Facts and Info about Music (a sharing thread)!

WannaWitness

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Simply use this thread to share any fact or piece of information you wish that relates to our wonderful world of music. Anything that sounds good to you, be it instruments, music history, music artists, genres, songs, or other interesting tidbits, feel free to post it here. I welcome links and videos as well. There's been a lot going on in the musical realm so there is no limit to what we can discover and ponder on. It boggles the mind sometimes.

I'll start by posting a couple of links which ponders the idea of running out of music or new melodies.

I WILL ADD that while few interesting points can be be found in these links, I don't necessarily take as gospel everything they bring out. Like I said, the realm of music is so wide, the possibilities are endless of pieces we can discover, and I am on a journey to find some of these things for myself.

https://www.firsttutors.com/uk/music/blog/2013/07/will-we-ever-run-out-of-new-music/

https://www.pragyan.org/blog/2015/01/will-we-ever-run-out-of-new-music/

PLEASE NOTE: The latter of the links is high contrast, with white text (some red) against a black background, and may be a little more difficult to read for those of you with sensitive eyes. The info in it is interesting, but if you feel you are such a person, click at your own risk.
 
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dzheremi

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I don't really agree with either of the links. The second seems to be making a simple mathematical error by limiting to notes in the Western scales. But I do not believe that things are that simple. To quote Wikipedia's article on scales:

"Due to the principle of octave equivalence, scales are generally considered to span a single octave, with higher or lower octaves simply repeating the pattern. A musical scale represents a division of the octave space into a certain number of scale steps, a scale step being the recognizable distance (or interval) between two successive notes of the scale.[2] However, there is no need for scale steps to be equal within any scale and, particularly as demonstrated by microtonal music, there is no limit to how many notes can be injected within any given musical interval." (emphasis added)

No doubt some could say "Okay, so you're putting in more notes, but it is still within the octave", which is fine, but on the other hand, if you're just saying "there are X notes and so it's finite because the math will always be according to that number", then if the number of notes (X) is at least theoretically infinite, then so is the result of your math.

The first link is just kind of annoying to me personally. As someone who doesn't listen to a lot of Western music, it just rubs me the wrong way when people say "the future of music lies in recognizing that there are Middle Eastern/African/other non-European kinds of music out there." Sure, duh, if you haven't been exposed to that stuff yet you probably should be, but if that recognition begins and ends at "look at all this neat stuff that we can use to make our pop music better!", then I'm pretty sure Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Sting, et al. already did that in the 80s and 90s, with very mixed results. Does anyone really want to hear the 2010's version of that "Desert Rose" song by Sting? Maybe I'm just grumpy, but since I didn't like the original, I don't.

I think it's a lot more interesting to think about how much music that's already out there that you've never heard. Just yesterday I found some very interesting hurdy-gurdy (zafona) music from the 1930s from Galicia (Spain) that I'm really digging. Thanks, YouTube recommendations!


It's not an instrument that I know, but its sound reminds me a little bit of the harmonium that is traditional to certain forms of Indian music:


And believe it or not, both of these songs/artists have been reissued on CD. Just imagine what else is out there that never gets a second chance at life that way. There are still places in the world (e.g., Afghanistan, Somalia, etc.) where music is primarily transmitted on cassette tape, which is only the case in the west for boutique/'hipster' record labels.

There's so much music already out there, I can't imagine being concerned that we won't have enough new music.
 
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WannaWitness

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I don't really agree with either of the links. The second seems to be making a simple mathematical error by limiting to notes in the Western scales. But I do not believe that things are that simple. To quote Wikipedia's article on scales:

"Due to the principle of octave equivalence, scales are generally considered to span a single octave, with higher or lower octaves simply repeating the pattern. A musical scale represents a division of the octave space into a certain number of scale steps, a scale step being the recognizable distance (or interval) between two successive notes of the scale.[2] However, there is no need for scale steps to be equal within any scale and, particularly as demonstrated by microtonal music, there is no limit to how many notes can be injected within any given musical interval." (emphasis added)

No doubt some could say "Okay, so you're putting in more notes, but it is still within the octave", which is fine, but on the other hand, if you're just saying "there are X notes and so it's finite because the math will always be according to that number", then if the number of notes (X) is at least theoretically infinite, then so is the result of your math.

