Beatus Vir

Beatus vir, qui timet Dominum, in mandatis ejus volet nimis.
Potens in terra erit semen ejus, generatio rectorum benedicetur.

Vul. 111

Questioning the Authenticity of Music Performance

"As a simple rule, 'slow' movements should move along gracefully, never drag, while 'fast' movements should never express haste, and should always respect the player of the fastest notes, so that every note is distinct. As Alessandro Scarlatti wrote in a letter to the Grand Duke Ferdinando de' Medici: Where 'grave' is marked, I do not mean 'melancolico'; 'allegro' should be judged so that too much is not demanded of the singer. And the literal translation of the Italian Vivace is 'lively' - not ultra-fast!"


 "Many 'authentic' performances also adopt unsteady tempi, so that the music seems to move in waves, or fits and starts, ignoring the fact that a regular tempo was universally accepted in baroque times when the major concern was keeping unruly players and singers together."

"When the harpsichord emerges into its beautiful solo cadenza it is barely audible; indeed in one recent 'authentic' recording the harpsichord volume is actually turned up for the solo, either during the recording, the mixing or mastering - a shameful practice hardly worthy of any self-respecting recording company!"

"In the case of Bach's cantatas and choral works, most performances and recordings use a small portable organ for the continuo, ignoring the church's main organ in the gallery. This arrangement, while no doubt preferred by conductor and recording engineer, may be adequate for the accompaniment of arias and recitatives, but not for the opening choruses in cantatas such as 29 and 146 which feature what amounts to a solo organ concerto movement. Here the thin, almost pitiful sound of the little chamber organ is simply not up to the task."

"Another very prominent feature of string playing in today's 'authentic' performances is the almost total absence of vibrato, resulting in a flat, plaintive and lifeless tone. It seems quite unclear as to where this aspect of 'authenticity' derived from, since much evidence supports quite the contrary view. .... There are also many references in baroque musical literature, both to the importance placed on warmth and vibrato in vocal performance, and to the ideal in violin playing of replicating the human voice."

Quoted from Baroque Music Performance: 'Authentic' or 'Traditional' by Michael Sartorius

Music of the Week (5)

Setelah seminggu belakangan disibukkan dengan Freshformance yang sedikit banyak mengganggu irama tubuh (utamanya jadwal tidur), seneng banget bisa tidur malam dengan jam normal. Lebih seneng lagi bisa buka-buka laptop, ngedengerin lagu-lagu favorit. Ya, selama Freshformance kemarin rasanya ga ada waktu buat ngidupin laptop; waktu luang yang tersedia hanya dialokasikan untuk tidur atau istirahat.

Nah, lagu apa yang paling cocok digunakan untuk me-refresh otak setelah seminggu dijejali lagu cinta-cintaan? Yah, lagu-lagu di Freshformance emang bukan lagu alay kok. Lagunya bagus-bagus sih, cuman guenya ga ada rasa. Benci enggak, suka juga enggak. Nah nah nah… untuk melepaskan diri dari kemonotonan dan kebosanan yang terakumulasi selama seminggu belakangan, lagu-lagunya Libera kayaknya bisa memunculkan kembali optimisme hidup.

Siapa tu Libera? Ga ada hubungannya ama JIL kan?

Ya enggak lah…. Libera alias My Cutie Boys alias My Little Angels (dan entah apa lagi julukan yang akan kuberikan nantinya) adalah grup vokal dari Inggris. 

Libera tuh grup baru?

Bukan…. Emm…. Mereka mengeluarkan single pertama sebagai Angel Voices tahun 1987. Tahun berikutnya, 1988, mereka meluncurkan album perdana, Sing for Ever.

Alamak…. Zaman segitu gue belum lahir. Wah, umur grupnya udah lebih dari dua puluh tahun cuy, udah pada tuwir dong anggotanya?

Ya…. Alumni generasi awal emang harusnya udah pada tua. Tapi kalo loe nonton di Youtube, loe bakalan liat anak-anak nan innosen dan imut nyanyi bareng.

Loh, kok anak kecil semua isinya? Anggotanya ganti-ganti?

