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1:31 am
September 25, 2013
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Too grandiose indeed. Opera is an acquired taste. I suppose if you knew someone in it, it would be more interesting (rather like baseball for me, boooorrrring but fun when you knew the first baseman!) Yeah they have really nice voices, seriously. Me mum could sing like that. Othello is a good story when Shakespeare did it, there's a really good video version of it with Derek Jacobi (I think) doing Iago. QUITE wicked.
I did a whole senior project on Court Masques c. 1600, from whence came Italian opera and French ballet. Just a personal thing, I think opera went downhill in 400 years. To me it's about the whole production, not just some people with leather lungs up there proving they have leather lungs. I've put up the Marx Brothers *At the Opera* before, the dance sequence they do in that opera is really marvelous. Irving Thalberg, genius of course. Singing and chorus all around it. Even the costumes in this are boooorring.
Or *Amadeus* that movie is really really good, marvelous opera, costumes, sets and such. (In German, so technically it's operetta).
One day I'd like to see the Ring cycle done all the way through, they do it here in Seattle sometimes, or did a few years ago. I don't hear much out of the opera anymore here, the ballet gets a lot more attention.
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Ok here's the link to *Nabucco* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabucco
English version is Nebuchadnezzar. Biblical. WOW now that has a lot of potential for pagentry, might BE a very cool opera to have staged. As cool as Aida, or something by Cecil b. DeMille. I love it when Justin throws Biblical themes at us. Without going out on a limb, I love Bible stories, they are good stuff......... off to check one more thing.........
Ah I thought something wrong (never mind) but I did find a super good write up of *Amadeus* there is an extended version on DVD and I'm going to have to get it. Some actually works in classrooms. I had forgotten Twyla Tharp did the choreography and she's my revered dance muse... Opera is supposed to have more pagentry, not just people standing there singing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.....%28film%29
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Here this is really well staged and directed, impressive. Other than it sounds like a German folk tune, and they are probably weeping on the banks of River Jordan ... all that mixed cultural stuff, go figure. I'll shut up in a minute, but all theater people make jokes about *Fiddler on the Roof* because everyone's done it. One of the versions of this chorus looked like it escaped from "Fiddler" Having said all this, this is a really nice video IMHO.
2:06 am
September 25, 2013
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This is more my style. I *think* it's the same story as above. Have to confess, being a bit of a heathen, I don't always get the stories straight. But isn't it really beautiful??? Verdi is ok, but there's other stuff I'd rather hear.
list=RDFO6r_hajQvM
9:04 am
September 25, 2013
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I think I shall look up the whole Nabucco. I thought it was an opera, but I was only finding one little thingy online. But why? Through the years, I've only seen a little overlap in Justin's and my taste in music. I like what he writes, sings, plays, says, does, wears, etc., but I can't get into his tastes. Weird.
So, I started the day off bad, again. I saw I've been going on the defensive, and I apologize to everybody for that. I remember it is for me to love and to respect everybody else's right to make up things and cast aspersions. Since my reputation is already shot, the game is victimless, and where there is no victim there is no crime. With apologies, I shall attempt a reboot.
I don't speak Italian (except a few words), but I do speak enough Spanish to dig on the subtitle of the Verdi I posted.
You mention Justin and Christianity. I don't know that I would read a whole lot into it. I absolutely can't stand Christian music stations, although there was a real good one at the Goodwill shop up north somewhere. It was a K-Love station and they were churning out great-sounding, inspirational stuff. In my opinion, Christian music doesn't have its own genre. It copies other genres trying to be cool, and so you get Billy Bob does Guns-n-Roses, Susie Q does Fleetwood Mac. I respect that the people are singing praises and trying to do the right thing, so why don't they forget the music and just recite poetry? I'm weird, and I like my music musical. And so, I find myself listening to stuff with good grooves and majestic instrumentation, and tune out the hairy freaks singing about nekked girls. That doesn't mean I like nekked girls. The make-or-break criteria for songs with me are, loosely in order:
1. Does it give me chills?
2. Does it make my blood start flowing?
3. Are the harmonies good?
4. Are the timbres pleasant or innovational but not not grating?
5. Does it have a good message?
6. Is the melody pretty? (Chord sequencing is so much more important to me than melodies. Maybe because I can't carry the latter.)
7. Does it have a cool rhythm?
I usually don't listen to music loud enough to understand the words, and I think my hearing is damaged in the lower registers. It wasn't until about five years ago that I started listening to music to see if I could find a drummer that made me stand up and say, "Wow!" I remember listening to one who was a stand-out, but I can't remember who it was. I like everything I know about Neil Peart, but his drumming does absolutely nothing for me.
10:53 am
September 25, 2013
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Well said. I don't like Christian stations either.... I agree, they just try to latch onto a "conservative" element in America and that's too much pigeon hole action for my taste. Besides, it's mediocre music. *Godspell* WAS a darn good musical however, so was *Jesus Christ Superstar*. If you travel by car across the Midwest, you used to find the Christian stations had the strongest signal, so that tells me business was good. 
