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Topic: What are you favorite original *.nwc files? (Read 7731 times) previous topic - next topic

What are you favorite original *.nwc files?

What are your favorite original compositions done by other nwc users in the scriptorium database? The only one I liked that much was Fred Nachbaur's "Caverns" that came with the program... Anyone else know of some real good ones? I'm not much of a fan of atonal music.
Ev

Re: What are you favorite original *.nwc files?

Reply #1 –
I really like "Caverns" as well. I have some original pieces that I really like, mainly for video game scores. Anyone else?

Re: What are you favorite original *.nwc files?

Reply #2 –
I personaly like my ones, of course. I've got symphonic works, concerto ones, sonatas, chamber music and when I decide to listen to something I listen to them.

Re: What are you favorite original *.nwc files?

Reply #3 –
"Caverns," definitely. "God save the Queen" and "Jingle bells" are not exactly original with NWC, and "Jingle bells" is a very unimaginative tune at best. But "Caverns" is fun, and is something new that NWC gives us.

Stephen

Re: What are you favorite original *.nwc files?

Reply #4 –
I hope you're reading all these, Fred!
I like "Caverns" too. And how many of you have heard Fred's "Fractal Suite" - well worth a listen.

Robin

Re: What are you favorite original *.nwc files?

Reply #5 –
Yes... [blush]. Thanks, guys.

Fred

Re: What are you favorite original *.nwc files?

Reply #6 –
I can't find any of you guys compositions in the scriptorium... Mine should be up in a while. I'm more of an improvazationalist on the piano, so my nwc's aren't the best.

Re: What are you favorite original *.nwc files?

Reply #7 –
I have yet to find a piece on the NWC Scriptorium which fits my taste. The style of music therein seems obsolete at best. Personally, I find 'Caverns' annoying. Apologies, Frederick.

Re: What are you favorite original *.nwc files?

Reply #8 –
'Salright, Elliot. No offense taken.

Part of the difficulty is that almost all of the music composed in the last century is still under copyright, so we can't post such works on the Scriptorium even if we may have sequenced them for our own enjoyment.

Have you looked over the (admittedly sparse) collection of originals in the Rock/Country/Pop/Jazz section?

Re: What are you favorite original *.nwc files?

Reply #9 –
Well, being an artform, I think all the compositions are going to be appreciated according to taste. I think there are some splendid compositions on the Scriptorium, in a large variety of styles (not just atonal), and recommend those that haven't yet visited it to check out
usercomp.html and
inmemoriam.html

w.r.t. the tunes sent with the NWC distribution, they are just examples, after all.

A

Re: What are you favorite original *.nwc files?

Reply #10 –
As long as human beings remain human, Homer, Dante and Shakespeare will remain relevant. The same is true of Palestrina, Bach and Beethoven. Great art does not become obsolete; some people simply lose, or fail to develop, the ability to understand and appreciate it.

Re: What are you favorite original *.nwc files?

Reply #11 –
Grant:

What a great definition of myth you have made!

Something shielded against criticism is a myth. If 'some people' do not enjoy some myth's productions it is 'some people' fault, not that the productions themselves are not so perfect.

I would prefer to have your sentence this way: even as they are so out of this time there is still people who find some value at Homer, Dante , Shakespeare, Palestrina, Bach or Beethoven's productions, and it is an amazing fact that their works have not been completely eroded by time. Something good should be in these works to have, at least partially, escaped to oblivion for some people.

But for some other people (the majority, in fact) who don't find any value in these authors' productions, this doesn't automatically entail that they have losen or never developped their appreciating or understanding abilities. It's just that they don't like these productions and they have different tastes, not inferior tastes.

No human production has any right (or is so perfect) to be accepted by everybody. Myths are just psychological mirages and not social facts. They are usually used by elites to impose their taste to other people. But there is nothing wrong in not liking Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Palestrina, Bach or Beethoven. I happens so much as to indict a handicapped mind to people who think so.

Re: What are you favorite original *.nwc files?