Betul. Libera dibentuk dengan tujuan mengeksplorasi keindahan suara boy soprano atau treble yang hanya dimiliki anak-anak lelaki yang belum dewasa. Untuk menjaga karakter angelic itulah diperlukan regenerasi berkelanjutan. Setiap tahun Libera merekrut adik-adik kecil berusia tujuh tahunan untuk bergabung. Kakak-kakak anggota lama yang memasuki masa pubertas dan mengalami pergantian suara menjadi suara dewasa dengan lapang hati mengistirahatkan diri dari peran sebagai penyanyi di Libera. Beberapa kakak yang beruntung dalam mempertahankan karakter angelic-nya bisa bertahan hingga usia 16 tahunan. Meski sudah tidak aktif menyanyi di Libera, beberapa kakak dewasa tetap berperan dengan menjadi pelatih, director, atau pun arranger lagu-lagu yang dinyanyikan Libera.

Kok ga terkenal sih?

Eh, jangan salah. Libera udah sering tur keliling Eropa. Mereka juga rutin ke Amerika Serikat, Korea, Jepang, dan China. Emang sih, di Indonesia mereka ga sepopuler artis-artis pop luar negeri. Pertama, Libera adalah not-for-profit organization. Mereka berkarya atas dasar cinta dan pelestarian tradisi boy soprano, jadi ngiklannya juga ga seheboh-heboh artis komersil. Pendanaan mereka ditopang oleh donasi dari para penggemar. Kedua, genre musik Libera bukan jenis musik populer yang banyak crek cres jedhung jedhung jreng. Iringan musiknya cenderung sangat minimalis dengan tujuan mengekspos angelic voice para anggotanya. Lagunya pun jenis yang mengalun, mengalir indah ke angkasa raya, membahana dan menari-nari di udara. Lagunya ga alay kok, penjelasan gue doang yang lebay. Masyarakat Indonesia saat ini sih memang belum familiar dengan jenis beginian.

Loe bilang Libera ditopang donasi kan, loe udah ngedonor berape duit?

Belum pernah, hehe….

Ada CD atau DVD mereka yang bisa dikoleksi?

Mereka udah bikin banyak kok. Toko musik bonafid ada yang jualan. Cuma gue lupa nama tokonya apa aja.

Loh, kok lupa? Loe belum pernah beli ya?

Belum hihi X) Selama ini gue masih numpang nonton gratis di Youtube doang….

Ada contoh lagu-lagu yang bagus?

Nih, pantengin.

Time

 Song of Life

Eternal Light

Quote:

With shimmering, mystical chords and ecstatic harmonies, they are unlike any other group you have ever heard. These are truly sounds to lift the soul. Celestial sounds for a new time.

Although they are boys and they sing, they do not think of themselves as choirboys, but rather as an alternative kind of boy band.

Diolah dari http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libera_%28music%29 dan http://www.libera.org.uk

Diversity is Good

....

If on the other hand we spread the acoustic energy over a wider frequency range, the apparent loudness increases dramatically. 

We proved this a moment ago when we did the experiment of playing a chord of several widely spread notes on a single stop.  The notes chosen were at the harmonic frequencies of the root note.  Therefore it is not surprising that if we have a stop whose harmonics are strong, it will often sound louder than one which has weaker harmonics.  This will often remain true even if the louder stop has a lower actual sound level.  Thus the sound of a Stopped Diapason will often be able to penetrate a chorus of other stops, whereas a duller-toned flute will not (it merely adds mud to the sound). 

This fact also explains why gentle mixture work on low pressure wind  is so important in enabling an organ to sound pervasive yet attractive.  The organ builders of the Baroque era understood this empirically.  We did not rediscover it until the 20^th century, after the excesses of the Romantic period had exhausted themselves.

 Quoted from The Tonal Structure of Organ Flutes by Colin Pykett

They Knew More, Yet Keep It Simple

The ancients strongly disliked this tuning impurity of the fifths because it went against their mystic ideas.  If you believed that your God was up there on the nearest hill listening to the music you were playing, you were going to be jolly careful that you didn’t offend Him. The last thing you would want to do would be to deliberately choose some hideous irrational number to represent the frequency ratio of a flattened fifth, rather than the primitive integral beauty of 3 to 2 for a perfect one (the fundamental frequencies of the notes forming a purely tuned fifth – no beats - are in the exact ratio of 3 to 2).  So they decided to make music using fewer than twelve notes to the octave, even though they knew all about the twelve note scale.  Hence those boring and funereal old modes which characterised music until about a millennium ago, at least in Europe.  The restriction to 6 or 8 notes to the octave made modal music-making pretty simple during all that time.

