Christmas Music! How to use a playlist on Flash Media

A big problem for me—as you can easily imagine—is to have some quality music to listen to while I’m reading or writing!  On one hand, I know dozens of pieces of music, and I have hundreds of CDs, each of which will have a cut or two that will do.  But what I need is music for a few hours, so that I don’t have to get up and change the record.  So I’m surrounded by water, but not a drop to drink, as the saying goes.

I whined at my daughter, who stopped me abruptly, and said there were two videos on YouTube that would almost certainly hit the spot for me, and she sent me links to them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE9Q4JN-Yek,

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myyAkYqykbs. 

Well, that would settle the whole issue, except for the fact that YouTube has peppered both videos with commercials!  So if you are more annoyed with commercials than you are starved for Christmas music, don’t put these on.  Instead of changing your records, you’re going to have to run to your device—phone, computer or tablet—and hit the “Skip Ads” link.

People have been making “Mix tapes” for centuries; collections of their favorite tunes to play on their portable tape recorders, until nobody had tapes anymore.  For those of you who are about my age, and whose tapes are about to quit, (and of course, those 8-track tapes have already quit long ago,) the latest thing is a Flash Drive.  This is a tiny gadget, one that also goes by the name of Thumb Drive, though it has absolutely nothing to do with Thumbs.  It is—well, I’m not going to tell you; it won’t help you at all—but it is something very much like a tape cassette; it stores “digital stuff”, or files.

Now, it isn't going to play it for you.  It is like a CD or a tape, not a tape player.  But if your receiver (which means radio) has a little socket that looks like a USB socket, the computer side of one, then chances are, if you insert the Flash Drive in there, your Receiver will play the music on your flash drive for you.  The things cost about $25, or even less.  There are also Flash Cards, which are the little cards like the ones that go into your phone.  (Note: don’t steal the one inside your phone; some of those phone memory cards contain all the phone numbers you need, etc.)  Some cameras also have these memory cards.  They're almost as good as a Flash Drive, except that you need to have a Receiver that has a slot for a memory card, or a Flash Reader that reads a Flash Card.  (Still, these Readers are not music players, unfortunately.  Luckily, your Radio is a Player, or could be.)

Something more likely to be a player is your DVD player.  My DVD player has a slot where you can slide in either a Flash Card, or a Flash Drive, and if the card or drive has music tracks, it plays them.  In fact, your TV set might turn itself on, and display a list of the tracks on the drive.  At the very least, it will display “Track 1, Track 2” and so on, for however many tracks are on the card or drive.

OK.  How are we supposed to get the music tracks onto the Flash Card or Flash Drive?  Let’s show you how to do it in the case where you don’t care what order the tracks are played in.  First, you have to “rip” these tracks into your computer from the CD that contains them.  Unless, of course, you bought them online from some Internet source such as Amazon, or Spotify, in which case they would have sold you these tracks, all ready to go, except of course, that they’re not on your Flashdrive (or card).

Plug your Flash device into your computer.  (The drive should show up on your Explorer.)  Use your mouse, and drag the files onto that drive; the system should tell you that the files were successfully copied to the Flashdrive or card.

Now, don't be in too much of a hurry to unplug your Flashdisk; there should be a little icon somewhere in a corner that alerts you to the fact that removable storage is connected to the computer.  It is usually in the lower right-hand corner.  Click on it, and it will ask whether you want to remove your Flashdisk.  Say yes, or just click on the question.  If the Flashdisk does not remain on the list, it has been disconnected, and you can pull it out.  (If you don't go through this rigmarole, you risk having some of your tracks not sent over, or having a broken track sent over.)

FINALLY, how to get these tracks played in some specific order you desire?  You need to make a playlist.  First you get the tracks installed on your Flashdisk as above.  Now you need to create a plain text file (I don't know exactly how plain text it has to be; I have only ever used Notepad, a legacy "App" from Windows, which only creates plain text.  (Plain text does not have italics, bold, or anything; you can create plaintext files in Word, for example, but it needs to be saved in a special way.  Ask your pre-schooler to help you.)

