Using what I was taught in Digital Signal Processing, where the Information content of a signal received, is directly proportional to what is Not expected, I realized and am going to explain why I get stirred more by classical music as compared to commercial music.
Giving a piano players technical point of view, in commercial music it is easy to decipher the bass clef (left hand chords) once you know what scale the piece is played on, and what the treble clef(right hand notes) is.
Now this is applicable obviously to not only pianists, but anybody listening to the music. In layman's terms, in commercial music, subconsciously you sort of know whats coming.The information content is just whats there in the melody, and not in the bass, hence the information content gets reduced to half.The expected part of it stems from those involuntary brain cells which act up sometimes, and what we call instinct.
In classical music, the bass notes are totally unexpected, and they compliment the treble beautifully. Unless you see and hear and play the notes, there’s no way you know what’s supposed to be coming your way.
Whats unexpected and pleasant, catches my attention more than otherwise. Its serendipity. I love what it does to me.
This sudden realization happened while trying to play this piece to myself called Traumerei. Tis lovely.
This is vladimir horowitz's (who i only came to know about through youtube) version of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq7ncjhSqtk
9 comments:
You ought to put up a recording as mp3 here. It'll be great to be able to listen to what you have described so enchantingly!
Hey I logged on to do just that, and saw that u suggested the same. So here it is now, a videoclip of the piece. (not played by me ofcourse, because that wouldnt really enchant even the most bored soul in the cosmos.)
dont be hard on yourself.. i'm sure your rendering of the piece is going to be quite enchanting in its own respect. well, i'll be looking forward to when you would be putting yours up.
because sometimes,if not mostly, theres an affinity towards the unexpected more than the ordinary.
its only human..and music never makes you feel ordinary.you can play wonderful music unexpectedly.thats the best part.best of luck
Where the hell have you gone?? Miss your work!
You are a geek! Did you know that?
http://in.rediff.com/getahead/2008/aug/11book.htm
I love it.. The piece and the way you write about it... I've written about some classical music too on my blog.. there's something about it that's indescribable.. I have this HUGE classical playlist on my comp.. OH and Horowitz's versions of Rachmaninov are just beautiful.
Post a Comment