Best music for testing PRaT

Seriously though. If you put on some Mozart and your slippers ain't tapping to the beat, and when the music finishes you say "yesss.... very nice" - you know your system has insufficient timing.

Andrew

 

...or you were listening to something prior to about K364 :SLEEP: :JOEL:

 

- I wouldn't even add that restriction. All Mozart is so :SLEEP: to me :MILD:

Michael.

 

Outside now! Mozart is the apogee, the pinnacle, the zenith, the very finest music ever made by man.

 

The problem with most of the Mozart I've heard (and I readily admit to being pretty inexperienced on the Wolfgang front) is that it's devoid of emotion, passion, feeling. You've got no argument from me regarding the man's unequaled musical talent, but he just doesn't seem to put anything of himself in most of his music - it usually seems to me like sorta "by the numbers" boring. Like he's just doing a job, or sometimes just mucking about. Sounds lovely, but works best as background music.

That said, there are a few pieces where he really does seem to throw himself into it body and soul, the most obvious to me being the Requiem. I luuuuurve the Requiem. That[/i] is true, heartfelt emotion as well as stunningly beautiful music, and really does demonstrate Mozart's potential.

(Actually, he kinda reminds me of Steven Spielberg [warning, warning, flame alert!] in that respect - the man's a genius, and one of the very finest craftsmen in the business, but most of his movies are lightweight, popcorn-munching entertainment. Every once in a while though he really lets it rip and we get a chance to truly savour his genius - witness 'Schindler's List'.)

James, if you could point me in the direction of other Mozart pieces that dig deep in the emotional stakes, 'a la Requiem, I would be most grateful.

Dunc

 

Dunc,

As a mostly-Mozart-hater, I'd say go for him in minor mode for a bit of grit. So we have the ubiquitous symphony 40 (G minor), string quintet no 4 (K516, also G minor), and to my mind the best of his piano concerti - No 24, K491 in C minor. I would also recommend K466 (Pf conc No20 in D minor), except it has a central movement of mind-numbing tedium - such a shame. Then there's also the C minor Mass (which many place above the Requiem - particularly as he actually managed to finish it). One of my favourites is also the Adagio and Fugue in C minor (K546, for string quartet, also sometimes played in string orchestra format).

The final symphony (Jupiter, No 41) is also pretty good, even if not in a minor key, as is the overture to Marriage of Figaro - and there's those two wonderful arias for the Contessa, "Porgi Amor" and "Dove Sono". ("The Magic Flute" is one of the most boring pieces of music ever written though - I just can't see why it's so popular.)

 

Many (including me) would contend that there's plenty of feeling in an awful lot of Mozart's music, it's just that because of the style of music at the time it sounds to our ears much less explicitly heart-on-sleeve than music became over the following 100 years - there's a case for arguing the presence of "tears brimming just below the surface" etc. Try the Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola (can't remember the K number just now), one of Mozart's high points IMO (that said I'm very far from a great lover of the man or his music).

 

...erm...

 

While not everything he wrote was a masterpiece, his best music contains more beauty than any other and he knew the difference between emotion and melodrama. Pretentious, moi?

 

Giggle, mind if I nick that line?

Dunc

 

Well, I nicked it so you may also borrow.

What Mozart pieces have you heard which you didn't like? Be warned, this may earn you an extended Mozart-a-thon the next time you come over.

 

If your system cannot 'get groovy' with the following I suggest, you give up and stick to hifi

SRV "House is Rickin' ", "Stranded"
Led Zep "Rock 'n' Roll"
Santana "Game of Love", "One of these days"
Purple "Highway Star"

 

This is the kind of thread I always end up discovering new music from.... it's the best thing about the "long tail" and music.... before u had to read in a magazine or hunt around in a record store to find something cool -- which made the choices always subject to the "gatekeeping" of editors and music store buyers and etc... -- which would lead inevitably to mediocrity and the prevalence of "poser music" -- i.e. stuff that you want to like because you think it's cool, not because you really like it. Music journalism especially creates high-profiles for really lame stuff, because journalists are always looking behind their backs, trying to profile something that they think in 2 years people will think they were cool for liking "way back when".... I GREATLY prefer the democratic nature of threads like these, where people simply list their tastes and you can just look something up on itunes or youtube and check it out for yourself....

These days I'm really into techno and techno/rock and stuff like that -- try searching for these songs:

Thomas Falke "Revolution On The Dance Floor"
Groove Cutter "My Shooter"
Control One "Just A Little Bit"
Ian Carey "Redlight"
Kevin Weg "Dead Radio"

I don't usually go for techno but these are sort of like a weird crossover between rock and techno/trance.

Here are also some downloads with some other cool stuff too -- http://www.electricfilebox.com/tracks

 

This forum was good once.

Paul

 

What? Just the once?

 

it aint the music that has the prat its the mid forties something that owns the system, brought up on a diet of hifi brand indoctrination.

it doesn't 'have' PRAT, it's missing other stuff...

 

Interesting thread!

Just to add my humble opinion - I've known a few folk over the years who seem to spend more time 'measuring' their system than 'listening' to it, if you know what I mean.

If you play something you like and it sounds great, that's the best test.

 

Ballet?

 

Dunky; that pretty much sums up my feelings on Mozart too. I'd recommend searching out some Arvo Part (Fratres is a good starting point but almost all of his output, bar the really early stuff, is worth the price of admission) if you want classical with emotion. Beyond that; Erik Satie and Sisask also worth a listen IMHO.

 

try good old reggae
nando