In the plaintext editor, write, in a single column, the names of the tracks in the order you wish them to be played.  The names have to be exactly as they are on the Explorer.  If any name is misspelled or altered in any way, that track will be skipped, and you will feel like a dolt.  Save the file with the name Playlist.m3u (assuming that all the music files you have put on your Flashdrive are in mp3 form), and put that (the playlist) too on the Flashdrive.  Now, when you slide your Flashdrive into your DVD player, it will (hopefully!) start playing the tracks listed on your playlist, in that order!  This is particularly useful in the case when you’re listening to an opera, or a favorite album, when the sequence of songs is familiar, and it would be disconcerting to have them playing in some random sequence.

Happy listening!

Arch

Messiah Sing-Along!

 The best Messiah Sing-Along I have heard this season is this one, from the Boston Haydn+Handel Society.

It is a distanced performance, with one instrument per part, and just a couple of singers per choir part.  (Or maybe just one.)  If you want to experience a really high-precision Messiah, appropriate to our pandemical circumstances, this one should serve, because it is on YouTube, and can be played on demand.

More later, after I finish watching, and trying to sing along!  (No, I haven't finished singing along.  They must be near the Shepherds' Scene...)

Arch

Joys of the Holidays: Hansel and Gretel, by Engelbert Humperdinck

Hansel and Gretel, the children’s opera by Engelbert Humperdinck (not the singer, but rather the 19^th century composer) has been, for most of a century, a beloved fixture of the holiday season.  Unfortunately, the population that enjoyed children’s opera, or even opera of any sort, has been in decline, and the new generation of TV executives is probably unwilling to program anything that couldn’t go head-to-head with the SuperBowl, and so I suspect that Hansel und Gretel will probably only be scheduled at 2:00 AM on a Sunday night.  The libretto is by Adelheid Wette, the sister of Engelbert H.  (The premiere of the opera was conducted by Richard Strauss, well known as an excellent conductor.)

‘Hansel’ is an abbreviation of Johannes, a common old German name—Mozart’s first name, incidentally—and the el ending of the name is a characteristically South German variant of the diminutive, I’m given to understand.

Likewise, ‘Gretel’ is an Alpine diminutive of Margaret.  So that should settle any questions in anyone’s mind about how exotic these names were; this is a story about Peggy and Johnny, the kids next door.

Even though the story (from the Brothers Grimm) is well known all over the world, and certainly in Germany, what is amazing about this opera is the music.  Engelbert Humperdinck was a Wagnerian, which means that he had adopted Wagner’s brilliant idea (which Korngold, and John Williams, and other Hollywood composers also used) of referring to various ideas, feelings, and events, with a characteristic, memorable snippet of melody, or harmony, or both, called Leitmotifs.

The Overture is a conventional potpourri overture, which is the most sensible choice for a children’s opera; if kids hear a catchy tune right at the beginning, before any action takes place, they’re likely to remember that tunelet when it makes its formal entrance.  (A major problem to be solved for Wagnerian composers is: how to introduce a Leitmotif, and anchor it to the intended idea.)  The first tune in the overture is the hymn-like tune to which is sung the Children’s Prayer; a sort of “Now I lay me down to sleep” prayer in sung form.  Next is a fierce segment, depicting the Witch.  This is the violent aspect of the Witch, in contrast to the sneaky aspect of her! 

The Overture does contain fragments of all the important themes, but all adjusted to the needs of the overture, and not letting it degenerate into a mere catalog.  The evening prayer is its central melody, and ends up being a sort of anthem for the entire opera.  Next in importance is a jolly little tune that represents the playfulness and innocence of the two children.  Gretchen teaches her brother a little dance, and sings this little tune with the dance instructions.  These two tunes are the poster-boys for the entire opera, though neither of them, in my mind, have much to do with the plot.

The story is more elaborate than the basic one which English-speaking children learn; German versions of the story are typically a lot more elaborate.  Germans take their children a lot more seriously, based on their children's literature.

The story begins in the poor home of the children, and for reasons I cannot remember, the two kids find themselves in the woods, and unable to find their way back home.  Gretel—the older child, in the story—tries bravely to keep her brother’s mood cheerful (hence the little dance), and presently, they settle down to sleep, because it is getting dark and scary.

While they’re asleep, a whole ballet troupe of angels come and parade around them, to keep them safe through the night.  (A ballet sequence is common in most German operas.)

