Human interest versus musical details
354072
The book gives the reader a better understanding of why some artists refused to leave Germany during Nazi persecution. There was some denial of what Hitler was doing, some hope that their lives would improve, and their passionate desire to bring the beauty of music to those left in their homeland. The writer knew his subject well (his mother and father were in an orchestra), but I thought the story got bogged down at times with so much musical detail.
1579705
My sole objections to this politically oriented history might have been averted with a different title:  "Richard Taruskin's Perspective on Music in the Late Twentieth Century," perhaps.  As it is, I was perplexed that there was not one mention of Witold Lutoslawski, for example, nor more than a listing of Aaron Jay Kernis, Michael Torke, and Ellen Taafe Zwilich, among others, collectively, as "neotonalists," in one sentence. Granted there was a lot to compress into 528 pages of text, but the author allowed himself space to flesh out Steve Reich's and Phil Glass's early lives, for example, and composers fleeing repression or persecution from an Eastern bloc country had a much better chance of being discussed than those with quieter political lives.
I had recently read Hans Stuckenschmidt's "Twentieth Century Music" and was hoping to find the same disciplined, concise summary of important composers and collectives, but for more recent years, and from an American perspective, perhaps.  Initially, I wrote to Taruskin, thinking perhaps the fault was in an inadequate index, and heard back, "I refused to write a telephone directory."
All of which is to say:  there are few competitors for the history of this period, and maybe none at this price range; but be advised of these faults.  Taruskin's biases show through many an ostensibly objective analysis, though analyses there are.  I was impressed with the examination of Elliott Carter's methods, for example, in spite of the author's making it clear he thought Carter's prominence was undeserved.  In short, there are many virtues to be found here that other Amazon reviewers address.
1221909
I've listened to the Beatles "Revolution Number 9" many times.  I like the white noise that you get in between FM radio stations and will sometimes linger on it for a few seconds.  I was intrigued by "Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind" as a kid, as well as "Poltergeist". I play the guitar.  I enjoy the creative use of feedback, as done by Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend and many others.  I'm familiar with the avant garde concept of sound collages.  I enjoyed "Greyfolded" from the Grateful Dead.  I'm intrigued by the relationship that human beings have had with machines since the beginning of the industrial age, which is now evolving to the point whereby people are being rewarded for behaving like machines (famous mathematicians, famous athletes, etc.), technology is now wearable and some folks are even having chips implanted into their bodies for various things (not to mention pacemakers, prosthetic limbs and so forth).  This was a bold artistic statement in some respects.  However, it just ain't music.  It's a sonic experiment, nothing more.  There are moments that sound vaguely musical, and remind you of bagpipes off in the distance.  It was totally unique for it's time, as far as I know, and for that Lou should be commended (may he rest in peace).  With all of that being said, it just doesn't bear repeated listening, in the sense that this would be akin to looking at the same museum exhibit again and again.  It's worth $2.00 and maybe 10 minutes of your time, then it's a memory, or a historical artifact.
410925
This installment in Deutsche Grammophon's "Echo 20/21" series of contemporary music reissues provides three pieces from the 1970s by minimalist composer Steve Reich. While the sort of music isn't really my cup of tea, the disc is fairly enjoyable.

Early pieces by Reich were generally meant to be performed by the composer and friends and then abandoned for newer works, and scores were not published. That changed, however, towards the late 1970s, and the "Variations for Winds, Strings, and Keyboards", performed here by the San Francisco Symphony conducted by Edo de Waart, is one of the pieces Reich opened up to the ensembles of the world. The work, comprising three sections, has an interesting structure. The keyboard instruments (two pianos and three electric organs) provide the foundation of the piece, performing throughout. On top of this basis the strings double the harmony of the organs, while flutes and oboes double more active keyboard music. The brass play an independent part, shimmering in and out in the first and third sections.

The latter two pieces are earlier and performed by the composer's ensemble Steve Reich and Musicians. "Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices, and Organ" (1973) is an exploration of complex rhythmic changes. Voice here is used much like in the composer's "Drumming" or Ligeti's "Clouds and Clouds", that is, as an imitation of other instruments instead of a distinct song-like presence. I must admit that I do not understand the technical bases of the work well enough to appreciate the piece as well as the others.

"Six Pianos" (1973) grew out of the desire to compose a piece for all pianos in a piano store, but Reich eventually discovered that the number should be limited. The piece begins with three pianists all playing the same eight-beat rhythmic pattern, but with different notes for each pianist. The other pianists then begin to slowly build the same pattern by substituting beats for rests. The effect is similar to "Drumming", but more successful. There is no virtuosity here, but the use of the piano much like a percussion instrument is fascinating. In fact, this piece, which I assumed would be the most limited with its featuring a single instrument, turns out to be the best on the disc.

