However, after complaining about all that in a somewhat uptight and snobby fashion, if I absolutely HAD to choose a piece of classical music to use as a ringtone I think the first 30 seconds or so of this would be pretty swell:

Click here to view the embedded video.

And that’s because… DUN DUN DUN… it sounds like a freakin’ telephone.

That’s the second movement of Nielsen’s Symphony No. 6, by the way.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A flock of birds had been busy on the path, and as they scattered, and the slope evened out, the music provided a perfect accompaniment. That made me start to think about how in modern times we have the luxury of personal soundtracks. I bet that most music is now listened to on MP3 players, while people are walking, or running, or sitting on the train. It’s pretty obvious that if this is true, it must only have become true within the last thirty years or so. That’s amazing. If you wanted to walk or run somewhere with a soundtrack before around 1980 (when the Walkman was invented), you basically needed a marching band to be running alongside you.

That’s mind-blowing — and something I usually take completely for granted, as I’m sure does everyone else who was born on this side of 1980.

A hilariously appropriate incident of this was just brought to my attention via the always awesome reddit:

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is a “recording” of John Cage’s 4’33″. If you try to play this video you will see that:

NOTICE: This video contains an audio track that has not been authorized by WMG. The audio has been disabled.

Hah! The joke’s on you, Warner Music Group!

Of course, this wasn’t the first time that 4’33″ has been the subject of copyright dispute. You can read about how Mike Batt was sued for infringing on the same copyright here.

I’ve been listening to classical music for just over six years now, and I still only know a small portion of Beethoven’s stuff well. Every couple months I’ll inch into a new (“new”!) one of his pieces, either deliberately or accidentally. The latest incarnation of this was the 24th piano sonata, in particular the second movement:

Click here to view the embedded video.

This came through my headphones halfway up the march up the slope to work. It grabbed my attention because the first few bars instantly made me think of “Rule Brittania” in a somewhat cheesy fashion, and then right as I was about to skip the track  it abruptly slipped into that crunchy dissonance. I love that kind of contrast, especially when it was composed such a long time ago. This is the kind of piece that makes me truly appreciate what a pioneer Beethoven was: things like the last movement of the Hammerklavier sonata, and the Grosse Fugue. Not the 9th.

Dedicated to rescuing the world’s best music from a slow, certain death at the hands of tired traditions and oppressively ordinary thought

Quite a mission statement! Check it out here.

Today was one of those days.

I present: A Symphony in C++:

key get_secondary_key(key home_key){
    if (home_key.minor == TRUE){
        secondary_key=relative_major(home_key);
    }else{
        secondary_key=home_key+5;
    }
}
 
void sonata_form(key home_key,tempo base_tempo){
    //Calculate secondary key
    secondary_key=get_secondary_key(home_key);
 
    //First get people in the mood
    intro.play(home_key,base_tempo--);
 
    //start exposition, introduce the two main themes
    theme_1.play(home_key);
    transition.play(home_key,secondary_key);
    theme_2.play(secondary_key);
    codetta.play();
 
    //development, mix the themes up
    for(int i=0;i<development_length;i++){
        combine_themes(theme_1,theme_2,key=rand()).play()
    }
 
    //Recapitulation: repeat the themes but in the home key
    theme_1.play(home_key);
    transition.play(home_key,home_key);
    theme_2.play(home_key);
 
    //Finish up
    if(composer == "beethoven"){
        coda.length_in_min=10
    }else{
        coda.length_in_min=1
    }
    coda.play();
}

Want to learn more about classical music but without the code? Go to getintoclassical.com.

via Reddit. Anyone know where it originally comes from?

Do you love Mahler? Do you want to marry him and have his babies? Well it’s a bit late for that, but it’s not too late to participate in Deutsche Grammophon and Decca’s latest foray into the classical music social media scene. They’ve done a bang-up job arranging this one.

The idea is that they are putting together a new Mahler boxset. “But Ben! Those are a dime a dozen — well maybe a grand a dozen, but you can definitely buy 12″  I can hear you verbosely shouting at me through the internet. Well yes, but the difference here is that every symphony in the set is from a different conductor and orchestra, and it’s the voting public who get to decide which ones go in the set. “But Ben! I don’t own every single boxset, how will I compare renditions without shelling out thousands of dollars?” comes your next, sensibly thrifty proclamation.

Well that’s the best bit: you can stream — for free! — what appears to be their entire Mahler catalog, in order to confirm your decision.

So go get your Gustav on.

Yeah, writing is mysteriously appearing in this space, and that’s because despite all the stuff that’s been happening recently my fingers have not completely broken up their relationship with the keyboard. And what “stuff” could have been happening? Well as an e.g., in an unrelated order of importance…

• Various forays to various weddings
• Diverse friends moving away from here forever
• My Ph.D. defense
• My own getting married

See? Told you “stuff” was going down.

The last two of that list were done on the sly. We did a stealth, ninja-type wedding, and my supervisor likes to spring graduation on her students within weeks of the anticipated date. I’m still going to carry on doing pretty much the same thing for a bit though, I need to finish stuff up, and postponing the job search isn’t an entirely unattractive option. For now I’ll do a mini post-doc.