Was just tweeting my MiG piece - there doesn't seem to me any polite way to include the artists in a multi-artist compilation short of sending multiple identical tweets with different lists of @names, which feels too pushy... Jonah if you want to pick up a few of the artists rather than the labels when muigoo tweets it, that's fine. Would it be bad etiquette on twitter to send out another tweet with "album includes..."? The following are the relevant ones I've been able to identify. @Pjusk_no @room40speaks @Talvihorros @MarsenJules @dannynorbury (I think this is the right one) @RudiArapahoe @field_rotation @offthesky
Also if anyone decides to read today's piece I'd be quite interested in any thoughts on it, because in terms of writing a review I tried something a little different. Instead of just looking to describe the music, I tried to write it as a guide for how to listen to the music to get more out of it, a kind of study guide. I think this is an important function that in principle (if not often in practice) writing about music could have (and the main reason I don't entirely buy the "Talking about music is like dancing about architecture" line, cute as it is - talking about music is more (or also) like writing CliffsNotes for Shakespeare - everyone knows they are two different genres, but if the one is done well it can help you find things in the other; that could possibly be true of dancing and architecture of course, but my sense is that that's not usually how that quotation gets wielded, but then cute sayings are rarely if ever entirely true and mostly exist to irritate purists)(I was going to continue this sentence after a brief aside but it seems time for a period now). I wanted to have a go at that. Was this a good idea?
Oh, and I also wanted to say, Jonah, I loved that paragraph in your piece about the thunderstorm. That analogy nails something important. It made me think immediately of the opening moments of Pause by Nils Frahm.
@GP - well, I had to tweak the John Fullbright piece a little right after it was published because of a broken link. The Reverbnation audio embed of the song "Tombstone" originally included was yanked (or had some other problem) and since there wasn't another satisfactory embed to use, I had to substitute the youtube clip that's there now, which really messed up my whole flow. I had to move a couple of sentences around to work it in, but I think it still suffers from a little bit of disjointedness. If you notice something obvious that's easily fixable, let me know.
I think your approach in writing today's piece is an excellent one. Being in the 2nd category (those new to the artist and this kind of music), it is especially helpful. I really enjoyed reading about and listening to this music from this kind of an angle.
@Jonah - I second what GP said about your thunderstorm analogy. That really jumped out at me when I read your piece, too! Great article.
GP, your "study guide" idea was an excellent one, and you did a great job with it, at least from the point of view of someone (me) who doesn't listen to much ambient music and appreciates a pointer or two. It's also a good way of tackling the importance of what the listener brings to the music.
I'd like to say more but I think there's an essay-length answer inside me, and my brain-to-keyboard circuits really aren't functioning right now. I've already written this comment three completely different ways, none of them satisfactory. Suffice to say there were a whole bunch of thoughts about how a subtle shift in language can radically transform a piece of writing, how critics can inadvertently present subjective opinions as objective facts, what the "dancing about architecture" idea means to me... I even used the phrase "sine qua non" at one point.
So, yeah, I liked it. Actually it reminded me of an idea I had to write a post in which I "live-blog" an unfamiliar piece of music.
Kez, thanks for the Fullbright piece. Great example of a post on something I would never have found for myself or expected to be "my thing" but rather enjoyed and would like to hear more of now that I know about it. There are a few moments that remind me just a little of T-Bone Burnett on The True False Identity (an album I like a lot) - something about the dry delivery and nature of the tone and rhythm. And that's a great opening anecdote, well told, really drew me into the piece. The rest read fine to me.
