Blog 9

Analysis-Introduction

The first word I thought of when I saw 'analysis' was interpretation. I agree that it entails a certain part of criticism whether that is an extreme or not. I see it more as 'conductive criticism' when analyzing, especially music and art. Though, I personally wonder how much our preconceived thoughts and biases play a role during our analyzation.  Both extremes include hermeneutic and formalist. This introduction was a bit wordy, but I'm glad I read it. It provides me with a deeper understanding of what goes into analyzing, criticizing, and evaluating works. I guess I sort of wrapped ideas together myself of which I would consider defines what critics do exactly. I agree that it is an ongoing process, and overall it provides the listener/reader with a better understanding of the work in the end.

Criticism, Musical

I think that criticism probably began non-verbally since men inhabited earth. Perhaps even some facial expressions expressed criticism, or even physical actions. I think criticism should  not be controversial; the intent should define whether it is done with ulterior motives, or just giving advice based on experience. It is interesting to read about the first critic involving classical music. I actually recently read an article online quoting criticisms from famous classical composers to their predecessors or composers of their time. I couldn't believe how judgmental and critical some of these statements were. Though as long as offense is not taken, it provides the reader (today) with a better understanding overall of the different styles, contributions, time period, and expectations. I am not familiar with any of the critics' names listed, but I have to say that I felt myself agreeing with Roger Ebert a lot when it came to movies.

Music Criticism has degenerated into lifestyle reporting

I found it interesting that music magazines do not include much substance anymore; there is a lack of musical discussions. I think that these magazines are simply reflecting society and culture as it is today. I did enjoy the way they described the 'Bieberization' of arts journalism. There was not much that I learned here that I did not know already. I do wish that the article delved into more specifically what music magazines looked like in the earlier days. This way, I could understand exactly how dramatically they had changed over time. I think that music has developed in the sense that we have auto-tune and electronic music gaining traction, that there is little place for critics. Today, it seems that the market wants someone who is unique, with a unique look and sound to their voice. A lot of the other parts that make music great: rhythm, accents, time, tuning, volume etc. can all be fine-tuned with equipment and appeal to the everyday crowd.

Please Critics Write about the film making

I think that there should be critics that have knowledge of the art they are critiquing, and critics that are fresh to the art. This way, there is a professional assessment and an assessment in the eye of the normal viewer/listener. A good metaphor I can think of is Rotten Tomatoes. Sometimes I enjoy the crowd's opinion even more than the critics. At times, I think there is even less baggage that comes along with these reviews. 'Form is not just an academic side-dish to the main course of content.' I agree. This would be like Stephen Stucky not explaining the form of his piece we are playing this Sunday to the audience during the pre-concert lecture. It wouldn't make sense not to discuss the piece and its movements to give a critical understanding of what they are going to listen to.

Devaluation of Music: It's worse than you think

Music has been devalued in many ways. Playlists are shorter. You don't see many artists creating albums today as you used to. I think our type of music has been developed into video game music, because it makes it easier to relate the music to something. It's certainly not easy to understand Chopin, Tchikovsky, Thelanius Monk etc.

Blog #8

Only in America: The Unique Status of Sound Recordings under U.S. Copyright Law and How It Threatens Our Audio Heritage.

This article interests me greatly as I can relate it to one of my Bibliography articles regarding Whistling as a human imitation through the use of sound recording. As I have learned already, sound recording is an irreplaceable part of the historical record. People of all walks of life including celebrities, artists, whistlers, and different cultures have recorded sounds throughout the past century. The United States is a rare exception, in that it requires permission for anyone to hear these recordings as it is defending and holding the ‘rights’ of the creators. I found it interesting that property rights of sound recordings hold a higher standard than any other property (within my opinion solely, perhaps with exception, the literal property that someone owns/occupies.) In fact, recordings made prior to 1972 hold even harsher restrictions. This is due to the 1976 Copyright laws and justly defended due to the increase of internet usage recently. Interesting to read that there was a case against Naxos regarding a foreign classical recording that happened in the 1930’s! Surely the composer is still not alive..Even the Library of Congress has few sound recordings. In my opinion these laws need to be changed or even eradicated. The least reissued genre was ethnic music, the music of minorities and foreign-language immigrant groups. I wonder if this is a representation and result of another case of racially discriminated laws put into place whether directly or indirectly. What I find more repulsive, is the fact that there is clearly a demand for these historical recordings. It seems that money, and censorship are the two main reasons for copyright laws.

