Black Holes and Snowy Mountains

Whenever I get into a discussion about classical music with my friends that aren’t music students, I inevitably ask them why they don’t listen to the genre.  I never ask it with the intent of trying to push them towards changing their listening habits, but the responses I get are all over the board.  Common responses include, but aren’t limited to:

• It’s boring.
• I don’t understand it.
• It doesn’t have words (in English).
• “Songs” (argh!) are too long and I don’t have time.
• People will think I’m weird (no joke, I’ve gotten this multiple times).
• I would listen if I had any (or could get it for free** see below!).
• It’s not catchy enough (I like to sing in the car!)

Now obviously some of these have more merit than others, but I am curious to hear what you think.  Do you enjoy listening to classical music?  Do you (or did you) play an instrument?  If you don’t enjoy the genre, why not?
(more…)

Filed under: Culture by HP

16 Comments »

With the recent release of the NFL’s 2009 Regular Season Schedule, we finally get a chance to try and validate our meaningless predictions on how the season will turn out. While at some point in the near future my win/loss predictions will be posted (haven’t gotten the code working quite yet), I prefer to make a list of things we can almost certainly expect from certain various games throughout the season.

(more…)

Filed under: Sports by HP

No Comments »

Cesar Franck finished his D Minor Symphony at age 66, just 2 years before his death due to complications surrounding a traffic accident in 1890. Written in an unusual blend of French cyclic form and the more “common” German forms and instrumentation, the symphony is full of strange and wonderful surprises. Its premiere in Paris on February 17, 1889 marked the end of nearly 50 years of symphonic drought in France since Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique.

(more…)

Filed under: Culture by HP

No Comments »

We continue our discussion of Beethoven’s 5th Piano Concerto with movements II and III.

1. Allegro
2. Adagio un poco mosso
3. Rondo- Allegro

(more…)

Filed under: Culture by HP

No Comments »

For those of you that missed it, Google’s homepage icon was a tribute to Samuel Morse yesterday (April 27).

Morse is credited with inventing the single-wire telegraph and the associated means of using it which became known as Morse Code.

Technorati Tags: Google, Morse, Morse Code, telegraph, birthday, April 27

Filed under: Lifestyle by HP

No Comments »

Revolutionary when it was premiered, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat Major, op. 73 remains a fascinating study to this day. The traditional struggle between themes is almost absent, replaced by a battle between two musical entities- the piano and the orchestra- the opening blows of which start seconds after the concerto begins. Unlike traditional concertos of the time and even the concertos composed after Beethoven, the cadenza- traditionally the soloists’ time in the spotlight- is not only set in stone by Beethoven’s pen but also is humiliatingly short. Beethoven has literally squeezed everything he can out of the drama that plays out in the course of the concerto that an extended cadenza would be frivolous.

(more…)

Filed under: Culture by HP

1 Comment »

In general, just moving an application to the Trash will only leave behind a few preference files that only take up kilobytes of space on your hard disk. For those of you want don’t even want these files, you’ll need to use a specialized application to find and remove them. Here are 4 applications that find the files associated with an application and move them to the Trash.

Note: If the application you want to remove comes with its own uninstaller, I always recommend using that first- especially for large, commercial programs like those in the Microsoft Office Suite or in the Adobe Creative Suite.
(more…)

Filed under: Apple by HP

No Comments »

We conclude our discussion of Brahms Symphony No. 1 in C Minor with the incredible fourth movement.

1. Un poco sostenuto- Allegro
2. Andante sostenuto
3. Un poco allegretto e grazioso
4. Adagio- Piu andante- Allegro non troppo

(more…)

Filed under: Culture by HP

No Comments »

We continue our discussion of Brahms Symphony No. 1 in C Minor with movements II and III.

1. Un poco sostenuto- Allegro
2. Andante sostenuto
3. Un poco allegretto e grazioso
4. Adagio- Piu andante- Allegro non troppo

(more…)

Filed under: Culture by HP

No Comments »

Johannes Brahms was haunted by the words of his former friend and mentor Robert Schumann, who dubbed him the successor to Beethoven, and as a result he did not finish his First Symphony for more than 20 years before it was premiered on November 4, 1876 in Karlsruhe. Indeed the first sketches of the symphony were in D Minor, ultimately discarded as a purely symphonic work but transforming into the framework of the dark and powerful Piano Concerto No. 1, op. 15.

(more…)

Filed under: Culture by HP

No Comments »