Kez, Nereffid, thanks for the comments. I'd love to talk more/learn more/think more about this whole area. I know for myself when I listen to certain kinds of classical music (especially stuff that I know is supposed to be epochally great, like, say, a Bach passion) that I am aware of bringing my ignorance with me as I listen and I would love to have a good commentary that does not just keep telling me when the composer was born or where he took this text from or who conducted the orchestra (all very fine and appropriate things in another genre, and useful as a prelude, but not what I'm after here), but what is actually being done musically here in terms of the audible work (if that makes sense), what I am supposed to be hearing and noticing (I say that consciously, knowing that not everyone needs to hear the same thing - I would still like to know what an attuned pair of ears is hearing, whether or not it's the final word). By way of analogy, I have a few times had the privilege of sitting watching movies with a friend of mine who is a filmmaker and having him drop comments along the way about things the director is doing that I never would have noticed but which tremendously illuminate what is going on on the screen. I would love to have that happen more with music, to be able to listen to a piece alongside someone who has the right ears for it and have them help me discover it at a deeper level than I might manage on my own (which is *entirely* consistent with ending up with my own take on it). So that's what I was trying to do - I'm really glad that it worked for you two at least (means it was already worth writing :-)).
I like the idea of "live blogging" a piece, and have not forgotten that idea I floated a while back about a blogged listening party where several of us describe what we hear in the same piece of music; it just got suspended in the pace of life.
In the latest American Record Guide, Donald Vroon wrote an editorial touching on this subject, which is worth quoting at length:
Aaron Copland published a book called What to Listen for in Music. I remember discussing it with him, but I didnt have the courage to tell him that I didnt want anyone telling me what to listen for. I want to open myself to the music as sound and let the sounds tingle my senses and flow over me. Music is a sensuous experience. All descriptions detract from that. I never even wanted to know when an instrument stood for a character. I was not interested in Scheherazade; I was only interested in Rimsky-Korsakoffs music. He could have called it Midnight in the Swamp or Symphony No. 5; it would have made no difference to me. I have always felt that stories detract from the music. It is only music itself that reaches menot someones description of iteven if that someone is the composer. ...
I have never encouraged my friends to read the program notes at a concert, and I usually refuse to look at a score when listening to music. Did you imagine us all sitting around with scores on our laps? We consult a score when some detail raises a question, but its not much help in listening to music. ...
It may very well be that the best critics dont need to know anything more than you and I do. Its not a matter of knowledge. Its a matter of sensitivity and openness (receptivity) and flowof letting the music insinuate itself into your subconscious, letting it reach the emotional centers of the brain. All the intellectual knowledge you can get will not help you to absorb music; its more sensual, more emotional than that. There are highly educated people who just dont get it. Yet it appeals to educated emotionsrefined, not crude. I find that a background of broad reading helpsnot reading about music, but general reading and fiction.
In The Spheres of Music (Sept/Oct 2000) Leonard B Meyer says understanding music depends neither on literacy nor conceptual knowledge.... Being a competent listener, viewer, or reader is not a matter of knowing about works of art in the sense of being able to explain them. A lot of our readers have told me that they cannot explain what is happening in a pieceeven a piece they dearly love. I always tell them it doesnt matter.
In an anti-intellectual culture like ours it seems unwise to say it, but its true that intellectualizing music can rob it of its power. Conductors and pianists do it all the time, so its no surprise that listeners do too.
Its a matter of heart. Conductors have to be very intelligent to do what they do, but there is no reason the brain should ignore or overrule the heart. Brainy people can be more emotional than everyone else; but unfortunately we have a cultural assumption that intellect and emotion are opposed. Nonsense!
I think that, by and large, it's helpful to know what's going on in a piece of music, and there are definitely some pieces of music that I know I'd never have appreciated if I hadn't read an analysis of them. But I certainly can relate to the comment about "being able to explain" a piece of music. And I also agree with Vroon's complaint about "intellectualizing music" - one case in point being Mahler's early piano quartet; I love it, but I've read one Mahler expert dismiss it as poorly written. Fortunately I lack the musical knowledge to be able to agree with him.
