10 Reasons Why Classical Music is Failing Today

I would like to apologize about the click-bait title posts, but they appeal to people for some reason so I may as well use them.  Lately lots of bloggers, writers, critics, etc. have been frequently saying how classical music is doomed to obscurity, being too quiet, too dated, and too boring.  That being said, I believe many critics are missing the change of pop consumer culture, as well as misunderstanding what is happening to classical music in general.  Without further introduction let's take a look into the current situation that classical music is in.


10.  No cohesion between various musical groups

One of the problems classical music organizations have is the lack of cohesion and  awareness of the different musical groups in their area.  While many musicians (especially at local levels) will play in several groups, orchestra or otherwise, it seems like many musical groups tend to not know what other groups are performing in their area, or simply won't see other groups perform in their area.

Orchestras should not only self-promote but help bring attention to other groups in their area and vice versa: smaller ensembles should promote each other and help advertise larger and more prominent groups as well.  If the community becomes more united the self promotion will give listeners more options and more knowledge of what's happening in their own backyard.


9.  The hiring processes hires 'safe' musicians who don't contribute to the local community, and values ability over artistry and leadership.

I have to admit this is partially a personal complaint as well as an important one.  When an orchestra hires a musician, they look for several things: how a musician fits into the sound of an orchestra, how skilled and consistent is the player, how musical is the player, and so on.  However, I believe orchestras need to look at another important quality when hiring a musician, one that cannot be determined from a blind audition: how will that player contribute and promote the orchestra or classical music in the local community?

It is so easy as a musician to focus only on the music community that we developed in.  Focusing on conservatories or the wealthy elite has allowed classical music to survive, but to flourish, musicians really need to get out into the public and work on inviting and informing people of events and music in their area.  The reason why this is so hard to do is because it is met with heavy resistance.  People don't like it when they are asked to listen carefully and analyze their music the way we as classical musicians break down our art form.

There is some positive light in the matter though as many smaller groups are rooted in their community.  New World Symphony has an international and local presence for building up their community.  Other ensembles like Fifth House in Chicago and the Civic Orchestra also play in local and unexpected places to promote their concerts but also to establish a relationship in their community.  These groups are few and far between, however, and most music groups seem to think that their existence deserves people to come listen to their concerts.  This attention must be earned from a massive market of superstars and pop artists.

I want to commend Cleveland Orchestra for being the best orchestra at establishing a relationship with their local city.  They promote their sports teams and are willing to joke about themselves in a way that allows them to feel approachable rather than an ineffable paragon of musical idealism.

8.  Classical music is disconnected from how people relate to music today.

A major problem with classical music today is its disconnect from what people listen for in music.  For example, I remember going to see a Broadway show recently.  After the show, a large group of people crowded the exit of the stage to be able to see/interact with the stage performers.   From this I realized the average person has no real empathy and attachment to the actual music, but the person themselves.  People listen to an artists music not because the music is unique or insightful (if pop music shows us anything it's that neither of these have to be true for a piece of music to be successful) but because they relate in some way to the person themselves.  You can tell this by how the fans react to news.  Pop artists get a free pass from crimes due to their popularity; the person is more important in the music.  If something like this happens to a classical musician, the musician or director is held accountable and removed from the orchestra, or at least appropriately punished.

This habit of classical music organizations reveals another problem with classical music: the community looks inward and becomes introverted.  The reason why orchestras and opera houses end up playing the same 50 or so works of music is because these organizations are catering to the same people who have been attending orchestras the past 25 or 30 years.  This is a huge problem; there are lots of great piece of art music being composed with the same level of artistry and creativity that was being produced over a century ago and yet very very few of those works are being given exposure at the large stage.  Luckily, these works are being performed at a less exposed level as many younger musicians are tired of the stagnant development of national and international orchestras.  I mean the current biggest 'craze' is Barbara Hannigan's performance of Gyorgy Ligeti's Mysteries of the Macabre, a piece written over a century ago. There is so much new music being composed, some of it cinematic in nature, but much of it personal and powerful.


I mean listen at the work of Wuorinen.  It is intellectually stimulating, but essentially grating to listeners.  Even as contemporary musicians who understand modern compositions, there comes a point where you can not defend atonal compositions.  It is one thing to use serialism for expressive purposes  and used well to make a statement, but sometimes the math and intellectual idea is what is more powerful than the actual musical product.  Many ensembles and orchestras who play contemporary works end up being forced to defend bad pieces.  This, in part, enforces the repetition of dated and overplayed works of older composers.

It is important for orchestras to find a balance between the good ol' top 50 and modern works.  Orchestras could become a hub for new compositions and for composers to come up with new exciting music for people to enjoy and stretch their imaginations.  If orchestras keep living in the past they will end up being in the past.

7. Failure to adapt and embrace changing and new technology

Orchestral music has not changed its performance style since about the 1830s with Berlioz' Symphony Fantastique and the rise of musical academies.  Modern, technology, however, has been constantly changing how we view and consume video, interact with other people, and listen to music.  While orchestral music has embraced technology to perform new music works, classical music hasn't really stayed up to date with musical consumption habits.

Actually on second thought I take it back.  Music is pretty good at adapting to new technology.  Many musicians and conservatories stream concerts, Twitch's 'music' channel is pretty underutilized but is available for people to stream personally.  There is a recent article in which Juiliard has made an app which streams the process of making and being great artists, be it a pianist, singer, actor, or dancer.

                                     This honestly has nothing to do with what I'm writing about.  Just wanted to put some nice music here.

Even with these developments, most orchestras are pretty slow on the technological uptake.  There is little interaction between the audience, and the musicians in orchestras are generally silent outside of their circle of influence in the academic field and/or other musicians.  While larger orchestras such as Berlin have their digital concert hall and the MET has their 'MET at the movies' experience, beyond the major productions most symphonies have little or no online presence beyond a website and a poorly updated Youtube channel.

I would like to see orchestras try to incorporate and be on the cutting edge with the VR and other technology to really revolutionize the orchestral experience.  Imagine as a viewer to be able to 'walk' around an orchestra and hear what an orchestral musician hears when they play.  When I sit in an orchestra I hear something completely different than in a recording or as an observer in the hall, and I would love to see orchestras have a more entrepreneurial approach to adapting and utilizing new technologies for music.

6. Lack of marketing/significant outreach

I've gone a little bit into this in other categories on this list but I want to discuss this in more specific detail here.  Think about the level of promotion pop music artists get when they release a new album.  Posters, ads, access cable ads, twitter, Facebook, the industry floods promotion everywhere.  While orchestras don't need to sell out, beyond the Californian orchestras (LA phil ,SF, etc.) most orchestras don't really self promote beyond their Facebook page.  Part of this is due to a limited marketing budged: most orchestras are scraping by the skin of their teeth and most of their sales come from donations and not ticket sales.

Putting some money together for ads, local cable or otherwise, would be a significant help promoting an orchestra.  If you walked around a city that isn't NYC, Chicago, or Philadelphia, and maybe Cleveland, and ask them where and when their local orchestra is and where they play they probably couldn't tell you.  Orchestra's might advertise on Facebook and Youtube videos do reach an international audience, but even then they will only reach audiences who are looking.  Orchestra's need to find ways to draw in an audience who isn't going to be looking for what their orchestra is playing, but people looking for something to do that weekend and give them an experience which doesn't make them feel separated from the orchestra as they play.

