Beethoven's Return from the Dead
And other links, images, opinions, and assorted diversions
Here’s a collection of links, images, offhand opinions, and callow amusements. I’ll be back soon with a longform music article. These are for fun.
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First up—it’s not every day that begins with an endorsement from the leader of Public Enemy.
Maybe it’s a typo, but maybe not.
This unwitting scholar may have anticipated the recent attempt by AI to finish Beethoven’s 10th symphony. Here’s the best response to that I’ve read yet.
On a more serious note, here’s a new transcription of John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley battling it out on “Limehouse Blues.” This is exhilarating.
Here’s a list of 16 games the Buddha refused to play.
I love playing the piano, but in my next life, I want to be reincarnated as the musician with the biggest hammer.
A recent art exhibition showcased the worst album covers of all time.
I’m hoping for a reissue of this cassette tape—provided by Radio Shack in 1985 as a source of outgoing messages for your telephone answering machine.
Music played while you’re waiting on the phone for customer service is annoying—but does it need to be that way? Some companies are trying to ease the pain.
Let’s not forget the great London Beer Flood of 1814.
The US Navy is developing a sonic weapon that blasts people’s own voices back at them—leaving them disoriented and unable to communicate.
This has to be a metaphor for something.
I’m told this is the Isham Jones band from 1922. But I’m convinced these are undercover cops waiting to shut down illegal drinking at the speakeasy. Just look at those faces.
A new study shows "that while listening to music, the brain is also predicting the music just as it is when people imagine hearing it. This means that listening involves two processes: auditory processing and cognitive predicting."
Curiously enough, these findings are aligned with longstanding philosophical theories of music focusing on the tension between predictability and surprise—for example, Leonard Meyer’s seminal work Emotion and Meaning in Music.
“Visitors to Chatsworth House in Derbyshire are struck at the illusion of a violin hanging on a door in the State Music Room. The peg is real, but the violin is not.” More at this link.
Stephen Fry on the difference between American and British humor.
This AI program will create a mash-up of any songs you choose—with unsettling results.
Don’t be this guy.
I will have more serious stuff to share soon. Happy listening!
I'm a glutton for books on music, and Leonard Meyer’s is already on my list. I also recommend the book I'm currently reading - David Huron "Sweet Anticipation, music and the psychology of expectation", which also deals with predictability, although he calls it expectation, and I frame it as pattern matching. He writes very well, explains technical stuff so you can understand it, and I've learned a lot so far. He also cites Meyer. It's definitely one of the best books I've read on the subject.
Pure gold.