I am not sure I understand how "All descriptions detract from that" fits together with "Yet it appeals to educated emotions" and "intellect and emotion are opposed. Nonsense!." If emotions can be educated then it seems reasonable to posit that descriptions of some kind could be one means of that education. I get what he's saying overall and sympathize sometimes, and agree about the being able to explain things, but the whole comes across to me as doing what you mentioned in the last post - making something subjective into something categorical. A friend of mine carried out a longitudinal study of how British secondary school students approached poetry in English lit classes. He found stable patterns in their reading over time, suggesting individual variations in preferred reading stance falling into several general types (about six - I don't have the study to hand). Some for instance were on the look out for what the poem made them feel, and would be impatient if it seemed to lack emotional hooks. Some would approach the poem as an intellectual puzzle or code to crack and be dismissive if it appeared too simple to have things to solve. Some enjoyed following allusions and background details. I have found this a helpful frame for observing students and helping them observe themselves in my own literature teaching - it is a crude tool but does sometimes shed light on why two different students are reacting very differently to a certain type of poem. It would not surprise me if something like that turned out to be the case for musical listeners. My youngest daughter for example is very focused on the lyrics of music - they have to be of literary quality. I am like that too - one reason I very rarely listen to music that has lyrics. I know other folk who could not tell you what the lyrics are about on their favorite album.
I'm gonna send out as many tweets as it takes to hit on every artist, label, and publicist that relates to one of our articles. I'll do bandleaders, sidemen... anything. Some labels are better at social media than the artists, but also the other way around sometimes. Also, sometimes the sax player is all over twitter, whereas the lead drummer rarely visits.
Hell, on my emu Jazz Picks tweets, I do a Part 1, Part 2, etc, until I get everyone I want showing. Occasionally I'll stick an "& More" at the end, which I do for my own reasons, and won't likely ever apply to MiG tweets.
I'll try to get caught up on MiG tweets tonight. I was out of town for Derby weekend (which started Thurs afternoon for me).
I had what I think is a much better idea for the "Classical Highlights" posts I've done. There's a sample here on my own blog. Similar information is presented, but this way the post reads more like MiG's regular programming than a PSA.
That's a good point in terms of inclusiveness but I wonder would an album's appearance as a footnote just draw attention to it as something I didn't feel was worth writing about. My new approach has a more "curated" feel to it, something that will definitely hold true when covering American Record Guide and Fanfare, neither of which gives out accolades like Editor's Choice - so there wouldn't be footnotes there anyway.
Nereffid, I know you raised stylistic fit once before; personally it does not bother me - I like some stylistic diversity in the blog, I think it adds to its character if different kinds of things can be found on it. But I do like the approach of that new piece on your blog. And personally I would not bother with footnoting other albums - there's always more out there than one can keep up with anyway.
I've upgraded some plugins including Edit Flow. Let me know if anything's wacky.
Here's the changes for Edit Flow:
Show the year on the calendar and story budget if it's not the current year
Allow users to save post subscriptions the first time they save the post. This also fixes the bug where a user wouldn't be subscribed until they saved the post twice
Changed the behavior of notifications for the user changing a status or leaving a comment. Previously, they'd receive an email with the action they just performed; now they do not. This can be changed with a filter
New Italian localization thanks to Luca Patan
I installed another update that might be of interest--YouTube shortcode
Added support for Youtube SSL URLs: https://
Added support for Youtube embed URLs: http://www.youtube.com/v/VIDEO_ID and http://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID
Allows the TinyMCE button to appear on any rich text editor (i.e. text editor in a widget)
Improved mobile detection
Upgrading will not break any website you may have built with previous versions. Upgrade with confidence.
Re: Style
I love that there are different writing styles on MiG. On this subject I give you MiG's patron saint, Oscar Wilde: "Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative". God forbid someone realizes they've started reading a different author.
I love that two adjacent articles will use British and American spelling and usage. Throw some Aussie writers in the mix while we're at it.
I love that a review of a classical album may be followed by a review of an experimental album, and I hope that folks will come to trust MiG enough to try something new because we've put it in the 'good' category.
Although I think both spellings are correct regardless of where you happen to be, mixing spelling style and usage can be jarring to the reader. This is where having an editor is a great help. I read so much British English that words like 'colour' just slide by me unless I'm looking for them.