Now I'm not a marketing guru with years of experience to know how to promote but I know that orchestras could be doing a lot more than what they're doing now.  There are so many great performances and performers that people simply are unaware, and I know I'm always frustrated when I miss out on some great pieces being played simply because they're not well promoted.

That being said, I understand the difficulty.  When I perform a concert promotion is one of the last things I'm thinking about.  It's a very tough for single performers self promote your own concerts.  For my undergrad and master's recitals I literally did no promotion.  This was in part of my lack of self-confidence of my playing but it was also due to just not knowing what to do.  I know some schools are now helping their students learn how to promote their performances (Mannes specifically) and I think overall it's a positive development in stagnant music education.

5. Classical music recordings and streams do not properly represent the genre.

There was an excellent recent NPR article detailing many aspects of classical music streaming and geo-tagging that goes into a lot of problems about finding/listening to classical music through streaming services such as Spotify or Pandora. However, it primarily focuses on how impossible it is to find top recordings of classical music, as well as the complicated business of finding a recording.

The article does not go into the other problem with classical music: recordings simply do not sound remotely the same as a live concert despite the care taken to make good recordings.  Even with lossless audio files like FLAC, the recording will only be as good as the positioning and equipment.  While this equipment can get very good, it still isn't the same, as the music gets compressed, mixed, etc.  it still lacks the depth of the live performance.  Also due the loudness war so much music gets affected by it.  Either classical recordings get hit by it and there no longer becomes any dynamic contrast, or the opposite happens and the dynamics are so contrasting that the quiet parts/movements of a piece get lost and the whole effect of the piece is ruined and hard to hear.

Even with new and 'better' formats being developed classical music needs to find a good way of making great recordings.  While there are some fantastic and ground-breaking recordings, (Boulez with Cleveland comes to mind as well as some Chicago and Philadelphia recordings) it still pales to a live performance.  Classical music is designed around the concert hall and live performance, and as such recordings need to reflect the setting.

4. Classical Music has a bad or negative image in pop culture

Classical music has a poor image in mainstream culture.  Whenever it appears in movies, it is always associated with the financially and intellectual elite, the elderly, the foppish, or the pretentious.  It has been used as a punishment in public schools, and has been used as calming emotional manipulation in train stations,  For some reason this art style which was once near universal has been practically weaponized as punishment.  It is sad, especially considering that classical music has such great story and emotional depth to the music, something that is ignored in it's common consumption as a study aid or a relaxer.  How can you find Shostakovich or Berg relaxing?


Leider by Berg, performed by Renee Fleming
Classical music itself is not pretentious, but sometimes the people who listen to it are.  Musicians demand such high levels of perfection and musicality in their playing that it can make new listeners of classical intimidated, the amount of study and knowledge many people have about the genre is incredible.  Due to this, many people get angry and frustrated when they don't understand and recognize basic musical forms, the multiple melodies and counter-melodies, and constantly shifting tonalities that appear in classical music works.  This makes the formality of the performances themselves become a daunting experiences to many people.

3.  Modern music consuming habits do not follow modern art/classical music's demands

A general and overlooked problem is that classical music doesn't conform to how people generally listen to music. Instead of being the focus, music tends to be used as a multitasking background soundtrack.  Classical music, especially compositions written the past 100 years or so requires the piece to be the focus, be it Stravisnky, Shostakovich, or Boulez, Cage, etc.  To fully understand these pieces a listener can't focus on other inputs, but due to our hyper-visual society we tend to focus on what we see and not what we hear.  This is why movie soundtracks and pop pieces have prominent melodies with a steady consistent beat, not only for dancing but for ease of consumption.

The loudness war (which was mentioned in an above section) is a reflection of this.  Most headphones are pretty poor quality, so if all parts of the piece are the same volume you can hear it at the cost of musicality. Compare this to the sensitivity of an orchestral piece, where even in a quiet room with headphones it can be difficult to make out all the details.

The culture of classical music is just completely different from popular genres. For example, most music written in a contemporary style focuses on musical intellectualism instead of musical empathy.  Meanwhile, pop music is less about the music and more about the image.  The music is so similar that people invent ridiculous classifications in an attempt to separate 'their' music from the 'mainstream' genres. You don't see Baroque being broken down to 'post-grunge apocalyptic baroque' (though that would be kinda cool).  If the image and popularity of the pop-artist or the group was removed and just the music remained, could anyone say that the music is still good and popular?

2.  Very few people realize the range and scope of music classical styles have to offer.

When people think of classical music they tend to think of Mozart or Beethoven,  I mean just type in 'classical music' into Youtube and look at the first few videos that show up.  It isn't Xenakis or Stockhausen that's for sure.  Everyone extrapolates on this and says all classical music are this style of music.  And they're partly right since classical music has the primary definition of music written between 1775 and 1825 (you can quibble dates if you want, I'm just going with Google here). I mean where would Messiaen fit in? Ravel? Rimsky-Korskov? There's no good way to define and categorize 600 + years of written music that is still growing and developing today.  Art music is another classification but ignores that so much of classical music wasn't written to be esoteric and intellectual.


the first link when you search 'classical music' on Youtube. Don't read the comments

When people say 'they don't like classical' I have to not believe them because there is encompasses so many different styles and philosophies that they can't possibly say they dislike all of classical, but they hear a couple compositions and assume that they have heard everything it has to offer without only scratching the surface.

That being said, music appreciation does go both ways.  It's so easy to focus on one category when completely ignoring what is going on now.  As musicians we should listen to more popular styles (be it metal, pop, hip hop, whatever) so we can better understand what is the popular music aesthetic.

1.  Lack of Education

In the end, this all comes down to one thing: lack of education.  People don't know how much music there is and cannot fathom how many different subcultures and genres there are.  Without classical musicians leading the way for promotion and education, there won't be many orchestras left because people don't know they exist!  Once again look at Youtube, and see how many channels there are promoting video games, science, or other current pop culture trends.  Then look at who is promoting classical music.  There is a horrible lack of education in the arts which allows corporations to swoop in and take control of what people see every day.  We as musicians need to show people how amazing classical music is and the amount of diversity and depth the music has to show.

Hopefully this has been somewhat insightful look into the difficulties classical music has to face.  I wasn't expecting it to be this long but it ended up taking quite a while to write.

Touch Pianist is Amazing and Here's Why

Touch Pianist is a phone app/website that was released today and every tech geek is blogging about it.  As I'm a music geek and ran into it I thought I would also write a little post about it.  So here's what I have to say:

Teachers: learn piano if you don't and be prepared to teach people piano.

                                                             The interface for touch piano

The premise of the app is very simple: Take a well known classical piano piece.  Every time you press your screen or press a key notes will play.  Repeat until the end.

I fiddled with this app for a while and I have to say it's intoxicating.  While I can play the piano, I would hardly say I'm remotely good at the instrument.  This app made me want to brush off my books and relearn how to play piano.  Honestly I might start practicing piano seriously again because this app is pretty inspiring.  Just hammering out the last movement of Beethoven's Appasionata, or the opening of Pathetique, without spending the time to actually learning the notes and the proper technique is still somehow incredibly fun to play.

