Search this Blog

Pageviews

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

M -U -S - I - C: an amendment and an addendum


In a past post;-) - browse in previous posts, at yr. convenience) - I blissfully quoted my experiences in details retrival from high quality vinyl discs... birds sounds, heating boilers and the like.

Well, I must amend something I guess I heard... to my GREAT surprise in Hopkinson Smith's EMI Reflexe of S.L. Weiss lute music I was sure the low rumble noise I was listening during quiet lute solo pieces was the above mentioned boiler... BUT, after installing in my analog rig (Garrard 301 with Shindo heavy platter, spindle and leaded-mat, w. 25 kilos bronze arm-base) the recently received Thomas Schick's 12 inches arm, with my own heavier brass o-ringed/tamed arm-weight and Lumiere DST cartridge... well... what I now hear is a completely new, huge, improved mess of ambient details... AND the "boiler" isn't a boiler... but ALL these low noises are cars, possibly going in a underground garage or the like.

My madness made me, few days ago, to make a little research... Tonmeister Matthes recorded this very record with Maestro Smith playing a circa 1700 precious, sought after museum-quality lute... and, in fact, the recording happened in a Nurnberg museum...

I did a Google Earth research and found the Museum site;-)

I went to Nurnberg a couple of times and I remember there are no hills for hundreds kilometers around... so, voilà... YEEEESSS!

My guess proved to be correct... an underground garage amplifying the entrying and exiting cars was, IS quite near to the Museum, maybe for personnell and the like!

To my very surprise, at some point on EMI disc, I've NOW been able to identify a roaring car, previously unaudible with other, lesser arms... an Alfa Romeo or an old, clunky Mercedes 200... who knows?!?!;-)))

... I wonder and ask myself: how many hidden informations are in the humble vinyl records grooves?

So, let me please pay a grateful acknowledgement: thanks Thomas for the great arm... thanks Chiaki for the great cartridge!
Their magnifying capabilities are... simply unbelivable!
... and, last but not least... the second time I bother Aldous Huxley... in his "The Doors of Perception" he describe his experiences with lisergic drugs AND an interesting chapter on "how to enjoy paintings"... I always used his method since I had my first exposure to this seminal book, when since in my teens...
Mr. Huxley's advice is simple: always look, when in a Museum looking at masterpieces on the walls, to the clothes, to jewels, don't look at the figure face, look at the hand veins... don't look at the rose first, but look instead to the leaves... look at the background, at the tiny details... you'll better understand the central human figure, the Madonna with Bambino... I always applied this to visual arts... BUT it's in music I obtained the most astounding results... again and again: God is in Details!

No comments: