believe absolute pitch may have an...

Imperfect Pitch

I suspect that many on the list started out with the aim of becoming conductors. In this case, it would make sense to develop pianistic skills Funny you say that; I would expect the opposite sequence. By the time someone develops an interest in conducting, wouldn't they already be in a conservatory...

Imperfect Pitch

I have absolute pitch . How many here have it? Not me! (Surprised?) There is evidence that people from east Asian countries such as China and Vietnam have an unusually high incidence of absolute pitch , apparently because of the fact that they speak tone languages, that is languages in which the me...

Imperfect Pitch

Wallingford: A clip to inspire you as you prepare for the big day. I believe this is Myra Hess' transcription, but performed by Dinu Lipatti (whom I prefer, ironically enough, to Hess herself in this arrangement). Good luck!

Imperfect Pitch

Mozart! At the moment I'm rediscovering his Violin Concertos #3 and #5. I was a kid when I first heard these works on my parents' audio cassette (Mutter/Karajan/BPO) and I just recently picked them up again via Perlman/Levine/VPO. Like much of Mozart this music reveals great depth beneath a light a...

Imperfect Pitch

Besides J&R, mentioned by Chalkperson, you can also find substantial stocks of classical CDs in the Lincoln Center area at the Barnes & Noble bookstore (in the basement), the Juilliard School bookstore on 66th Street, and the Metropolitan Opera gift shop in the opera house (vocal recordings only, o...

Imperfect Pitch

The observation about piano being a polyphonic instrument, well-suited to reduction of full orchestral scores, is a good one - and is certainly a plausible explanation. Here's a different gloss on the original question: Does choice of primary instrument influence a conductor's style? For example, w...

Imperfect Pitch

Good question. It seems they are going the way of daily newspapers. I don't have a direct answer for you, but I will mention that I spent a few years living in the the Twin Cities which boast two full-time professional orchestras, the Minnesota Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Boston, wher...

Imperfect Pitch

What do Wilhelm Furtwängler, Bruno Walter, Carlos Kleiber, George Szell, Fritz Reiner, Herbert von Karajan, Georg Solti, Leonard Bernstein, André Previn, James Levine, Michael Tilson Thomas, Kurt Masur, and many other conductors have in common? They are all pianists who rose to prominence as conduc...

Imperfect Pitch

Congrats to you, Don, on the milestone. Now you are only one "0" away from Lance and Chalkie :-)

Imperfect Pitch

Mozart is said, in letters from his kin, to have been intelligent musically but in no other way. What other way matters? Mozart was obviously at least normally literate, fluent in a language not his own and conversant probably in a couple of others. AFAIK he had no appreciable formal education in o...

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