Weekly Discussion - Classical Discoveries Radio

It seems that stations independently run and supported by donations are the only ones that can survive in a world where corporate funds don't care about the arts. Sadly.

Thats okay though, they put on some great programs!

And yes, I understand the time is a bit late. I'm an insomniac. When I was listening to Classical Discoveries and even a bit of the Avante-Garde show, I had not slept yet. I'm on Pacific time, the AVante-Garde was 8 am for me.

Oh, I agree that its worth it. My point was merely that for some it may be late, then again, Classical Discoveries doesn't fit everyone's schedule either. Which, actually, is another good reason to add more shows eventually (assuming that a lot of people are into this) -- to accommodate as many people who would like to do this as possible.

I still hate baroque woodwinds, except the sacbut. :thumbsup:

Yes, but what a great time we had discussing it! :P

Edit, sacbut is not a woodwind...lol

Okay so this is Wednesday's program:

This Wednesday, July 29, 2009 from 5:30 till 11:00

featured will be:

Maya Badian (Romania/Canada, 1945- ) - Double Concerto for Marimba and Vibraphone "Mircea's Song Will Live in Yours"(1988)

James DeMars (United States, 1952- ) - Spirit Horses, Concerto for Native American Flute and Chamber Orchestra (1987)

Jennifer Higdon (United States, 1962- ) - Short Stories for Saxophone Quartet (1996)

Selga Mence (Latvia, 1953- ) - "Livonia. Carmen Voluptatis et Doloris" for Choir and Early Music Ensemble (2005)

Jaan Raats (Estonia, 1932- ) - Concerto for Flute, Guitar and Orchestra, Op. 117 (2001)

Hans Roosenschoon (Holland/South Africa, 1952- ) - Timbila for Chopi Xylophone Orchestra and Orchestra (1985)

This Wednesday, July 29, 2009 from 11:00 till 15:00

"CLASSICAL DISCOVERIES GOES AVANT-GARDE"

featured will be:

Morton Feldman (United States, 1926-1987) - Violin and String Quartet (1985)

Avet Terterian (1929-1994) - Symphony No. 6 for Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Choir and Nine Phonograms (1981)

Is everything set? Will there be a Wiki page -- should I (and anyone who wants to help, since its quite a big task) start collecting articles?

Here we are: [[Classical Discoveries 7-29-09]]

My cache must be messed up. Anybody else notice buttons having the wrong names on them lately?

*clicks Vote Now instead of the usual Post Reply*

Also see [[Classical Discoveries]]. :)

Will there be links posted near the Shoutbox and/or any kind of pre-discussion advertising?

I put a link right above the shoutbox. I think we need to be a little more specific with the times though. On the wiki page, it just says 5:30 - 11:00, is this EST? AM? PM?

I noticed you amended that, but missed one. I got it. Anyways, it states this on the [[Classical Discoveries]] article/category, as well as the template I made - is it really not that obvious enough?

WOO! This is cool.

who would like to evaluate?

There were few people because of the early (EST) time. That was a pity, because there was little to talk about. The most exciting thing that happened was, that someone search what scale a mass in third tone.

I was on-line, listening from 5:30 and listened till I had enough of the avant-garde (think till 12:00), but did not have that much conversation ON THE MUSIC, as I hoped.

It was a lot of fun, to shout your likes and dislikes. But is was not as informative as I hoped. Were my expectation too high?

JR,

There were some dry spots throughout the broadcast, though I'm not at all surprised by this, seeing as its a long program and even I wasn't able to be there the entire time, neither was James. I also don't think that it was advertised very well and so not as many people showed up. During my time in the convo (from maybe 8:30 until the end) I felt like there was some good discussion going. Though as I said before, there were definitely some dry spots.

Some information was posted prior to the broadcast on the Classical Discoveries Wiki page. Check it out, there are articles (some James put up, many that I put up), links, etc. for the "featured" composers of today's broadcast. The best way to make this a more intellectual convo, and a bit more than "I like this, I like that", is for participants to check out several of the links provides. However the initial idea was to allow people to discuss their reactions to a piece, providing detail (meaning "I like this" is not sufficient, it should be "I like this because of..."), not necessarily for a "teacher" to be providing info throughout the broadcast.

Also, there was a piece using third tones? What was it? The only mass using third tones that I can think of is by Maurice Ohana.

-> Ceballos, Rodrigo de [sp., 1533 - 1581] - Mass on the third tone

Yes, I think expectations were high, but I think that's alright. This is something we should blend into. More of actually letting it happen than talking about how to go about doing it, you know? Certainly a little more exposure would help, I'll pop the link in the shoutbox when I feel like it and I'll make the Classical Discoveries page the article of the month on the homepage - hopefully to boost exposure. I hope Marvin Rosen doesn't mind me pulling info from his site and putting it onto our wiki, I do link back to his site. Maybe somebody should ask. Anyways, his site (classicaldiscoveries.org) views horribly for me... the html is way messed up, what with divs full of text laying over each other (I'm on Google Chrome, maybe this is browser specific). I had to Ctrl+A the page and paste into a word processor/the wiki just to read most of it and pick what I thought was important to include.

