Frederick's Timelog » Musical Matters

Symphony of Science

Frederick — Sun, 23 May 2010 20:10:18 +0000

I just discovered this amazing series of music videos, created by running catchy quotations from notable scientists through Auto-Tune. They seem like a new generation of religious art.

The Symphony of Science is a musical project headed by John Boswell designed to deliver scientific knowledge and philosophy in musical form.

With Carl Sagan, David Attenborough, Jane Goodall, Richard Dawkins among many, these inspiring videos communicate the value of science.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Beautiful.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Taylor Swift?

Frederick — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:32:35 +0000

I never thought the day would come when I would acknowledge that I like modern music.

A year and a bit ago, in December of 2008, I decided that I would solicit music suggestions. A week afterwards, I acknowledged that I appreciated Viva la Vida and soundtrack music.

In the time since then, I have become an aficionado of Taylor Swift’s country pop music, among other artists. (I’ve also developed a liking for Owl City’s Fireflies and Vanilla Twilight.)

Swift’s award-winning You Belong with Me deserved its prize.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It is worth acknowledging that her songs, with few exceptions, are almost exclusively about rosy romance (think Love Story, You Belong with Me) or broken hearts (e.g. Picture to Burn, White Horse). Which means that they’re about the same thing.

Love Story is quite overplayed, so I’ll leave you with Fifteen.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Watch more Taylor Swift music videos at VEVO or track my taste in music.

An update on the experiment

Frederick — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:06:48 +0000

UPDATE: Imeem was purchased by MySpace Music on December 8, 2009—one year after this post. As a result, the embedded music players below will not work.

I think it is time for me to post another something to my blog. I have been pleased to observe a strong support for the experiment, particularly the part where I will expose myself to new kinds of music.

First, a comical quote:

A client called in inquiring about a package to Hawaii. After going over all the cost info, she asked, “Would it be cheaper to fly to California and then take the train to Hawaii?”

Wow. You should start using StumbleUpon. It’s great for times like this boring weekend when surfing random sites on the Web becomes a fun activity. (also, see the things I liked from stumbling)

Anyhow, back to the less fun things. There’s more after the jump.

Music

I haven’t yet had a chance to listen to all of the music that people have sent to me by means of drop.io. However, here are a few pieces of music that I currently can appreciate, thanks to the input from everybody.

Preferably, you should add comments to this post with the title of the song and the artist, because I use imeem as the legal means of discovering new music. (A note about imeem: I like using this site to discover new music, particularly to follow up on recommendations, given that this company has signed licensing deals with Warner Music, Sony/BMG, EMI, and Vivendi Universal, and can offer a legal means of listening to full-length content.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

My appreciation of Viva la Vida reflects my musical education and the fact that I am still clinging on to the dignity of classical music. Though the lyrics are great, and I appreciate the vocals, it remains true that the harmonic progression and (generally classical) instrumentation appeal to me most.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Note: for some songs, imeem will only stream full-length tracks to registered and logged-in users to comply with licensing terms.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Of all of the music I have heard up to now, hip-hop is just too strange for me. Even metal, which is, indeed, loud and harsh (in timbre), at least appeals to me. For both of the pieces immediately above, I would appreciate them much more without the screaming vocals, since the instrumental parts are amazing… and once again, I have to refer to the similarities between the harmonic devices used in metal/rock and classical.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For this song (I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing), my first impression of it was the unsightly singer on the music video on YouTube, which I watched because Matthew Wu posted a link to it. However, it is a nice song, one with a great singer whose voice is acceptable — in harsh contrast to the vocal ‘talent’ from the heavy metal — and it is from Armageddon, a film that I liked. (Have my musical tastes been shaped already?)

And, of course, I have to take this opportunity to share some of the classical pieces that I have recently discovered and liked:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I think what the pieces above show is that my musical tastes have shifted from primarily Bach to primarily 19th-century (and a bit of early 20th-century) music. Hmm. A few more months and it’ll probably move to 20th- and 21st-century stuff. What genres I adopt will remain to be seen… though, if anything is to be indicated by the music I have liked thus far, I am unlikely to appreciate hip-hop.

Play a role. Comment here.

Classical music is for everyone

Frederick — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:12:33 +0000

Most of you probably do not know that classical music is a passion of mine. In February of this year, Benjamin Zander (conductor of the Boston Philharmonic) gave an inspiring, beautiful, and fascinating talk at the TED conference. Here is the video, released this month.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I personally think that this man is a genius in his methodology. Watch this video, and you too will be convinced that classical music does what few other musical genres can — inspire, move, and motivate.