February 2012
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January 2012
2 posts
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At Most 10% Syncopation
From this post on Nazi responses to jazz:
But maybe the single most remarkable example of 20th-century totalitarian invective against jazz that Skvorecky ever relayed was here in the intro to The Bass Saxophone, where he recalls — faithfully, he assures us (“they had engraved themselves deeply on my mind”) — a set of regulations, issued by a Gauleiter — the leader...
December 2011
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WatchThe Dartmouth Contemporary Music Lab walks the length of Manhattan, playing an arrangement of Christmas carols slowed 128x and arranged for percussion by Chris Peck. Sped back up in this video, it turns into an incredible buzzy medley of xmas tunes. You have to watch it (click ahead if you get bored).
(via @aleaboy)
November 2011
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October 2011
1 post
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September 2011
3 posts
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“Nestle, one of the world’s biggest makers of pet food, said on Friday it...”
– Nestle ad first to pitch at canine customers | Reuters
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Nothing More
Bruno Latour, on writing, in Reassembling the Social (2007):
Writing texts has everything to do with method. You write a text of so many words, in so many months, based on so many interviews, so many hours of observation, so many documents. That’s all. You do nothing more. (148)
Otto Ortmann, on playing the piano, in The Physical Basis of Piano Touch and Tone (1925):
What we actually do,...
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August 2011
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Then/Now
The Music Trades, 1924:
Entire Piano Industry to Profit by Work of Newly Organized Research Department of American Piano Company
“Among other things,” said Mr. Stoddard in discussing the plans of the new department, “we shall make a careful research into tone analysis. […] We doubt if there has been enough absolutely accurate knowledge in this whole subject of tone production. We...
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December 2010
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Fight the (Tympanic) Power
A really awesome Kickstarter project ends in 5 days and is about $800 short of its funding goal. Here’s the description:
Expressive Machines Musical Instruments (EMMI) is comprised of Troy Rogers, Steven Kemper, and Scott Barton. Since 2007, the group has been designing, building, and composing music for robotic musical instruments on a shoestring budget. EAR Duo—Dana Jessen (bassoon)...
October 2010
4 posts
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September 2010
6 posts
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August 2010
2 posts
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July 2010
31 posts
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WatchThis is a nice and arty short video about R. Murray Schafer and his views on the soundscape. At the end, there is a very nice touch when Schafer holds up a sign that says “Listen.” and the audio fades out so you can listen to your own environmental sounds. (The effect is changed a bit if you’re wearing noise-canceling headphones like I was.)
I (obviously?) disagree with his...
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For those of you who saw Inception, an experiment...
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“Before the New York Philharmonic presented its first concert of the season in...”
– (via NYTimes)
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“Heavy decibels are playing on my guitar
We got vibrations coming up from the...”
– AC/DC’s “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution,” in observance of World Listening Day. I very much enjoy how the song seems to be a direct rebuttal of R. Murray Schafer’s list of noise types in his Book of Noise:
Noise has a variety of meanings and shadings of meaning,...
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Cory Arcangel’s “Iron Maiden’s...
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WatchI blogged Niklas Roy’s Binary Beat a while ago (although I can’t find it anymore), but that video has been making the rounds again recently, so I thought I’d elaborate with another of his experiments: ternary music!
Counting in base 3 instead of base 2, this rhythm is much jerkier, but kind of awesomer?
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