Music for cats

the-cat-enjoy-the-ipodThis site claims to produce “authentic cat music based on feline communication and hearing.”

When I was a student, there was cats on my house. I remember that, when listening to music, sometimes I observed their behavior and try to imagine their perception of the sounds and the meaning of the music for them.

I also remember that sometimes they moved a paw in front of the speaker. Not on the speaker, but in front of it, about half meter distant (speakers was on the floor), like trying to touch something.

Now I have no cats, so I can’t test it. But if someone could try and refer, it should be interesting. The songs are written in three different styles – each song style is designed to convey and evoke a particular mood. Read more here.

Listen to samples:

G.F. Haas: String Quartet 2

Austrian composer Georg Friedrich Haas (b. 1953) truly experiments with sound. His extraordinary constructions of micro-intervals and pure harmonics create beautiful and opalescent soundscapes that move in ways that seem at once mysterious and obscure.

Here is the String Quartet No. 2 [1998] played by the Kairos Quartett.
Thanks to NewMusicXX channel on You Tube.

Tokyo/Glow

Written and directed by Jonathan Bensimon and produced by Jonas Bell Pasht, Tokyo/Glow follows the nighttime journey of an illuminated man from a crosswalk sign as he embarks on an adventure through the streets of Tokyo. Shot on location throughout Tokyo using thousands of individual digital stills, the short film features original music by indie rock band Kidstreet, who recently signed with Nettwerk Records and will be releasing their debut album worldwide in 2010.

To achieve the striking effect of the illuminated man, an original light suit was constructed using hundreds of feet of high-voltage LED rope lights and a translucent nylon outer shell. Michael Lambermont, executive producer at Alter Ego in Toronto, oversaw the effects-heavy post-production process, which included weeks of extensive rotoscoping and compositing in the facility’s two Flame suites, plus a final colour grade, once the effects were complete. Geoff Ashenhurst, editor at Stealing Time, was charged with bringing the thousands of digital stills to life with director Bensimon.

Moscow-Vladivostok: virtual journey on Google Maps

The great Trans Siberian Railway, the pride of Russia, goes across two continents, 12 regions and 87 cities.

The joint project of Google and the Russian Railways lets you take a trip along the famous route and see Baikal, Khekhtsirsky range, Barguzin mountains, Yenisei river and many other picturesque places of Russia without leaving your house. Videos are available at very high resolution, until 1080 points.

During the trip, you can enjoy Russian classic literature, brilliant images and fascinating stories about the most attractive sites on the route.

Let’s go!

transib

Arabia Felix

Tactus performs Arabia Felix by Charles Wuorinen at the Manhattan School of Music. Mary Kerr – Flute, Rachel Field – Violin, Anne Rainwater – Piano, Jakob van Cauwenberghe – Guitar, Mike Perdue – Vibraphone, Matthias Kronsteiner – Bassoon, Conductor: John Ferrari

Feldman about De Kooning

Morton Feldman: De Kooning (1963)

Morton Feldman’s elegant chamber work dedicated to the painter “De Kooning” and scored for horn, percussion, piano, violin, and cello was composed in 1963.

After composing works in the early 1950’s that were in graphic notation and left most of the musical parameters (pitch, duration, timbre, event occurence) to the discretion of the performers, Feldman became dissatisfied with the result because although this manner of composing freed the sounds it also freed the kind of subjective expression of the performers that could not create the kind of pure sound-making that Feldman envisioned.

He briefly returned to strictly notated works, found these too confining, and then created works in which most of the parameters were given except for duration and, consequently, coordination among the parts (“The O’Hara Songs” [1962], “For Franz Kline” [1962]). Following this, Feldman began to create works, like “De Kooning”, “False Relationships and the Extended Ending” (1968) and others, which alternate fully determined and indeterminate sections within the same work.

In “De Kooning”, there are coordinated chords (verticalities) and isolated events (single tones and intervals … verticalities stretched out horizontally or melodically) of a duration determined by the performers. The sequence of these single events is given however and players must enter before the last event has died out. These open sequences alternate with traditionally notated measures of rest with exact metronome markings, treating sound and silence in equivalent importance.

The total duration of “De Kooning” is open but tends to be between 14 and 1/2 minutes and 16 minutes. Tiny bells, tubular bells, and vibraphone are mixed with high piano tones and icy string harmonics creating a crystalline texture, that contrasts with a more muted texture of low tympani and bass and tenor drum rolls, pizzicati, low cello tones, low vibraphone notes, lower piano aggregates and sustained horn pitches. The materials are limited to a few gestures on each instrument and create “identities” of a sort (for example, the repeated “foghorn”-like horn notes, the percussion rolls, and so on) that can easily be followed by the ear. The variety of timbre combinations is astonishing and the tempo of their unfolding gives the listeners plenty of time to appreciate their quality. No particular programme is intended, but the changing timbres may spontaneous stimulate imagery for the listener. Or, for another listener, the joy may simply be in sheer richness of the sonic experience, for the sounds themselves.

[“Blue” Gene Tyranny, All Music Guide]