On (ancient) Music

[crfriend]

Every so often I go off on an "old" music kick and reconnect with pieces I grew up with, loved then and still love now. Some of which I lost touch with like Vangelis' Pulstar and some of which I've held close by all these years like Abba's Intermezzo No. 1.

Both of the above can be considered "concept pieces", but the Abba one especially so -- and I regard that as one of the very best pieces they've done, right up there with Super Trouper and The Way Old Friends Do -- masterworks all. (Those who may be interested can look the latter pieces up on YouTube.)

So much for betraying the period of time I grew up in, and where music was actually fun, interesting, and, sometimes compelling. How poor we are today by comparison. And the clothing!...

[Uncle Al]

Carl,

Your post reminded me of when I posted
Conquest Of Paradise (Vangelis)
(Not your typical organ music is it )

Uncle Al

[crfriend]

Nay, that is not your "typical" organ music, and it was an enjoyable watch.

However, there were audio elements in play that could not be associated with the hands involved, and that poses a problem for me. The piece itself is splendid, and Vangelis himself has admitted that he "tries to play as many synthesizers at the same time as possible", but that still leaves the option open of backing tracks.

Make no bones about it, Abba were a "studio group" and leveraged technology to the limit (for the day). The thing I found saddest about Abba was that their words got so much deeper and touching as their own personal lives were unraveling. By the time that masterworks like The Way Old Friends Do came 'round their own lives -- at least within the group -- were finished. So there's a whiff of reality in there for those who know (or were there for) the history.

Now, on a technical front, if you want a tour-de-force, try Mike Oldfield's original Tubular Bells. On a good playback system and with a good original copy you can actually hear him fighting with the technology at hand and how had had to deal with the constraints it imposed. Some of the credit for a masterpiece has to go down to how hard you had to work what was on hand to produce it. By the time Tubular Bells II was done the digital realm was fully established and all of the old trickery was old hat and trivial. (Oldfield is still a phenomenal guitar player, however, and that's not likely to change any time soon.)

But, for the early 1970s, it's hard to beat Intermezzo No. 1; that one remains in my top-five list along with Elton John's Funeral for a Friend. (I may ask that it be played at mine -- or at least the bar at which the festivities will be held.)

[janrok]

Ah, you are talking about the good stuff, Carl.
My favorite is Cassandra dating back from 1982.
I would like to say Thank you for the music to them.
Jan

[Jack Williams]

Gosh, I didn't know anyone listened to Abba.

[Big and Bashful]

Tubular Bells was the first album I ever bought, followed by some second hand Abba, and then A New World Record by The Electric Light Orchestra. My favourite pieces by Vangelis is "Chung Kuo" off China. I first heard that on the radio and had to buy it, I still love it. Another favourite is Soil Festivites, movements 1, 2 & 4 are all firm favourites.

I still think Pink Floyd were one of the best groups on the planet, with a lot of the credit going to Dave Gilmours guitar playing, he doesn't play fast, but he puts so much feeling into his playing.

[Sinned]

Nowt wrong with ABBA! I was born in the mid fifties and so have experienced a lot of musical styles from the fifties band music and jazz through the sixties and seventies which produced some really good music. Heavy rock, The Who, ELP, country & western, Simon & Garfunkel is a favourite ( Paul Simon is a really under-rated musician ), even some classical. I still have a lot of vinyl and play them sometimes. ABBA wrote some really good songs.

[crfriend]

If I wasn't locked into a multi-year contract with my current "high-speed" ISP I'd put a round or two of 9mm into the router and cancel the service. This represents the third time today that I've lost the link and had to re-login into Skirt Café and recompose a message.

In any event, without further ado, or brandishing of weapons...

-----

The first time we hear a piece of music it seems to stick in our minds -- or at least it does for me -- and this can sometimes make searching for it a bit of a chore.

Many of the "high points" of my existence (although some might call them "low") went to musical accompaniment, and to find the original version can sometimes be a bother.

Take, for example, Vangelis' Hymne in its original form versus the one it took several years later as Hymn. The later rendition is this big macho thing that I'm using as a pacing tool for an upcoming talk on laboratory computers; the former, with its intimacy and gentle phrasing, amounts to something altogether different and I'm going to keep those cards close to my vest. Both are magnificent, but for different purposes.

Similarly, there are a plethora of versions of Kitaro's Theme from Silk Road (and I can't say for certain that the one I called out in the link is the original). This is another one that holds a high degree of resonance, although not so much as the Vangelis piece. Time heals all wounds, as the saying goes.

Finally, for the sake of completeness, the Switched on Bach version of That Sheep Might Safely Graze.

I leave the rest to your imaginations.

