Where’s the bass?
I’m listening to Bjork right now on my headphones at work, and I can hardly hear the bass parts. Makes me realize how good a sound system my Ford Focus came with (up until now I’d only listened to my Bjork CDs in the car). It also makes me realize how much the bass parts really add to her songs. I definitely miss it when it’s gone.
March 25th, 2004 at 9:47 pm
It’s really one of the few things good you can say about CD’s- rock solid bass. I like the Sony Discman because you can boost the bass on it, but the most important thing is great headphones.
Thank you for adding my link!
March 26th, 2004 at 1:23 am
My headphones aren’t top-of-the-line, but they’re not bad either. What I love most about them is that they fit all around my ear, instead of pressing against it. So I can listen for hours without my ears beginning to ache. Makes it impossible for my coworkers to get my attention, though!
It was interesting that I did end up picking up some things in the mid-range of some of the Bjork songs that I wasn’t hearing in the car.
My headphones seem to do great with classical music, which doesn’t fare so well in the car, especially symphonic works. But then, classical music is a lot less bass-heavy (though a nice strong bass section in a symphony can really make a wonderful difference!) Not to mention all the extreme dynamics you get in a symphonic piece.
I happened to hear part of a broadcast of the San Francisco Symphony concert tonight (Thursday) with MTT. They were playing Till Eulenspiegel. I just played that a year or so ago - such a cool piece, though the rhythms can get a little tricky. I like that split-viola section solo towards the beginning. Yum.
March 26th, 2004 at 11:44 am
Sorry, I have a personal problem with Strauss…Please don’t hold it against me. It’s just that I think that he was an A-HOLE! Freakin’ Nazi-lovin’ self-centered egotistical a-hole. You know those violin solos in Till are him making fun of his wife’s nagging? And that stupid lick in D.Juan- adubadubadoobydooo-doodleydooo, doopydoo, dblaahh! It’s a big reason I ‘m so jaded, everyone loving that a-hole Strauss. Don’t let me spoil it for you, but I have an opinion!
March 26th, 2004 at 2:04 pm
Well, all I can say is I like some of his music. As to liking him as a person, I don’t know - I don’t know that much about him.
And I actually don’t know Don Juan - I’ve never heard it, and I’ve never had to practice orchestra excerpts for auditions, so I don’t know the famous viola passage (though I’ve heard about it).
March 26th, 2004 at 9:09 pm
Ahhh, Strauss. I’ve been listening to the Violin 1 excerpt for the last month…my wife just auditioned for NWS on Wednesday.
Strauss was a bastard…but I don’t like his music much either. I think it’s a bit overdone, and I am currently in a long, every-couple-weeks-it comes-up-again-debate about programmatic music and programmatic architecture with my wife. I am currently of the viewpoint that I don’t want to be told what something is supposed to be, whether it’s Gehry’s stainless steel fish or Strauss’s tone poems. The music is just so much better without the title, I think. But she loves it and thinks that I’m an elitist snob
But to dislike a composer just because he was a bastard…that opens up a whole can of worms…
March 27th, 2004 at 1:21 am
Do you guys know the Strauss Piano Quartet? I played it last semester. I really like it - it’s a lot like the Brahms piano quartets. Here are the program notes I wrote up for the piece.
I really don’t know much Strauss at all… just the piano quartet, Don Quixote, and Till Eulenspiegel. Oh, and Also Sprach Zarathustra, I suppose, though not well. And I guess I have a CD with Death and Transfiguration, too, though I’ve only listened to it a couple times.
He’s not on my list of favorite composers, but his music hits the spot once in a while.
I don’t have anything against program music, myself. The music is the same with or without a title, right? Nobody’s forcing you to imagine the program in your head along with the music, after all.
The Four Seasons, Harold in Italy, Symphony Fantastique, I love it all (especially Harold).
What about ballet music and opera? Do you dislike these? What if they’re played out of context - without dancers and staging? That’s program music, wouldn’t you say? But to an even greater extent.
March 27th, 2004 at 1:25 am
By the way, I just increased the size of the comment form. I didn’t realize how tiny it was before.
March 27th, 2004 at 12:16 pm
I just don’t like the majority of R. Strauss’ music, and the fact that he was a prick by most accounts rubs it in. Also that I have played so much of it and it’s usually hard, and IMO not very rewarding. I’ve never had the hairs on my neck stand up like they have with, say (and to use another romantic composer), the opening of the Brahms Gmaj String Sextett (not a great comparison, I know, but that opening sends me to outer space!).
Never heard the piano 4tett…
I just go by what moves me and what doesn’t, with any genre of art, don’t let my opinions spoil anything for you!
March 27th, 2004 at 9:43 pm
I know, it gets to be a little touchy. For the most part, I don’t have as much of a problem with ballet/opera because it goes with words or dancing, so the music should have something to do with what is happening. But it doesn’t work as well imo apart from the visual (Rite of Spring - it’s a pity we don’t get to see it with ballet, for example).
I know nobody’s forcing me to imagine the program…and I don’t when I listen to it.
The debate started after an architecture lecture by Gilles Saucier, talking about what all his building facades represented. I got sick of hearing what I was supposed to be seeing. I just wanted to experience the structure absolutely.
I feel the same way about Don Juan - to me, there is nothing about the piece that has anything to do with the story of Don Juan. If it’s there, it should be obvious; otherwise, just let it be a great (or decent, Hasan) piece of music.
March 28th, 2004 at 2:14 am
Well, the only ballet I’ve seen with dancers was Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty, and that was ten years ago when I was in high school and visiting St. Petersburg, Russia (I also got to see Pique Dame while I was there - unfortunately my Russian wasn’t good enough to understand what was going on). While I would love to see more ballets in their stage form (and I know I really have no excuse, being in Boston), I’m quite happy to listen to ballets without any staging. And actually, I find it distracting to follow the story in opera - I end up paying too much attention to the characters and plot, and the music gets pushed into the background of my mind (like the background music in movies).
It’s strange that building facades would represent anything, it seems to me. It’s kind of like looking at an abstract piece of artwork. The artist might or might not have had a particular image or story in his mind while creating the piece, and he may choose to title the piece based on that, but what really matters is your own personal reaction to the work.
My dad gets a kick out of hearing what other people see in his paintings, I think. He doesn’t mind if you see something different in one of his paintings than what he sees. (And it seems a great deal of his paintings are called “Untitled”, anyway.)
With music, the composer has even less control over your impression of their creation - it’s more of a community effort, with conductor, musicians, sound engineers (in the case of recordings), and the listeners themselves contributing towards the final piece of art. Titles or programs may be what the composer felt when composing the piece, but that’s just one piece of the puzzle.