response 75 of 194:

Oct 11 17:07 UTC 1999

   Vinyl records are pressed from what is called a "master" which is 
essentially a reverse record. The "remastering" usually involves adding
a second channel to the master tape, then recutting a new master disk for
pressing from the new master tape. The tape in this case is usually 16 track
with 8 being devoted to each channel.
  Telarc Records of Cleveland uses a unique process in which they do most
of the mastering in the studio or concert hall as the piece is being recorded
thus forgoing the need for additional tweaking. The result is magnificent.
  With the advent of CD's, the technology has gotten more and more
sophisticated. There are DDD disks which use all digital equipment to produce
the CD, and AAD which employs analog tape, but digital recording to the disks.

  Try Clara Shubert.

response 77 of 194:

Oct 15 04:31 UTC 1999

OK, some "top" composers:  JS Bach, WA Mozart, LV Beethoven (BTW, those 
3 made A&E's "top 100 people of the millennium, so they *must* be 
great, right? ;-).  I guess you get into a debate of quality vs. 
quantity (with some acceptable level of quality).  I think that 
Tchaikovsky should probably be on the list.  Rimsky-Korsakov, 
Stravinsky, Shostakovich are some other top-notch Russkies.  For sheer 
output, you have Hadyn and Telemann.  I guess I'd be more comfortable 
with a "top 50" rather than "top 10", as you could then bring in a lot 
more without having to weigh QvQ issues so much...  And don't forget 
some truly brilliant composers most frequently associated with jazz, 
but "crossovers":  George Gershwin and Duke Ellington.

response 79 of 194:

Oct 15 16:17 UTC 1999

Feel free to list a top 50, as the book did.  I found another book on great
composers listing the top 26.  To shorten the list they omitted the
Renaissance, confined the Baroque to Bach and Handel, and shortened the 20th
Century to Stravinsky, Bartok, Ravel, and the additional Holst and Gershwin.
They also added Offenbach and Elgar and Rachmaninov, not on the first list.
A major omission was Wagner, number 4 in the first book!  'Great' meant
different things to the two authors, obviously.  I suspect the first author
was doing a list of historically important figures, as he included von Weber
(who sounds just like a parody by Mozart).  He had some pretty nasty things
to say about Wagner, but included him anyway.  The second author chose
composers of broadly-appreciated music, omitting Richard Strauss but including
Gershwin.

So was the fake stereo produced by playing high sounds in one channel and low
sounds in the other?  I will listen to my recording and make guesses.

What do people think of music that requires a story-line to listen to it?
(Tone poems, ballets, movie music).  Some composers seem to have specialized
in it.  I don't get the point of listening to movie music sans movie.

response 81 of 194:

Oct 16 01:25 UTC 1999

We listen to records through a hole in the wall called the kitchen door,
actually it has to pass through two doors and around three corners.  I think
the high notes probably get somewhat attenuated.  Maybe I should turn up the
treble?
        Just heard Handel's Dixit Dominus.  Did Handel write any bad music?
        Aren't two ears also two holes in the wall?

response 83 of 194:

Oct 16 12:17 UTC 1999

I can't think of a single piece of "program music"
that I listen to solely because of a story line.  
If the music itself is bad, it wouldn't matter to 
me that it's based on a great story.  If the music 
is good, it wouldn't matter that it's based on a 
silly story, either.  Anyway, I don't think it's
possible for music alone to tell a story.  There
have to be words for that.  

Re movie music, some of it is quite good.  Some of
it is shamelessly imitative.  Bill Conti, who wrote
the famous "Rocky" theme, steals from serious 
composers right and left.  He stole the music for 
"Victory" from Shostakovich's 5th symphony.  He stole
the soul-lifting main theme for "The Right Stuff" 
from Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto.  Sometimes a film
composer will borrow a style from another composer.
A good example is the music John Williams wrote for
the celebrated forest battle in Return of the Jedi;
it sounds exactly like a scherzo Prokofiev might've
writen for one of his symphonies or ballets.  In fact,
if there was a market for elaborate musical parodies,
John Williams would corner it.

response 85 of 194:

Oct 17 13:04 UTC 1999

Re program music:

