Don – Page 9 – Zoopraxiscope

Tune of the day #78

Many years ago I thought I might be able to economically enlarge my classical music collection by checking out records from the Wichita public library and taping them. Nope. While the selection was good, most sounded as if they had been cleaned with steel wool. However, a few of the more obscure ones were listenable. These included Raymond Lewenthal’s first Alkan album and this one.

Godowsky is probably best known for his 53 Chopin paraphrases, in which he took the demanding Chopin etudes and found ingenious ways to make them even harder. He also wrote more approachable music, such as his “Java Suite,” which includes this impression of the gamelan.

Doris Pines, the 1947 Christmas Ball Beauty Queen of Julliard, recorded only two albums, one devoted to Godowsky and the other to Agathe Backer-Grøndahl and Cécile Chaminade. Both are overdue for rescue on CD.

Tune of the day #77

If you had asked me half a lifetime ago who my favorite guitarist was, I would have said Steve Morse. I’ve heard a lot of music since then and I can no longer pick just one, but I still have more music by Morse in my collection than by any other single artist, except possibly for Jeff Beck.¹ Of course, I never heard the Dixie Dregs on the radio, except once as backing music in a cheesy commercial for a wet t-shirt club — for which I will never forgive that radio station.

Tune of the day #76

My introduction to Leo Kottke, courtesy of the local freak radio station a long, long time ago. He recorded the tune again for his next album with added bass and drums (Larry Taylor and Paul Lagos, if I remember correctly), but I prefer it plain, with just guitar.

Tune of the day #75

There were music videos before MTV, but not necessarily good videos.

A friend commented that she could quickly evaluate a book on rock music by checking the index. If it didn’t mention Todd Rundgren, the book was too superficial to bother with.

Tune of the day #74

It’s traditional on Thanksgiving to play “Alice’s Restaurant,” but I thought this year we might listen to one of Guthrie’s other stories.

Tune of the day #73

Grainger is best known for his arrangements of traditional tunes from the British Isles, but he had a wider range. I suppose this piece is inexcusably racist, but I don’t care.

Machine-made art

Intrigued by J Greely’s work with pinups, I’ve been experimenting with AI art generators. Rather than struggle with SwarmUI, I tried some of the many free online toys. The results were interesting enough to warrant further exploration, and I eventually ended up at NightCafé. I’ve been seeing what the various models can do and what their limitations are.

As far as capabilities go, they can imitate almost any style to some degree. AI “photographs” are convincing as long as you don’t count the fingers, and sometimes the models get those right, too — one more reason not to believe anything you see online.

Continue reading “Machine-made art”

Tune of the day #72

It’s getting cold outside now, and it will be months before we feel a gentle summer breeze again (except in Kansas, where breezes are not gentle). Pete Ratajczyk, a.k.a. “Peter Steele,” was raised a Catholic but was an atheist for most of his career. He returned to the practice of his faith near the end of his life.

Today’s quotes

Roger Kimball:

I sometimes wonder whether the “sign of peace” routine wasn’t contrived by some hardened enemy of the Church.

On Frank Meyer:

In his last illness, Meyer struggled with the momentous decision of whether to convert to Catholicism. Bill [Buckley] was a tireless emissary between Meyer and various confidantes. Bill reports that Meyer, from his bed of woe, complained that “the only remaining intellectual obstacle to his conversion was the collectivist implication lurking in the formulation ‘the communion of saints’ in the Apostles’ Creed.”

Tune of the day #71

The vocal melody is trivial and the pretentious, awkward lyrics aren’t worthy of Greg Lake’s voice, but the tune is worth hearing for Keith Tippett’s piano.

Tune of the day #70

Tom Chapin was Harry’s brother. He could also tell a story.

Tune of the day #69

Of the various versions of this song, this one, just Walker plus David Bromberg on fancy guitar, is the best.

Tune of the day #68

Of the later P.D.Q. Bach discoveries, this set of preludes and fugues is my favorite. (This is part of a playlist. There are eleven more preludes and fugues following. There’s more after that, but the rest is not as good.)

Laus Deo

A portrait of a typical “rebel, monster and rule-breaker”:

There was no dazzling youthful breakthrough followed by decades of self-indulgent coasting. Haydn published his first truly revolutionary string quartets at the age of forty-two and is generally held to have written his best music in the two decades before his death at the age of seventy-seven. There was no oppressed wife patiently enabling the Great Man. (Haydn’s estranged wife derided his music and low social standing, though he supported her financially until her death.) His reputation was not the product of posthumous mythmaking. (It was fully formed within his lifetime.) Haydn upheld the social order, credited his gifts to God, and was widely described as a modest and compassionate man. He made generous provision for his servants in his will.

Tune of the day #67

McCutcheon was a regular at Winfield for many years. His music often suffers from an excess of Message, but he does occasionally perform a rigorously logical song, such as this one.

Tune of the day #66

Which was the most distinctive Canadian band? You can make a case for Rush, but my pick is Rare Air. They combined bagpipes and other Celtic noisemakers with funky bass and percussion and occasional guitar in the ’80’s. They recorded five albums (the first as Na Cabarfeidh), of which only the last three were released on CD.

Tune of the day #65

Weber, a cousin of Constanze Mozart, is best known for his operas, but he was a formidable pianist as well, with large hands that could stretch a twelfth.

Tune of the day #64

Bakerloo was a power trio in the era of Hendrix and Cream who put out a single album before disintegrating. The members of this forgotten band each went on to have noteworthy musical careers, in particular guitarist Dave “Clem” Clempson with Colosseum and Humble Pie.