Reply #12 –
Ramón,

You have misread me. I did not say anything about inferiority. The fact is that I have never developed an ability to understand or appreciate heavy-metal rock music or Japanese Noh theater, but this doesn't say anything about the superiority or inferiority of either of these art forms. I don't make the mistake, however, of labeling either of these "obsolete" or "irrelevant" based on my lack of understanding or appreciation.

To some degree, in fact, you have provided support for my thesis in your words "Something good should be in these works to have, at least partially, escaped to oblivion for some people." The fact that a work of art has managed to transcend its own local circumstances of creation to appeal to people from a broad range of cultures and historical settings is evidence that it addresses something in the human psyche that is more basic than mere fashion or popularity.

What I wrote was simply a defense of certain older styles of music from the charge of obsolescence. You have mistaken this for an elitist attempt to impose my tastes on someone else, which wouldn't be feasible even if I thought it desirable. On the other hand, if I haven't misread you, you are implying that my attitude toward the great works of the past somehow indicates that my mind is "handicapped", and I believe I have every right to find this suggestion offensive.

Re: What are you favorite original *.nwc files?

Reply #13 –
Grant:

Please, don't feel offended. I didn't intend it.

What I meant by my last sentence is that people who don't like Homer, Dante... Beethoven may have their abilities in very good shape and still they just don't like this kind of literature/music. I never intended to mean *your* mind or abilities. Sorry for my poor English.

I reacted to your mention of some people's abilities when they express different tastes. Without this mention, I fully agree with what you said in your first message. I'm not sure if I agree so fully with your reference, in your second message, to the human psyche and some more basic feature of it. Perhaps classical works last longer but will eventually be forgotten as well. It's just a matter of letting more time to pass to have a broader perspective. And if this is so, there is no need to involve a basic feature of human psyche to explain their relative survival.

I have always been concerned about the status of classical in some works of art, and I have never been able to isolate something which can be expressed in an objective language. Perhaps classical works are in themselves more complex, or more balanced, but it is easy to find counter-examples to these qualities in our classical heritage. So, for me, tastes are subjective and, while I sympathize with your tastes, there is no clue that mine are better or higher than different tastes expressed by other people.

So, in other words, I think there is a right to the difference in tastes, which have nothing to do with personal abilities but only with personal choices. And to imply from a different taste a lack of personal ablity, well... this is not very kind that you have said that.

Re: What are you favorite original *.nwc files?

Reply #14 –
It may be that all works are destined eventually to be forgotten. On the other hand, Homer has lasted nearly 3000 years - that is, nearly as long as human beings have had a continuous tradition of literacy - and is still recognized and appreciated today. Even if a work becomes lost, the loss is not necessarily forever; see, for example, the example of Gilgamesh.

I think you misunderstand my use of "ability". I was using this term to mean a developed capacity, not an innate one. I don't, for example, have the ability to fly an airplane, but this doesn't mean I couldn't learn. Likewise I think the appreciation of art involves a learning process. (I thought this was clear in my reference to "losing" or "failing to develop" an ability. You can't lose or develop something that you lack the inborn capacity for.)

As to the question of "touching the human psyche", I'll admit this seems impossible to quantify. Nevertheless, this used to be commonplace terminology in arts criticism until relatively recently, and it seems to me at least a start towards understanding why some works of art last and some do not, at least until something better comes along. Is it possible that something like the Iliad or the Odyssey could have lasted so long without having engaged the interest of succeeding generations in a way that is more or less independent of culture?

Re: What are you favorite original *.nwc files?

Reply #15 –
Grant:

Thanks for your clarification about your use of 'ability'. Obviously I understood it as innate capability which is what you didn't mean.

About the "human psyche" on taste matters, I find it difficult to base in metaphysical qualities the persistence of some works of art which have resisted oblivion. This kind of explanation raises more questions than it solves. I think, as you do, that something is in Homer, for instance, as to make his works still valuable and enjoyable for some (learned) tastes, but I wouldn't mix human nature in this because it is not clear that this author will be always enjoyable as long as there are humans (there is no necessity in it) and because it is clear that to other tastes (perhaps the majority) his works are now clearly boring. If we try to require that tastes need to be learned to be able to enjoy Homer, this explanation begs the question: only those which enjoy Homer will qualify as learned and the dog bites his own tail (as we say in Spanish).