Opera is just an old hidebound form of Renaissance musical. Court masques were just musicals of the day, in the case of Stewart England, paid for by the Crown, while people were starving in the streets. No wonder they beheaded Charles I (poor devil)............. and by the same token, the *Bible* is simply a collection of stories, with a slant of faith. Most of the stories are quite entertaining. The faith element I would quietly leave up to the individual reader. No mind police here!
back to Verdi. He's ok, but so far, nothing that "grabs" me as we Okies put all your seven points. I have yet to explore *Aida* and yes I'd like to see the rest of this *Nabucco*. They both sound very pageantry oriented.
1:26 pm
September 25, 2013
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They had opera during the Renaissance? I did a report once on Renaissance music, and it was slim pickin's. Speaking of picking, slamming, tapping, and all that, I'm back on topic. It's a great video, so great I'm wondering if Mike might even "get" my sense of humor. Nah. Impossible.
8:10 pm
September 25, 2013
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They had Court Masques during the Renaissance, and yes they sang during it. Up to that point, discounting Greek/Roman entertainment (which would fill a book), during European Middle Ages, it was mostly primitive band wagon sorts of theatre, and some guild Bible pageantry. In Henry VIII's court, he began doing huge pageantry things, reminiscent of Roman galas, because he had the money and it pleased people. The practice spread all over Europe. Elizabeth I was a patron of Shakespeare and theatre, as we all know.
From 1600-1630 (Stewart England) the theatre grew more elaborate with costumes and musical dances, etc. Some of the Lords even danced (women were not supposed to get on stage! Charles I's wife DID and it added to his unpopularity!!!) in a theatre form that is between ballet and opera, called "masques." This all ended in 1630 ......... see English history. Impeachment in its ultimate form, alas.
This theatre form remained in Italy and France, turning into respectively Opera and Ballet; both forms were patronized by the wealthy in each country, mostly the royalty. During the late 1600s and early 1700s both forms had "formal rules" set down for them. Opera is not opera unless it's in Italian. Ballet steps were standardized and given French names of course. (I can speak a little French due to having ballet training, but can't spell it worth beans!!!) Both forms incorporated pantomime, which came from Commedia del Arte, the "low" comedy of street people...
I'll be doggone if I know when written music was developed, I know one of the older pieces of sheet music I ever saw had SIX lines rather than five in the staff. Dance is still mostly passed onward through imitation, very few people know how to "write" dance notation. Until music notation was invented by some clever monk somewhere, it too had to be passed down by "imitation" thus all music up to that point is "folk"
Sorry you pressed a button.
8:32 pm
September 25, 2013
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How absolutely amazing. What a difference the Internet makes. I had selected the research topic (off a list) hoping to get into the baroque and rococo, but my timing was off. So, I was crawling through dusty volumes in search of specks of music back in an era when even interlibrary loans were high-tech. There were no standout composers, and most was monophony. So, at your inspiration, I looked up "Renaissance music" on Wikipedia and what would you know? The last on the list of famous Renaissance composers was one of my very favorite hymnists (I made up that word.), Orlando Gibbons.
So, now I am listening to English madrigal on YouTube, and it is a whole lot more music than I was able to unearth for that paper long ago. Eek. I'm embarrassed. At least it isn't as bad as when we had to do a book review of - Oops that was short. Gotta change the station. There's one called "April Is in My Mistress' Face." Yeah, sock it to her, April!
What was I saying? I don't care. Back to economics and madrigal.
8:34 pm
September 25, 2013
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P.S. Speaking of ballet, wasn't Mike Dawes a good ballerina? My favorite part of the video probably was the guy doing Rubik's cube and playing like Mike.
10:07 pm
September 25, 2013
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Check out the 13:50 mark, how they sing "tor-me-e-e-e-e-enti":
list=RDoYsUN2qVWEA&index=2
11:23 pm
September 25, 2013
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That was really good reading music. I finished the first book. For a while, I thought I was going to get Picardy-thirded to death; but here's a good one. I like the picture, too:
1:16 am
September 25, 2013
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Very lovely! syncopation, a Capella (sp?), 4/4 mostly? but lots of fractions in between. the acoustics of those high vaulted high Gothic ceilings.... wow. They knew about resonance in architecture didn't they? See, the monks had to invent music scoring so they could sing their lovely choral arrangements, and pass them on to future generations. I wonder when music was first printed, and not hand written?? Did you find that six line staff???
I'd have to look up Bach's era, but he came out of the same philosophy, that music and math must go together to make the Universe a whole, balanced place. Music of the spheres!
Question: does Bode's Law work? (I think that's how you spell it).............. check out the Egyptian math, they double too, just like Bode's Law.... some underlying fundamental there. Like Chandra and the elephants*, and logarithms.
I need a bath, it's all getting muddled again........
*See Mike Pinder's children's CDs.... great story, I use it in classrooms all the time!
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I can't go walking and watch the Moon rise (like it was tonight behind the Cascades) without humming "Captivated by You"......... it was the most lovely evening, the clouds were all wispy cotton candy pink, and a blue sky behind them for sunset. And the Moon peaking out behind them. If someone wrote me a song like that I'd go bats.