The first link is just kind of annoying to me personally. As someone who doesn't listen to a lot of Western music, it just rubs me the wrong way when people say "the future of music lies in recognizing that there are Middle Eastern/African/other non-European kinds of music out there." Sure, duh, if you haven't been exposed to that stuff yet you probably should be, but if that recognition begins and ends at "look at all this neat stuff that we can use to make our pop music better!", then I'm pretty sure Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Sting, et al. already did that in the 80s and 90s, with very mixed results. Does anyone really want to hear the 2010's version of that "Desert Rose" song by Sting? Maybe I'm just grumpy, but since I didn't like the original, I don't.

I think it's a lot more interesting to think about how much music that's already out there that you've never heard. Just yesterday I found some very interesting hurdy-gurdy (zafona) music from the 1930s from Galicia (Spain) that I'm really digging. Thanks, YouTube recommendations!


It's not an instrument that I know, but its sound reminds me a little bit of the harmonium that is traditional to certain forms of Indian music:


And believe it or not, both of these songs/artists have been reissued on CD. Just imagine what else is out there that never gets a second chance at life that way. There are still places in the world (e.g., Afghanistan, Somalia, etc.) where music is primarily transmitted on cassette tape, which is only the case in the west for boutique/'hipster' record labels.

There's so much music already out there, I can't imagine being concerned that we won't have enough new music.

You don't have to agree. I'm not saying I totally agree with them either as there is a lot of music to pick from, and there is no way in this lifetime we would be able to listen to every piece of music that's ever been recorded (or will be recorded), so I can certainly see where you're coming from. I just thought it was an interesting tidbit, especially since it is of interest that there are a number of songs (popular ones even) that sound rather similar in places though not exactly alike. I may even post a link later on just about that, for whoever might be interested. :)

I didn't really have debate in mind when I created this thread; however, thanks for the info. :)
 
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dzheremi

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You don't have to agree. I'm not saying I totally agree with them either as there is a lot of music to pick from, and there is definitely no way in this lifetime we would be able to listen to every piece of music that's ever been made (or will be made), so I can certainly see where you're coming from. I just thought it was an interesting tidbit, especially since it is of interest that there are a number of songs (popular ones even) that have similar melodies, tunes, or bars. I may even post a link later on just about that, for whoever might be interested. :)

Anyway, I didn't have debating in mind when I created this thread; however, thanks for the info. :)

Sure. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to come off as debating. I just meant I read both articles and found them lacking in these particular senses. They're still fine.

And yes, there are a lot of similar-sounding songs out there. In light of the recent lawsuit against Ed Sheeran, I've seen a lot of think pieces on that phenomenon recently. I come from a music industry background, so maybe I'm a little bit more jaded about that kind of thing, but it's still interesting to me the lengths to which people will go to maintain a sense of ownership over something that is literally not ownable.

Or, as one of the better pieces I've seen so far puts it:

 
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WannaWitness

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Sure. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to come off as debating. I just meant I read both articles and found them lacking in these particular senses. They're still fine.

And yes, there are a lot of similar-sounding songs out there. In light of the recent lawsuit against Ed Sheeran, I've seen a lot of think pieces on that phenomenon recently. I come from a music industry background, so maybe I'm a little bit more jaded about that kind of thing, but it's still interesting to me the lengths to which people will go to maintain a sense of ownership over something that is literally not ownable.