Quoted from Temperament: A Study of Anachronism by Colin Pykett

Your Hijab isn't Hairstyle Replacement

Semakin hari semakin banyak lambakan fesyen hijab di pasaran dengan pelbagai warna dan material. Apa yang terkadang menjadikan mata yang melihat sedikit terkilan adalah penggayaan hijab yang keterlaluan seolah-olah "mahkota wanita" versi kain.

Ada yang mempertahankan penggayaan hijab-hijab ini sekurang-kurangnya membuatkan mereka yang asalnya "free hair" tertarik untuk menutup aurat. Dalam masa yang sama ada yang mempertahankan fesyen-fesyen ini sebagai ekspresi kesenian kecantikan wanita. Oh, janganlah dieksploitasi kefahaman adik-adik yang baru berjinak2 untuk menutup aurat!

Sekiranya niat untuk menutup aurat itu adalah untuk nampak lebih trendy, lebih vogue, berani dan ekspresif, jadi ke manakah perginya nilai-nilai kesederhanaan dan harga diri seorang wanita Islam? Bukankah niat untuk berhijab seharusnya Lillahi Taala (hanya untuk Allah)? Bukankah apabila seseorang wanita itu berhijab, mata-mata yang melihat terdidik jiwanya untuk lebih menghormati wanita tersebut?

Fesyen "muslimah" janganlah sekadar pada nama tapi sajian pilihannya adalah pakaian yang menampakkan bentuk badan (ketat), melekap, dan jarang. Adakalanya sesetengah fesyen yang terdapat di pasaran begitu indah sekali kelabuhan dan kelonggarannya tapi sayang, apabila dipakai terserlah bentuk badan (terutamanya dada) kerana materialnya yang melekap. Ada pula yang jarang sehingga terlihatlah apa yang asalnya ingin ditutupi... Berhati-hatilah, muslimah...tidak salah untuk kelihatan indah dalam melaksanakan syariat, namun berwaspadalah! InsyaAllah.. ♥

"RIGHT things, even when nobody is doing it; REMAIN RIGHT!
WRONG things even when so many people are doing it; REMAIN WRONG!"

wallahualam... ♥



dari: ELLE ZADA

Cheating is Less Expensive

Barbara Owen once pointed out to me the same system at work in an American organ of the 1860s (I think it must have been a Hook in or near Newburyport) - the excellent pedal division on a modest two manual consisted of Bourdon 16' and a big open flute 8' labelled (I think) Cello. Together they sounded like an Open Wood 16' to me - and at a fraction of the space and cost.

....

(Message to builders of really small new organs - don't waste your clients money by providing both 8' principal and 8' flute on the pedal - a single open wood 8', voiced soft but of very big scale, will do the work of both only better. And, while I am on about it, if you must use a fagotty (i.e. bassoon-like) half-length 16' pedal reed then have a Trumpet 8' too when you can - the two together will sound like a Bombarde 16')

....

The old masters did not change stops often, not because they were either primitive or stupid, but because their tonal recipe satisfied the ear for long periods at a time.

Quoted from Harmonics and Cheats

PNS

Pegawai Negeri Sipil adalah status, bukan profesi. Namun, dalam PNS terdapat berbagai macam pekerjaan yang di antaranya merupakah profesi.

oleh Widyantoro Setiawan
Tangerang Selatan, Rabu, 12 Desember 2012, pukul 11:50

String Stops

String stops are intended to imitate orchestral strings. Although they fall short when attempting to simulate a solo violin, they are much more impressive when imitating massed strings. The tone is thin and sharp, with a lot of harmonics or overtones.

http://www.theatreorgans.com/virtualtheatreorgan/Families%20of%20Tone.htm

Ironi

Jarang ada hakim yang membuat keputusan dengan memperhatikan atau membandingkan keputusan yang telah dibuat oleh hakim lain. Karena itu, kita temui adanya ketimpangan antara keputusan hakim yang satu dengan hakim yang lain.