Yes, I've been having some fun recently with my newfound "free time" (which, if all goes according to plan) should start winding down in another couple of weeks. One needs to pay the bills somehow.

[Kirbstone]

Carl,

Where do you get 'em? Lovely tracks and the animal photography in Africa was stunning. Interesting also were the sheep grazing settings, one of which was underneath the Matterhorn!

Using that bit of Bach last Christmas Day playing the church organ before the kick-off as the punters assembled bringing a lot of children with them I snuck into the 'Sheep may safely.....a bit of 'Santa Claus is commin'...to Town!, and after the 'naughty-an'- nice' bit I reverted to undiluted Bach again. Just TJK having fun.

T.

[Jack Williams]

Not sure how ancient this music is, but definitely Eastern Europe:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKjyXAOa5ug

[Big and Bashful]

If I wasn't locked into a multi-year contract with my current "high-speed" ISP I'd put a round or two of 9mm into the router and cancel the service. This represents the third time today that I've lost the link and had to re-login into Skirt Café and recompose a message.

In any event, without further ado, or brandishing of weapons...

-----

The first time we hear a piece of music it seems to stick in our minds -- or at least it does for me -- and this can sometimes make searching for it a bit of a chore.

Many of the "high points" of my existence (although some might call them "low") went to musical accompaniment, and to find the original version can sometimes be a bother.

Take, for example, Vangelis' Hymne in its original form versus the one it took several years later as Hymn. The later rendition is this big macho thing that I'm using as a pacing tool for an upcoming talk on laboratory computers; the former, with its intimacy and gentle phrasing, amounts to something altogether different and I'm going to keep those cards close to my vest. Both are magnificent, but for different purposes.

Similarly, there are a plethora of versions of Kitaro's Theme from Silk Road (and I can't say for certain that the one I called out in the link is the original). This is another one that holds a high degree of resonance, although not so much as the Vangelis piece. Time heals all wounds, as the saying goes.

Finally, for the sake of completeness, the Switched on Bach version of That Sheep Might Safely Graze.

I leave the rest to your imaginations.

Yes, I've been having some fun recently with my newfound "free time" (which, if all goes according to plan) should start winding down in another couple of weeks. One needs to pay the bills somehow.

I would hazard a guess that you have a problem I had not long ago, after a Norton system update which updated Norton Utilities. It included a system cleaner which decided that cookies were bad and removed them all weekly. I ended up turning off nearly every feature it had, until I found the one which was clearing the browsing history and the cookies. Now my logged on forums stay logged on without anymore problems.

[crfriend]

I would hazard a guess that you have a problem I had not long ago, after a Norton system update which updated Norton Utilities.

I can rather categorically state that that cannot be the condition that I describe.

For one, the controlling forces in my local network have never been infected by, and never can be, by the Norton Virus; primary control isn't even done by Intel-based computers. My observation is down to the amount of time it takes the primary wireless access-point/DSL router to screw up and lose its mind based on the amount of traffic that it's seen.

The interesting thing is that it doesn't seem sensitive to the DSL traffic-rate but rather the octet-count on any of its interfaces (this means that my 03:00 morning run to animate the last week of satellite imagery (when we're both soundly (hopefully) asleep) is as likely to tip the bloomin' thing over as me listening to ABBA or Enya in an extended session)!

[Big and Bashful]

Sorry! my oldest antiques are either the dormant Amiga 500 which collects dust in my spare room, or an old P60 computer, I think it was one of the first pentium powered PC machines. Anything older has been discarded or sold.

[crfriend]

Sorry!

Oh, not in the least!

I have a slew of machines running at any given point in the day, and all I was saying is that the majority of them do not necessarily have CPUs manufactured by Intel!

For instance, I have an SGI Indy whose CPU was manufactured by MIPS that handles 90+% of my multimedia stuff (they excel at that) and I have a few systems that are powered up pretty much full-time to handle watchdog processes that are of the SPARC architecture, most notably looked after by the late Sun Microsystems. There's also a smattering of VAXen, PA-RISC, CLIPPER, and other assorted architectures in the pool none of which share a common instruction-set. (Think of it as computing "bio-diversity"!)

[Uncle Al]

Oh Boy Here we go again

I have an SGI Indy whose CPU was manufactured by MIPS that handles 90+% of my
multimedia stuff (they excel at that) and I have a few systems that are powered
up pretty much full-time to handle watchdog processes that are of the SPARC
architecture, most notably looked after by the late Sun Microsystems. There's also
a smattering of VAXen, PA-RISC, CLIPPER, and other assorted architectures in the
pool none of which share a common instruction-set.

Does anyone serve saltine crackers with their Alphabet Soup
[ ]

Uncle Al

.