Okay, figured it out. If anyone runs into this problem, lemme know and I'll post the language here. I might be the only one, however, who hadn't yet figured it out, if the posts on emusers are any indication.]
The first part is the url that I want the link to go to, including the language target="_blank" to get it to open a new window when it jumps to the site.
The second part is the html code for the actual image itself. That part after the .png that has the "alt="Link to Jeb Bishop..." is just the description I added for when someone hovers their mouse arrow over the link; it is totally unnecessary to making it work, simply a stylistic decision on my part.
The last part is my adjustment of the image's dimensions, and then, the final </a> as the other bookend of the original url link language.
Hope that helps someone else, if they should need to use it.
I've updated plugins: Edit Flow, Broken Link Checker, One of the other admins recently upgraded Wordpress. Let us know if you notice anything not working.
I was cutting and pasting some paragraphs in one of my drafts and when I cut a section and click on 'paste,' I now get a box about inserting from Word, whereas before I could just directly paste the text where I wanted it to go. This has never happened before and I assume is a change that resulted from the latest update? I can't paste in that box, and clicking on 'insert' doesn't work, either. How should I cut and paste now? I'm using Windows XP right now, but my other computer has Windows 7 and I can't remember for sure, but I think I recently cut and pasted using Windows 7 with no problems. Anybody have any idea what's up with this?
What does the box actually say? Is it trying to insert it as an image? Depending on what the dealio is, I'm sure there's a Paste Special option for you.
Well, this is weird. I tried it again to tell you exactly what the box said. But this time, it worked just like it always has. I select what I want to move and right click to choose 'cut,' then move cursor to where I want to insert the cut text, right click and choose 'paste.' Earlier when I did this, when I right clicked on 'paste,' a insert box popped up that said "Use cntrl-V to paste text in box," but when I did cntrl-V, nothing happened. I then tried clicking on the 'insert' rectangle in the lower right-hand part of the dialog box, but nothing happened there, either.
Anyway - everything seems to be working fine now. But I lost a sentence when that mysterious 'insert' box popped up.
Comments
@Pjusk_no
@room40speaks
@Talvihorros
@MarsenJules
@dannynorbury (I think this is the right one)
@RudiArapahoe
@field_rotation
@offthesky
Off to read about John Fullbright now...
I think your approach in writing today's piece is an excellent one. Being in the 2nd category (those new to the artist and this kind of music), it is especially helpful. I really enjoyed reading about and listening to this music from this kind of an angle.
@Jonah - I second what GP said about your thunderstorm analogy. That really jumped out at me when I read your piece, too! Great article.
I'd like to say more but I think there's an essay-length answer inside me, and my brain-to-keyboard circuits really aren't functioning right now. I've already written this comment three completely different ways, none of them satisfactory. Suffice to say there were a whole bunch of thoughts about how a subtle shift in language can radically transform a piece of writing, how critics can inadvertently present subjective opinions as objective facts, what the "dancing about architecture" idea means to me... I even used the phrase "sine qua non" at one point.
So, yeah, I liked it. Actually it reminded me of an idea I had to write a post in which I "live-blog" an unfamiliar piece of music.
Kez, Nereffid, thanks for the comments. I'd love to talk more/learn more/think more about this whole area. I know for myself when I listen to certain kinds of classical music (especially stuff that I know is supposed to be epochally great, like, say, a Bach passion) that I am aware of bringing my ignorance with me as I listen and I would love to have a good commentary that does not just keep telling me when the composer was born or where he took this text from or who conducted the orchestra (all very fine and appropriate things in another genre, and useful as a prelude, but not what I'm after here), but what is actually being done musically here in terms of the audible work (if that makes sense), what I am supposed to be hearing and noticing (I say that consciously, knowing that not everyone needs to hear the same thing - I would still like to know what an attuned pair of ears is hearing, whether or not it's the final word). By way of analogy, I have a few times had the privilege of sitting watching movies with a friend of mine who is a filmmaker and having him drop comments along the way about things the director is doing that I never would have noticed but which tremendously illuminate what is going on on the screen. I would love to have that happen more with music, to be able to listen to a piece alongside someone who has the right ears for it and have them help me discover it at a deeper level than I might manage on my own (which is *entirely* consistent with ending up with my own take on it). So that's what I was trying to do - I'm really glad that it worked for you two at least (means it was already worth writing :-)).
