I saw this little Thorens music box in an antiques store a few days ago. I had to spend a few minutes examining it (trapped as I was _outside_ the locked display case) to work out what it was: A music box that used swappable disks as the "programs" for the music, played by a mechanism otherwise familiar.
• <https://goo.gl/photos/MUheQHyzNSbH6Xsk8>
• <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorens>
• <http://www.thorens.com>
• A guy's history & collection with images: <http://keithwright.ca/Thorens/Thorenspage.html>
Thorens made some really amazing and wonderfully weird high-end turntables--including some changers that used machinery different from what most of us had during college: Thorens TD 224. Consult your Google image search for pictorial evidence: Antique Thorens, for example.
Aside: There was at least one changer mechanism that automatically flipped records and played their "B" sides: 1938 Garrard RC-100 Turn-over Record Changer.
And who wouldn't want to play the black vinyl (lacquer, actually) on something that looked like this?: 1921 Kurtzmann Glass Phonograph. Look at the thickness of the record being played.
Mark_
26 February 2017
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
27 February 2017
17 February 2017
Chinook Winds Concert @ Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
Excellent recent concert by the double wind quintet ([flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, French horn] x 2) Chinook Winds in the historic Good Shepherd Center's (former) chapel.
• Pictures (only a few): <https://goo.gl/photos/R8BycMKZPJwqyPzW9>
• Good Shepherd Center:
This was a very nice evening of pleasantly interesting music in a fine old Seattle landmark building.
Mark_
17 February 2017
16 February 2017
Music and art can coexist: some evidence
I think this art installation, which has spent time in Kansas City's Nelson-Atkins Art Museum (among many other places), is brilliant: <www.nelson-atkins.org/art/exhibitions/janet-cardiff-forty-part-motet/>. (Be sure to watch the video on that page.)
I could imagine doing the same thing with small instrumental ensembles, as well, pairing the loudspeaker with a video screen showing the player while playing the music being heard. This might be an interesting and engaging way to illustrate what a musician does--perhaps as a tool for recruitment of future musicians. Such an installation could even travel to schools. As an entertainment, it might be fun for people who have not spent much time intimate with music. As an actual educational tool, it might help "civilians" to understand music on a deeper level.
Oh--for additional fun I might enhance that: Two screens, back to back, and the ensemble arranged as it might actually be on stage. One screen shows the musician playing the part, and the other shows what the musician is seeing: conductor (where applicable), music on stand, backs of the heads of the players in front of this one, even audience in hall. Etc. (Some small ensembles don't have conductors, and play in different physical arrangements.) Full binaural sound would be nice, although a good experience might be difficult in this context.
This music is wonderful; several performances are on Youtube: "40-part motet".
And this is yet another reason why I should be pretty bent if some ill-considered (and highly profitable?) human activity were to result in our extinction. I can deal with the fact that I won't be around to see what a Tallis motet might sound like when sung a hundred years hence, but if the answer is "nothing, because there isn't anyone here to sing it or hear it", I shall be quite irate indeed.
Mark_
16 February 2017
10 January 2017
Beethoven Rumba
[EDITED; material added 26 January 2017]
A friend sent us this link a few days ago; I enjoyed the music so much that I looked around for more by the performer (composer), Joachim Horsley.
(All such music should be heard via headphones, earbuds, etc.; this is worth the little extra effort.)
A friend sent us this link a few days ago; I enjoyed the music so much that I looked around for more by the performer (composer), Joachim Horsley.
(All such music should be heard via headphones, earbuds, etc.; this is worth the little extra effort.)
• <"Psycho" Theme on Piano with Knives - YouTube> Note the color palette of the video.
• Vocal with piano: <"Trains Passing" - Official video - Joachim Horsley>
Mark_
10 January 2017
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