I admit it, I think minimalism is the greatest disaster to befall contemporary music, and has provided more charlatans than any other style. I prefer the zahlenmystik of Gubaidulina, the frenetic business of Lindberg, or even the academic dryness of the lab coat-wearing composer Boulez. Yet, I can appreciate many of the pieces here. "Six Pianos", with its relentlessly continual motions but gradual development is clearly a forerunner of the house music popular in the late 1990s. The music is technically innovative, giving great inspiration to other composers of the time such as Gyorgy Ligeti, even if the innovations are slow to appear. If you are collecting the "Echo 20/21" series, this disc shouldn't wait for last (although the other Reich "Echo 20/21" disc with "Drumming" certainly should.
3282046
Brought to a world founded on unfamiliar concepts of cognition and perception, the Parisian narrator Andre is schooled in the 'local' forms of music that are based on millisecond divisions of time, not our usual focuses of pitch, melody and harmony.  As he struggles to study and understand, he also struggles to explain these concepts on his return to his homeland.  Part time/space science fiction, a large part quirky musicology, The Temporalists is a challenging read.  The payoff is an enriched understanding and appreciation of the complex architecture of sound we take for granted: music.
3166849
There's no dispute about the importance of the music in this set.  The years covered track Ellington through a very creative period (even for him).  His orchestra changes with the addition of Rex Stewart and Lawrence Brown, the experiment with two bassists, and Fred Guy's change-over from banjo (pre-1933) to guitar (1933 and beyond).  The original versions of such iconic compositions as "Caravan," "Mood Indigo," "Solitude," etc. are all here.

The dispute between the other two reviewers has to do with the sound.  Thanks to a friend, I managed to get my hands on a copy of the "Caravan" track from Sony-BMG's 4-CD release "Columbia & RCA Original Masters (1932-1939)" and had a chance to compare the sound on that track with the sound on the same track on this Mosaic release.  I both listened and put each track through a sound spectrum analysis (thank you, Amadeus Pro).  My perception is that the Mosaic release is unfiltered: there is considerably more noise and the kind of higher-range sound information that one would expect with unfiltered recordings taken from shellacs this old, a perception which the sonograms of both tracks supports.  I cannot be sure whether Mosaic and Sony were working from the same original masters: perhaps Sony's masters were quieter and Mosaic's had more wear and surface defects.  I suspect, however, that Sony did some sound filtering -- perhaps not CEDARizing, but something similar and less aggressive.  Nothing I saw in the visual plots of the dynamic range of the Mosaic track suggests that any compression was being used.  The Mosaic set probably has more musical information in it than the Sony set.  Example: I can hear Sonny Greer's mallets on the cymbals at the beginning of Caravan more clearly and brighter on the Mosaic set than on the Sony.  The price for that clarity is a lot more of the original surface noise.

My conclusion: if you want completeness, there is no question that this set is the best way to get these recordings.  If you prefer filtered sound, the Sony set is the way to go.  If you are OK with unfiltered sound, you should like the Mosaic set just fine.
1967935
Many of the songs included on this two-bands' album of 1920's songs, are vocals. Most musical selections -- be they vocals or instrumentals -- are perky. A listener to this album who wants an authentic 1920's musical selection across the bias should enjoy the selections, which play all together for slightly over 1 hour. There are a couple of songs included on this album, whose arrangements and vocal styling I find to be formatted somewhat tediously, but all represented musical styles may be acceptable to some folks. I find this album fun.
709977
The author has written a hybrid book: part theoretical treatise, part fan statement.  He provides a good deal of interesting information and makes some important points about rock music.
Among these is that records rather than performances or written songs are the relevant objects of study in rock music.  Gracyk  supports this claim by making the argument that sound qualities and their textural combinations are more relevant than melody or composition.
He makes good points about how the record-making process, rather than performances, are the real work of rock musicians.  He explains the role of arrangers, producers, recording engineers, and mixers in the process of creating the records.  Gracyk reveals the collaboration between the nominal acts and their studio-based, somewhat anonymous colleagues.  To explain his premise, the author uses the parallel example of film-making as more relevant to rock music than cultivated (art) music.
In making his points, Gracyk reveals the exaggeration of images in rock music:  the "jam-oriented" guitar player, the unity of the band, the rebel-against-the-capitalist-system persona.  He goes into lengthy explorations of writings about rock music from Theodor Adorno, Harold Bloom, and Camille Paglia.
It is in the rebuttals to these other authors that the writing becomes most problematic.  Gracyk's hair-splitting approach is cumbersome and almost but not quite hides the fact that his arguments with these other writers are incomplete, his logic circular or based on assertion rather than explanation.  At times he sounds like a fan who has been upset to hear that not everyone likes his favored music.  He never really adequately explains his assertions that rock music is not cultivated (art) music, nor is it folk music.  To this reader, the former claim is evident, while the latter one still needs careful explanation.
4737634
I had just learned that my toddler son may have the perfect pitch, and I was wondering what to do with his musicality in our family - my training in music is very basic and my husbands does even know musical notation and likes only the songs he remembers from his childhood - when I saw the paperback edition of Oliver Sacks' "Musicophilia. Tales of Music and the Brain" in the Longwood bookstore. I bought it immediately and since then read it twice. I think it might be my favorite among Dr. Sacks' brilliant books.

