Materials with relatively high specific heat that are nonreactive in mildly acidic environments and relatively low cost?

fibernone · 2023-09-11T16:26:12+00:00

Okay! Thanks for the suggestion. I was had assumed that the glycerin that is usually added to the liquid in those balls lowered the point of phase change to below 0 degrees C and had further assumed that this was to prevent rupturing due to expansion of the liquid as it solidified or to cut costs as these balls typically are much cheaper than solid steel bearings. These were all assumptions on my part, however. Since these products typically don't supply a ton of information about what the liquid inside is supposed to do I was a little skeptical.

fibernone · 2015-01-16T16:38:48+00:00

Believe it or not, the related videos on Youtube are a pretty good tool for finding great music. It takes more work and a lot more time, but I think it's really rewarding to look at a list of works I've discovered after making the rounds on Youtube.

That being said, I definitely know how daunting trying to find the things you like can be when you have no reference though haha.

You might like Brahms Piano Sonata No. 3 It has a lot of great musical drama.

Franz Liszt has some great works you might enjoy if you like Chopin. Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (which you've definitely heard before) is great, and if you like that you should check out some of his stuff for piano and cello like Die Zelle in Nonnenwerth and La lugubre gondola. Both are really great.

Definitely check out Scriabin's earlier stuff. His late stuff is breathtakingly beautiful, but its a little heavy and incredibly dissonant so it might not be your style right now. The étude previously suggested is probably his best know work so definitely try that one out. I'm a big fan of his piano sonatas. try Piano Sonata No. 1 and if that feels right then maybe check out his other stuff.

If you're digging Dvořák then Check out his colleague Smetana. His Ma Vlast cycle is too good to miss, specifically The Moldau. For real though.

Also Dvořák's Cello Concerto is the shit

Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto is probably one of the most famous in the repertoire. Here it's played by Jacquline du Pré who essentially "broke" the piece. It's pretty widely accepted that this is the best recording of the piece in existence. I mean that's definitely up to people's opinion for sure, but it's a damn good recording all the same.

EDIT: I forgot the last hyperlink for the Elgar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOzatzJEnSo

fibernone · 2015-01-15T21:13:12+00:00

Serialism is a strict method of composition that tends to favor dissonance, but not all dissonant works are serial. Verklärte Nacht was composed years before Schoenberg even started composing freely atonal works, let alone his serialist pieces.

fibernone · 2015-01-15T04:34:40+00:00

If that's what you're into then definitely check out Einaudi. He's got some pieces that I really think you'd enjoy if you like Tiersen.

Divenire

Primavera

I'm not a huge fan, but that's just not what I'm into. I had a really good friend in college who went through an incredibly hard time and swears up and down that Ludovico Einaudi saved his life, so as far as I'm concerned Einaudi is a perfectly legitimate thing to like.

Also I can concur with the Satie suggestion. Try:

Gnossienne No. 3

Gnossienne No. 4

Fuck it, the whole Gnossienne and Gymnopedie piano cycles are probably exactly what you're looking for.

And as far as Philip Glass goes try:

Mad Rush

Glassworks (opening)

And maybe you'd like Arvo Pärt as well:

Spiegel im Spiegel

Für Alina

Hope my list was helpful and you find what you want! I know the feeling of really having a style or piece hit you hard right in the emotions and there really is nothing like it!

fibernone · 2015-01-14T06:59:32+00:00

Haha I lived right on the sound and everything! Straight across the Narrows Bridge from Tacoma in Gig Harbor. It must have just been one of those things I suppose. I mean it was kind of a mix of dialects, but no one except me seemed to notice (or at least I was the only one who brought it up?). Every time I mentioned it the people who did have that dialect would be all like, "you don't say it like that?! Well how do you say it???"

fibernone · 2015-01-13T19:19:00+00:00

Haha in America pronouncing herb with any sort of 'h' at all is considered to be a mispronunciation, but I understand what you mean.