When they wake up in the morning, it becomes clear that the trail that Hansel believes he has laid down, to help them return home, has completely vanished.  The children are led further into the forest, until they stumble on the witch’s famous cottage.  The cottage, of course, is made of gingerbread and candy, and the hungry kids cannot help themselves, and pick off pieces of it to eat.  They hear a raucous voice from inside, calling: “Nibble, nibble mousie, nibbling at my housie!”  The kids are momentarily transfixed, and after much clever dialog, find themselves shut away in a little cage.

The rest of the story goes according to the conventional plan with the possible addition of a few hunters.  (One is led to speculate that the hunter lobby was strong in those times.)  The enormous ballet interlude lengthens the story by almost half an hour.  The kids return home, to find that all the financial tribulations have somehow been swept away, which is just as well, because they bring with them a score of formerly ensorcelled young people.  (As is well known, the death of a sorcerer releases all his or her spells.)

While Humperdinck was a serious musician, and his adherence to Wagnerian principles was serious, he keeps a careful eye on how palatable the melodies and the harmonies of this work are, to kids and their parents.  In the end, his efforts were well rewarded, though whether the man himself was rewarded I do not know; very little of his output is well known today.  H and G, though, deserves a century or two more of popularity.

Archie

Archie's Archives: A New(ish) Road!

As you might have noticed, putting up the shows from the WXPI radio program Archie's Archives has been put on the back burner for a while now.  But something interesting happened to me a few years ago, and my musical world is vibrating rather unhappily.

First of all, my CD player got quite badly sick.  The CD's started skipping grooves (hey, that sounds like a familiar phrase; did I blog on this already?  What did I say?)  So I asked around, and new CD players are very, very expensive.

One of my friends, though, said I should look into DAPs.  What are those, you might ask?  Well, they're adult versions of mp3 players; i.e., they are high resolution music players.  You get to "rip" your CD's into computer files, but they're are much higher quality than you were accustomed to getting on your old iPods, or whatever you used (I used a SanDisk Clip).  You can even rip your music at CD quality, but in smaller files.  The .wav files are not very convenient; at the moment, I am converting the music on my CDs into .flac files, which contain every bit of information on the CD.

Then, I bought two things: a pair of really good headphones--these were expensive, but incredibly more comfortable than the older ones I had; then I bought what was going to take the place of my mp3 player, namely a DAP, or Digital Audio Player.

I'm having trouble getting music into the DAP; I succeed sometimes, then the next time I try, it says that it is full, or it says that the first batch I uploaded has disappeared.  This sort of problem is not uncommon with flash memory--which is what the gadget has.

Meanwhile, the tracks I have on my old clunker SanDisk sound awesome on my new headphones!  So when I go for my daily walk around the few blocks near my home, I'm listening to heavenly music.  Actually, I have not only a pair of new headphones, but also a pair of sport clips, which stay on my ears a little more securely than the earbuds I used to have.  My wife insist that I wear these clips on my walk, for fear that I might get run over by some vehicle that I haven't heard sneaking up on me.

I'll give you more information as I acquire it.

Archie

Art of Fugue: Contrapunctus 1, J. S. Bach

J. S. Bach's The Art of the Fugue is often avoided as a listening experience by many listeners, fearing that this work--and any works with the term 'fugue' attached--will be too academic for the ears of laymen.  Bach would probably agree with me when I say that, if a fugue doesn't grab the listener as simply a piece of music, it should be considered a failure even as a fugue.

This first fugue: Contrapunctus 1, is probably one of the most approachable fugues ever written.  As with all the fugues in The Art of the Fugue, there is no indication as to what instruments are to play each line of music.  Some scholars consider that such pieces are meant to be played on the harpsichord or the organ; more modern scholars consider that a string ensemble is best suited for the job.  In this video, the parts have been assigned to--top to bottom--a flute, an English horn, a viola, and a bassoon, respectively.  (The tenor is doubled very softly by a marimba, to give it a little crunch.)


Archie

Max Parallax!

Max Parallax, a fabulous band that has been rocking the Tucson scene for several years, are on the brink of releasing their first commercial EP (an Extended Play CD of just 6 tracks).  These tracks were recorded more than a year ago, but the group was so insistent on perfection that the tracks were only finalized this month!  With my privileges as a special Web personality, I had access to the tracks already, for several minutes.

