Classical Convert

Hot Wednesday Linkage

Less morose today… almost eight hours sleep helps, plus a dab of Cointreau as a not quite nightcap. To ease back into regular blogging, here are some links which don’t quite deserve their own entries:

• Extremes of conventional music notation – Despite my hatred of world-record type crap (which seem to just require tacking on extra clauses to get in on the action: the highest jump while drinking egg-nog!) this is actually pretty distracting. For example: Highest written pitch runner-up: D8 in Scriabin Piano Sonata no. 6, Op. 62 (1911, Dover & Schirmer eds.), last page (an editorial footnote in the Schirmer edition comments that this note “did not yet exist” on pianos)
• The piano roll is over – The last mass-produced analog piano roll, partly put together using a shoe-making machine from the 1880s, has come off of the production line in Buffalo, NY. Yeah, I was also surprised they were still churning these out. Apparently all the cool kids use digital player pianos these days. Or digital player violins.
• Apple is finally going DRM free – As long as you don’t mind paying $1.29 per song. Man, I’m such an anti-fanboy. I just can’t say anything nice about Apple throwing in a bit of criticism can I?