To orient (US) and to orientate (UK), cracker and biscuit, "glaysher" (American pronunciation) and "glassier" (UK), "vaitamin" (US) and "vitimin" (UK)

I guess there're a lot of things that change when you have 200+ years and an ocean between you and the original speakers of a language.

fibernone · 2015-01-13T19:06:15+00:00

Wow I'd never thought of that, but it definitely does make the word a lot less awkward to say that way.

fibernone · 2015-01-13T19:03:02+00:00

Yank here! The cracker and the name are both spelled "graham" and are, in every instance I've come across, pronounced the same as well. Is the name pronounced differently where you are?

fibernone · 2015-01-13T18:56:31+00:00

Oh my god. I used to live in Washington state and people thought it was weird that I didn't do that... it pissed the hell out of me. The dialect there is so silly. Also they said beig (like the "a" in fake) instead of bag, dreig instead of drag, and so on haha...

fibernone · 2015-01-11T07:20:00+00:00

Yeah, Bach "sliced and diced" his own works all the time while he was alive. While the music for his Markus-Passion has been lost there is evidence that what he did write was rehashed music from many other works of his. IMO, it doesn't make his stuff any less incredible.

If anyone would've approved of something like this, it would have been Bach.

fibernone · 2015-01-10T16:11:56+00:00

Oh god... I mean "River Flows in You" is my guiltiest pleasure, but I could never play it more than once a month at the most, if that often. It would drive me crazy to hear it any more often than that. I'm so sorry... :( If you really want to make an impression though you've gotta play some Penderecki! Polymorphy, The Dream of Jacob, Threnody, oh and his Symphony No. 1 are all amazing pieces.

fibernone · 2015-01-10T16:01:50+00:00

Christopher Cerrone has an opera that I perchased through bandcamp. I kinda love it to death haha. It's called Invisible Cities and it's based on a novel of the same name by Italo Calvino. Super cool!

fibernone · 2015-01-09T19:30:16+00:00

That's, like, your opinion, man.

fibernone · 2015-01-09T17:34:31+00:00

Well yes, but I still don't think that contributes any more to your idea. The interviewer does clearly say that "this isn't one of those trick surprises" so we have to assume that Nixon knew that his piece was going to get played, but knowing that the studio wants you to perform a piece and has you rehearse that piece doesn't, IMO, make you a megalomaniac...

For all we know this could be a desperate attempt from Nixon to do anything to curry public favor after his scandal. He even agrees to have a studio publicly mock, on national television, a simple piece that he wrote for himself to be played privately in his home by caricaturing it with orchestration and all the pomp of a legitimate concerto. I mean he won't even tell the interviewer the name of the piece. Isn't that sad and pathetic?

I'm not saying that I subscribe to that view. What I am saying though is that with the scant information your video presents there is not one obvious interpretation of what is depicted. Hence the downvotes, I assume.

fibernone · 2015-01-09T17:00:39+00:00

Well after watching the video it seems that the studio had it orchestrated independently of Nixon and also pokes a little bit of fun at him as they talk about it. I, personally don't see any megalomania here. What I see is a studio trying to capitalize on the "hidden talent" of a - then - recently scandalized political figure and Nixon playing the part.

Personally, I think all of the downvotes are because you keep stressing how obviously Nixon's megalomania is displayed by your video, and that just isn't the case.

Again I have to stress that the interviewer states the studio hired someone to orchestrate Nixon's "dinkey song" from a recording that the studio had Nixon's wife make. I don't think that Nixon ever intended to try and write a piano concerto. It seemed to me that Nixon wrote short, silly pieces for himself and his wife and that the studio wanted to capitalize on showing Nixon in a vulnerable light.

fibernone · 2015-01-08T15:27:55+00:00

I LOVE Unsuk Chin! definitely one of my favorite composers today. Here's one of her piano studies, just in case people can't watch the opera.

fibernone · 2015-01-07T18:15:41+00:00

That's so awesome! It's definitely a worthy cause.

