From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Tue Jul 02 2002 - 05:16:27 MDT
On Tuesday, July 02, 2002 2:30 AM Lee Corbin lcorbin@tsoft.com wrote:
>> It's exactly the fact (I assume) that a human performer adds all
>> kinds of tacit knowledge and passion, as well as random deviations
>> that could be added to the synthesizer program, which makes Jackie
>> du Pré's Elgar tear-making and hair-raising.
>
> Never heard of her, and probably couldn't think of any Elgar beyond
> Pomp and Circumstance and one other thing he wrote. But Google
> provides
Elgar's Cello Concerto is one of the big works for cello -- sort of like
Chopin's solo piano works are part of the piano repetory. Jacqueline du
Pré is one of the greatest cellists of all time. She generally plays
with depth and feeling rather than mechanically, as Damien describes.
Put the two together...
She also did a lot of fine work with other composers' material. A visit
to Amazon or a CD store with a decent inventory of classical works is
sure to yield up some inexpensive CDs of her work. (I have yet to hear
her rendition of Brahms' two cello sonatas... That will probably be my
next purchase in that direction.:)
BTW, excellent example Damien!:)
On another note, some of things a human performer adds to the mix could
no doubt be mimicked by a program, but what could also be added?
As for CDs, I was listening to a radio program the other day describing
how classical music is recorded these days. The person being
interviewed -- I forget his name -- mention that the average classical
performance has at least 200 edits on it and often nearly a 1000 edits.
So, often, we're not hearing the music as it was performed -- aside from
the fact that the sound isn't recorded exactly as humans hear it or
there's other levels of mixing and revision involved. What I mean is
aside from overall editing, entire passages are changed.
Of course, this does not go for all recordings, especially historical
ones. Recently, I acquired the CD "Shostakovich Plays Shostakovich"
(he's on the piano, of course:) which is highly unedited. Two of my
favorite pieces of his are on there -- his Cello Sonata and Second Paino
Trio. I'm very familiar with these pieces and I can hear the sloppiness
and mistakes at some points. Both were recorded in the late 1940s and
one was done in only one take. (I highly recommend the CD if you are a
Shostakovich fan.)
Cheers!
Dan
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/
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