Bookworm

Viva la liberta

Robert L. Marshall writes a letter to the editor in response to Charles Rosen's recent review of Abert's W. A. Mozart, recently translated into English. Mr. Rosen responds. The two music scholars esoterically debate what Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart intended to express through his music. They agree that the composer reveled in being original, but don't entirely agree about the meaning of the line "Viva la liberta" in the opera Don Giovanni -- was this a shout out to the "sexual liberty" of the Marquis de Sade, as Marshall asserts, or political liberty, which Rosen thinks more likely?  [Link to their exchange in The New York Review of Books]

R.I.P Luciano Pavarotti

I will update this post later with more details and links, but ran across this great story about Pavarotti and wanted to share.

"I expected Pavarotti to listen to them, say a thing or two, then pick a winner and head off to the next party. But he surprised me. He was deeply involved in each singer's performance. And he got onstage and worked with EVERY one of them, offering suggestions on everything from practice regimen to fashion. He was occasionally blunt, but he was never cruel, and these singers were in heaven. He was actually interested in helping them become better singers in the short time he had with them." [LiveJournal: deadmoviestar: Lucky Luciano]

American Idol, Season 6, Final 9

Last night -- 4/3/07 -- Tony Bennett songs

Gina Glocksen -- Better than I expected.  This is so far outside her usual comfort zone that I didn't think it would be great.  Her performance was a little boring, but showed off the quality of her voice.
Haley Scarnato -- She's a pretty girl and had a good performance a few weeks ago, but last night's was just. . . ordinary.  She's obviously hoping to capitalize on her physical attractiveness by the outfits she's choosing.
Jordin Sparks -- I really like this girl.  She is one of my favorites because she combines personality, and youth, and energy with a very good voice that she is able to control very well.  Her intonation is always spot on and her song choices have shown her versatility. 
LaKisha Jones -- LaKisha has a gorgeous voice with such a lovely, warm quality to it. This style was out of her comfort zone and it wasn't my favorite performance of hers, but she definitely deserves to still be there.
Melinda Doolittle -- A consummate professional.  I agreed with the judges' comments last night, that watching her perform is like a master class in how to interpret a song.  Absolute best vocal control in the competition.
Blake Lewis -- I thought he chose a really good song, but one that was difficult to interpret given the lyrics.  [Side note: I think Tony Bennett was the best celebrity guest yet, in terms of giving concrete advice about how to style or interpret the songs.]
Chris Richardson -- Way better than I expected, just because this style of music seemed pretty far removed from his comfort zone.  Best male performance of the night.
Phil Stacey -- Phil might get voted off this week.  Last week he did well with the Police song, but this week his performance felt weak to me. I don't know if it was just vocal fatigue or poor song choice --  I've heard him sound much better.
Sanjaya Malakar -- I've been hoping Sanjaya would get voted off for weeks, but with various anti-Idol factions promoting him, he'll probably still be around for another week.  I do agree with Paula's comment that last night he was somewhat entertaining.  And he didn't have a ridiculous hairdo for a change.

The Album, R.I.P.?

"To the regret of music labels everywhere. . . fans are buying fewer and fewer full albums. In the shift from CDs to digital music, buyers can now pick the individual songs they like without having to pay upward of $10 for an album.

Last year, digital singles outsold plastic CD’s for the first time. So far this year, sales of digital songs have risen 54 percent, to roughly 189 million units, according to data from Nielsen SoundScan. Digital album sales are rising at a slightly faster pace, but buyers of digital music are purchasing singles over albums by a margin of 19 to 1.

Because of this shift in listener preferences — a trend reflected everywhere from blogs posting select MP3s to reviews of singles in Rolling Stone — record labels are coming to grips with the loss of the album as their main product and chief moneymaker." [New York Times]

I'm not always someone who follows the crowd, but my music buying habits are in line with this article.  I occasionally buy albums, but more often I buy singles -- songs I heard on Grey's Anatomy or American Idol or the Grammies, etc.  I don't listen to a lot of commercial radio, so I tend to find out about new songs or artists from television. 

New Norah Jones album out

If you're a fan and haven't heard that there's a new album out, here's your heads up.  And here 's a Susan Stamberg interview with the artist: NPR : Norah Jones Back with 'Not Too Late'.

