Hear commentator Rob Kapilow demonstrate how Mozart sets up our expectations but takes us in unpredictable directions in the String Quintet in G minor. His music, like a hologram, flashes back and forth between the simple and the complicated.

Link: Mozart’s Deceptive Simplicity

Here’s a few of the musicians you can listen to: Count Basie & His Orchestra, Dizzy Gillespie, The Modern Jazz Quartet, Oscar Peterson Trio and Thelonious Monk. Registration is required but it’s oh so worth it. The New York Times has the backstory of how these recordings ended up at Wolfgang’s Vault.

via Metafilter

The Decade’s 50 Most Important Recordings

Link: The Decade’s 50 Most Important Recordings

There’s a mysterious new composer on the classical music scene. Her name? Emily Howell. But no one’s ever seen her in person. The reason? She’s a computer program created by David Cope, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Host Guy Raz speaks with Cope about his creation and gets a sneak peek at Emily’s first record, which hits stores next spring.

Link: Virtual Composer Creates New Music

Watch on YouTube: Visualizing Sound Waves With Fire

Craft has to be dropped at a certain point. You’ve gotten somewhere and you have to decide what you want to do there.

(@synthtopia)

Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires. I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes (no Photoshop edit). I knew it wasn’t the most original idea in the universe. I was just curious to hear what melody the birds were creating.

Link: Birds on the Wires

Enter: Imogen Heap. Some people may recognize Imogen as the beautiful vocalist of Frou Frou. Others may be familiar with her song “Hide & Seek” or the song she wrote for The Chronicles of Narnia, “Can’t Take it In.” But even if you’ve never heard of her, it’s time to pay attention — Imogen Heap is changing the way business is done. Or perhaps she’s just bringing music back to its roots — the relationship between musician and fan — and exploiting all the technical advantages available. In a time when some music industry veterans seem to be afraid of the way technology is changing their business, Imogen Heap is using these technological advances to her advantage.

Link: The New Music Business Model: Imogen Heap

It’s a human synthesizer. It uses conductive body ink with Arduino, Max/MSP, and Ableton Live to turn human beings (super hot ones!) into musical instruments.

It’s unique. Electronic musician Calvin Harris is now an internet sensation because of this series of YouTube videos. I wish I thought of it first.

It involves perhaps the most important invention made by man ever. The bikini.

Watch on YouTube: Calvin Harris – Humanthesizer – the first human synth

Watch on YouTube: brainmusic: fmri into musical sound

Hear what the brain scanner sees. Data from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are converted to musical sound. (This is the short version; See the 6-part “Music of the Hemispheres” for more.) Data are preprocessed into “independent components,” regions of the brain which activate or deactivate in unison. Each component is assigned a tone, and the tone gets louder or softer in proportion to the degree of activity in the corresponding brain region. So, a melody is the moving center of metabolic energy, dancing all over the brain.

This was written on a bumpy Euro-bus ride across the wilderness – may ramble a bit but I think the point gets across.
TR

Link: my thoughts on what to do as a new / unknown artist

Oliver Sacks explores how the power of music can make the brain come alive.

You need to watch this soon. It will only be available to watch for one week, from July 1-7, 2009, due to right restrictions. It features musical savants, music therapy, and some fascinating mind/brain research dealing with music.

You could also search for a torrent.

I’ve written about Evelyn Glennie before but wouldn’t you rather hear it come straight from the source?

Watch now: Evelyn Glennie: How To Listen To Music With Your Whole Body

Watch the entire series on YouTube: Logic Studio Training Beginner Series

Become a Logic Studio Training subscriber and get access to hours of Logic Studio tutorials.

On March 31, 2009, Arts Advocacy Day, Americans for the Arts gathered a panel of acclaimed artists and experts to call on Congress for continuing and additional support and funding for the arts and arts education in America. This hearing, entitled “The Arts = Jobs,” focused on congressional support of strong public policies for the arts, appropriating increased public funding for the arts and supporting arts workers. Josh Groban and Wynton Marsalis were among the artists who testified before a Congressional Committee to champion the benefits of arts and arts education.

Anytime Wynton speaks, I listen.

Watch on Vimeo.

UPDATE: The NIN iPhone app is live! http://tinyurl.com/ninaccess RT @trent_reznor

Really, it’s just a small challenge. Google something better.

What are people searching for on Google today? http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends/atom/hourly,2007-08 2009-11-20T07:54:28Z 2009-11-20T07:54:28Z

My experience while listening to it the first time was in an altered-state already, so maybe that’s why I’m conditioned to like it. Because every listen since, I’ve been able to really quiet the mind with these “sound rules.”

Download the pdf: Relative Beat Strength

Watch on YouTube Ear Training With White Noise by Graham English
Watch on Vimeo Ear Training With White Noise by Graham English
Watch on Viddler Ear Training With White Noise by Graham English

My question is fundamental: why can’t the arts and “entertainment” be considered part of the economy? And what do we have to do, exactly, to convince people that there are real jobs that don’t involve building roads?

Link: Democrats, Republicans Join to Ban Arts Stimulus, Declare Arts Worker Jobs Not “Real”

UPDATE: Great news. Congress Restores Arts Funding, Drops Arts Stimulus Ban, After Public Outcry

In no particular order:

• CreateDigitalMusic.com
• Logic Studio Training
• AUDIOTUTS
• Electronic Musician
• Future Music
• Harmony Central
• Harmony Central Synth News
• Logic Pro User
• Logic Studio Blog
• Logic Studio Quicktips
• Matrixsynth
• Modulate This!
• ModernBeats
• MusicRadar – Tuition
• Piano and Synth Blog
• Pro Audio News DV247.com
• Rekkerd.org
• Synthtopia
• Synthwire
• TRASH_AUDIO
• Zoom In
• Digital Audio Insider

Also, you can subscribe to my Google Reader Shared Items here.

HyperControl automatically maps the keyboard’s 65 controls to commonly accessed parameters in digital audio workstations including Pro Tools®, Cubase, Logic and Reason*, as well as software instruments.

I took one of my handwritten transcriptions and put it in the Logic Studio score editor this afternoon to give you a taste of his genius. I hope you enjoy it.

Original Recording:

Download the transcription: Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum by Freddie Hubbard