For Classical Music - To iPOD or
not to iPod?
About five or six years
ago, a relative, who was a computing
consultant, showed me a flat little
box and said to me you’ll soon be able
to put all your thousands of CDs on
a little thing like this. I shrugged
and dismissed the idea as science fiction.
Then the hype about Apple’s iPod started
up. But it was all beamed at the young,
and the ‘Pop’ cultured, and how they
could use it to store thousands of songs.
This thing, I thought, might be OK for
rap, rock, heavy metal etc., but could
it satisfy the hi-fi demands of classical
music?
Then in April 2006,
the respected lecturer, cellist and
broadcaster, Michael Jameson, came to
the Salisbury Recorded Music Society
to give us a presentation. He had recorded
all his 90 minutes of music excerpts
(of works by Mendelssohn, Wolf, Berlioz,
Tchaikovsky and Richard Strauss)
onto his 60 Gb Apple iPod which he connected
straight into our amplifier and thence
to our Mission speakers. I will admit
that I was amazed at the quality of
the reproduction; so much so, that I
was eager to learn more about this slim
little gadget especially when he said
that he had downloaded all the
Haydn symphonies onto it.
[For the record the
Salisbury Recorded Music system comprises:
the CD Player: Marantz CD6000KI Signature;
the Amplifier: Marantz PM6010 KI Signature;
and the Speakers: Mission 752].
Now come reports of
new collaborations between major classical
music recording companies like, Deutsche
Grammophon, and iPod’s iTunes to provide
concerts [See Marc Bridle’s Seen
and Heard review of this new
phenomenon appended at the foot of this
article]
So faced with such
temptations, and through Len Mullenger,
I asked MusicWeb International reviewers
to let me know about their iPod experiences.
The response was gratifying in terms
of numbers and the replies enlightening.
Some of these are appended below. Now
I will admit that my level of techno-competence
is low and my level of techno-fright
high so being nonplussed after reading
some of the more technical replies,
I decided that I really needed to get
a grasp of some of the basics. So I
decided to investigate some of the ‘iPod
help’ books that are available.
Here is a selection
of what I found:
The
Rough Guide to iPods, iTunes and Music
by Peter Buckley and Duncan Clark
Amazon
Price £4:78
iPods
and iTunes for Dummies
by Tony Bove and Cheryl Rhodes Amazon
Price: £8:99 [I took a look at a copy
of this book in Waterstones, Southampton,
but was deterred by the lack of colour
and the thickness of the book feeling
this might be too thorough for me at
the beginning of my learning curve]
Hacking
iPods and iTunes by Jonathan
Accarrino Amazon
Price £11:21
My
iPod by Jeremy Case Amazon
Price: £4:99
Amazon offer a special
deal if you buy the above book with
–
iPod
Fan Book by Yasukuni
Notomi Amazon
Price: £6:56
In Waterstones
I flicked through and was impressed
with
iPod
Book: Doing Cool Stuff with the iPod
and the iTunes Music Store by
Scott Kelby, Peachpit Press, Amazon
Price: £9:23 (so I ordered a copy)
But over the last week
or two I have been studying:-
40
iPod Techniques by Troy
Silver and Rand Miranda Which I purchased
from British Bookshops for £6:99 Amazon
- This book assumes you have no
knowledge and it has colour illustrations
to help one grasp the fundamentals (some
illustrations are a little small but
then they are depicting complete computer
screens)
Additionally, a visit
to Apple’s iPod site may be useful http://www.apple.com/uk/ipodf.html
and then there are
a few articles Kirk
McElhearn
Getting
the Most out of Classical Music with
iTunes and the iPod
Classical
Music on the iPod and iTunes
Tagging
Classical Music
Now, here is a selection
of the inputs received from Recorded
Music members and MusicWeb contributors:
Robin
Lim, Programme Secretary, Salisbury
Recorded Music Society:-
1. The iPod is not
the only product of this kind on the
market, it just happens to be the one
with the best marketing (not necessarily
the best technically).
2. Most of these devices
(including the iPod) are capable of
storing and playing back different grades
of quality, from exact copies of CDs
(no compression, but takes up a lot
of storage) to quite highly compressed
files (lower fidelity, but takes up
less room so more "albums" can be stored.)
In the case of iTunes, and similar download
services, the amount of compression
is pre-set by the service operator,
and the consumer has to accept what
is provided. No online commercial operator
offers uncompressed audio files.
iTunes is both the
software to "organise" files on the
iPod, and a website (the iTunes Music
Store) where you can download music
at 79p per "track". This is one area
where classical enthusiasts stand to
gain, as there are usually fewer tracks
on a classical CD. On the debit side
the choice is less than wonderful, the music
is supplied in a compressed format,
and there are no liner notes supplied.
