Comments for Simon Hewitt Jones

Comment on Violin Concertos by simonhj

simonhj — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:09:38 +0000

test comment by simon

Comment on Evil Classical Music? by Alpha-Omega

Alpha-Omega — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 15:39:23 +0000

When I think evil, I think sinister, something that awakens, inside of each of us, dark fantasies. That is what I personnaly concider as ''evil''classical music. ''Evil music'' is not nessecairly bad, it's just that it excites our ''dark side'' in any form of way (unusual forms of: sex, violence, fear, despair, etc). Think of -Oh Fortuna- by Carl Orff. ¦D AAAaaaah, feel the wretching of war and destruction, feel it and embrace your true NATURE! Muhahahahahaha!!! Sorry, I tend to go Wackho. ^,^

Comment on NonClassical Bill Poster by Peter

Peter — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 09:23:46 +0000

I suppose posting it here a month later is accurately acknowledging its classical heritage

Comment on We’re Finally Living The Music Revolution by Matthew Sharp

Matthew Sharp — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 19:47:22 +0000

Errollyn Wallen (ed.)

Comment on How Technology Affects Music by Angel Keilholz

Angel Keilholz — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 20:53:39 +0000

I think that this is good.

Comment on The Technologies I’ll Be Investigating by Simon

Simon — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 10:03:38 +0000

Peter this is really valuable, thank you so much. I’ll definitely consider the ‘mashup’ culture – something that’s very familiar to certain non-classical genres. It raises many interesting questions……… S

Comment on The Technologies I’ll Be Investigating by peter

peter — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:52:53 +0000

Simon –
Someone once said that the only new artform of the 20th century was collage. With digital technology, we can all do collage now. Because music (and visual art and text and video and . . .) can be digitized, we now live in an age of the sample and the mash-up. Technology has enabled us to mix-and-match pretty much anything we please, and to do so individually. This has all manner of implications for (eg) intellectual property, copyright and cultures of ownership and citation. I think it would also be very interesting to consider the artistic and musical implications of this trend, for instance: What happens to the intentionality and significance of music when it is re-used? Does the William Tell Overture still signify resistance to unjust rule when it used as the theme tune for a western? What about when used as a mobile ring-tone? What about when quoted by a contemporary western composer, in the full knowledge that the audience will “get” both the Rossini and the Lone Ranger references?

Comment on The Technologies I’ll Be Investigating by Alan Ryder

Alan Ryder — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 18:39:27 +0000

Hi Simon
I’m not sure I’m adding to your list since my contribution is clearly relevant to the “acoustics” heading, but it will provide an anecdotal account of the application of technology to an acoustics problem.
The “Orpheum,” the home of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is blessed with a reasonable sound environment, especially in the presentation of choral music wherein I have had direct experience. Orchestral sound is quite live and clear as well. However there used to be a “dead zone” under the lip of the balcony where the architect (circa 1927 as a Pantages circuit vaudeville hall) incorporated a barrel vaulted ceiling that runs the entire width of a portion of the upper stalls.
I know this well since this is, not coincidentally I’m sure, where the cheapest seats live. A few years ago in an adjustment of the parabolic reflectors behind the proscenium some electronic “sound reinforcement” was introduced to address a number of issues. Though not explicitly identified I must say the concert experience in my usual “rush seats” has much improved since the “reinforcement” was introduced. There is no sense of amplification or directionality just a much more satisfactory sonic experience – and hey, the sight lines are good too!
Finally you might be interested in a piece I read the other day by the Toronto critic, John Terauds that bears upon this topic:
…”Another barrier came down, at this point. The acoustics at the Enwave are not ideal for unamplified music and, for the first time in the Art of Time concerts I’ve attended, I found the amplification totally natural, enhancing the sound just enough to suit the room, while remaining true to the quality fo tone of each instrument….”
http://thestar.blogs.com/soundmind/2010/09/concert-review.html
Good luck with your project Simon – I will be hanging around to watch developments!
Alan
Mayne Island B.C. Canada

Comment on How Technology Affects Music by Rikk

Rikk — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 09:56:24 +0000

Hi Simon,
When you mention technology and music, it can’t help but remind me of computer game music. Here’s a quick history of it on wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_music
Let me share you my thoughts of it.
From my personal experience, I only got involved in classical music (learning and playing) after I started to appreciate music in games. I would say Nobuo Uematsu has made the biggest impact on me. He has a huge global fan base ever since his work in Final Fantasy games series were released. His varied music compositions to evoke emotional responses when depicting individual characters in the game as well locations (towns, palaces, deserts, etc) and events (romantic scenes, chases, character deaths, victory, etc) made the game much more interesting and immersive. Specific themes such as the victory fanfare and chocobo themes (a mascot character that all of the FF game has) are recurrent. This was about 10 years ago when game consoles could only use limited sound sets like MIDI. When I started playing Final Fantasy (FF), there were 8 stand alone games but now there are more than 13. Music was definitely one component that unifies the brand identity of those 13 seperate games together.
Nowadays, as technology develops, games use better sound sets that sound more realistic. In fact, some games use pre-recorded orchestral soundtracks. One example is the game Eternal Sonata which is loosely based on Chopin’s life and music. Russian pianist Stanislav Bunin plays 6 Chopin compositions in the game, while the rest of the atmospheric soundtrack (mostly comprised of baroque and classical elements) was composed by Motoi Sakuraba.
The games I mentioned are two examples of Role Playing Games (RPG) and I’m sure many would agree with me that music is a core component in these games as it makes the experience of playing them much more immersive and memorable. As technology develops even further, I reckon music in games will develop along with it. Perhaps through more interactivity of how and when music is played tied in with growing number of ways to play games these days and in the future. Ultimately, music will continue to reach out to more and more people through this alternative route of computer gaming and music consumption.
However, as I type this, I realised that there is a distinction between music in the background (computer game music) as opposed to a more stand alone traditional way of consuming classical music directly where the audience sits and listens to the performer(s). Makes me wonder how technology will affect this and what impact would it create in the future.
Lastly, I want to part with you by sharing you this link. This site claims rather bluntly that computer games is the future of classical music (“for the masses”, they might have forgot to add??):
http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/classicalmusicinmovies/a/videogamemusic.htm
What do you think?
Rikk

Comment on Evil Classical Music? by Jewish Music

Jewish Music — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:29:31 +0000

Guess they should pay more attention to their ad campaigns.