While you can't control the dynamics (well) and articulation is still an issue, it is still a fun way to mess around with amazing classical works and feel a way of expressing yourself musically without spending the hundreds or thousands of hours necessary practice to master these pieces.  I definitely felt inspired to dust my music off and start practicing again and I believe this app is an amazing way to introduce people to what it feels like to be a classical musician.

While this doesn't remotely feel like playing on an actual piano, it is definitely worth letting students take a crack at this simply because when I was playing this I was playing it as I would a real piece.  While the export of the audio is obviously MIDI and doesn't effectively emulate the sound of the piano, I still felt moved trying to give a, albeit romantic, performance of Beethoven.

So stop listening to me and click on this link and visit the website!  Be warned: It works best on Chrome.  Firefox works, but it doesn't work on IE.

Video Game Music Compared to Classical Music

I just came across an article on some website trying to compare classical compositions to modern video game music.  I have linked the article here.  This article, while interesting, makes horrible connections to 'similar' classical composers, and honestly represents why I find modern perceptions of classical music so... wrong.  This is so frustrating I'm not even sure how to articulate this well. I also posted this as a comment on Reddit so if you see it there it's me posting.

1) Comparing music that is meant to be the foreground and the focus vs music that is meant to be atmospheric and background.  This is the primary problem I have when people do these comparisons.  Classical music by 'older' composers is meant to be the primary focus, and as such tends to be very focused thematically, personal, and have many layers of meaning.  I mean comparing Mahler to video game music?  The author completely misunderstands the vastly personal and philosophical nature of Mahler symphonies and draws the conclusion that they're similar because of 'heavy orchestration', and completely misses the very personal nature and duality of what makes Mahler... Mahler (this comparison particularly frustrated me).

I have seen composer interviews for video games and it seems like it very rarely contains the same amount of thought as a classical symphony.  The primary thought of composers is to fit the theme of the game, and not make a profound statement through the music.

2) The comparisons aren't just bad, they completely misrepresent both video game music and classical music.  Comparing Zelda with Vaughn Williams?  Vaughn Williams music is nostalgic and thematically based off of English Folk Music.  The structure and style is impressionist and powerful.  Having heard Zelda music as well I can say there is no connection between the two.  It's like saying Hayden and Xanakis are similar because they both use strings players!

3) If you look at video game music at all, it should be how it has evolved and uses new ideas/form to progress the classical music genre, not compare it to old forms. The video game aspect is equally bad.  There is some good game music, but this music should be evaluated on it's progression *from* classical form, not how it is similar in poor comparisons.  There are *some* game which I think is made by brilliant composers because they do something *new*, and not the same old rehashed cinematic crap.

For example, I have a lot of respect for Peter McConnell's work as a composer because of how he evokes emotion very different and unique than the average VG composition.  His music, in my opinion, is effective *as music*, not just in the context of a video game (at least some of it, other parts not as much).

4) VG music relies largely on nostalgia and the game for context, Classical composers use the music as the context.  Look at some of the comparisons this author makes.  Shostakovitch, whose music represents the indomitable nationalist control Russia had over its people, compared to some tune from Fable?  The reason why Video Game music is getting traction isn't because it's better music, it's just more prominent music.  People are listening to it weather they realize it or not, so when they come across it they remember that epic boss fight or manufactured moment, not how the music's themes represent repression of people (Shostakovitch, Tchaikovsky), the jubilation of coming into the light from the dark (Beethoven 5), or even a story of seduction, survival, and cunning (Scheherazade, Miraculous Mandarin).

Will music like Nobuo or the Zelda composers enter the orchestral rep?  Most likely.  They sell really well and there are definitely some good pieces out there.  However, do they stand up to classical pieces?  I personally don't think so, but that's up to individual interpretation.  I have stated my reasons why and hopefully someone else can weigh in as well.

Are Video Games Art?

The vast majority of this is personal opinion.  If you agree or disagree, realize that I am looking to draw my own conclusions, not to force them on others.  If you come to a different conclusion please let me know in the comments.

A few years ago, famous film critic Roger Ebert wrote an extensive article in the Chicago Sun Times stating that video games can never be art.  I highly suggest reading the article in the link provided, as he greatly expands on his thesis and gives detailed explanations of his thought process using examples that I, as a gamer, would have potentially considered as 'art games' myself.

These articles and arguments have been around in 2010.  I remember reading this article when it came out, and the frenzy that happened in the gaming community was rather entertaining to watch.  I also thought that Ebert was talking about something which he didn't understand, but as time goes on I am beginning to come around to his conclusion in some cases, and in other arguments I am beginning to find flaws as the video game scene is growing and developing.



One of the biggest problems with trying to identify video games as art is that video games contain all the elements of art.  It has visual style, a (usually subpar) story, music of some variety, an aesthetic and atmosphere, and many design choices that someone would associate with art of some way, shape, or form.  As such, video games challenges us to redefine "what is art?" as movies have done so a century ago.

The definition of art is something personal to each person.  For example, some people find pop-art styles and icons such as Banksy as the pinnacle of sophistication, intellectualism, and meaning while others think he's just a nuisance on their walls. As Roger Ebert pointed out in his article, for every definition of art there are examples which would disprove that definition, and as such the lines defining art would get so rigid that it would become impossible to allow anything new into the category of 'art'.  Instead, what I'm going to do is look at games, and to see what makes a good game and bad game.  

Rather than compare games to existing art, I want to see if I can find a conclusion as to what is 'art' in form of a game.  I will probably end up comparing it to movies, music, and so on but the primary goal is to look at video games as an individual sub-catagory as 'art' and find what could be or not be art.

The Problems

Video games have a few problems which game designers are slowly figuring out.  The first of which is integrating plot into a story.  One of the defining characteristics of a video game from any other form of entertainment or art the interactive nature of the game; the ability to define the progress of the game through personal interaction.  Stories, however, have the problem that they have a desire to be linear.  To have structure in a story you need to have a premise, development, climax, and a conclusion.  As such, video games and story have a difficult interaction.  Let us first look at some of the most plot heavy genres of all video games: RPGs.

                                                      The opening to Final Fantasy 13

The biggest problem with the RPG is that you have no personal interaction in character; due to the complexities of the story your interaction, and therefore ownership, of the characters is quite limited.  While some RPGs are more successful with this than others, the interaction of the characters have been, for ages, completely out of user control.

There are, of course, exceptions to this.  The Dragon Age series (especially Origins, and from what I hear, Inquisition) both really allow the user to take control of a generally unknown main character and control the plot in various ways.  Even then, however, the overall story is unavoidable, the ending still the same ending no matter what choices you make, and the choices that happen aren't from your actions, but from a complex dialogue tree.  While these choices to affect later games, it is still, in essence, a linear journey.

There is only one game that comes to mind where users create the story, and that is EVE online. This game is very different and probably deserves its own article.  Basically the game allows players to create alliances to control in-game space and resources.  These groups fight over control of various stars, important strategic areas, and so on.

                                                              EVE online political map.  The factions are entirely player driven.


With EVE comes multiplayer experience, and with another question arises: Can multiplayer/competitive games be considered art?  According to both the Roger Ebert and the TED talk by Kellee Santiago, multiplayer games cannot be art, just like how chess and football, no matter how splendidly or cunningly played, cannot be art.  In general I agree:  While people might remember amazing sporting like the Miracle on Ice or Ursain Bolt beating the 100-meter world record, these events are not art.