Enjoyment and creation of music seem to be unique to humans (hm... I could swear my cat liked some songs - but, of course, I cannot be sure). Superficially, listening and playing music look like a waste of time and an absurd activity, but the cultural implications are obvious. There are also profound changes in the brain, found in people trained in music or even in people simply listening to a concert.

Oliver Sacks discusses diverse connections of music and neurological phenomena. From something as simple as tinnitus (i. E. perception of ringing noise in the ears), he goes on to review complex musical hallucinations - when people hear the whole symphonies or operas, or songs from their childhood,  just in their heads (sometimes waking them up; sometimes interfering with work; but sometimes wonderfully controlled and joyful). Musical savants, on the other hand, can memorize and play thousands of complex musical works just after a single hearing. The opposite can happen, too - when people are music -deaf (amusic) and music is for them just a collection of unpleasant noises they do not like, do not make any sense of and wish to escape as soon as they can.

Another extraordinary observation, not only connected to music, and discussed by many artists (for a long time) and scientists (more recently) is synesthesia, or the fusion of the senses. Sacks talks about musical synesthesia here, when different sounds on the musical scale are perceived as having distinct colors, and he returns to it in The Mind's Eye", mentioning the letters of the alphabet having different colors when viewed by a synesthete, so in theory multiple senses can get together in unusual harmony, perfect for the individual experiencing it. I think the concept is beautiful and I envy those who are capable of synesthesia...

As a physician, Dr. Sacks devotes time to talk about the influence of music on patients with various neurological issues, for example communication impairments after a stroke, memory loss, schozophrenic or demented. As always, he talks about his patients with respects and interest, discovering the qualities beyond the common knowledge. His examples are thoughtful and his observations thorough. I really appreciate the examples of real people and their experiences, patients as well as healthy people, such as composers with synesthesia of unusual musical memory. Last but not least, Sacks gives examples of his family members as well as himself, encouraging the readers to pay more attention to their own reactions to the surrounding world and their sensual perception.

Paradoxically, showing how much research has been done on the subject,  this book proves rather that there is still so much we do not know of the workings of human mind and the magical effect of music. The deep connection of science and humanity, researcher's curiosity and compassion, and superb writing produced a unique book, recommended for everyone.
4801534
At the height of the disco craze, I met a music producer who was quite proud of the fact that that when he produced records, he made sure the beat mimicked a mother's heartbeat. The sentiment was that our first amniotic concerts have a profound impact on us and imbue disco with a primal wallop. I wasn't sure that I understood him completely at the time and the question has nagged me for years.

Reading Why We Like Music doesn't specifically address the veracity of the producer's comment but it certainly does speak to its relevance. Short on New Age mumbo jumbo, Sylvia Bencivelli looks under the hood of this most human trait, our collective ability to perceive music, with a half nod to pop science and an equal amount of scientific rigor.

The under-pinning logic explains that music exists because abilities deeply rooted in human nature make it possible to do so.  Every culture recognizes a tonal interval we know as an octave, for instance, but there are about a thousand variations that divide the interval into smaller sub-divisions of varying numbers of notes that we know as scales. This points to the notion of music as a proto-language; sometimes termed musilanguage, which pre-dates our ability to use language to express thought. The big question looms then; is there any entity that bears the same relationship to a musical sequence as thought bears to a linguistic sequence?

As an idea or phrase, why we like music is close to why we like breathing. We're hardwired to do so. The book describes the observations of very young babies and their predisposition to spontaneous learning that requires no teaching. Lullabies from around the world share precise musical elements and babies universally enjoy the same types of lullabies. Human musicality is a natural fact and not a cultural phenomenon; a "gift of nature, rather than a product of culture".