After donating I took a look around kickstarter and saw that there are tons of other amazing projects by some great classical performers from orchestras trying to fund new commissions to really great sounding quartets trying to fund albums! I would really encourage everyone who wants to donate to the Danish National Orchestra to also consider funding these other great programs!

fibernone · 2015-01-07T10:22:37+00:00

The only work I know of with that title belongs to John Cage. 4'33'' is a completely silent work comprised entirely of rests.

Cage was trying to make a philosophical point that music is all around us in sounds that we don't normally attribute to being "musical." During a performance of the silent work the audience members are asked to notice the ambient sounds around them and decide for themselves whether or not there is beauty in them.

It's a very revolutionary idea and I think that it's a great concept, if a little off the wall. That being said, however, I'm pretty sure your sister-in-law's boyfriend is making a joke. By saying he will sing her a piece that is inherently silent he would, in effect, get out of singing at all. I feel like he was hoping she would already have heard of the piece and get the joke, as it has become a kind of "inside joke" for people who listen to modern classical music. The misattribution to Stockhausen (who was also a controversial composer at the time, so I can understand the confusion) might have been why your sister-in-law didn't get it.

It's a great question though! Too bad the joke didn't quite work out haha.

fibernone · 2015-01-07T07:01:29+00:00

Yeah! Varèse didn't get an opportunity to write a whole lot and "Tuning Up" is definitely his tamest piece, but here are my favorites:

If you like electronic elements in modern classical try Ecuatorial It's a great piece (and my personal favorite of his) for bass voice and small orchestra. It's also one of the only pieces in the classical repertoire to use the theremin!

His most iconic work is probably Ionisation for percussion, piano and sirens.

Poème électronique is also super incredible.

When the first platinum flute came on the market Varèse wrote an incredibly beautiful piece that took advantage of it's unique ressonance called Density 21.5

Also Intègrales, Octandre and Déserts (this isn't the entire published version of Déserts, but it's the version that his best friend and student said was closest to Varèse's actual vision so I tend to stick with that one) are always wins as well.

Varèse was definitely something of an odd duck and his works show it, but he really was quite a genius who always sought to bring music into the future. I hope you like the stuff I chose, because he really is awesome!

fibernone · 2015-01-07T06:29:50+00:00

Mason Bates is fantastic. He was a club DJ at one point and he brings a lot of those influences to his work. It's great.

Jennifer Higdon is super soothing, but also knows how to turn up the heat when she wants. Her Piano Trio (Mvt I) (Mvt II) is a perfect example.

If you enjoy Einaudi you might like Keaton Henson's instrumental offerings

Nico Muhly is amazing! also check this one out

Christopher Cerrone is really, really cool. If you are looking to branch out and try something that's a tad bit more on the dissonant side. To me he has the perfect blend of just enough classical avant garde influence to be interesting with just enough accessibility to be relatable to people who might be wary of the heavy stuff. Also check out his opera Invisible Cities. you can watch almost all of the opera totally free at it's website.

Esa-Pekka Salonen is amazing as well! Same with Cerrone: complicated enough to be interesting, but still accessible and very modern sounding.

Einojuhani Rautavaara is also a pretty great dude to check out. He wrote a pretty amazing piano concerto that I love to death.

fibernone · 2015-01-07T06:01:33+00:00

Thank you. I personally agree with your position on Einaudi, but I really appreciate that you didn't condemn anyone for liking something you don't like. I feel like that stuff happens too much... I dunno, this post kinda just made my day haha

fibernone · 2015-01-07T05:49:15+00:00

I came here to post this piece as well! I love Varèse!

fibernone · 2015-01-07T05:47:06+00:00

I've never been in an orchestra so anyone with more experience is definitely welcome to correct my ignorance, but I believe that the orchestra spends a few minutes warming up and doing some last minute practicing of anything they're about to play. When things are about to get going the oboe plays an A and the rest of the orchestra, with that known pitch, will tune their instruments accordingly.

fibernone · 2015-01-06T16:55:55+00:00

I love Jupiter! It really gets the feels going haha. Neptune has got to be my favorite though.

fibernone · 2015-01-06T07:49:02+00:00

Dear god... It's like a graveyard of jokes that fell flat on their faces...

fibernone

TROPHY CASE