Another problem with games is the shelf life of games.  Unless they are constantly renovated with updated graphics and game play (a la League of Legends, WoW, etc) modern games frequently and rapidly become out of date.  Compare this to Gregorian chant, which has been around for literally 1500+ (depending where you want to place the beginning of chant) years and is still used in modern music/film.  Paintings need to be restored, but it is done not to update the visual style but to preserve what is already there.  There are a few games which I would have put as potentially art games (Homeworld, maybe Mario Bros) but if they need to be updated can you say that they are as long lasting and relevant?  Will we still be playing and preserving the original Super Mario Bros in a millennium as we do Gregorian chant?  I certainly don't know the answer, but considering the consumerist nature of gaming I have a feeling that these games will eventually get lost or moved to irrelevance.

The Good

Within gaming, however, new innovation is coming out, and some of which I think is indicative of an artistic nature.  The first being a little indie game called the Stanley Parable.  Warning: This section will contain some level of spoilers for this game and potentially others.  If you haven't played the game and were thinking of it please skip this.


There are many reasons why I think The Stanley Parable, while being a self critical parody, is one of the few games ever made that can be considered an art game.  The first major reason being that this is the only game (to my knowledge) where the game narrative reacts to what the player chooses to do.  This isn't just a gimmick but also demonstrates the level of integral narrative that could be in modern games.  The reasons to not do this is pretty obvious: the amount of voice work and the amount of world building would be prohibitively expensive and the costs would rapidly increase as the game world grows.  Due to this, the game is pretty simple, being only a few hours long.

Another reason why the game could be considered 'pop' art is due to how the game expands beyond... the game (yeah it's a bad sentence).  Basically this game can cause you to think about your own life.  Are you simply following the preset plan in narrative or are you trying to break out?  Is it possible to break the narrative?  The Stanley Parable raises personal questions.  I remember showing this to some people and they were uncomfortable with how this game portrays 9-5 jobs, the incessant grind of mediocrity of the average job.

This game isn't without problems.  I know many people don't even consider it a game because you sorta just walk around.  This is also the problem with games and narrative: For a game to have effective narrative there has to be a trade off in game-play.  As such, for a modern game to be profound there is a give and take between the game being interactive and the experience to be enlightening.  There is another game which might have found a solution to this problem in its own way.



Proun is a racing game that is entirely about game-play and art aesthetic.  It has no story, but does it really need one?  Proun gives players a unique perspective of art.  As you 'race' through these very minimalist and fascinating 3d landscapes the game becomes much more about the ambiance and the experience.  There is a reason why this game demoed at a couple art museums.

It's great to see that indie games are exploring the combination of narrative and game-play and taking it to new places.  That being said, it's really hard for a game to be a medium of self-expression of ideas which can be achieved much more effectively in so many books, films, art, and music.  Games are still a young medium, and as such we are still trying to figure out ways to use games to be though provoking and insightful, or just effective and dramatic works of art.  Games still are a ways away from having a reactive and cohesive story-telling and playing experience.  As games develop, it is possible to see games become this, and it is great to see what will happen in the future.

Metronome Apps: What's Good and What's Bad? (Android)

As a musician, my most used piece of equipment that I use next to my instrument is my metronome.  However, I have had a bad habit of constantly forgetting and leaving my expensive Dr. Beats somewhere and losing them forever, a problem I don't have with my phone (especially since if I misplace it I can call it and find it).  As such, for the past few years I have used various metronome apps to help practice.

Recently, my old metronome app which I have used the past few years has gotten subpar.  With pop up ads and such trying to install adware on my phone, I have had to migrate to a new app which won't try to hijack my phone.  As such, I decided to compile a list of metronome apps as well as catalogue some thoughts on the matter.

As such, I have some criteria on the matter as for what I look for in a metronome.  They are as follows:

1) Free.  Kinda obvious.  I'm cheap.

2) Noninvasive ads.  My last app started to do a lot of annoying and dangerous pop-ups.  I want to make sure that any other app I use doesn't do that.

3) Safe Permissions.  A Metronome doesn't need to access my camera, SMS, or call history.  Seriously.

4) Loud.  I play pretty loudly as befits an orchestral musician.  I want to make sure that I can hear the met even when playing fff.

5) Good sounds.  Good sounds project and are easily heard, yet short enough that the sound doesn't last too long and muddle the beat.  I lean towards electronic sounds since they feel more accurate to represent the beat.

With that list, I set forward and found the following apps:

1) Mobile Metronome 

This is the first metronome app I used.  I'm putting this here not only to warn people to stay away from it (until the developer fixes the ads, if ever) but because it was a great metronome.  It was loud, had a sound selection, and was pretty good.  Sometimes it would skip or mess up a beat but overall it worked quite well.  Recently the free version has turned into an ad-infested crapfest so stay away from it for now.

2) 7 Metronome

This is the app I am now currently using.  It's functionality is much the same as the old Mobile Metronome app but without the adds.  The permissions make sense and aren't intrusive.  The subdivisions are very customizable and nice to use.  It has in-app purchases, but so far I haven't felt pressured to buy them and they don't gimp the effectiveness of the app.  Overall very good, and I would recommend it.  The UI is very clean as well.  The only downside to this app is that the range of tempo is a little low, from 30 to about 240.  I wish they would increase the maximum tempo, but other than that I have no complaints about this app.

3) Drummer's Metronome

The good: Free, some cool subdivision options, and allows .wav samples to customize the sound.  However, the sounds that come with the app are pretty subpar.  I personally don't want to spend time to customize the met to be what I want it to be.  Also I think the UI isn't as good as 7 Metronome.  It could be worth it if you need help with a complicated rhythm, but the fact that the lack of customization on out-of-box makes it lackluster.

4) Metronome Beats

This app is the other app that contests with 7 Metronome, but after some fiddling and working about I chose 7 Metronome instead.

This app, like the Drummer's Metronome, allows for sound customization.  The sound of the metronome itself is clear and has a wide tempo range, from 1 to 300.  I felt the UI felt a bit clunky and I didn't want to mess with out of box settings since I feel all metronome apps should work right from downloading.  However it is worth checking out.

5) Pro Metronome

I honestly wanted to like this app.  It has the greatest range of any metronome from 20 to 500, and a nice amount of features, a range of sounds, and so on.  My primary problem with it is that the subdivision section of the app is under a pay wall and is hidden in a sub menu, while other met apps have all the important features right in front of you when you launch the app.  While it is fairly cheap for an app and is a solid metronome, I'm cheap and don't like spending money on an app when there are other apps which do the same stuff about the same or better.

These are just my opinions on these apps.  If you want to explore a bit more on them try them out yourselves!

Also this is apparently my yearly update hahaha.  I want to keep up this blog but writing is hard =(

China, a Week in Beijing

I actually wrote this a while ago and decided to post it here.  I am in China so I decided to update my blog every day or so while I'm over here. Hope people enjoy it.

The plane flight was excruciating. The last time I flew international was on Lufthansa (sp?) airlines which had power-cables for computers, a decent screen, and some actual legroom. This flight on United Airlines, on the other hand, was tightly packed full of people like sardines in a can for 14-15 hours. I don't think I got much sleep so I've been up for pretty much 20+ hours right now haha. The nice thing about this is that because it screwed up my sleep/wake/active cycle so much I don't have to worry about the time change since somehow I'm properly adjusted (hopefully).

