On An Overgrown Path

Two different sources determine the signature sound of a concert hall. One is the direct sound coming from the performer to the listener; the character of this sound depends on the technique of the musician and the natural tone of their instrument. The second sound source is indirect sound which comes to the listener as reverberation. The unique characteristics of this reflected sound - reverberation time, frequency range and loudness - determine whether a hall is acoustically 'good' or 'bad'. Since the late-19th century the characteristics of this critical reflected sound have been controlled by the use of hard reflective surfaces. For instance, in the much-lauded Elbphilharmionie 10,000 gypsum fiber acoustic panels line the auditorium's walls to manage the reflected sound. Today classical music is struggling with the problem of concert halls that are deemed sonically unacceptable such as the Barbican in London. Much attention has been focussed on effectively...

What is wrong with digital audio, be it computerized or not, has been wrong from go. No matter what the bit rate, no matter what the digital delivery system, you simply cannot “sample” the continuous-time sound of instruments or vocalists, turn it into discrete-time numbers, and then turn those discrete-time numbers back into instruments or vocalists without losing some of the very continuousness of presentation—the dense, constantly renewing, uninterrupted flow of articulations, dynamics, and timbres—that is the very breath of musical life. Yes, I’m aware of all the real advantages of digital audio in dynamic range, greater frequency extension (at least in the bottom octaves), lower noise, higher resolution, etc. over analog. But I positively dare you to listen to any well-recorded piece of music turned into a digital file and played back from a computer via a USB DAC and then listen to the exact same recording on an LP played back via a really good turntable, tonearm, cartridge, an...

It was my intention to move on from the recent post about critics demonising the sound of London concert halls. But this new review demands comment. Sorry Richard, but this is silly, self-indulgent and unhelpful music criticism. Also on Facebook and Twitter . Any copyrighted material is included as "fair use" for critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s).

Current demands for a new London concert hall with 'state of the art' sound need to be put into perspective. One critic recently tweeted "Harder and harder to tolerate the acoustic at the Barbican. Did anyone hear the B[avarian] R[adio] S[ymphony O[rchestra] cellos tonight? 'Cos I didn't." Yes, the three main London concert venues, the Barbican, Festival and Albert Halls suffer from compromised sound . But how compromised is that sound in orders of magnitude? To help answer that question I am proposing a model comparing concert hall and hi-fi sound. This comparison has validity both because recorded sound is now the dominant way music is consumed , and because the critics demonising the sound of London concert halls also review recorded music using hi-fi systems. Stereophile magazine under the inspired editorship of John Atkinson has for decades provided an objective guide to recorded sound quality. Stereophile publishes an annual listing of the top 50...

These photos were taken on my recent spirit quest in Morocco to the Sufi shrine of Sidi Chamharouch, which is seen above. A 75 minutes drive from Marrakech brought me to Imlil where the road ends and the mountains begin. The hamlet of Sidi Chamharouch - which is one of those blessed places which returns a blank in a Trip Advisor search - is at an altitude of 2350 metres and is reached by a tough and potentially dangerous two hour climb up a rocky path. Access is impossible for wheeled vehicles and supplies are brought in by the mules seen in my photos. Beyond Sidi Chamharouch is Jebel Toubkal, which at 4,167 metres is the highest mountain in North Africa. During my trek I was struck by the similarity between the High Atlas and Ladakh on the border of India and Tibet . Film director Martin Scorsese was also struck by the similarity. With Tibet a no-go zone he used this region for location shooting of his 1997 movie Kundun ; this depicts the Dalai Lama 's flight into exile fro...

Every single time you go to Facebook or ESPN.com or wherever, you're unleashing a mad scramble of money, data, and pixels that involves undersea fibre-optic cables, the world's best data base technologies, and everything that is known about you by greedy strangers. Every. Single. Time. Quote is from the recommended Chaos Monkeys: Mayhem and Mania Inside the Silicon Valley Money Machine by Antonio García Martínez. Any copyrighted material is included as "fair use" for critical and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Also reluctantly on Facebook and Twitter ; but I won't mind or be surprised if you don't 'like', 'share' or 're-tweet'.

'It has been my hard luck many times to choose between what I thought was the truth and a good pay cheque' ~ Woody Guthrie

Antal Doráti's contribution to classical music is seriously undervalued. A consummate conductor, his achievements included the second complete cycle of the symphonies of that peerless composer Joseph Haydn (the little-known cycle conducted by Ernst Märzendorfer was the first) and a 1959 Firebird which remains the benchmark against which other recordings of the complete ballet are judged. He studied with Béla Bartók and went on to conduct the world premiere of the composer's Viola Concerto. In 1963 the arch-modernist William Glock appointed Doráti principal conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra; in his four years in the post he conducted premieres of works by composers including Michael Tippett, Roberto Gerhard and Nikos Skalkottas . Doráti's own considerable output as a composer is even more seriously undervalued, and his two symphonies would surely find favour with today's late-Romantic indoctrinated audiences if they were but given the chance . If Antal Do...

