Re: A Musical Gift List for Amateur Astronomers Who Might Enjoy the Classics

On Tue, 18 Dec 2007 02:20:05 GMT, in sci.astro.amateur you wrote:

Regina Roper:
My husband and I have just put together this Christmas & holiday gift
list for musically-minded amateur astronomers who like the classics
(or might, if encouraged to try.)

It's based on a post to s.a.a. back in 1996, but updated with some new
selections and current links to sources.

http://home.earthlink.net/~haggisizing/astro/astromusic.htm

Interesting. In this 21st century y'all really still carry a portable
CD player around!? Ever /tried/ an iPod?

Davoud

The CDs we listed are mostly available online at nearly the price of
downloads. Furthermore, you own the actual disk and don't have to
worry about DRM -- you can always listen to it on any machine.

While many of our own piano students have iPods, we don't happen to
have one ourselves (owning instead two clone portable mp3 players);
but we prefer not to listen to classical music from mp3 files, and
I'll tell you why that is.

As a classical pianist, I teach the interpretation of music. I may
own as many as thirty versions of -- say -- Beethoven's Emperor
concerto, though I prefer to *read* the score (I have played the piece
in concert.)

So the idea of getting one mp3 version and listening to it many times
is not my preference. I'd go through our collection one by one and
hear many different artists each time I chose a recording of that
piece to listen to; it might be YEARS before I'd get around to hearing
one pianist's version a second time -- unless I wanted to study a
particular nuance.

So the article is based on compact disks, since the ones we've chosen
are mostly so cheap that they aren't much more expensive -- and
sometimes *cost less* -- than downloads.

We mentioned the use of portable mp3 players in the article and did
not disparage them.

But, if you buy a CD, then you actually possess the disk and are not
having to worry about DRM, failed miniature drives, transferring files
and music licenses to other machines -- etc. etc.

If you live in, say, Britain, and are very conscious about the laws
regarding copying a CD onto your iPod: then get downloads, and buy CDs
too in case you want to listen to them on other equipment.

Since you have taken the trouble to register a complaint about our
article, I am answering you with the specific reasons that we wrote it
our way and not the way *you* might have preferred.

Consider many of the pieces. The Busoni piano concerto is 73 minutes
long; the Mahler 7th is about 80-85 as is the Mahler 9th. A number of
the works mentioned are not available as downloads at all (such as
some of the obscure twentieth century things like "Universe" by
Scriabin, the Alexa Still flute album, the William Herschel music, the
Spiegelmann recording of the Goldbergs, and many others.

So you might not want to save 85+ minutes of music on your iPod --
just one piece! -- indefinitely. It is far more efficient to have it
on a CD.

Now, Davoud: I don't think it would be difficult for somebody who had
specific knowledge to craft a list of downloads for iPods or other
specific players -- but we don't have that knowlege, because (a) we
don't have iTunes or other such software on our systems; and (b) can't
tell you with EXPLICIT actual knowledge, WHICH performances online as
downloads we'd recommend.

We wrote here from a position of being informed; we have the disks and
know what they are like. We don't have the downloads and could not
fairly make recommendations.

Any other objections? I am sure you can think of some if you put your
mind to it. I might know that any attempt to offer a resource to
amateur astronomers will be found wanting by SOMEBODY.

Regina (tongue somewhat firmly in cheek)




.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: A Musical Gift List for Amateur Astronomers Who Might Enjoy the Classics
    ... Regina Roper: ... CD player around!? ... Ever /tried/ an iPod? ... I'm not concerned with CD's vs downloads; it's what one does with the ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: EMI Levy announces that CD Is Dead
    ... Listening would be a bit harder for me, as I run a "barebones" version ... But peer to peer sharing is still best, ... That when they got tough on downloads, ... I simply do not listen to classical radio stations. ...
    (rec.music.classical.recordings)
  • More on downloads - The Guardian 28/3/06
    ... The 1990s saw major labels merging, contracting, cutting back on core classical output and pumping out increasingly desperate crossover albums. ... But sales of some classical downloads far outstrip those of CDs. ... The violinist Janine Jansen's recording of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, released last October, has made 75% of its sales through downloads, according to Jonathan Gruber, Universal's vice-president of new media for classics and jazz. ...
    (rec.music.classical.recordings)
  • Re: Ozawa and De Waart S.F. Symphony Recordings on SF Classical Music Examiner
    ... listening to the music. ... performances therefrom purchasable as downloads. ... be perhaps three or four "must have" items evident to the music lover ... single one of the big boxes. ...
    (rec.music.classical.recordings)
  • Re: EMI Levy announces that CD Is Dead
    ... It never ceases to amaze me that the music industry does not "get it". ... That when they got tough on downloads, ... commercial stations, I want to hear the type of classics that I like, ... Sony music. ...
    (rec.music.classical.recordings)