The food here is really different. Not only is it freshly prepared but there are several choices of food. There's a stirfry, soup, and probably some other stuff which I haven't discovered yet. The problem will be ordering since only one of us knows rudimentary Chinese while the rest of us know nothing. There are some students who speak both English and Mandarin, and they were nice enough to tour us around Beijing which was nice of them. I would have taken pictures but my phone/camera/tuner/mp3 player/metronome was used to survive the 14 hour flight, so hopefully tomorrow I'll take some pictures.

So far culture shock isn't so bad. It probably helps that us Oberlin students are sticking together especially since we're just sorta trying to figure out what we're supposed to do. We haven't seen the Dean anywhere either so we've basically been doing everything by ourselves with help from the conservatory students.

Spotify is amazing

Spotify is amazing.  If you haven't heard of it it's a service which is basically a massive iTunes store with millions upon millions of mp3s from various artists.  For the average audiophile or music listener it's a great way to expand your listening of other genres, but for musicians it's an invaluable tool.

As a musician, when you want to study or really learn a piece you can't learn off of just one recording.  You need several different interpretations of the same piece to really figure out a range of styles that a conductor might take of the piece.  The old way of doing this is to find recordings in a library or from other musicians, however with the internet and iTunes/other online services you could easily purchase several different recordings.  However, with Spotify you can listen to several different recordings of the same piece and get several different interpretations for the piece.  That being said there are some issues:

Most orchestras tend to release through their own label, so the quality of playing is usually lower.  That being said, there are some recordings of major orchestras, but not as wide as their actual library.

I'm not sure if Spotify is partnered up with Naxos, so Naxos recordings might not be available either.

 Fairly add intensive for the free version.  Not enough to drive someone crazy, but enough to be annoying on occasion.

That being said, they still have some great recordings for free.  They keep up to date with new releases for pop/metal bands, as well as having some famous musicians/recordings with their solo albums.  One of the most surprising is having Ian Bostridge's albums, a famous tenor, to listen to.  The range of music this service has is surprising. It has a number of albums for Asha Bohsle, Various Klezmer, Indie, Balkan, and others.  However, it doesn't seem to have any K or J-pop albums.

While it is a great step in the right direction for music diversity, it isn't s complete collection.  That being said, it will keep a listener busy for several years.

[Video Games/Music] Video Games Utilizing Music

It's been a long while since I bothered to write one of these things. I have many games in which I have played, as well as music. I doubt I'll write about them anytime soon, however my new-years resolution is to write in this thing at least once a month. Hopefully it will go well.

Anyways, something that has grabbed my attention recently is how video games are using unique methods in gameplay as well as musical direction to enhance musical experience. Not just the usual method of DDR and guitar hero, but other forms of gameplay which you wouldn't think could be music based. Here we go!


BIT.TRIP BEAT



The bit trip series has been out for quite a while, but only recently has it been released for Mac/PC. As you see from the video all you do is a basic pong game where you hit the balls coming towards you. However, the game uses this in a musical way. Each time you hit a ball it makes a pitch as well as a rhythm, which adds more to the music. Getting a perfect score (which is really hard) would get you essentially the full "song". As you see from the video, the actually rhythm of the background music is very minimal, but with the player hitting all the balls correctly you get a version of a full piece of music.


Chime



Chime is a game I haven't played, but it looks like a semi-rhythmic tetris based puzzle game. The piece you put down do have some sort of corrolation with sounds played, but I don't know to what extent your play influences or adds to the music. I know the game's been out a while as well and it's on sale right now. I might pick it up eventually.


The Polynomial



I would have never expected a 3d quasi-space sim to work with music but it kinda does. While not as influential on the music you play, the music effects the gameplay arena depending. It's quite a relaxing game to just fly around, listen to music, and enjoy looking at the nebula-style surroundings bounce around. It's quite enjoyable, and I'm pretty sure I'm still one of the top scores on the high score list.


Beat Hazard



A 2d area shooter which uses the music to gauge the intensity of the enemies as well as the power of your shots. While it's quite fun, it's also pretty difficult due the the fact quieter music is harder. Also, it's pretty easy to beat the bosses, and the overall difficulty, while can be hard, just doesn't lack the creativity as some other games. On the other hand, you don't need to copy your MP3s into a specific playlist folder so at least in that way it's easier to use. Also on Xbox.


Everyday Shooter



Yet another 2s shooter! However, the game play is much different. Each level has a different scoring system for you to figure out. Also, the enemies when shot play sound effects, which sometimes can add to the music and in other ways really detract from it, depending on how in-sync with the music the other tones are. The background music is pretty generic and boring anyways so I don't find it too bad, but there are complaints about it. Over a fun and challenging game.


I believe everyone knows what audiosurf is. For those who don't, here's a video:



There are many other video games which I didn't go over (DJ hero, Guitar hero, DDR, ITG, that keyboard game, some drumming game, probably some others) But I was specifically looking for games where music effects gameplay and gameplay effects music, not just playing to the music.


These games are where the gameplay effects music. This is becoming a more and more common theme in modern music with audience participation, either purposely or unwittingly. For example, the cellphone symphony:



This is for a commercial, but this has been used in actual music. I just can't find a video of it right now.

Another example is the classic piece known as "O Superman" where Laurie Anderson just uses her voice and a modulator to create a form of music.



There are other examples where non-musicians can use technology to create music, but I really can't find them right now. Either way, electronique music is getting more popular with audiences and users since it needs audience participation, which makes people more likely to join those concerts. People like being a part of something, not just to watch but to participate. Classical styles were once also based heavily on participation and social cliques, but in modern times since Berlioz and programme music, music is now made to be listen to and analyzed, and less about the popular. Because of this, there is a hole in the industry where the latest group of crap is shoved at huge prices so that companies can make money.


This post was inspired by BIT.TRIP BEAT and youtube's current link to super popular music with 111 million views, which after listening to I found myself disgusted.

[Music] The Problem: Justin Beiber

Justin Beiber, as apparently 3%* of the world population knows and obsesses over, is probably one of music businesses biggest money makers. His youtube videos have approximately 195 million views (I rounded up to calculate the total world population that have seen Justin Bieber movies), and his fans will pay $650 for a bottle of water he SIPPED and didn't like. Seriously.

how did I get on to this cultural phenomenon? I knew he existed, kinda, but I actually didn't know he really existed until I saw this funny news article. It actually started with a kitty, but then linked to the Huffington Post about the horrible things Justin Beiber fans do. For the entertainment of the masses, I will post the wonderful link here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/14/bieber-fever-the-craziest_n_609659.html#s97776

So, after reading this, I had to wonder,"What exactly does this little kid DO that makes him so famous?" In my quest, I searched the wild and tremulous Youtubes for answers, and lo and behold I found it. One time. I, in the spirit of the explores before us, clicked on the link.

And was horrified.


Like, seriously.

It actually isn't the voice. I myself am stuck, possibly forever, in tenorish baritonish land. It is not a nice place to be because I can't sing like Anthony Green (Circa Survive) OR hit low notes like solid basses.

It's actually because his music is horribly awful. I mean it's..... It's 4 chords minus the 4th chord. he manages to be a millionaire with 3 chords. I tell you I give the hat to the talent scout who said, "Ooh this little kid is gonna make me some money" and squeeze that bank until his voice cracks, which I hope will happen soon.