Tony
Haywood, speaking of another Recorded
Music Society’s experience, says
No-one's used an iPod
yet at our Recorded Music Society meetings
(I tend to use minidisc, as do a couple
of others) but I don't think it will
be long. I have a friend who's sold
on them - he has most of his considerable
collection stored, so the booklets can
be neatly housed in an album for reference,
and he just plugs the iPod directly
into the amp via a decent jackplug to
phono lead. And yes, I agree, the sound
is superb, especially if you use the
Apple lossless, i.e., no compression,
but even on medium compression the sound
is good, and it means you can store
an awful lot more.
Rob
Barnett said: -
I have not played with
an iPod but I did buy another amazing
MP3 device - a 40Gb IRiver. Probably
my neanderthal skills but I found it
VERY awkward to use, converting CD files
to MP3 took forever and the gaps between
movements of symphonies etc sound unnaturally
silent; that will seem like a very odd
comment but until you hear a whole symphony
or multi-movement work etc it is difficult
to describe how odd and disorientating
the silence sounds.
I successfully transferred
Atterburg 3rd and 6th Symphonies
onto the machine (which my son now has
and which he uses to store music and
digital photos which it displays with
superb definition) and the music itself
sounded superb on the supplied headphones.
Marc Bridle
says:-
As it happens, my last
Seen and Heard editorial as UK
editor is on this subject (the premise
of the editorial is change in music
since I became editor).
Briefly, I have all
the CDs that I want to listen to
on my 60GB iPod - and that includes
two complete Ring cycles, and Stockhausen's
complete Aus dem Sieben Tagen,
Bruckner symphonies, Mahler symphonies,
piano sonatas, string quartets and so
on. I have also downloaded videos of
Callas to watch (I suppose South Park
doesn't count as classical). I haven't
finished transferring everything yet,
but it equates to 1959 tracks, 12 days
of complete music and 19GB of space.
Although it imports in Apple's mp4 format
(which, incidentally, is CD quality)
it shrinks the disc size to one tenth
of its size. When you come to burn that
music it expands it so you get an exact
copy of the CD you originally burnt.
I've had an iPod since
the second generation scroll wheel 3
or 4 years ago - and have now upgraded
via the Nano to the Fifth Generation
ipod Video. I often use an Airport (wireless)
connection (using supplementary software)
to broadcast through speakers
in the main living room and when I took
it to America earlier this year I was
able to broadcast from it.
Originally it was not
built for classical use - long tracks
would skip and not play to their conclusion.
That is not the case now - they play
seamlessly.
Euan
Bayliss contributed:-
I have an iPod Shuffle,
which is excellent for the train to
work. It's been a boon as I can fit
about 8 hours of music on the iPod,
it's
easy to change the music on it too.
Paul Serotsky
wrote:
I may well try to find
out a bit more about iPod, though I'd
still like to
hear opinions and (more usefully) objective
assessments and hard facts from
others - I can still remember the suspicion
with which I greeted MD and its
ATRAC compression when it first came
out, and that suspicion was based on
common sense and a lack of hard knowledge
about what it was and how it worked.
And
in connection with degrees of compression
in the transfer from CD to iPod, Paul
added :-
To my mind, the important question
is: what is the recording format
used to store the music? - specifically,
the type and degree of compression?
If for example, it was MP3 at even a
moderate bit-rate (say, 128 Kbps), then
the sound would be "mind-blowing" only
in relation to 78s, whilst ATRAC at
the same bit-rate would at the very
least have people thinking they were
in the CD ball-park! Unless you use
a very modest compression (no less than
about 25 to 50%, which significantly
reduces the "store thousands of songs"
PR boasting), MP3's handling of wide
dynamics is pretty execrable -and this
is a function of the compression used,
not the iPod hardware.
Paul later wrote:-
After a bit of rummaging
I discovered that the iPod, somewhat
in line with its DVD counterparts, supports
a multitude of recording formats, so
it is possible to choose a format and
bit-rate that suits your needs for sound
quality and dynamic range.
Of particular interest,
you can store recordings in uncompressed
WAV format, which means that the original
recording is stored "bit-for-bit". The
catch with this format is that it actually
takes up quite a bit MORE disc space
than does CDA, the format in which CDs
are encoded! Yet, curiously - although
I may simply have missed it (well, it
was rather late!) - the iPod does NOT
seem to support CDA itself!
