[LAU] Marrying MIDI with Music

[david]

Dave Phillips wrote:
> david wrote:
>> Actually, he did. He just couldn't hear it through his hearing loss, but 
>> he could feel the vibrations. That's one reason he liked thunderous bass 
>> and playing pianos so hard he broke them. ;-)
> I never heard that about Beethoven. Franz Liszt, maybe, but not Ludwig 
> Van. ;)

That's what I've heard about Beethoven's own performances. And he began 
composing the Appasionata in 1803, the year "he came to grips with his 
complete deafness" (I don't know if he personally performed it). Also, 
pianos back then weren't as well-built as modern ones are.

> Btw, it may interest some to know that the Amish consider instruments a 
> worldly vanity.

Other churches have held that in the past. I'm Christian, but don't 
happen to consider instruments a "worldly vanity" any more than I would 
consider some the excellent tools and furniture that the Amish invented.

> No instruments are used in their music, which is 
> virtually all church music. A friend here who visits Amish country 
> regularly tells me that everyone in an Amish family sings, and as far as 
> he could tell they all sing quite nicely. He said that their 
> entertainments often took the form of after-meal family singing.

Best singers I know in my collection of friends are an Episcopal priest 
and his family. He has formal voice training and sings extremely well. 
His wife sings well but doesn't have that same level of voice training. 
His daughter sings extremely well, and has sung in professional-level 
choirs from an early age. Even their son sings well, although he lacks 
training due to learning disabilities.

-- 
David
gnome at hawaii.rr.com
authenticity, honesty, community