Did buying an iPod influence you to get more music?

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tulsagentleman

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Dragfree -

No, 3 versions of the Bach Cello Suites is probably not enough, but all I have allowed myself. These pieces have an almost mystical beauty to them. A single instrument playing melody, suggesting harmony and counterpoint, weaving in and around itself with austere beauty.

I have Fournier, Ma, and Bruns. Each is lovely but each has its own voice. Ma is technically flawless if at times a bit mechanical. Fournier carries more passion and lyrical expression. Peter Bruns is my newest version and I like it very much. He gives much of it a lilt which makes a lighter happier sound. At the moment Fournier is on my iPod and the rest are waiting their turn.

Frankly, after listening to any one of these I am convinced that it is my favorite. The suites on a double bass? I will have to track that down and have a listen.
 

jimmeh

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yeah.

when i first decided i wanted, and could get an mp3 i tried out a creative zen (my dad's). I liked it but thought a 20GB would be too big for me- at that point, i thought i had 10GB music- i had hurriedly ripped all the cds i could think of in a few days.

However, when i decided i could, and would get an ipod in december '04, i got itunes, and began ripping. Eventually, a month later, i'd reached 14Gb of music. I thought i'd reach 20 pretty quickly (the majority of that 14gb has been bought since the middle/start of '03) so i decided to get a 40gb. The next week i went crazy on soulseek and downloaded i think about 40-50 albums (about 10gb of music) in that week....i then realised that my collection was out of control- very little of the stuff i'd got that week i knew. I now have 23.52GB, and i'm currently in the process of buying a real version of every cd in my itunes library- only when i see a good deal though (for example i got jimmy eat world- bleed american & green day- nimrod for $10 each while on holiday in whistler, canada- roughly £4.90 each...). I only let myself get a completely new album when its either: something i've wanted for ages, or a new album from a favourite band. Only when i have real versions of all 280 albums will i be satisfied...
 

tulsagentleman

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Dragfree - I have Edgar Meyer's "Uncommon Ritual" cd with Bela Fleck & Mike Marshall. That's fun stuff, kind of jazzy or maybe third stream. Bela collaborates with some interesting people, not least of whom is Howard Levy.

I snooped around on the internet until I found a sample of Edgar doing the Bach cello suites and had a listen. Interesting but sort of ponderous somehow. I am reminded of Samuel Johnson's remark about seeing a dog walk on its hind legs..."it is not that he can do it well, but that he can do it at all". I think I can live without his version of the suites but it is a great example of interesting music that I would not have been exposed to without the incentive of a hungry iPod.

Your taste in music seems as varied as mine. For example, I love Leonard Cohen's songs altho I prefer hearing someone else sing them. Does your taste extend to jazz, blues and bluegrass?
 

dragfree

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Tulsa Gent--When I first heard Fleck's Flight of the Cosmic Hippo, I had to have it. Leonard Cohen's been a favorite songwriter since I was wet behind the ears. His own rendering of Suzanne is fine, but I love Jennifer Warnes's Famous Blue Raincoat album of Cohen covers. Jazz, indeed, blues, some, bluegrass not enough--I've heard a lot I liked in person, but never bought any recordings.
 

tulsagentleman

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My favorite version of Suzzane is by Joan Baez, although that really isn't fair. Baez could sing soap commercials and make them sound wonderful. I don't know Jennifer Warnes but will look her up.

I like your tagline by Herbert Spencer. I have that in the back of a large book I read often.

Peace, Bill
 

dragfree

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Hey, Bill--Yeah, I got turned on to Spencer in an introductory philosophy class in college. Years later, when I was working at another university, a helpful custodian taught me about open-mindedness by pointing out that passage in a book he recommended. I'll bet you a six-pack it's the same book! :)
 
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tulsagentleman

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Sorry, no bet. I think we have a lot in common besides music.

What have you been listening to? In the last 24 hours I have enjoyed Bach's St Matthew Passion, Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen, Bernstein's West Side Story (soundtrack), and Dire Straits. I will plug into Eric Satie when I lay me down to sleep.
 

dragfree

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SMP, wow! Now that's hardcore! Hmmm, Yesterday I listened to Cassandra Wilson's Glamoured, Ravel's Dapnis et Chloe, Piazzolla's Histoire du tango, Dvořák's Violin Concerto, and Barbara Bonney singing selected arias from the Mozart/da Ponte operas und Die Zauberflöte. Right now the Emerson String Quartet's recording of Bach's Art of Fugue is spinning in the CD player. It's rapidly become my favorite version, and the only one I actually enjoy hearing all the way through. They play it with their customary technical virtuosity, but they've reined in some of the edginess they often bring to the usual string quartet repertoire. I think Bach would have approved.
 

bdb

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Nice to see Piazzolla's name somewhere. I just downloaded a bunch more of his music & similar stuff yesterday. Many of his albums are on eMusic (legal).

Along with that, some various Polyvinyl artists and some slide guitar. All that disk space on the HD players is very good for eclectic tastes.
 

dragfree

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bdb--Piazzolla's great! Check out Histoire du tango, a terrific piece in four movements for flute and guitar, each movement representing a different phase in the development of the tango from its sleazy origins in brothels to its eventual recognition in concert halls. I'm also rather partial to Five Tango Sensations, a piece he wrote for the Kronos Quartet with himself on bandoneon.
 

tulsagentleman

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I read Dragfree's reference of the article on the survival of classical music by Peter Maxwell Davies. It's a good article for anyone who has a few minutes to spare. The jist of the article (as I understood it) is that the appreciation of classical music is important enough for our culture that we need to take positive steps to allow young people to be exposed to it -- in school, in the media, wherever possible. I certainly could not disagree with this, as I love classical music very much and listen to it constantly. But I certainly didn't gain this from school.