As someone who is a stronger believer and defender of property rights, I still am unsure how intellectual property falls into these rights. I have a feeling that even after continuing to read and learn more on the subject, I still will not have a definitive answer. I just feel that if someone is blatantly going to use material from someone else, they should rightly give credit to that person. I found a lot of the material to be repetitive to the earlier readings done in the semester, however, it is a good refresher as we are in the crux of writing and citing our bibliographies. The conclusion of this article mentions that some responsibility and blame should be put on the community. I agree wholeheartedly; it’s often easier to blame the for-profit corporations, government, and media. However, all three are a direct reflection of the people. So in conclusion, people need to step up, speak up, and defend their rights.

How Streaming Media Could Threaten the Mission of Libraries

This article starts off by mentioning how difficult it was to try and borrow and lend Dudamel’s recording of Symphonie Fantastique, only being available by digital download. After going through about 4 different venues, it would be allowed but for a pretty penny. This process demonstrates content licensing. In fact, the fee that the publishers were asking for was so high, that I initially wondered if it was a predatory publishing site. The licensing of digital media differs from that of old-fashioned in that publishers can rent out and sell permission to access instead of allowing the buyer full rights of copying. What I found funny was not the inability for librarians to access media, but how they were offered a grant to study the effects, along with not being able to rightly access media. Downloading will soon be a thing of the past, because of the current trend of accessing files thorough such outlets at Spotify and Rdio.

Belfer Audio Archive

The Belfer Audio Archive was founded in 1963 with over 150,000 recordings. It can play back all of these archives, performing preservation, digitization, and work on fixing aging recordings. Pretty cool that it is part of Syracuse University. Some of these files include digital audio tapes, wires, tape reels, and cassettes. I enjoy that there are collections that you can search for also. Some of the non-musicians’ recordings that I would like to get my hands on are from Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein. There are tips on the website how to search for files. Summon allows for a more broad search. Students in the Music Industry program at SU learn the process of studio recording with digital equipment in the Live End/Dead End room. I also enjoy the weekly blogs in Sound Beat. I listened to the granddaughter of Woodie Guthrie, Beethoven and his relationship to Napolean, and 12^th Street Rag (an edition I’ve been trying to ILL for trombone ensemble) for example. I like how they include the audio written below for those of us with comprehension problems. Here are some of my favorite recordings I found on the cylinder collection:

http://digilib.syr.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/cylinder&CISOPTR=533&CISOBOX=1&REC=6

http://digilib.syr.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/cylinder&CISOPTR=450&CISOBOX=1&REC=1

National Jukebox

The National Jukebox is the official name of the site of the Library of Congress. It includes a search icon, digital collections, catalogs, and librarians to answer any questions. These recordings are offered to the public free of charge. On the front page, what I noticed most interesting, is it lets you know what will be added to the website soon. I typed in ‘trombone’ and found Arthur Pryor’s recordings of solo pieces that I currently am working on. I like the fact that when I searched for trombone and whistling, I found more recordings on this site than Belfer. Belfer had better resources for listening to brief audio recordings.

Blog 7

Scholars Perspective: Impact of Digitized Collections on Learning and Teaching

This article deals with the availability and amount of digitized source materials that teachers can use and what impacts it has had on their teaching. Libraries are being replaced with virtual ones with economic, social and educational impacts-often more negative than positive. A student of Mr. Watt mentions how he prefers the online database as it is easily accessible in the dorm, away from the library. I might add too that he (we) are able to access this information 24/7, not being obstructed by library hours. One metaphor that I can relate is using Inter Library Loan. Recently, I’ve been using it heavily for bibliography articles and music performance pieces. At times, there are some problems when trying to submit requests online, and I am lucky to have a tangible person look over these issues and help resolve them as computers are not perfect. It is interesting to think that one is using the library, outside of the library I might add. I guess I never looked it at that way while browsing www.ithacalibrary.com (or edu) depending if it feels like working that day. Oh, and that’s a point too, sometimes there are more technical difficulties such as the online site being down. I really enjoyed reading this article as I have a lot to say on the topic of the increase of technology effecting education. I do think, however, that with all recently developed technological advancements, things take time to adjust. And all the technical problems etc. will find a way to resolve themselves, with the help of human interaction and technology.