Unfortunately, because I also know most of the band members personally, I have to be tactful.  I cannot say that the tunes are, well, fine.  I have to say that they are BRILLIANT!  But get them on Spotify, and Itunes, and Amazon, and wherever else good music is sold, and listen for yourself!

[01] Bugs Away.  This rocking track has a solid beat, and features the lead vocalist Uma, backed with the entire group singing backing harmonies.  There are hidden political messages, with a lot of humor!

[02] Swell.  The initial theme for this album, I was told, was the movie Interstellar.  The lyrics of this track refer to being submerged in the swell of a huge wave.  There is an undercurrent of danger throughout the song, and a feeling that you might be knocked off your feet at any moment.

[03] Out of Body, No Experience. You might get the impression that these people love puns; I certainly did.  The music is another story completely; this highly atmospheric track, again using heavy multi-tracked vocals, evoke a scene out of a frightening dream.  The long introduction with harmonics on the guitar set the tone for the unreal feeling of the tune, accented by the dance rhythm of the piece.

[04]  No Time for Caution.  This is the title track.  This song has a heavy beat, and in addition, the lyrics create a mood fraught with anxiety, or at least a parody of anxiety.  The vocal line is relatively uncluttered, and we can appreciate the sound of Uma's voice without overlays.

[05]  Amoebas.  The whole album has a theme of eerie science and experiment, and this song carries it further with its subject of bio-luminescence.  The opening bars have a descending motif on the guitar, which is supported by a descending bass line, which seems to descend even further than its range should allow.  (Troy owns a special five-string bass, but in this track I'm not sure that he uses that instrument with the extended range.)  It seems to me that all the little extra touches have been perfectly calculated, not least the accents in the percussion.  This track, too, ends abruptly, which is sort of a hallmark at this point in the development of the Max Parallax unique sound, but unlike some of the other songs, the last chord is allowed to resonate until it fades out.

[06] What Happens In the Future Stays in the Future. This last track is a lighthearted commentary on time travel.  The group accentuates the frolicsome mood by having Uma sing scat vocalizations in a jazz style in an interlude.  Many Max Parallax fans have declared that this is their favorite track (while others have voted for Amoebas).

The lighthearted mood of some of the tracks, and the savage puns in the lyrics belie the efforts gone into the production of this initial CD.  This is a great CD, and we hope that Max Parallax keeps up the quality of their recordings!

Arch

My Top Ten Albums!

I have some wonderful, interesting friends on FaceBook, almost all of them students or family members, or former colleagues.  They put in a lot of effort into keeping themselves cheerful and occupied at home (and keeping their kids from wrecking their homes), and cheering up their other friends on Fb; a laudable task.

One thing I'm seeing often is this sort of Chain Letter:

Day [n]: Xxxx [the name of the poster's buddy] has challenged me to post 10 albums that have influenced my musical taste, one record a day for 10 days. No explanation, no review, just the cover. And each day I am to nominate someone to do the same. Today I nominate Arch!

Well, this sort of thing is easier for those whose musical tastes tend towards pop and rock, but for a classical music aficionado, this is not easy.  Furthermore, I could not think of 10 people who would be interested in responding to such a challenge.  So I came back with:

Day 1: [xxxx] has challenged me to post 10 albums that have influenced my musical taste, one record a day for 10 days. No explanation, no review, just the cover.
Well, I'm changing the rules.
Post at least 5, and if you must, give a _brief_ intro in the comments. (Most of my friends are academics, and cannot just post covers.)
And each day I am to nominate someone to do the same. Today I nominate [name of my first victim]!
(Post in as Hi-Res as possible, so we can read the text.)

Well, this is a blog, so I'm going to post all ten (or however many) all at once.  I may go on to blog on each album on subsequent days, but I'm going to put the list up right away.

The Brandenburg Concertos

I had a friend, Mano Singham, who had been hired to spend a few hours a week to talk English with a Japanese Buddhist monk who was spending a year in Sri Lanka. I joined him for one of these meetings, and we had a great old time! This monk later sent me an LP, and it was the very first in my collection.

I had already been introduced to the Brandenburgs, and I'm struggling to recall where.  One of my episodes on Archie's Archives on the actual radio show had a little sub-episode about the Brandenburgs.