I grew up the only child of a working mother with no father in the home and a lot of time on my hands after school. This was in a rather small town in Oklahoma in the late 1940's and early 50's. I entertained myself by playing ball with the kids in the neighborhood, or hanging out at the house reading whatever was on the bookshelf or listening to the radio or to a stack of 78 rpm records that sat next to the phonograph. Included in the stack of records were a couple of children's recording that mother has purchased for me - Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" and Kleinsinger's "Tubby the Tuba". Who performed these pieces I have no recollection but I knew I loved to hear them. I also discovered some recordings of Schubert's "Unfinished symphony", Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue", and an assortment of big band music - Glen Miller, Benny Goodman, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. and my very favorite, Spike Jones. There were some records of Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and a multirecord set of Big Crosby's Christmas music.

On the radio was the pop music of that day. Oklahoma's own Patti Paige was singing "Blueberry Hill" At times I could listen to Bob Wills, Leon Macauliff and Texas Swing. But as a young boy, the most exciting music I heard were those few recordings of classical music.

Later as a teenager I would be seduced by Rock'nRoll. I can clearly remember sitting up in my bedroom with several other guys listening to single play 45rpm recordings of Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and the other great artists of the day. If I close my eyes I can still smell the smoke from the unfiltered Lucky Strikes we smoked next to the open window.

About that same time I learned to be cautious about sharing my enthusiasm for classical. I discovered that this was regarded as sissy stuff and I began to go underground. I secretly listened to the Firestone broadcast of the Metrpolitan Opera on Saturday afternoons, stood up straignt and pretended to conduct the orchestra while watching my performance in the mirror. My request for high school graduation presents included a decent automobile with which I could drive to college (which I didn't get) and LP recordings of Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" (Torme), and Handel's "Messiah" (Which I did get).

While in college my taste turned to jazz and folk, and I was excited to be able to see in person some great artists who played at the fieldhouse at Oklahoma State University. There were pop groups of the day to include the Kingston Trio, the Four Freshmen, also Dave Brubeck and a young Van Cliburn on his first tour. Stan Kenton played out Jr/Sr prom and I spent the evening standing directly in front of the band pretending to dance while soaking up the sound of the mellophones or whatever those things were called. Great times.

I always enjoyed listening and dancing to rock'Nroll, but saved my money for the "good stuff". When Miles Davis released his "Kind of Blue" album I bought it and almost wore the grooves off of it.

Why did I enjoy this kind of music so much? I don't know, it just excited me. May be if I had grown up listening to rap and hip-hop I would have been ruined forever. Maybe I'm lucky to be an old guy.

To return to the topic, I am so thankful to have my iPod which can place an enormous amount of music of all genres in my pocket. My problem is in deciding what to archive when I add something new. My 40gb 4G iPod will have to serve me until Apple puts out a 120gb solid state drive to replace it. The way they crank out new models, it won't be long - and a little later I will fill it up.

Peace
 
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bvsciguy

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Absolutely, When I got an iPod my music collection grew from about 73 songs to (as of now) 191 songs. Although most of my new music came from the Download.com music service.
 

kristina7

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I have the 40GB - but to me, 10,000 songs wouldn't be enough... I've been keeping track of all the singers/musicians/bands I'm into...and the list is over 600. Kinda scary, I know... but I can't help but love music!
 

tulsagentleman

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Collecting music for the iPod is kind of an addiction. My current artist list is 931. Maybe there is a 12 step program for us. :)

My 40gb gen4 is fine for now. I have to move things out to make room for new stuff, but that's ok. The old stuff is still in iTunes if I want to swap it back. Really, I think the discipline of using limited space keeps me from carrying around stuff I never listen to.
 

Vindicated

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My music collection has widely increased since getting my ipod. I get a new song just about once a week or so. I always find something new on iTunes.
 

kristina7

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tulsagentleman said:
Collecting music for the iPod is kind of an addiction. My current artist list is 931. Maybe there is a 12 step program for us. :)

My 40gb gen4 is fine for now. I have to move things out to make room for new stuff, but that's ok. The old stuff is still in iTunes if I want to swap it back. Really, I think the discipline of using limited space keeps me from carrying around stuff I never listen to.
yeah...that'll be the tough part, deciding what to put on the IPod...
 

dragfree

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I tend to put two categories of music on the pod: old favorites, that I know I'll want to hear from time to time, like Beethoven's piano sonatas, Sibelius's symphonies, or Brubeck's Time Out, and recent acquisitions or discoveries that I want to get to know better, like John Williams's El Diablo Suelto or Patrizia Ciofi's new recording of Vivaldi motets. Probably 15GB of the 18.6GB available on my pod are old faves, and some so beloved that I keep 2 or 3 recordings of the same piece on the pod (i.e. Brahms's Violin Concerto) so I don't tire of hearing the same recording again and again.
 

bdb

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Vindicated said:
My music collection has widely increased since getting my ipod. I get a new song just about once a week or so. I always find something new on iTunes.
A new song every week or so isn't much - that's why so many of us have hundreds of songs. It'd take years to get that many at one per week.
 
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