I like the idea of "live blogging" a piece, and have not forgotten that idea I floated a while back about a blogged listening party where several of us describe what we hear in the same piece of music; it just got suspended in the pace of life.
I think that, by and large, it's helpful to know what's going on in a piece of music, and there are definitely some pieces of music that I know I'd never have appreciated if I hadn't read an analysis of them. But I certainly can relate to the comment about "being able to explain" a piece of music. And I also agree with Vroon's complaint about "intellectualizing music" - one case in point being Mahler's early piano quartet; I love it, but I've read one Mahler expert dismiss it as poorly written. Fortunately I lack the musical knowledge to be able to agree with him.
I'm gonna send out as many tweets as it takes to hit on every artist, label, and publicist that relates to one of our articles. I'll do bandleaders, sidemen... anything. Some labels are better at social media than the artists, but also the other way around sometimes. Also, sometimes the sax player is all over twitter, whereas the lead drummer rarely visits.
Hell, on my emu Jazz Picks tweets, I do a Part 1, Part 2, etc, until I get everyone I want showing. Occasionally I'll stick an "& More" at the end, which I do for my own reasons, and won't likely ever apply to MiG tweets.
I'll try to get caught up on MiG tweets tonight. I was out of town for Derby weekend (which started Thurs afternoon for me).
Here's the changes for Edit Flow:
Show the year on the calendar and story budget if it's not the current year
Allow users to save post subscriptions the first time they save the post. This also fixes the bug where a user wouldn't be subscribed until they saved the post twice
Changed the behavior of notifications for the user changing a status or leaving a comment. Previously, they'd receive an email with the action they just performed; now they do not. This can be changed with a filter
New Italian localization thanks to Luca Patan
Added support for Youtube SSL URLs: https://
Added support for Youtube embed URLs: http://www.youtube.com/v/VIDEO_ID and http://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID
Allows the TinyMCE button to appear on any rich text editor (i.e. text editor in a widget)
Improved mobile detection
Upgrading will not break any website you may have built with previous versions. Upgrade with confidence.
I love that there are different writing styles on MiG. On this subject I give you MiG's patron saint, Oscar Wilde: "Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative". God forbid someone realizes they've started reading a different author.
I love that two adjacent articles will use British and American spelling and usage. Throw some Aussie writers in the mix while we're at it.
I love that a review of a classical album may be followed by a review of an experimental album, and I hope that folks will come to trust MiG enough to try something new because we've put it in the 'good' category.
Thanks.
However, I want to make it so that clicking on it opens another window. I need some sort of _target language I think.
Help.
EDIT: Actually, here it is now...
<a href="http://www.notesfromtheholler.com/?p=35" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notesfromtheholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/jebbishop_timdaisy_photo.png" alt="Link to Jeb Bishop - Tim Daisy Duo post on Notes From The Holler" width="150" height="150" /></a>
The first part is the url that I want the link to go to, including the language target="_blank" to get it to open a new window when it jumps to the site.
The second part is the html code for the actual image itself. That part after the .png that has the "alt="Link to Jeb Bishop..." is just the description I added for when someone hovers their mouse arrow over the link; it is totally unnecessary to making it work, simply a stylistic decision on my part.
The last part is my adjustment of the image's dimensions, and then, the final </a> as the other bookend of the original url link language.
Hope that helps someone else, if they should need to use it.
Cheers.
Anyway - everything seems to be working fine now. But I lost a sentence when that mysterious 'insert' box popped up.
Sorry for the false alarm.