Oleh Widyantoro Setiawan
Tangerang Selatan, 28 November 2012, pukul 13.00

The Gentle Giant

The 32 ft. open wood pipe produces an effect of which the King of Instruments alone may boast. It cannot be reproduced by any other means, as far as I am aware, save that of a wood or metal pipe thirty-two feet long and of adequate scale. Not even the diaphone can produce the characteristic "seething, bubbling" effect of the traditional pedal pipe. Any attempt at imitation by means of an oscillating valve or any other electronic system must inevitably fail owing to the sheer incapability of a loudspeaker diaphragm to handle such a sound wave without "frequency doubling." There is no acoustic system of tone-production that can vie with the aerial mechanism of a 32 ft. pipe of wood measuring, say, 29 in. by 25 in. at CCCC (the scale adopted by Mr. Willis at Liverpool Cathedral). True, the actual fundamental frequency of sixteen vibrations per second cannot be distinguished by human ears : the lowest frequency in the audible range is twenty vibrations per second. But it does not follow that the sound emitted by the CCCC pipe is lost on the listener : far from it ! It has a psychological effect on the listener that no other sound is able to produce, and only a 32 ft. flue pipe
can do it.

Quoted from "The Modern British Organ" by Noel A. Bonavia-Hunt, M. A.

True Bass or Fake Bass?

The so-called sub-woofers commonly used in home cinema or in-car entertainment systems are likely to be useless for organ or serious hi-fi work. Most of the time they are only called upon to radiate transients such as drum notes or the bangs and crashes inseparable from movies such as Jurassic Park. Such programme material is different in kind to that from an organ. In fact many sub-woofers are highly resonant at frequencies above our 30 Hz figure, and these resonances are merely excited whenever signals arrive of the sort mentioned above. When a dinosaur is rampaging through a primeval forest on the screen, it does not really matter whether the associated sounds are radiated with high fidelity or not. Similarly, when youngsters cruising around in cars advertise their presence with the high intensity drum beats which they seem to enjoy, it does not matter whether the spectral character of the original material is modified by extreme loudspeaker resonances. Who would know or care? Yet playing an electronic organ or an organ CD through such a loudspeaker system can be disappointing – the fundamental frequencies of the lowest notes are simply not there, and there may be some ridiculous emphases of other frequencies. The term "one note bass" is sometimes used to describe loudspeakers such as these, because they really only give an illusion of powerful bass by radiating at the resonant frequencies of the system. Such loudspeakers are entirely inappropriate for serious musical use.

Quoted from The Electronic Reproduction of Very Low Frequencies by Colin Pykett

Menjadi Diri Sendiri

Pukul 8.00, Kelas Administrasi Keuangan Negara, Ruang I-305

"Hanya saja, pada praktiknya di dunia, kita banyak tidak disenangi orang. Itu terjadi karena kita berbuat yang baik, sedangkan orang lain banyak yang ingin tidak baik."

by Ujang Bahar

The Best

Selasa, 16 Oktober 2012, Kelas Audit Keuangan Sektor Komersial, Ruang D103

“Tidak ada sistem buatan manusia yang lebih baik daripada sistem akuntansi. Hal ini disebabkan dua hal. Pertama, sistem akuntansi memiliki pola dasar yang sama dimana pun dan kapan pun. Kedua, sistem akuntansi menghasilkan laporan yang diperiksa secara rutin.”

By M. Nadief Kaelani

The Very Low Notes

"Bourdons speak quickly if voiced properly and can be used under almost anything."
by Allan Carrick 

"Resultants? The best work excellently. And if course you don't just have to use 10 2/3 against 16 foot to make a 32 foot. The more mutations you use the stronger the false fundamental becomes, but at the same time the more like a reed than a flue the tone becomes, in the broadest sense."
"The soft stopped rank has the peculiar effect of picking up power from whatever is playing above it, and still tells in full organ. Very versatile. One of the best I know is at La Trinite in Paris (CC 1868 I think, or maybe 1872...)"
by Peter Rickinson


taken from Fans of the Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall Organ

Open Wood

"However, they take up a huge amount of space, and since the Organ Reform Movement, independent pedal departments have often displaced these leviathans. Having said that, in large buildings, they make a grand underpinning of the principal chorus, and in their 32' incarnations they are the sine qui non of the English Cathedral Organ. Wind pressure at the feet of these monsters is often remarkably small - often under 2". Although sometimes described as an Open Diapason (wood), the vast scale makes the Open Wood much more like a large scale open flute in tone. The stop is almost exclusively found on the pedals."
by Alastair Disley

http://www.organstops.org/o/OpenWood.html 
Copyright © 1999 Edward L. Stauff,