Burned any interesting CDs recently?

[Mark Antony Owen]

I've just compiled what I think makes for an interesting programme. I went through the cover CDs for the last year's (July 2005-June 2006) editions of The Gramophone magazine, and selected one 'Editor's Choice' track from each of the 13 discs, including the awards special CD. Here's what I then burned to CD:



Curiously, this selection includes a lot of music by composers who don't feature in my collection at present - perhaps my subconscious is trying to tell me something? And there's more vocal music than I expected; I simply went with choices that grabbed my attention for whatever reason.

Anyone else burned any CDs lately?

[Lance]

Yes, I burn them all the time via Nero or Roxio, but not for myself usually. For the Mrs., or friends who need copies (of unavailable/out-of-print) discs. It sounds like you are having great fun at this ... good for you. Can you imagine what Mozart, Beethoven or Liszt might do with this kind of technology? We live in a great age, in many ways. They could interchange movements, write several tries of movements and incorporate the ones they like best.

[Corlyss_D]

Can you imagine what Mozart, Beethoven or Liszt might do with this kind of technology?

Just speculation, but I think they would not have happened. Perhaps it's just coincidence, but it seems that there's an inverse relationship between composer output and sound reproduction technology.

[Werner]

I don't see the parallel between the copying technology and the creative process of composition. If you want to combine brief segments in the manner mentioned by Mark, that's one thing, and not comparable with orriginality, artistry, or creativity.

One might imagine a "cut and paste" process in trying out hown various segments might fit together - but I don't see that as a substitute for Beethoven's sketchbooks.

Of course, Lance's activity in making copies of noncommercial or out-of-print recordings is another matter entirely.

[Lance]

I don't s ee the parallel between the copying technology and the creative processof composition. If you want to combine brief segments

Well, composer's didn't have much to work with except candles, kerosene lamps, ink, pens, and their hands and brains. On cold wintry nights, they even had trouble keeping warm. No copying machines for orchestral parts, no electric lights, no erasers on their pens, and no computers who automatically change keys for a piece of music ... and people like Johannes Brahms, who threw away more music than he wrote, might have decided to keep a few of his original ideas if he could hear them on a recording, and maybe re-write from one point to another. Doing all this with pen and ink would take an enormous amount of time and sometimes the original ideas became lost or forgotten unless, like Schubert, he would write a melody in the napkin of a restaurant! But then L@@K at what we got anyway! Heck, I'll never complain.

[Corlyss_D]

I don't see the parallel between the copying technology and the creative process of composition.

No, not the copying technology, the sound reproduction technology. Like what Edison did when he invented the phonograph.