Until then, I will analyze him, and by him I mean his "music", and point out every thing he does that is wrong. Some of this I know through music and singing experience, some of it from stylistic view, and all of it to point out how these people are just piggy banks to the big music business**.

And I will do it with MOVIES!!!!



There is a actually funny argument going on between the lovers and haters of JB (I'm shortening up the name of this because it's too long to spell) on the youtube comments thread, though the grammar and intelligence is so low that you're GPA drops half a letter by the time you're done reading the first page. Like me forgetting the apostrophe in 'youre' or remembering how to spell 'opostrophe'.

Now onto simple structural analysis. The piece starts with the usual I-vi-IV-V structure and never deviates from it like a good little 4 chord pop song. You can argue the chords between each of the chords are also chords, but they add no significance to the piece, and are considered neighboring chords, which in fact do nothing, and therefore we don't count them, or at least don't have to count them. If you have no idea what I'm talking about look at the bottom since I put the super basic idea of theory at the bottom.

Here's a funny video about 4 chords if you haven't seen it:



Back to the song, it uses a standard verse/refrain and doesn't stop until the music video ends. I don't think I actually have watched more than the first minute and a half, since that's all I need to listen to before I know it's not gonna change.



This is him live. The funny bit, he only ever plays 2 chords. Ever. Listen and see it's true. Also his intonation sits a bit flat, not all the time but on larger leaps it shows. You'll notice it in this video and this next one too.



One, he seems to only have one song or something. two, notice his shoulders while he breathes. He scrunches them up, which is a HUGE musician nono. Not only does it give you less breath support (which I guess doesn't matter since he's all mic'd up and whatnot) but it also causes to make your body tense, which is not what you want. I'm 90% sure this goes with singers as well as clarinetists, but it definitely is not good. Gah the intonation isn't that good live, so at least he sings the music and isn't syncing.

I feel sorry for the kid. I mean he can quit if he wants, but I bet whoever owns his record owns him until he's 18, and any breach will allow them to pursue legal action. I mean his job is more the look than the actual talent. His pitch is okay, his voice is, begrudgingly decent, but really it's just because he's 'adorable' that he's making money. If you want adorable, this is adorable:



I think this cat should go into show business. If that isn't adorable, I don't know what is.

Oh, and I want a top-hat now.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A quick example to get people to understand what the theory, chords have 3 notes based on the scale the chord is in. Let's take a C Major scale:

C D E F G A B (C)

Now when you number the scale, which are called scale degrees, you get:

C D E F G A B (C)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 (1)

This is usually in Roman numerals, but they line up better if I use Arabic numbers.

For each scale degree, there are three corresponding notes that are in the scale, and that makes a chord. If you want to be smart you can call it a trichord, since there are also tetrachords, decachords, etc.


*The percentage of world population was based of the amount of people who watched the video rounded up to 200,000,000 and world population. Is it 7 billion now? don't remember.

[Music] Dimished 7ths in Pop

I like how Japanese pop uses diminished 7th to V to bridge to the melody, and I wonder why most music doesn't do this more often. It's really cool and adds depth to the music. I'm sure it also is chordal foreshadowing in the lyrics which I can't possibly understand until I take Japanese. Why does Japanese music uses much more complicated chord structures than American pop? Where did we go wrong? This is food for thought.

[Music] Blue Sky Noise

Well this is a timed blog. The power is out due to a huge thunderstorm so I'm typing this on my battery, which is 77% full right now. We'll see how I do. Anyways, this post is about a month late. There is only one really solid reason why this is late: I am lazy. That is pretty much the only reason. However, this post is really necessary because some things need to be shared.

This thing is Blue Sky Noise. I was able to buy this for $6.99 off of a site called Shockhound. I don't know anything about it but it uses a downloader that looks a lot like e-musics. And that they had Blue Sky Noise for $6.99. Anyways if you havn't go download this album. I doubt the sale is still on, so you'll probably have to grab the $10 version. There is also a $15 version with a bunch of bonus tracks, which seems pretty cool. The cheaper version from Shockhound only had one track, while the iTunes one has none. The point in being is to not use iTunes.

Anyways this album is pretty epicly sweet. One of the cool things about Circa Survive is that their sound is always evolving and becoming more sophisticated as they progress, as seen from their first album to this current album. Many bands find a sound and stick with it forever, but I think CS will continue to challenge themselves musically to find something new.

This album has many diverse tracks in it. They have some pretty heavy tracks where Anthony Green, who is 9x better than Muse's singer, just is so awesome and so passionate in his singing you just can't help but enjoy his sound.

However, I feel like there are a few weaknesses in the album. In the track "Dyed in the Wool" I really mislike the chorus. They added a children thing to it, but to me it just doesn't work well. However I don't pay close attention to lyrics so it might make sense in that situation, but musically I find it pretty weak.

In this album Anthony Green, the lead singer, has really come to himself as a musician. This album features is huge improvement as a guitarist. You can hear some of his playing in the youtube clips (look for sequence) where he does some playing. He has really improved and I really enjoy his vocal range and style. In "In Letting Go" he sounded much more feminine than what he does in this current album.

In sum, this album has many diverse ideas and has fantastic progressions. The band has really come into itself in this latest album. I heartily recommend it.

This was pretty hard to write without having lights on when typing. I also am sorta suffering from vertigo for some reason. I think I want to raise my laptop screen so I don't have to look down so much. Woooo....

Oh, and I still think bits and pieces of their music are reminiscent of Mega Man. Not much, but I think it's there.

[Music] Serial Music's failing

I have had an interesting revelation about serial music. For those who don't know what it is, it is a form of music which uses the chromatic scale to form a row of notes to create music. However you must use the entire chromatic scale(12 notes) before repeating it again. I have for fun and games calculate the total amount of note variations that are possible.

First, since there are twelve notes, it is quite simple to find the amount of combinations using the factorial 12!

The factorial of twelve is 479,001,600. Sounds like a lot of combinations doesn't it? I'm not finished.

For each series of tones there is a prime form. This prime form always starts with C, with C meaning 0. And then using a matrix you can find all the other versions of the prime ROW(different from the prime form).

For example, lets say my prime row is (7 4 3 6 1 5 2 e t 0 9 8). For layman's terms, this is G, E, D#, F#, C#, F, D, B, Bb, C, A, G#. Notice that it uses every note in the chromatic scale. The letters t and e in the prime row represent number 10 and 11, but t and e are easier because they don't confuse digits.

Anyways, the prime form of the row is (0 9 8 e 6 t 7 4 2 5 2 1). 0 is always first in the prime row, and then in the second row 0 is the second and so on. Anyways there are 12 of these, so that means that you removed 12 possibilities. Let's hold onto this number.

In continuation, there are retrogrades of the row. this is just the same row backwards. This is another 12.

Then there are inversions of the row. There are 12 of these. Its also complicated to explain how they work so look it up if you don't believe me.

Finally there are 12 retrograde inversions. I.e. inversions of the retrograde. Yay tautology. Anyways that adds another 12.

now we have 48 combination off of the same row. This means that huge number is about to be divided by about 48. How many combinations does that leave us?

That's right. Only 9,979,200. I think it is possible to make 9,979,200 pieces of music. I don't believe I am going to do it, though I expect it is possible using a knowledge of theory and programming. It could be an art statement.

I hope you are all duly impressed and amazed. Thank you very much.