There are some excellent tone poems that are
supposedly based on more or less detailed programs.
Richard Strauss perfected the genre.  Most of his
music grates on my nerves so cruelly that I can't
get much enjoyment out of it, though.  Dvorak wrote
a series of very engaging tone poems.  Sibelius
composed some beautiful music under this heading.
The Swan of Tuonela and Tapiola are two of my
favorites.  In modern times, we've seen some tone
poems in which either there is no program or else
the composer ain't talkin'.  Barber's Fadograph of
a Yestern Scene and his three Essays are examples
of this.  One programmatic piece that I find
breathtaking but that you probably wouldn't have
much use for, keesan, is Elliott Carter's Concerto
for Orchestra, which he based on St John Perse's
poem "Vents" ("Winds").  There are examples all
over the place.  As always, find what you love and
and love it.

response 87 of 194:

Oct 18 02:57 UTC 1999

I found some more nice program music by Rimsky-Korsakoff, Mussorgsky, Borodin
and Glinka.  At least the names of the pieces sound like program music.
I will give Smetana a try.  Supposedly later Richard Strauss was less awful.
Also listened to 1812 Overture and Beethoven's Wellington's Sieg - probably
supposed to be shooting but I heard fireworks.  (Re the 1812, Jim thought he
recognized the tune.  I said it was Chaikovsky.  Jim said Chaikovsky must have
stolen the tune from the 1812 Overture.  Jim is not good at this, he was
serious.  But he likes the same music I do despite a memory problem).
Francesca da Rimini, also by Chaikovsky, I did not find interesting.  It seems
not to make much sense without the story line from Dante.  Am I wrong?

Are songs (vocal) considered program music?  How about songs without words?

Jim recognized Stranger in Paradise in one classical piece played on the radio
this afternoon - can anyone name it?  'Take my hand, I'm a stranger in
paradise.'  (For someone who claims to have a memory problem he can recall
an awful lot of lyrics).  He thinks several other melodies from that same
piece were made into popular songs.

"The bear went over the mountain" was in a piece mentioned above-which?
What is the original tune called?

response 89 of 194:

Oct 18 14:03 UTC 1999

Moussorgsky.

"Stranger in Paradise," and all the other music
in the musical "Kismet," is based on Borodin.

I love Smetana's Moldau.  The main theme eventually
became "Hatikvah," the Israeli national anthem.

response 91 of 194:

Oct 20 18:46 UTC 1999

Re resp:89 - Hm, guess I didn't know that about "Kismet."
Kind of like "Carmen Jones", where the music is Bizet but
the words are Oscar Hammerstein II.

response 93 of 194:

Oct 27 02:01 UTC 1999

I don't understand why there is often a stigma attached to program music. 
Is it considered less serious than "pure" music?  Many of my favorite pieces
are considered program music.  Does that mean that I have bad musical taste?

And, on a side note, what is it about Richard Strauss that seems to bother
several people here?  Strauss isn't one of my favorite composers, but I don't
object to his music and there are some pieces that I particularly like, such
as Death and Transfiguration, and Don Quixote.  (I enjoy his horn music, too,
but that sounds so different from his tone poems that I don't think it falls
into the same category).

response 95 of 194:

Oct 27 17:12 UTC 1999

I always had the understanding that "program music" was music created for its
own merit, not associated with an opera, symphony, concerto, etc.  (Although
a symphony itself could be considered program music, I guess.)  If that
understanding is correct, I don't see what could be more "serious" than
program music.

response 97 of 194:

Oct 27 20:59 UTC 1999

Ja, OK.  But what does "serious" have to do about it?

response 99 of 194:

Nov 3 18:04 UTC 1999

From e-webster:
program music   Function: noun   Date: 1879
: music intended to suggest a sequence of images or incidents

So my "understanding" of program music was wrong, exactly opposite.
So yes, I could see how some "snob types" might assert that music 
written to tell or support a story is less serious than music written 
for its own sake.  But what's the point of such an assertion?  Take 
Dvorak's "New World" symphony:  Yes, it's a symphony in form, but its 
melodic elements are impressions of what he heard visiting the USA.
Now those melodies might or might not have been taken from folk music 
that told a story.  But it shows that to write serious music you need 
not have it burst forth from some "fountain of seriousness".  
Tchaikovsky's Finale of his 4th symphony builds on a melody based on a 
Russian folk tune.  Well, why the heck not?!