NPR : Does Age Quash Our Spirit of Adventure?

"Robert Sapolsky, a distinguished neuroscientist in his 40s, had a young assistant who played different music every day, from Sonic Youth to Minnie Pearl. That made Sapolsky crazy -- and curious about why his aging ears still crave the music he loved in college. Is there a certain age when the typical American passes from the novelty stage to utter predictability?" [NPR]

Winners by 7 Seconds Of Love, animation Joel Veitch rathergood.com

Kind of a fun song with an animated cat or two in a "music video"

Winners by 7 Seconds Of Love

The Band Room Clan: A Reminiscence

A post by another blogger has gotten me thinking about the band room days.  I'll decline to mention how many years it's been since I used to hang out in the band room at my high school.  It really was a haven for me and my friends.  We were there before home room, during lunch hour, and sometimes after school, too.  Sometimes, amongst ourselves, we called ourselves the Band Room Clan.  We practiced, listened to music, did our homework, passed notes we'd written during other classes, fell in and out of love, and, oh, yeah, rehearsed.  Concert band and Stage Band with Mr. S.  The concert band also played for Saturday football games, in the stands, thankfully, and marched in the Memorial Day parade.  Mr. S. hated having band practice outside and trying to get musicians to distinguish their left foot from their right and march in time with the music.  You'd have thought it would be second nature.  Stage band (jazz) was so fun.  I'd like to think that our black folders full of numbered music are still in their holders.  I think 59 (or 95?) was my favorite -- Birdland -- because I really liked the trombone part.  Sometimes I have dreams where I'm back at the high school, in the band room.  I'm always there, never in the library or a classroom.  We're all there getting ready to rehearse and I'm worried that I won't be able to play a note.  In real life, I once did something supremely embarrassing.  I didn't have a mouthpiece brush, so would run a paper towel through my mouthpiece to clean out the accumulated grime.  Brass players, you know whereof I speak.  This one time in my sophomore year, a friend of our  choral director, a trombonist, sat with me while we rehearsed the music for the musical Bells Are Ringing.  I couldn't get any sound to come out and was quite embarrassed because this adult was sharing my stand.  At a break in the rehearsal I took the 'bone apart and realized I'd gotten a piece of paper towel stuck in the stem of the mouthpiece.  Good grief!  [This post is a work-in-progress; more later]

Apple Launches Windows Version of iTunes Service

"Apple Computer Inc. on Thursday launched the long-awaited Windows-compatible version of its iTunes online music service, promising a wider library of songs and new features to maintain its lead in an increasingly competitive market." [Yahoo! News]

Except that if you go to Apple's website, there is absolutely no information there yet. If it were me, I'd probably have some information available on the web site before announcing things to the world. Just my humble opinion.

Update: 10/17 /03 -- Now there is a prominent announcement on the main page of the site. Thanks, Doc, for the comment letting me know.

Update: 10/23/03: A new version of the iTunes software fixes some problems. "A few customers reported conflicts with specific PC configurations and we quickly updated the iTunes software in response," Apple said in a statement. "iTunes 4.1.1 addresses an isolated incompatibility with Windows 2000 and older third-party CD-burning software, as well as problems caused by corrupt MP3 files on some users' PCs." [ZDnet]

Maybe I'll give it a whirl this weekend! I held off because I'd read about some of the problems people were experiencing with the software.

iTunes -- Windows compatibility

"Peter Lowe, Apple's director of marketing for Applications and Services, says that the company believes that subscriptions are the "wrong path" for online music services and that Windows compatibility with the iTunes Music Store is still planned for this year, according to a Paidcontent.org article. . . Lowe said that the Windows version of the iTunes Music Store will launch before year's end. According to the Paidcontent.org article, the Apple rep also said that: The first independent artists on the digital music store have arrived; 46 percent of all iTunes songs have been sold as albums; Apple has sold 300,000 new iPods since the launch of the iTunes Music Store." [MacCentral]

I can't wait to try it out. I use only PCs, so I haven't been able to take a look. I'm not going to stop buying CDs, especially for classical music, but for hard-to-find songs by one-hit wonders, it'll be great! I think Apple is being smart, businesswise, by letting the Windows hordes in. According to Something Fischi, another music site, BuyMusic.com, will only let in Windows/IE users.