Oh, and bonus points to whoever knows what piece/composer actually wrote the tone row my example is from.

[Music] Why American Pop Music Sucks

One thing I noticed is that listening to J-pop, K-pop, and C-pop is that their music is just deeper both on a theoretical standpoint but also on an emotional standpoint. Their music is probably just as controlled by businesses as ours, but I feel creatively it is just more powerful music. Let us first look at our American music. Now I have to rely on Youtube to tell me what currently IS American pop music since it has been so long since I even wanted to listen to it, so here are a few examples:



Current top song in Billboard Hot 100 (according to wikipedia)



At least it starts with something sounding like a Bach fugue. But even this song is pretty lame.



May as well. Really boring melodic line since it doesn't change apparently. Too creative for them? Lyrics are kinda okay but really the song is SO FREAKING BORING! I literally can't listen to all of it.

If there are better examples of A-pop let me know, but seriously all these songs are really quite boring. All these songs follow the same rules and ideas.
1) No modulation of key
2) Repeat 4-6 chords
3) Have catchy melody that is easy to sing and repeat it enough so everyone remembers it.

There is another song which could be considered one of the most popular orchestral pieces that does the same thing. It is Bolero by Ravel. I really find this tragic as there is so many other pieces by Ravel which are so much more dramatic and in general awesome, yet Bolero is by far his most well known work, and not say Daphnis et Chloe, Scheherazade, or any of his other works. This is probably because of it's repetition and it's easy catchy melody. The only reason why I can stand to play it is because it has a huge clarinet solo at the beginning.

Back to A-pop music, it's simple repetition is beyond ridiculous. There are many other pieces that are also really repetitive but would probably not be considered so. Unfortunately the music I was looking for seems to be impossible to find so just look up Lutoslawski's Trauermusik. It is a pretty cool piece which uses only 4 intervals in the entire piece. It's very chromatic and honestly really cool to listen to.



Now we have listened to American pop music, we will compare the music to pop music of other countries. Starting with Japan because, you know, I like that.



1) Cute Japanese chicks in schoolgirl uniforms. Yes please! =P
2) Rock because Japanese LOVE their metal
3) Decent compositional ideas

I mean it's constructed roughly the same as A-pop, but I just really like how their music sounds better. They use secondary dominants, chromaticism, and the oh so awesome resloution with sus.4-3. I just really really like how they find ways to create a really solid climax in the piece which A-music just seems to refuse to make. I should invest in some J-pop albums.



I was actually listening to this while writing the previous paragraph/statement thing.
As a disclaimer, I have no idea how popular this music is/isn't in Japan. I mean this stuff might only appeal to American audiences for all I know, but I know I like it much better than most American pop.



This song is so sad. As far as I can tell it's about a girl dying of spinocerebellar Degeneration, According to wikipedia. I mean how many pop songs in America are commemorating a true story about a poor girl's life. You can read the actual translation here... or at least a translation.

Okay... I'm sorta lazy so I won't actually analyze C-pop and K-pop. I will say that C-pop is probably my least favorite of all the asian pops, probably because it most resembles A-pop.



This song is just weird, but has a very nice bridge. Also nice use of m7 and M7 chords. In general though it's just a weird song.

This song is pretty reminiscent of Lady Gaga but I'm pretty sure this came out a lot earlier.



Another popular K-pop song apparently. Surprised they aren't playing Starcraft in the video. If anyone knows similar A-pop beecause I think there are some pretty obvious parallels but I don't/can't find similar songs.



Sanskrit singer. Supposedly kinda big. I like the scales she uses since it's traditional scales from what I know about China's music. I'm pretty sure it was tuned though to fit European music scales.

C-pop is hardest to find so I'll leave with that. I would also like to look at pop music from other cultures such as Bollywood's music, possibly Africa and S.America, though S.American music has migrated to N.America anyways. I would also like to look at some French pop and jazz styles since I think it is different from normal styles, but once again I need to take the time to listen and explore which I don't really have as it's time to start researching grad schools and stuff. Urgh.

Happy listening!

[Gaming] cheese

On twitter I'm getting musician fans. So I'll eventually go around to listening to them and such. Until then I will put up this movie.



Seriously, Jam's 236k is like pilebunker without the dandy-step. I call shenanigans on that.

I'm super busy for the rest of the day and tomorrow so I'll try and get an update up Friday or Saturday.

[Music] Apparently I Forgot

*Edit: this post is about a year old I'm finally getting around to writing this now XD*

Apparently I forgot to share my recent enjoyment of latest albums of music. As this is supposed to be mostly a music blog, I feel bad about this. Without further ado, my latest music collections and my opinions of them:

St. Vincent- Good music. Great use of wind instruments, lyrical and fun.

Mirah- Indieish. Uses ukulele and other odd instruments (accordion) to make a good sound.

Kamelot- Haven't listened to this album in ages. Don't remember much but find it kinda lacking.

Stradivarius- Power metal is awesome. They're singing has intonation issues but in general they're fun to listen to. However, they using boring chord progressions.

Jonathan Coulton- JoCo is still amazing. Just fun music, easy to listen to, general good stuff, funny lyrics, upbeat, and awesome.

I should give this more details but I don't have time or energy.

[Rant/Music] What is Wrong with Music These Days?

Where to begin.

First, I hate the direction of pop music. It is no longer about the music, people are conditioned to like this over synthesized and heavily edited 'music' which conveys no feelings or even anything resembling creativity. All people do is the same thing because it sells. Most people think "well I like it so who cares?" But I need more and want to explore what else is out there. Culturally there is so much fantastic music that has a HUGE history behind it and the common citizen doesn't care about the emotions and meaning behind the music, just as long as it has the same elements almost EVERY SONG OUT THERE HAS. Part of person growth as a person and as a musician is exploring the world around you, allowing you to understand more of happens around you. Now consumer culture has such a hold on money that any group of person trying to do something different and creative is shot down because their music is not part of 'that magic formula'.

Second, I absolutely despise the 'indie rocker'. Indie rockers don't explore music because it is good, but because they want to be elitist morons. Don't get me wrong, I like many indie bands and I think many of them contribute many new ideas to the development of modern music. However, the people who listen to them don't care about why it's unique, but just as long as they can be elitist to prove that "I'm so cool I know the next big thing". This mindsets discourages people in the first paragraph to explore because they purposely isolate themselves away from everyone else to make a stupid social statement which no one really cares about.

Lastly, I am discouraged by the way contemporary music is going. Beyond the neoclassicism from last century (1900s), orchestral music has become increasingly separated from most people. Part of this is the ultra-formal nature that orchestral music has become due to programme music's popularity when it began with Symphonie Fantastique which used program notes to describe the story, and further when Schoenberg decided to go completely atonal. Now it takes years of training to understand the concept behind the pieces, and then even more time to understand and appreciate the beauty of the music. This leaves forms over 200-300 years old as the still-dominant forms of music, as they are still beautiful and easy to understand. However, because of how society has changed from using orchestras and music as places to gather as things to argue and feign superiority over classical music has been becoming more overlooked.

Classical Music, however, can find ways to evolve into modern forms such as video games. Some composers have great success in finding work, contemporary or neo-classical, and caused people who normally would not explore 'older' forms of music have rediscovered the gorgeousness of orchestral music. Nobuo's work has been sold to complete sellout crowds as shown in the LA concert all those years ago.