Music, who can live without it? Why We Like Music is fun and thought provoking. Read it fast or read it slow; either way any music lover will love the read.
1579210
If you're drawn in to this music by listening to the calmer (tempo) pieces on it, then be prepared for more hectic pieces that are interspersed on it; I'm systematically skipping thru and zipping forward. It doesn't make for perfect background atmosphere if you want to entertain or be entertained on that laid-back Friday evening Happy Hour, chilling out. Also, if you care about perfectly tuned piano's than this might be trying you; an oversight in a production of such excellent touch of the piano and feel for timing.
692601
One of my friends sarcastically labelled early music as "pre-music". I have to admit that I have heard some early music performances which were a bit dull and boring. But in the hands of Guy Penson and his cohorts the music from the 16th century Susanne van Soldt Virginal Book is anything but boring. This is a lively CD for the most part. It demands that you listen and enjoy the performances.
2082139
"Maximum Focus," CD is like a musical hand holding one through to the end of the task. You get the feeling of predictability so that you can focus on the task at hand like doing math or other readings. The musical movements build up and resolve itself in splendid fashion! I used it to study when there was raining steadily outside with the cloudiness and the grayness, the music is perfect for focused brainstorming effect meaning against the popular lure of minuets and other Baroque musical symphonic compositions, this these tracks are good to get you and me into the mood to distract from other things that causes distractions, in a way seemingly does produce the feeling of a pushing away of the noises in the background. Nothing but the feeling that something is "brewing up".
  When searching for something that will allow me to focus on a task or a reading, I want something more than background music, thus I chose this collection of Vivaldi, etc., surprisingly there is no Bach compositions with their complexity.
  We get a moving sensation in the music to assure us that we should focus on what we are doing. In each piece of the tracks, there is an almost steadiness and proportionality of increasing intensity without sudden drops or spikes in the music making it almost a continuous sounding mixture of notes and melodies.
  I am not a music critic nor know anything but I have only music appreciation---nothing, not even a course in music appreciation at college, but with this track and the "Peak Performance" tracks, I have found my range of interests. I have always been fond of Baroque and Classical Music, this is a correct combination of the two periods to sample.
1227006
This beautiful music uses variations on a simple theme.  The variations involve changes of musical instruments as well as those of the theme itself.  After hearing this music, I found that my mind continued the variations, so my enjoyment of this fine music continued for hours.
4715312
Time signatures and "cut time" have nothing to do with wage and hour matters.  A metronome has nothing to do with inner city gardening.  The staff mentioned here is not the one that comforts you and the clefts have nothing to do with maxillofacial surgery.  In a world where 1/16 and 1/32 are commonplace, the metric system is unknown.  The ability to reach an octave has nothing to do with getting felt up at the airport and "improvisation" is not referring to a Cajun`s ingenious use of duct tape.

In 1939, while France and England were declaring war on Germany and Germany was invading Poland, a meeting took place in London that affects something most people have done every day since.  What composers hear when they write music and what listeners hear years later was standardized when a committee met in London to agree on how notes should sound.

Dr. John (not the one from New Orleans) Powell has a masters degree in music composition and a PhD in physics. He has taught musical acoustics and physics in the U. K. and Sweden.  Just as important for the readers, he's not bad at English composition either.  "How Music Works: The Science and Psychology of Beautiful Sounds, from Beethoven to the Beatles and Beyond" is his charming effort to deal with the topics mentioned previously in this article as well as many more.

With chapter titles such as "Weighing Up Scales", "I Got Rhythm", and "Harmony and Cacophony", Dr. John cleverly guides the reader through a mine field of potentially dull and boring topics.  Regardless of our level of skill with an instrument or singing, Powell's conversational tone helps us become better listeners and challenges us to expand our horizons by embracing genres new to us.

My favorite chapter is "Making Music" in which he covers how music is composed, what conductors do, and improvisation.  While improvisation is frequently associated with jazz, it is actually found in most if not all genres.  Simple stated, improvisation is "making it up as you go along".

A bonus CD accompanies the book and illustrates many of the points discussed.  Three of the ten tracks on the CD were of particular interest: "How to get different sounds from a guitar string", "How to bring tears to the eyes of the audience" and one on identifying instruments from their sounds.
4549639
This is a series of musical letters two composers have written to one another.  It is meant to be played with two adjoining pianos. The "letters" build on common themes, all in moods that are at once romantic and minimalist.  I liked most of the letters at first, and over time I have grown to love some of the letters.  A few are overly repetitive and not that interesting melodically.  As a whole, it is a very good piece. The nice thing about the digital recording is that the tracks are separate and one can cease listening to the few so-so tracks if you care to.

I believe these are played by the composers.  I have heard two versions online where I thought the pianism was a little better, but the sound was too reverberant and the pianos did not seem like the best. So this is a good choice.

I wish a few duo-pianists would record this -- and for me the dream team would be Val Lisitsa and Gryaznov. (Lisitsa's husband, an excellent pianist, seem to have retired from public playing.)
4406531
I like asking for music. I asked for Beethoven fifth and it played for two hours. I forgot to ask for a specific orchestra. Use it for weather forecasts and words for puzzles. Recommend it for anyone.