On Sun, 10 Feb 2008 16:38:35 +0000, Orchid XP v7 wrote:

> Nekar wrote:
> 
>> I would say frettless
>> stringed instruments are the most difficult to learn.
> 
> Ain't that the truth!
> 
> Still, it's not *so* hard after enough practice. The hard thing is that
> the top E string is like cheese wire. You can *hurt* yourself on that
> thing! o_O

That's one of the reasons I've not gotten back into it - no callouses any 
more on my fingers...

Jim

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On Sat, 09 Feb 2008 18:40:02 -0500, nemesis wrote:

> Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
>> On Sat, 09 Feb 2008 05:06:36 -0500, nemesis wrote:
>> > no, no, no.  Try to love the music for the music itself.  Programme
>> > music is so démodé...
>>
>> I have to disagree - you can love music for any number of reasons.
> 
> Yes, it's just that few people really do love music for the music
> itself.  

For me it depends on the piece.  Some pieces, like Bach's Toccata & Fugue 
are fantastic pieces in their own right.  As you say, the mathematical 
constructs are truly incredible.

But at the same time, I'd listen to Moscow Nights because it's a song we 
played on the aforementioned concert tour, and the audiences loved it.  I 
don't have a copy of that one (other than our orchestral recording from 
the tour), but I can still hear it in my head and remember things like 
getting lost at the Hermitage museum in Leningrad.

> Many associate certain music to special occasions in their
> lives and that's why they enjoy it foremost.  Many just enjoy music as a
> way to get together with other people.  Few have pleasure with just
> paying attention to it and marvel at the heartpounding transformations
> and transfigurations...

Well, certainly one of the most breathtaking pieces of music ever written 
is Barber's Adagio for Strings; most people associate it with the film 
_Platoon_, but I think even most people who listen to it who are familiar 
with the film can get behind the sheer intensity of the work.  That's 
another one we played in the USSR, and I can tell you from personal 
experience that there is *nothing* like playing that piece - particularly 
in the rain at Gorky Park.  While I'm not (as you know from previous 
discussions) a particularly religious person, that experience alone was 
one of the most moving and breathtaking performances I've ever taken part 
in.  It was truly as if the sky opened up and wept.

It's a pity the rain was significant enough that only 3 or 4 remained in 
the audience by the time we finished playing it (after 3 starts that had 
to be aborted because of the rain - string instruments are assembled 
using water-soluble glue, and on the final attempt we eventually had to 
inch the string sections back under the bandshell).

> the most abstract art is also the least really appreciated one...

I don't think that it's unappreciated or even least appreciated; it's 
just appreciated in more ways than a physical or visual art form.  An 
aural medium bypasses the optic nerve and engages the imagination, if the 
audio is compelling enough.

Jim

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On 9 Feb 2008 15:39:13 -0500, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:

>I played in a youth orchestra when I was in high school, and the 
>conductor was having trouble getting us to learn the Symphonie 
>Fantastique,

LOL
When it was written, the professional musicians of the time hated it. It was too
difficult for them. Thirteen timpani detuned to get the effect Berlioz wanted in
the march to the scaffold IIRC.

Regards
	Stephen

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On 9 Feb 2008 15:46:28 -0500, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:

>On Sat, 09 Feb 2008 09:49:37 +0000, Stephen wrote:
>
>> 11CDs SHOSTAKOVICH Complete Symphonies 1-15 Barshai 
>
>I got the 10th as I was looking for a recording of the Festival Overture 
>and it was on that disc.  Third movement brings a vivid image to me of a 
>horse-drawn sleigh being pulled quickly across a snowy field for some 
>reason.
>

That's my wife's I'll probably be out of the room or even the house, when she
listens to it :)


>How are the others?
>

So far so good

>> CD DVORAK Complete Slavonic Dances Op 46, Op 72 RoyalPO 
>> 2CDs DVORAK Slavonic Dances & Other Music for PianoDuet
>
>Now there's something I haven't heard in ages - I think I've only got 
>those on cassette (and sheet music for violin solo at that).  I'd 
>forgotten about those almost entirely.
>
I've not got round to these yet. In fact I've got a backlog that is quite long
:(

Regards
	Stephen

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> More precisely: The encryption *must* be removed in order to *play* the 
> music. Therefore, this encryption must be trivially breakable,

Read the first post in this thread, which explains the basics of encryption 
on HD movie discs:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=122363

Now tell me (and everyone on that forum) that it's trivial to break :-)

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> For someone with the skills, extracting the necessary keys has become
> fairly trivial.  How long did it take for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray DVD
> encryption to be "broken"?

Exactly, and it hasn't even been properly "broken" in the sense Andrew 
means.

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On Sat,  9 Feb 2008 05:29:22 EST, "nemesis" <nam### [at] gmailcom> wrote:

>Stephen <mcavoysATaolDOTcom@> wrote:
>> >"I wouldn't recognise any of the others", the other being Beethoven and Mozart.
>> >Come on!  Even the chinese behind the Great Wall know Beethoven and Mozart!!
>>
>> Sadly this view is all too common in Britain :(
>
>I thought so.  Perhaps just Elgar, Handel, Johann Christian Bach, Haydn and a
>few others who actually went to England are appreciated, which is a shame.

I hay have given you the wrong impression. They are a lot of music lovers here
who would put the best of us to shame. :)

>Perhaps the British should come out of their hobbit-holes more often and see
>what a big world full of wonders it is out there...
>
>
Did we not visit your part of the world with our armies? No! then it must not
have been worth it ;-)
As I remember it was a Brit who found the Hobbits and the wraiths :)

Regards
	Stephen

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Stephen <mcavoysATaolDOTcom@> wrote:
> On Sat,  9 Feb 2008 05:29:22 EST, "nemesis" <nam### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> >Perhaps the British should come out of their hobbit-holes more often and see
> >what a big world full of wonders it is out there...
> >
> Did we not visit your part of the world with our armies?

wonders are to be amazed at.  Not conquered or destroyed... ;)

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On Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:31:30 EST, "nemesis" <nam### [at] gmailcom> wrote:

>wonders are to be amazed at.  Not conquered or destroyed... ;)

True

Regards
	Stephen

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Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Sun, 10 Feb 2008 14:57:54 +0100, Tor Olav Kristensen wrote:
> 
>>> I'd think that the conversion back and forth would modify an attempt
>>> like this enough.  Remember that mp3 encoding is lossy, not lossless.
>> Yes, I know. And to overcome that, just don't make the changes to the
>> sound THAT small.
> 
> The thing is, the watermark, in order to be meaningful, would have to re-
> encode exactly the same way.  Otherwise, you end up with a scrambled 
> watermark.  So you can maybe tell it was there, but not what it was.

Redundancy. Error correction codes.

-- 
Tor Olav
http://subcube.com

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