Review of IMSLP

I was not aware that Imslp was rebranded The Petrucci Music Library. I remember first looking into this website, as recommended by an orchestra conductor; I was so ecstatic at the ease and availability of accessing all kinds of classical music as long as it was written before a number of decades ago (copyright laws). Their main website defines it as “to create a virtual library containing all public domain music scores, as well as scores from composers who are willing to share their music with the world without charge.” This article lists it as one of the fastest growing and largest sources of musical scores. I am curious as to the other websites included. I was not aware that the website was created by an undergraduate classical music student..how cool! I am also interested in exactly how the creator was able to bring the site back up after threats to take it down. The article states that his website has not been allowed to publish in Europe, though it will start to in 2014. I wonder if it has been published as of yet? I also wonder if, like Facebook, threats start to incur, and then the people lashing out the threats start to realize that no matter how hard they try, they will be unsuccessful at inhibiting the freedom of technology to take its own course. I think that Edward Guo made a smart decision taking the website down, allowing two years of discussion to occur, and then put it back up after everyone starts to relax a little bit. What I most enjoy about Imslp is that the users are the strongest contributors. They even police the activities and uploads of other users. And classical musicians I’m sure hold high regard and strict regulations for the music, naturally.

Never Trust a Corporation to do a Library’s Job

Googles mission, since created, was to include the preservation of the past. But I wonder if one has to (not altogether) get rid of the past, in order to move forward. One example of this that I can think of is Google’s deletion of Youtube comments after so many years ago. At first, I was a little disappointed as I thought that deleting comments would lessen our ability to have perspective on older videos, and at times I think it does. But overall, it better organizes and gives a fresh and new perspective on videos. I think the fact that Google has outgrown its mission statement of 14 years ago could be a good thing. This should infer progress and growth. I do enjoy the idea that the Internet Archive is including video games of the past to play. They are certainly marketing towards their crowd. I guess I eventually formed the correlation between the article and the title, however, I think the article could have represented its title in a more clear fashion in order to make its point.

Google’s Slow Fade with Librarians

It is very interesting how Google has tried to heavily influence libraries and librarians with money, power, and encouraging talk. Google.com/librariancenter speaks enough about this influence. The Google Books project then began starting to go downhill. I am most interested in this article, in the sense that, it should look into exactly how Google played a role in influencing libraries and librarians. I think it instead gave a short example how Google showed up to a meeting and partnered with them, and that as partners, there was deceiving and eradication of library information, corruption, seeking of power and money etc. I wish that this article would delve into more deeply the negative influence and results Google had on its company, and where both exactly stand today.

The Cobweb: Can the Internet be Archived?

Before the Malaysian Airline crash that took off from Amsterdam in 2014, Anatol Shmelev suggested and submitted archives of a list of Ukranian and Russian Web sites and blogs that ought to be recorded as part of the Ukraine conflict. The recorded message stating that the terrorist took the plane down was only recorded due to Shmelev. We often think that everything we post will always be recorded, and sometimes feared into thinking this in order to keep a clean slate of posts (especially Facebook), however this article suggests that it just may be impossible to keep a record of everything. I laughed when I read about Buzzfeed deleting its staff writers’ earlier posts as it started to look stupider and stupider. I wonder if even the Wayback Machine will eventually be eradicated. It already is having trouble specifically offering results that reflect what is being searched as the details from the past do not reflect the current very well. Not only because this is the last post, but I didn’t find a lot of the other information to be that relevant and/or exciting. Overall, I found that the internet can be archived for a relatively small amount of time, ever-decreasing at the demand of its viewers and impact profited corporations, and non-profit organizations have on the archives/information.