Haha, yeah, I fell asleep mid-programme for about two hours, but I went to bed at a very unusual time for me (midnight!) and somehow woke up at 5:20 and realised, "HAY, WPRB 10 MINUTES... " and dragged myself up. That Feldman piece was a very controversial listen for me - I just didn't see why it had to be any longer than 15 minutes, yet it went on for just over two hours. I seriously got the whole point of the piece by like the 17th measure/chord or thereabouts. My favourite selection this week was of course Selga Mence's [Latvia, b.1953] "Livonia. Carmen Voluptatis et Doloris" for Choir and Early Music Ensemble (2005). Robert Smith's Africa came a good second. Also, I was highly disappointed with Demars' Spirit Horses - Native American flute concerto. As a concerto exploiting the native American flute, a wonderful spiritual instrument, I thought it could have done so much better. I was very let down.

Some information was posted prior to the broadcast on the Classical Discoveries Wiki page. Check it out, there are articles (some James put up, many that I put up), links, etc. for the "featured" composers of today's broadcast. The best way to make this a more intellectual convo, and a bit more than "I like this, I like that", is for participants to check out several of the links provides. However the initial idea was to allow people to discuss their reactions to a piece, providing detail (meaning "I like this" is not sufficient, it should be "I like this because of..."), not necessarily for a "teacher" to be providing info throughout the broadcast.

I did read some, the pianopiece of Raats I likes, but the featured works that came thereafter was a disapointment. I cant remember why, because everything is a blur.

We did have some good conversation though. Especially on the works mentioned by James.

The next two times I wont be around. We're going on holidays tomorrow. And I'm afraid there won't be Internet. The holidays are good times to compose (and read articles (charles?;) ))

The featured piece I liked the most yesterday was "Short Stories" for sax quartet by Jennifer Higdon. I've NEVER been a fan of the sax. Not in jazz music, not in it's limited classical repertoire, nothing. I've just never liked the sound of the instrument itself, though I've heard it played quite well many times. The way the quartet was written though, was just so innovative, and it made use of all the possible timbre's of the instrument in such a way that at times (and me and James discussed this a bit) they sounded like different instruments entirely. Staying up until 5 in the morning was worthit, even for that piece alone. Africa was also quite nice, though I agree with James that the Concerto for Native American flute was a huge letdown...

As far as preliminary research, I didn't wind up stumbling onto that page in the wiki until I was listening to the program. I suppose now, I will intentionally look there beforehand, but how will a person who hasn't been involved thus-far even know that this whole program is going on in the first place. Maybe a send a mail to all users, is that doable? A mass mail, and use it strictly for announcements from admins about upcoming 'event's' or the like. This way, anytime any user logs on, they should see that they have a mail, and from there, they can either ignore it, or look into it further. In my case, besides Classical Discoveries, I have no reason to go onto the Wiki unless I want to find out something. I don't imagine a ton of people just go on there exploring to see what's new. Maybe I'm wrong..

OMWBWAY,

You're absolutely right, and I've been saying we need more advertisements to raise awareness. As well, it should be clear that links are posted before the show.

James H.,

Thanks for the piece.

Mass e-mail? Yuck, I hate it when I get e-mails from sites I belong to. My inbox is for correspondence. I keep it rather clean. Also, e-mails get lost and ignored. Mass-PM on YC? Brilliant. That funny window that pops up and says ... "You have 1 new message" just eggs you on to find out what it says. Unfortunately, I'm unsure as to whether mass-PM'ing each and every member is feasible, even for the admins. Having announcements and ads across the site doesn't always work. People ignore them. By sending PMs, we can be SURE that each and every person has likely seen it and knows what it is, whether they're interested and able, or not. Mike/choppy/jen, please tell me this could be done? If possible, it'd be an easy solution.

It can be done, though the ethics are a bit questionable IMO. Perhaps if the mass send-out were to honour the user's Receive Email from Administrators option, that would be more considerate.

What's wrong with putting up a normal announcement, anyway?

Yeah, just where we ALWAYS put announcements... I'd MUCH rather see that than get an email.

I meant a mass-PM. Email was my blanket term for lack of better vocabulary. God no, don't send anything to my email! Though, I personally would still check it... :)

How was the listening yesterday. I was not available because of my holiday (and will be absent coming Wednesday too, same reason; Switzerland :D) But I'm still curious how it was?

Man, I'm really PO'd. I slept through most of it. I woke up at a few points long enough to hear a piece or two, then I'd drift off again. But let me tell you, the Merideth Monk piece gave me some crazy nightmares... it was about bubbly aliens or something invading my neighbourhood... it was trippy, mannnn...

Is there any chance in Hell anybody could find a way to record the show this week in some possible way that I could hear it? I really don't want to miss it. :sadtears: I realise this might be borderline impossible, but I'm not sure if there is a way to do it or not. I don't think Marvin logs the shows, does he?

That is... unless I mention otherwise that I can hear it. I might not have internet at home for a while. Sach a pane. :(

wiretap. search for it.

Well, I can't as I'm at work during the show.

But, one could stream the audio feed, plug an eighth-inch cable from the speaker output into the microphone input and record it in Audacity, Garageband, etc.

If there are some "legal issues" with my advice, mods, feel free to delete this post.

@ Wiretap and other solutions - no good unless somebody can do it for me. Like I said, I don't have internet at home yet and I don't want to miss the show. Though I understand if it's too much of an inconvenience for somebody to record it and upload it/send it to me. I was just hoping there's somebody out there for whom wouldn't be a big deal.