Slow Music
October 23rd, 2008 Posted in classical music, music, vasks
CDs are as dead to me as Yangtze river dolphins. They are functionally extinct, but still pop their head up for air occasionally. Plus they have fins and eat fish.
This state of extinction has been stealthily advancing for the last half-year or so. I became aware of it’s extent after getting recommended that CD of Vasks the other day, and seriously debating if I could stomach buying music on a physical format. Electrons can kick polycarbonate’s arse any day. There’s still life in the old format yet: I ended up buying the CD.
The biggest disadvantage of ordering a CD is the waiting. The urge to purchase is almost always there because you’ve suddenly gotten excited about a new recording, or piece, or performer. When that happens you want hear it now, not later. It’s ain’t fun to have to wait for a week. Perhaps you could argue that like slow food, the anticipation is a benefit. You savor it more. But… if you had to wait for your food for a whole week, you’d probably feel more like the navarin d’agneau than the gaeng keow wan (check it out, I’m an elitist) by the time it arrived.
Another big difference between downloading and CDs is something I’ve frequently harped on about: liner notes. This time around I don’t want to call the lack of liner notes a bad thing because it is making me experience something interesting — I have absolutely no clue what the pundits think about the pieces I am listening to. It’s a little bit scary.
For example, the other day I said that I wasn’t getting hot for the shorter pieces — Viatore and Musica Dolorosa — on the Vasks CD, because they sounded musically cheaper than more hefty pieces. Shortly afterward, Zoltan commented that there is a very sad story behind Musica Dolorosa, which then made me start worrying that I had been prematurely dismissive. It’s fascinating how the non-musical aspects of a piece affect the way you listen to it. That one comment immediately made me more receptive to the music.
I still haven’t tried working out what the sad story behind Musica Dolorosa is yet — I want to listen in ignorance a bit more first.
October 24th, 2008 at 7:04 am
Haha, had a similar problem yesterday! I became aware of a new CD of Vivaldi Double Concertos with Carmignola/Mullova. I saw it on the Deutsche Gramaphon website as 320 kbps MP3, and yet, knowing that I want to hold the CD in my hand (and in the end I’d need to do a backup anyway) I decided against it.
Then I saw it in an online shop 5 Euros cheaper than the price I presumed it would have in a local shop in the city. Since the shop is the last of its kind (where else can you sit back and try out dozens of CDs to see whether your “favourite moment” in the piece is the way you like it, or perhaps done something new to it in a fascinating way?) and I would be able to listen to it in the evening (rather than wait for the package to arrive) I ended up supporting the local shop.
As for the non-musical aspects of a piece: I couldn’t agree more. I remember a few years ago when I first dipped my ears into Shostakovich. After the first listening of the 4th Symphony I thought: “What the hell is this mess of sounds?”. So, I put it away for a time. Then, after enjoying some other pieces I came back to it. Now I had found some great moments in it (opening of the third movement), but it *still* felt as a lot of sounds thrown at me. But the (assumed) context of the writing of the piece (not only “MacBeth and Pravda” but also the connection to Mahler) made me listen and re-listen to the piece. I also read a book which talks about the form of the symphony, and slowly I got the hang out of it, and now the crashing and burning, the hollow crying and laughing does make sense, and I enjoy the piece immensely (just ask my neighbours!).
While the non-musical aspect can indeed help in getting acquainted with a “problematic” piece, (some argue, and I agree) it might also get in the way later to see a piece in a different light (“Death-wishing neurotic Mahler-Syndrome”)
So, as should be the case for everything in life, one should make up his own mind. And as we all know: Nothing works for all of us. In this case, the slow buildup of tensions might not be (at the moment) the kind of music that deeply affects you.
The same can be said about me and Mozart (ducking fast… ;)).
October 24th, 2008 at 11:43 am
The Kronos Quartet’s recording of Vasks String Qaurtet No. 4 is also highly recommended. Along with Gorecki’s Third String Quartet, Vask’s is one of the best works for string quartet that I’ve heard in a while from a living composer.
October 24th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
It’s fascinating to listen to unfamiliar music unencumbered by other opinions. (And it’s something that becomes increasingly impossible to do – and therefore more joyfully savoured – if you’ve been a “convert” for, oh, 30 years.) But in the end you want to read some background or explore some questions that have occurred to you. That’s when it’s nice to be able to break out the booklet and take a look.
And the frustrating thing for me is there’s no practical reason why digital downloads can’t have liner notes. No reason at all. Make it a standard feature, guys! (Steve Jobs, are you listening to me?)
And I’m not just harping on about digital booklets because of the liner notes. Some sites are better than others, but classical music tagging generally is lousy. Having the booklet makes it so much easier to clean things up and correct the stupid tagging mistakes, ambiguities and glaring omissions.
October 24th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Forgot to say, thanks for the link to the Concertgebouw free symphonies. I’m thanking you here rather than at the original post because one of the things that’s so nice about the offering is that each download is accompanied by some decent documentation, and it’s even presented in a form that you can print and cut up for a CD jewel case if you’re so inclined.
October 25th, 2008 at 10:42 am
In the context of popular music, where the album is very much the ‘medium’ and the presentation itself is part of the artistic blah blah cohesive whole blah etc., I’m still attached to physical copies — I don’t want Disraeli Gears as bits on a hard disk, I want, much as you say, the non-musical (or ‘extratextual’ if that’s not horribly pretentious) aspects.
But when it comes to classical music, absolutely; the only things attractive about a CD are the liner notes and having my music on a less volatile medium than a hard drive, both of which are issues I can easily deal with myself. Oh, also, CDs don’t bring me rapidly closer to my ISP’s download limit. :’(
And, as Yvonne says, thanks for the RCO heads up!
October 25th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Whoa there Tigers! It’s a bumper crop of comments….
Zoltan,
Man I wish there was a store with an ample collection of previeable classical music CDs around here. We only have Borders, which sucks something serious. I’m pretty much forced to order online if I want to have a physical thing in my hands.
I actually do like a slow build-up (e.g., Shosty CC2, one of my favorites) but it takes infinity times longer to appreciate them than the funky modern bits with drums and weird glissandi and stuff. Shosty 4 also took me ages to get into, and reading all the stuff about how he hid it away for ages helped out a lot.
Dennis,
I’ll look out for that one after having a decent stab at the cello concerto and violin concerto. I haven’t tackled a string quartet in ages.
Yvonne+Al,
I totally freakin’ agree! Classical music downloads are moving toward perfection (320kbps is a *very* good example) but they absolutely need to provide liner notes. Explaining the intricacies of the music — all the little hidden secrets and special bits — is exactly how to get new listeners into it. They could do SO much more than is currently done, but most of the time we don’t even get PDFs of the standard notes. Eugh.
And you guys are welcome for the RCO link :)