And the matter is still muddied by how Homer's works were used by Greeks and republican Romans: Iliad and Odyssey were like sacred texts, a sort of Bible. They were the principal textbook in schools and with them young people not only learned to read and to appreciate literary values, but they also learnt to behave and to be brave, they also learnt the principal myths which tied together their society, and as such Homer's works were very useful for the Establishment of these times. I wonder whether these works would have survived by their literary value only without the amplification earned by their role in supporting established values. A similar case can be found in the different fate of Plato's and Epicure's works. Most of Plato has survived while most of Epicure not (by the way, Epicure was not an epicurean in the popular sense). Plato's works have certainly literary and philosophic qualities, but the same can be said of Epicure's works, if we judge about the few remains left. But Plato was very useful for the established powers of ancient Greeks and Romans while Epicure was abhorred by them. This is a case were survival in time is not proportional to the intrinsic qualities of some perennial works.

I stop now because I am completely off topic. All that I wanted to say is that while I like in general classical works I am unable to find compelling reasons to convince other people of their value. And so, any attempt to promote one's tastes seems mostly futile.

Re: What are you favorite original *.nwc files?

Reply #16 –
Back to what kind of music can or can not fall in oblivion: JSBach (Eisenach (Thuringe), 21Mar1685 -- Leipzig (Saxe), 28Jul1750), which seems so familiar now, was well known on his time; however, for "fashion" reasons, his work was completely forgotten during many decades. Here below a translation of an extract on Pablo Casals' resume:

"Despite everything their genius, these scores had success only at the beginning of XXth century. Indeed, little after his death, Bach, obsolete, fell into the lapse of memory and its music reappeared only in second half of XVIIIth century. (* and I'm ashamed not to remember which european musician(composer) made them public again *)

The Cello Suites, also victims of the lack of popularity of this instrument, had to wait until Pablo Casals discovered them. Though still a young person, he took passion
for them. Thanks to his immense talent and to his incomparable interpretation (* this is a resume on P.Casals *), he enabled them to acquire the recognition which they
deserve now."

Obviously being a genius is not sufficient. Sometimes, for political or fashion reasons (or war facts), your work, may it be grand, WILL disappear. There is no rule for this; and probably many scores which would seem splendid now did disappear in the Alexandrie's Library's fire, only to mention music.

Maybe in some centuries NWC will still appear as fantastic for its efficiency when writing scores?

Re: What are you favorite original *.nwc files?

Reply #17 –
>>which european musician(composer) made them public again

It was Mendelssohn. "In the 80-odd years between Bach's death and Mendelssohn's revival of Bach's music, the old Baroque master had gone unnoticed, his music almost forgotten entirely. Mendelssohn, noting this lapse in popular judgment, set about to make things right, and in 1839 he conducted a full-scale performance of Bach's crowning achievement, the St. Matthew Passion. The performance was a smashing success, and it began a re-evaluation and appreciation of Bach's music that continues unabated to this day." (quoted from the web).

>>Maybe in some centuries NWC will still appear as fantastic for its efficiency when writing scores?

At least history will record it as the best value for money in the years just before and after the jump to the 21st century. I'm sure of this.

Re: What are you favorite original *.nwc files?

Reply #18 –
Hey Fred N. I see there are a lot of people who like your compositions..... Add me to your fan list... "Caverns" is an exceptional work...where can I download your creations unheard to a 3 1/2 floppy on a computer that doesn't have NWC or a sound card (an "at work" computer)

Re: What are you favorite original *.nwc files?

Reply #19 –
Thanks Gary. Well, a 3-1/2" floppy would pretty much restrict you to midi or NWC files, since it would take several boxes of floppies to get my catalog in mp3 format. ;-)

You can click on my name above (in blue) to view my bio, which includes my web addies.