This BBC News story explains why so many people 'like' Facebook photos without bothering to read the text.

Are Mahler and Shostakovich so overwhelmingly popular because their symphonies deliver more bang for the audience's bucks? That outlandish proposition is worth serious consideration, because it is very relevant to classical music's commitment to broadening its audience. The concert hall is caught in a pincer movement. On the one hand the elusive new younger target audience is conditioned to bass heavy rock music heard on up-close-and-personal earbuds/headphones and sub-woofer reinforced home cinema systems . On the other hand, the dictates of authenticity mean orchestral sound, particularly in music from the classical and baroque periods, has become leaner ; while at the same time concert halls have become bigger and less sonically intimate in response to commercial imperatives. This pincer movement means the new audience wants more bangs, but classical is delivering less bangs. The holy grail is a new younger audience, but that audience craves a more visceral sound. So a...

Communities are supposed to be places of intimacy, warmth, and relationships that sustain... In the Middle Ages, monasteries that grew to more than 500 monks would send some off to create new foundations. More than five hundred brothers could no longer be a true community. The globe is too big a place to provide for warmth and intimacy. The more we connect with those far away, the more we seem to disconnect from those close to us. Will the Internet do on a global scale what the telephone did to the French in Algeria? When telephones were introduced in Algeria, the French army's Arab Bureau got lazy. The Arab Bureau was responsible for maintaining good relations with the indigène [local people] and for knowing what was going on in the villages. Traditionally, this had been done by officers riding their horses into the bled [backcountry] for several weeks, traveling the circuit, sipping tea with the local leaders for long hours, and building personal relationships. But the teleph...

It is heartening that in our troubled times this new festival is being launched in Paris. Because as the Quran tells us: Had God pleased, He could have made of you one community: but it is His wish to test you by that which He has bestowed on you. Vie with each other in good works, for to God you shall return and He will resolve your differences ~ Quran 5:49 But it is sad the music industry supports a website that provides a platform for comments of a hateful and divisive nature while disingenuously hiding behind a flimsy facade of debate and free speech. All who contribute to Slipped Disc , including those who flow review material and news stories/gossip, make comments and share posts, are passively supporting this divisiveness. However nothing will change; because no one cares . Have not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another by profaning the covenenant of our fathers? ~ Malachi 2: 10 More details about the Sufi Festival of Paris...

Why do I bristle when my news feeds are inundated with puffs for Simon Rattle and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla? Why do I switch off when a Radio 3 presenter tells me what my emotional reaction to a piece of music should be? Why is the negative sum of these ostensibly trivial intermediations so great? These questions have puzzled me for some time; but time spent with Heidrun Kimm recently at her studio in the mountains of Crete has provided some answers. A 2015 post described my experiences of nada yoga - the ancient yoga of sound - under Heidrun's guidance. Heidrun is also a practitioner of Ayurvedic medicine , a therapy which she initiated me into during my recent visit to Crete. Ayurveda is one of the world's oldest holistic ('whole-body') healing systems which focuses on balancing energy flows within the body. These energy flows emanate from the primal energy source known as the kundalini - coiled serpent - at the base of the spine. Ayurvedic yoga releases this hidden ...

I'm in Boston. Please, GOOD GOD D*MN, enough Mahler. I have enough exceptional, remarkable performances of Mahler at home, recorded over 60 years, and not likely to be bettered on any night I'd attend. More Antheil, Atterberg, Bathory-Kitsz, Bax, Bendix, Berwald, Brian, Cooman, Doyhnanyi, Enescu, Gould, Harris, Harrison, Hartmann, Holmboe, Honneger, Ives, Janacek (not just the Sinfonietta), Jolivet, Kalliwoda, Martinu, Mennin, Nielsen (either one), Panufnik, Petterson, Piston, Quincy Porter ... and that's just to P. If the visiting conductors stamp their little feet about Mahler symphonies, give them Emerson Whithorne's 2nd [ listen here ] and lock them in a room to study it. A reader left that comment on my post ' Should a modern maestro decline to conduct Mahler? '. That post has been well-received, so I am now featuring a CD from a modern maestro who is not afraid to defy the all-pervasive Mahler algorithms . Sakari Oramo is, as he proved at this year's P...