Or, as one of the better pieces I've seen so far puts it:


That's perfectly okay. I'm just not the best when it comes to things like debate, but I always do appreciate input. That's why I rated your post informative as there is a lot of good food for thought in it (plus, I have yet to listen to the pieces you posted, which I will check out when I get a chance). As you said, there is so much out there to be discovered. I've been around a variety of music all my life, and always on the lookout for something unique. It sometimes surprises me the things that have turned up in my search. For example, the song Ready n Steady, recorded in 1979, was listed in the "Bubbling Under the Top 100" on the Billboard chart at #106, yet it was said that no one ever heard one note such a song at the time. Having been considered a "phantom record" for years, it was finally discovered in 2016 and played on a recent Internet radio program. And I could go on and on here, but I'll save them for future posts. :)

Anyway, thanks again for your input; I really do appreciate it. :)
 
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dreadnought

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Simply use this thread to share any fact or piece of information you wish that relates to our wonderful world of music. Anything that sounds good to you, be it instruments, music history, music artists, genres, songs, or other interesting tidbits, feel free to post it here. I welcome links and videos as well. There's been a lot going on in the musical realm so there is no limit to what we can discover and ponder on. It boggles the mind sometimes.

I'll start by posting a couple of links which ponders the idea of running out of music or new melodies.

I WILL ADD that while few interesting points can be be found in these links, I don't necessarily take as gospel everything they bring out. Like I said, the realm of music is so wide, the possibilities are endless of pieces we can discover, and I am on a journey to find some of these things for myself.

https://www.firsttutors.com/uk/music/blog/2013/07/will-we-ever-run-out-of-new-music/

https://www.pragyan.org/blog/2015/01/will-we-ever-run-out-of-new-music/

PLEASE NOTE: The latter of the links is high contrast, with white text (some red) against a black background, and may be a little more difficult to read for those of you with sensitive eyes. The info in it is interesting, but if you feel you are such a person, click at your own risk.
If you are a singer-guitarist and are reading sheet music, make sure you have the microphone right where it needs to be.
 
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Northbrook

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Everybody likes to hear fascinating facts about the great composers. Here is a book I enjoyed:

1) Schonberg, Harold C. The Lives of the Great Composers (1997 (rev. ed.), 1981).

And I saw this title when I looked further down the page on Amazon.com where I looked up that one:

2) Kavanaugh, Patrick. Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers (1997).

See that? SPIRITUAL lives of the great composers! I want to read that one! If you want to read it, write on a slip of paper the name of the great composer you think, just from hearing his or her music, was the most spiritual. Follow that with reading the book, and see whether you were close! Personally, just from hearing his vocal solo "Panis Angelicus," my vote for "Great Composer Who Was the Most Spiritual" goes to Cesar Franck.
 
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jayem

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Everybody likes to hear fascinating facts about the great composers. Here is a book I enjoyed:

1) Schonberg, Harold C. The Lives of the Great Composers (1997 (rev. ed.), 1981).

And I saw this title when I looked further down the page on Amazon.com where I looked up that one:

2) Kavanaugh, Patrick. Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers (1997).

See that? SPIRITUAL lives of the great composers! I want to read that one! If you want to read it, write on a slip of paper the name of the great composer you think, just from hearing his or her music, was the most spiritual. Follow that with reading the book, and see whether you were close! Personally, just from hearing his vocal solo "Panis Angelicus," my vote for "Great Composer Who Was the Most Spiritual" goes to Cesar Franck.

One of the most famous and celebrated religious songs is Franz Schubert's version of the Ave Maria. But it had a secular origin. Schubert wrote the melody as part of the incidental music to a play based on Sir Walter Scott's The Lady Of The Lake. The song's original title is Ellensgesang III (Ellen's 3rd song--very prosaic.) The original lyrics are in German. The character Ellen Douglas, alone in the woods, sings to the Virgin Mary for help. The phrase Ave Maria is the first line. The song became quite popular, and was soon adopted by the Catholic Church as a musical setting for the Hail Mary prayer. The Latin version of which was substituted for the original German lyrics, which are rarely heard anymore. But it's still a very pretty song, no matter it's origin.

 
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