Is this truly the next form of music for the next century? Incidental music for movies and game soundtracks? When is music going to become a more meaning force again?

Personally it makes me happy to see classical music continue to thrive, though it annoys me to how it has to thrive. I find that quite frequently most movie music does not have the depth or beauty of a music that is made specifically to listening. I think partially is because listening to music is hard. Now people say they listen to music all the time, but when is the last time you really listened to music, hearing every detail of the piece and hearing how it fits together? This could simply just be an exercise that musicians do, but I think to fully appreciate any music you need to give it time and attention for a piece to come into it's full value. Because music is played incessantly, when they drive, eat, work, play, and sometimes sleep, people rarely give a good piece the attention it deserves.

[Reviews] Avatar, Sherlock Holmes, Torchlight, Universe at War, Fall Be Kind, and Boots with Spurs

It's been a while since I last wrote on this bloggie thing (it's still a weird word, but whatever) so it's about time that I update with recent viewings and things I have seen.


Avatar (2d)

My score: 3/10

The three points is appreciating the CG and the effort put into the film. However, everything else about the movie totally sucked balls. The acting was horrible at best, the characters unremarkable, and the aliens looked a little WAY too much like dranai from WoW. I know I misspelled it but I don't play WoW anymore so I can't varify the spelling since I'm too lazy. Also, the supposed "science fiction" in the film was non-existent, and the space marines were TOTAL crap. First of all the unobtanium is the word physicists and chemists use to define something necessary for a formula that doesn't exist. Therefore unobtanium would be essentially undefinable.

Another problem is that they really don't explain characters at all. You get plopped in a situation and really none of the characters matter. Even the aliens don't matter. Also, what's going on with the whole "you can't breathe the air" stuff? Apparently there's enough oxygen in the environment to cause massive explosions, but you need an air supply or else you die? It makes no sense.

If the movie wasn't half-assed environmentalist crap, than I might rate it higher, but the overal "moral" of the story is that industrialization is evil and trees and earthiness is good. If this was actually true, why did we devise ways to harness the environment for a better life? Should we live without fire and conveniences like toothpaste? It just tries to push the liberal agenda, when everyone knows (or should know) about the latest revealing of how government and politically controlled the environmentalist movement is.


Sherlock Holmes

My Score: 8/10

This movie is much better than Avatar. It doesn't try to make any great point (hence why I lowered the score) but at the same time it just tells a story. Also, it isn't really like any "classic" Sherlock Holmes story, but much more modernized and created for an American and movie going audience. While I liked how the story was told, as it was clever and rather interesting, I felt that the scenes were cut short and we really weren't given time to identify with the characters. On the other hand, Holmes and Watson are some of the most recognizable characters ever, so they could get away with it a bit more. Even then, though, the characters aren't as refined as the original stories by sir Arthur Doyle. It is a great movie, though I don't know if I'd watching more than twice.


Torchlight

My score: 8/10

Torchlight is essentially a Diablo clone. Diablo is an action RPG-style where you control a single character and as you level up you gain/level up abilities and stats and equipment as you advance through a dungeon. While is a great game and has high re-playability due to multiple classes, class trees, and random level design, it still feels repetitive and boring after a while. The easy and medium modes are ludicrously easy, while hard and insane are much better to my style of game play. The game is pretty fun, but it could use more variation in the game. The bosses in the game don't seem hardly "epic" enough in this game and the story is really weak as well, but really you play it for your Diablo fix. Supposedly the developers are trying to get an online mode going, which should be interesting.


There is a map editor, though I haven't played with it yet. Hopefully some really major mods will eventually come out to play. So far there are only "god" mods and some minor armor sets or creep ideas. I personally would like to see the bosses to become MUCH more of a selling point of this game. They basically only chase you around and autoattack.


Universe at War: Earth Assault

My score: 8.5/10

Universe at War is an RTS (real time strategy) that was recently on steam for $5. After doing a little bit of research and figuring out it was designed by the original C&C team and had unique game play elements, I picked it up. A lot of the negative user reviews is because the game had huge problems on release (which they patched) and steam doesn't apparently patch it properly. For me this was no issue, and on playing it works fine. The game play is beautiful, fun, and the races are TRUELY distinct from each other. I don't know about the balance yet as I hasn't played all three races, but I'm excited to play it online once I finish the campaign. The ai still isn't perfect, as I feel the pathing doesn't work perfectly yet, but overall it is very good.


Fall be Kind

My score: 9/10

The latest Animal Collective album features great tunes yet again. The only problem is that it's too short! It is full of catchy, fun songs that got me bouncing. I often don't listen to AC much, but when I come back to it it is always incredibly refreshing. I suggest buying this album when you can, as it is a breath of fresh air after a long time of other styles of music.

Boots with Spurs

My score: 7/10

This band is a screamy metal band that I got for free somehow. Honestly they aren't too bad for their first album.

The biggest problem with them is that even on the recording many of the track are not in sync with each other, as if they can't play together. This is a huge problem for me, as it really detracts from the music. However, they aren't as bad as I though they would be. Sometimes they repeat their melodies too much, and they also tend to not deviate too far from whatever chord progression the originally use as the opening theme in a piece, but short of that they aren't too bad. Some of it is actually good. If you want to check them out, I suggest you google them at some point or look up on myspace.

So that's it for now. I have a good amount of free time in Janurary but my Junior recital is closing in a bit faster than I like, so we'll see what happens.

Till later then

[Music/Tech] Garry Schyman, Animal Collective

I am now writing this on PC that has windows 7. I will talk about the windows 7 experience on another post, for I have more important things to talk about. This time is an interview from Garry Schyman, the composer of the amazing game Bioshock. While his answers are pretty short due to him finishing deadlines (possibly Bioshock 2?) he still shares some good information. He is also pretty frequently interviewed so it's hard not to ask redundant questions. I'll also list his site and some of his interviews here:

Garry Schyman's site

Tracksounds interview

Music 4 Games interview

SoundtrackNet interview

BSOSpirit interview

And my interview/e-mail:

What instrument did you origionaly play before you started composition? I can't find any interview which says what instrument you play.

Piano.



Personally, what musicians and composers influence you?

Many! Mahler, Stravinsky, Lutoslawski, Bartok, John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Penderecki - and many more.



Why did you decide to compose a more late-romantic piece for Cohen's Masterpiece? I would think in a ultra-progressive paradise with no limits in technology or ideas someone like Cohen would go for something a bit more atonal or contemporary, such as Cage's HPSCHD or Berg's Lulu or Glass' Einstein. I'm not complaining, but I'm just curious =]

Remember the date that BioShock takes place. 1960 but isolate since the late 40's or so. I was thinking that Cohen would have been very conservative (perhaps ala Rachmaninoff) writing neo romantic music that was still chic back then. Oh well that was my idea anyways. Not correct answer I suppose.




Can you roughly describe your thought process in writing a piece for a video game?

Hmm - sit down at my keyboard and start writing. Sometimes it flows and other times it's like pulling proverbial teeth! But the deadlines keep the music coming! I love deadlines!


Well it's pretty short but there is plenty of information on him out there so I guess we can be thankful for that much.



Another Animal Collective album is in the works, making this the second album release this year. I'm pretty sure there isn't a leak yet but I could be completely and utterly wrong. The album's name is "Fall be Kind" and is set to be released November 8th. I'll let you know more information when I get to it.