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The best and the worst

Head Rambles Posted on by

Yesterday evening I watched a programme I recorded some weeks ago.

Dara O’Briain’s Science Club was a series that took a somewhat whimsical scientific view of various topics.

The episode I watched was the one where they analysed music.  It was interesting and informative.  I’m glad I recorded it.

One very interesting segment was where they sent James May [he of Top Gear fame] over to a German university where they analysed his brain waves in response to different types of music.  They wanted to see how music affects the emotions.  They wired him up and then played what both the testers and May himself agreed was probably the best pieces of music ever composed……

Naturally they then had to compare this with their opinion of the worst…….

What delighted me was that I had to concur with their findings.  The first piece is indeed one of my all time favourites.

The second piece made my ears bleed.

To stick it up on the site, I had to record it, and the process made me feel violently ill.  A nasty case or aural diarrhea.  A cacophony of screeches and discordant wails that thumped through my head for the entire time it took to record.  The things I suffer for you lot.

So Bach is best, and Jedward worst.

You can’t argue with science.

 

Comments

The best and the worst — 18 Comments

  1. Something's seriously off with the sample rate of the Jedward audio, and the Tocata&Fuge isn't in D minor either.

    • That is very weird.  Just compared the Toccata with another recording and it seems to be out by a semi-tone at least?  Uploaded another version and it is the same.  It's fine when played locally but is transposed when played off the site.

      I don't think any distortion/transposition could improve Jedward anyway?

  3. That Bach piece always had me shitting bricks as a kid. I don't know whether that could be construed as a compliment to the man or otherwise.

    I was delighted to hear last week that those two ADD cases were dropped by their record label (dropped into a blasting furnace would have sufficed). That delight instantly evaporated when Louis Walsh excitedly exclaimed "they've still got a lot of life left in 'em".

    Trust Louis to play the part of a perfect killjoy

    • Many years ago I was at a service in Ely Cathedral.  When the service was over, people were filing out when the bloke on the organ laced into the Toccata.  It was a spine-shivering moment.  People started filing back in just to listen.

      What Jedward produce isn't music anyway – it's just a heavy beat with screeches attached.  Walsh has a lot to answer for.

  4. You into the classical GD? 
    Not too gone on that Bach piece.. there's some much better stuff IMO.
    This is one of my favourites – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSeg69d3CQ8

    This is nice too – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b44-5M4e9nI

    I'll limit it to two links I suppose or it'll be spammed.

    Chopin's Nocturnes were cool too and oh Rachmaninov – Piano concerto No. 2.
    Love a lot of Beethoven's stuff.. Must watch that movie 'Immortal Beloved' where Gary Oldman plays him.

    Here's a quote from Luddy on music …nice.
    "Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.

    Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy, it is the wine of a new procreation, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for men and makes them drunk with the spirit.

    We mortals with immortal minds are only born for sufferings and joys, and one could almost say that the most excellent receive joy through sufferings"

    Fascinating man really.

    • I'm into wherever the mood takes me.  Could be Mozart, Karl Jenkins, Beethoven or Mark Knopfler.  Though for driving music, it's hard to beat Queen [at full volume].

      I can't argue with that quote either.  Dunno where I would be without a drop of music around.

  6. I do like Dobby; he's a funny guy. Englishman now methinks. You guys watching the Superbowl over there?

  7. Nice links Anne – nice music – I didn't bother with the Jedward crap – they should have been £$%^@*   Nice taste in music GD – Queen full blast and Dire Straits … yeahhhhh. (Should I be this ecstatic at 62?)

  9. Didn't see that program but in general I do like Dara O’Briain.

    I liked the Three Men in a Boat (various) that he did and also quite enjoyed his book "Tickling the English" – quite amusing read.

     

     

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