Obviously, the main
merit of the iPod is its computer and
internet connectivity, making music
more "mobile". However, as far as I've
been able to ascertain, it will - like
an MD recorder or cassette deck - operate
as a hi-fi peripheral. This leaves the
Big Question - are the electronics up
to hi-fi standard? From the reaction
of the folk at Salisbury RMS, it "sounds"
as if they are.
One other thought:
at present, the obvious target for a
hi-fi recording/playback device is to
do away with moving parts. It is therefore
odd that the iPod seems to be developing
AWAY from the use of static memory like
flash card and TOWARDS the use of hard
drive, which has both moving parts and
a higher battery power consumption.
Will this trend reverse in the face
of the dizzying rate that memory card
capacities seem to be increasing? I
certainly would like to see the iPod
and its ilk incorporate memory card
alongside HD, because the HD is fixed
- once it's full, you have to delete
something to make room for more. The
memory card, though, would be exchangeable,
so "record collectors" could continue
to enjoy their lifelong hobby, albeit
using up rather less in the way of shelf-space!
Paul Shoemaker says:
For a long time now
I have stored music in MP-3, flac, and
OGG compressed formats on my hard disk
and on 5 inch disks, CD and DVD, and
many of my musical friends do as well.
But I do not know anybody who uses a
portable player, and in fact I have
never heard or seen one. I have
a clamshell type portable MP-3 player
for 5 inch CD disks and have thought
about putting it in my car, but never
have done so.
If I have a music file
for someone, I either bring it on a
CDR, or load it on my Sony microvault
and transfer it to their computer hard
disk.
As I write
it is Sunday 4 June 2006 and I am still
researching but becoming clearer in
my mind as to the benefits of iPod.
I am now resolved to acquire an iPod
at the end of June to help me organise
lectures and classical music appreciation music
holidays that I lead. Then, after
I have had a chance to use it for a
spell I will report back to MusicWeb
on my findings and incidentally pass
an opinion on some of those books listed
above (and any others I come across).
Watch
this space….
Addendum
Seen
and Heard Review
The Global
Concert Hall: Marc Bridle
takes a look at DG Concerts, a new musical
innovation between Deutsche Grammophon
and Apple’s iTunes.
In my recent editorial,
I briefly touched on Deutsche Grammophon’s
new musical arrangement with iTunes
– DG Concerts. On paper this looks like
a fascinating concept – concerts are
recorded, and a few weeks after the
event are released for music download
on iTunes. At the moment this is an
exclusive arrangement between the record
company and the iconic computer developer,
Apple, but sometime during the latter
part of this year DG will broaden its
retail base to include Real’s Rhapsody
and Napster. In their press release
DG mention the possibility of releasing
one of the concerts on disc at the end
of each year – but the principle is
that the concerts are available only
as downloadable content.
The benefits of this
collaboration are clear. As Esa-Pekka
Salonen, Music Director of the Los Angeles
Philharmonic, and one of the first orchestras
to be part of this new initiative, said,
"Downloading is the relevant channel
for music distribution in the 21st century.
It provides a very important and significant
opportunity for classical music listeners
to discover, experience and appreciate
new music through the latest technology."
The New York Philharmonic, DG’s other
current American partner, said, "Thanks
to this new collaboration with Deutsche
Grammophon, the Philharmonic is helping
to pave the way for classical music
into the digital age. Our music will
reach fans around the world in a format
that is accessible, portable, and very
personal."
Creating a new model
for symphonic listening, with the technology
available to make for CD quality sound,
the crucial point of this venture is
that it revolutionizes the financial
and logistical challenges that have
latterly made conventional recordings
problematic. Via the download market,
DG all but eradicates the expensive
manufacturing cost of CDs and by broadening
the scope of what is recorded (a full
concert) repertoire is expanded. In
the case of the LAPO, one of America’s
most forward-thinking orchestras when
it comes to concert programming, this
makes for some thought provoking couplings.
The third LAPO release, from the orchestras
current ‘Beethoven Unbound’ series,
couples Beethoven’s Second Leonore Overture
with the Fifth symphony and Lutosławski’s
Fourth Symphony, a Salonen speciality.
The Fourth release, in June, and from
the same series, will couple Beethoven’s
Seventh and Eighth Symphonies with a
new work by the Swedish composer Anders
Hillborg, Eleven Gates.