The Bach Orchestral Suites

When I was in graduate school, I spent a lot of time at the Hillman Library of the University of Pittsburgh, and one of my favorite LPs to listen to was this one: The Bach Orchestral Suites, performed by Menuhin and the Bath Festival Orchestra.  The first two suites were the ones I listened to the most, but over time, I got interested in all four of them.

There are stories to tell about these suites, and particular dances in the suites, which I will put in a different post!

I have to say Menuhin was a handsome man!  And by all accounts, an excellent conductor.

The Bach Trio Sonatas

These, too, I discovered in the Hillman Library.

I can honestly say only that I remember all the tunes of the very first Trio Sonata in E Flat; the other ones will be familiar if I play them, but I don't know them as well as I should!!

Now, all this makes it looks as though I like nothing except Bach.  That isn't strictly true, but it strikes uncomfortably close to the mark, unfortunately.  Heh-heh.

Violin Concertos

I learned a lot about classical music via the wonderful Book Of The Month Club series on Music Appreciation, and one of the best chapters was on the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, played on the Music Appreciation record by Fredell Lack, who has sadly passed from being in the eye of the public for several decades.

This album cover is from an entirely different set
This is not a real album cover; it is a fake that I made out of the portraits of the composers, because I did not want to dedicate a different one of these bullets to each concerto.  When it comes to the so-called 'Great' violin concertos, most teams do them justice, so it doesn't greatly matter which performance you buy.

The concertos that influenced my tastes early on are:

Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Bach (3), Mozart (5), Sibelius, Bruch.

Pete Seeger

This is a little out of sequence.  But I'm going to put this here; after all, COVID, you know.  I can't be perfect.

I didn't really get to know and love Pete Seeger until I had learned to play the guitar.  That road was long and hard, but I got there in the end!

Now we have to go look at some of the pop and rock music that I learned to love.  If we talk about albums, specifically then we must talk about The Beatles.

The Beatles

The Beatles did not really influence me via an album except somewhat later.  The first songs I sat up and paid attention came from A Hard Day's Night.  The first album I got hooked on was Help.  I went on to Rubber Soul, and then to Sgt Pepper's, though it was many years later that I could actually afford these.

Soon after I started grad school, and began to earn a stipend, I began to acquire Beatles recordings with a vengeance.  The first two were the Blue Album, and the Red Album.  Those only contained remastered versions from the Beatles existing discography.

Then, one amazing day, I saw the movie Let It Be, which was amazing, and I was in love yet again!  I won't include that one, though it was arguably as great an influence as the others, or almost as great.

The New Whiffenpoofs

My dad picked up one of the Whiffenpoofs annual albums while he was at Yale.  (The Whiffenpoofs are the Yale men's glee club; I don't know whether they still exist, or whether they have morphed into a mixed glee club, which is perfectly reasonable.)

The 1962 recording was just absolutely perfect, and we played it repeatedly.  Unfortunately, we lost this record---or rather, one of our friends stole it!---but apparently they're available second-hand, and I must buy one, or I shall be very sad.

10 Years Together: Peter, Paul and Mary

I love this album to pieces.  It was discovered just about the time that I had gotten moderately skilled at the guitar, and these songs were just the best ones to try out on the new 12-string guitar that I bought a few years later.

There's barely a dud among them; they constitute a sort of greatest hits for PP&M, whose arrangements of many amazing songs from many amazing songwriters were---unbelievably---often more commercial than the originals, and actually just plain better.  Cases in point: Leaving on a Jet Plane, by John Denver; I suspect that not many even know that John Denver wrote that one, and Don't Think Twice, it's alright, by Bob Dylan.  And let's not forget Early Morning Rain, written by Gordon Lightfoot, a total winner!

Sounds of Silence: Simon and Garfunkel

This album influenced me strongly in my college days, but it was owned by someone else.  The one I bought was Greatest Hits; I strongly advise buying greatest hits whenever possible.

The songs were perfect for a rebellious 19-year-old, but very soon after I got familiar with this album, I began to think that the poetry was a little overwrought.  And furthermore, Mrs. Robinson wasn't in this album, and Bridge over Troubled Water.

OK, I must rest now; this post is taking over my life.

Well, dragged myself back, I have.  Continue I must; the force, pushes me, it does.

Messiah

This one is a good all-round recording; two others there are, which I will also find and put here.

It is done.