1:26 pm
September 25, 2013
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Eek. I just typed up a somewhat lengthy, smart-alec response and deleted it. I don't have time for that level of errors. OK. Here's what I remember from what I said:
That 13:50 vocal thing was really cool. At first I couldn't tell if it was the CD skipping or very trained voices. Then, I heard them do the same thing on the same word, so I marveled. I would be particularly interested in hearing one guy do that on two notes. I have heard many people sing on two notes, but I don't think I've heard any of them do counterpoint. We'll leave that for the guy playing Rubik's Cube and Mike Dawes guitar.
I am quite familiar with the staffs with six, seven, or even eight and a half lines. My pupils dilate beyond the normal carving of contact lenses, and so when I finally found a doctor to believe me when I said everything was refracting multiply, he prescribed the right carving size, but the clerk assumed it was a mistake, corrected it, and I spent another year playing "guess that note." Before I realized what was happening, I had a serious meltdown during one choir practice. I thought I was brain damaged, as I had totally lost my knack for sight reading. Now, I get by with two pairs of glasses (Really.) and a light on the piano.
I am familiar with the old-time music that uses triangles. They used that here in Appalachia. I can't recall what it is called right now. I'll remember when I solve the math puzzle. I don't know a whole lot about the history of scoring, but I still prefer the old art of pencil and paper to the idea of trying to focus my eyes on an expensive piece of software that I probably would need a faster computer to operate.
I love playing Bach, but it does not engage me as a spectator.
Bode's law accurately describes the positioning of the planets in our solar system. The last time I did an article on exoplanets, which was also the first, scientists were giddy just to find one planet around a star. I don't know about any systems of planets besides ours, but I'm sure they're out there. I would have to look this up, and I would like to, but I am on a deadline today. (Remember my deadlines?????)
"Capturevated by You," regardless of for whom it is intended, drives me bats - but in a nice way, not like those scary, sticky, guano dropping creatures.
Thanks for bringing up the topic of Renaissance music. I am still digging on Taverner, not in any technical way. It's good for the soul. All will be well, and then YouTube will drop a commercial in, and it's like waking from a peaceful dream when struck by the shattering glass from a burglar coming in the window.
2:20 pm
September 25, 2013
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I've seen the triangles before.... not sure where.
Bode's Law doesn't work for Neptune (it works for Uranus) and isn't 100% accurate, but I did just realize last night it's the same as Chandra's story, and the Egyptian math. You must stay with this and we'll puzzle it out... I'm intrigued now. Exoplanet (iods) don't follow Bode's Law, as they are out past Pluto. And like you, I'm not up on extra-solar planets and their possible Bode's Law inclusion.
I still score with pencil and paper, when I do such things. I scored out "Skimming Stones" and was rather happy with it. Messy but readable. Can you believe they had to totally re-score the Red Rocks show, and only had five months to do it??? blblblbl I think the only computer with digital scoring programs at the time was Amiga, so they probably did all of that by hand.
I missed the Rubick's cube, and Mike is certainly no ballerina! He does have very coordinated feet however, which is a nice thing to see in any stage performer. Jazz dance maybe, he and Justin doing that "boogie down" thing was a lot of fun!
8:37 pm
September 25, 2013
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Did you read the book where the mathematician made fun of the pseudoscientists by finding all the universal constants in his bicycle?
Please to understand, my alchemy has nothing to do with the material world, but everything to do with Taverner, to which I am currently addicted.
10:59 pm
September 25, 2013
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Interesting dude
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.....n_Taverner
I didn't know there was a Boston in Lincolnshire. And apparently it was a bad idea to be a Lutheran in those days as well! Ach nein.......... do you realized Martin Luther split from the church because he wanted to marry a nun? ah the things we do for love.... and the rest is history.
No I didn't read that book, sounds very cool. I just made the connection with "doubling" ......... I like finding things on my own sometimes.
I'm hearing the sound of my smelly dog panting because I'm too cheap to turn on the air con. Now have five boxes to burn. I'm throwing out files quicker than I can dispose of them. I'm SO mad at my parents for keeping all this junk around for so many years!!!!!!!!!! 
The REALLY good news is I found Dad's stash of Frank Lloyd Wright articles, and will be scanning those and adding them to my forum.......... I KNEW he had one.
5:45 pm
September 25, 2013
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There's about as much on him as on the Black Prince. Mr. NSA Man will know.
8:02 pm
September 25, 2013
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who Taverner? Wasn't the Black Prince Henry VII??
I'm allegedly descended from Boudica! 
That Wright folder I was talking about is a magazine that came out the same year I was born, *House Beautiful*. It's in really good shape, and I can't wait to add it to my on line forum.
9:06 pm
September 25, 2013
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John. Maybe. Here's some more from Taverner mixed with a glorious should-be travel ad for Wales:
index=19&list=RDTnfdA7oWKr4
10:02 pm
September 25, 2013
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This, too, is cool:
10:46 pm
September 25, 2013
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From the sacred to the insane................
Far too serious around here. Alas I cannot imbed. Weird Al is really my soul-mate if you believe in astrology. His birthday is the day after Justin's, which should scare everyone.
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