The New York Philharmonic, a different
kind of orchestral animal to their West
Coast online partners, have so far offered
a more conservative and mainstream choice
of repertoire. The first disc, of Mozart’s
Symphonies 39, 40 and 41, conducted
by the orchestra’s Music Director, Lorin
Maazel, established that orchestra’s
less ground-breaking approach to concert
programming. The NYPO’s second release
will feature Brahms’ Variations on
a Theme by Haydn, Kodály’s
Dances of Galanta
and Dvořák’s Symphony No.7 from
the orchestra’s 14,244th concert given
on 31 March.
What of the performances
themselves? Captured live, all of the
downloads I have listened to so far
are in excellent, well balanced sound,
with rich dynamics and superb musical
clarity. If the LAPO recordings sound
better focused it is because their new
Walt Disney Concert Hall offers a richer
acoustic than the New York Philharmonic’s
drier Avery Fisher Hall. Lorin Maazel’s
Mozart has always been on the weightier
side of HIP, and the three symphonies
programmed are no exception to that.
But they stand together as a superbly
played triptych, even if the musical
insights are few. Their second concert
offers a richer musical experience.
Maazel’s Dvořák beams with confidence
and in the case of the Seventh Symphony
he offers the kind of refined performance
that balances the work’s rhapsodic and
rigorous musical ideas succinctly and
dramatically. In the case of the Kodály,
orchestra and conductor revel
in the dripping colours the score throws
up.
The first two LAPO
downloads were both of contemporary
music concerts from the orchestra’s
Minimalist Jukebox season – the first
coupling Arvo Pärt (Tabula Rasa)
and Louis Andriessen (Racconto dall’Inferno,
in its US premiere, and De Staat).
The second concert featured works by
Steve Reich – Variations for Wind,
Strings and Keyboards, Three
Movements for Orchestra and Tehillim.
The latter concert, especially, has
the kind of echt American synchronicity
of music to insight one would expect,
and in the case of Reich’s Tehillim,
the Los Angeles players give the music
a genuine sense of discovery through
an orchestral voyage that is frequently
breathtaking in its scope.
Less satisfactory as single concert
experiences are the two Salonen downloads;
they very much come across as indistinct
musical ventures. The performances of
the three Beethoven symphonies suffer
from a sense of the routine: there is
nothing in Salonen’s Beethoven to make
you feel you are hearing anything new
or revolutionary in the music. The orchestra’s
playing is embalmed in a world of tranquillity
too, and in the case of the Seventh
and Fifth orchestra and conductor gesture
towards a world of innocuousness rather
than searing revolution. The Hillborg
and Lutosławski,
however, are an entirely different matter.
Here both orchestra and conductor find
themselves on much safer territory.
The Lutosławski Fourth Symphony
is a definitive performance: both Salonen
and the orchestra have played the work
so frequently with each other
that its secrets seem to open up preternaturally.
The juxtaposition of the work’s lyricism
and mercurial faster sections are well
sustained and the orchestra plays magnificently:
unison strings and brass in the second
movement are superb, as is the symphony’s
ending as the orchestra dissolves into
a kind of dreamy recollected silence.
Anders Hillborg’s music
usually stretches itself between extremes
of contrast: there is the mechanical
with the almost human, the static with
the active, and the brutal and violent
with the noble and transfigured. There
is often something surreal about his
music, and the notion that hearing a
Hillborg piece is rather like looking
at a Dali painting or seeing a Cocteau
film is forever present in the mind.
Eleven Gates falls neatly into
this Hillborgesque soundscape: the work
opens in stasis and disintegrates into
feverish, raucous, energetic dissonance
before dissolving into silent quiescence
before ending in shattering clusters
of density. Running for almost 17 minutes,
Salonen and his Los Angeles players
give Eleven Gates a virtuosic
and physical workout.
So far, DG have concentrated
only on the NYPO and LAPO but they intend
recording concerts from most of the
world’s major musical capitals. I hope
this will include Thielemann in Munich,
but DG have yet to announce publicly
who its non-US partners are. If the
idea itself is one that is invigorating
and adventurous, with its scope for
introducing new audiences to classical
music, there are a few quirks that are
inexplicable. DG states in its press
release that tracks will be available
for individual download. This is not
strictly true if one visits iTunes where
individual tracks are not available
for individual download. This would
make the prospect of the Salonen/Beethoven
concerts a better financial investment
if one could just download the Hillborg
or Lutosławski
pieces and not the Beethoven. And why
has iTunes provided booklet notes for
download on its US site but not on its
UK one? No doubt these small problems
will be addressed but they should neither
detract from nor render this important
project less important than it
is for the future of classical music.
Marc Bridle
