Appreciation of Music

viren bakhshi

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 6, 2008
Messages
254
Points
93
Location
New Delhi
Attended a wonderful concert yesterday - the Haydn Barytontrio Budapest playing works of Joseph Haydn, and contemporaries of the 18th century. A trio consisting of a viola, a cello, and a baryton. The baryton, or viola di bordone, is a unique early instrument - the bowed strings of a bass viola, with additional sympathetic strings which can also be plucked. This was the first I was hearing and seeing this instrument.

The venue was the India International Centre auditorium, Delhi, a small, comfortable hall seating about 200 people - ideal for such chamber music. Of course, with good natural acoustics.

My overwhelming sensation as the first notes were played - what wonderful tone! How harmonious the music was! Elation at hearing such beautiful music pouring out. Emotionally uplifting.

Later, I thought of how inadequate conventional audiophile vocabulary is in conveying this experience. Separation, detail, soundstage, depth, gave no indication of the performance at all. Of course, you could clearly hear the instruments separately, but what came through was music as a harmonious whole.

Perhaps, we should be looking at these terms which better qualify music:
- tone : vocal or musical sound, accent or inflection expressive of a mood or emotion.
- timbre : the quality given to a sound by its overtones.
- sonority : sound, imposing or impressive in effect or style.
- harmony : tuneful sound, pleasing or congruent arrangement of parts.

If I want a part of that emotional high, at home, that I got at the concert, I have to reproduce music with these qualities intact.

But first, you have to recognize what these qualities are. That is why it is so important to attend live music concerts. You have to understand what you seek, or else, you seek blindly. Sorry for the blunt words, but that's what it is.

Tone...tone...tone!

Regards,
Viren
 

Attachments

  • baryton.jpg
    baryton.jpg
    6.2 KB · Views: 187
Agree 100%

For me, the most important aspects of a music reproduction system are its abilities to correctly reproduce the tonality and timbre of the instrument being played and recreation of the ambience of the place where the performance is being recorded. That for me creates the realism in the music that is being produced by the system..

Recreation of the hall ambience is imparted by the finesse and detail in the top end, but many systems end up being either too splashy or too muted. Tonality and timbre are dependant on how correctly the speakers can hit the exact pitch center of the note, and correctly reproduce the harmonics and overtones. And the speakers depend on the rest of the chain for supplying the correct signal with the authority to prevent the drivers from misbehaving.

And yes, it is fundamentally important to attend live music.. especially for music where acoustic instruments take the center stage, simply because they are the hardest to reproduce. Classical music, especially western classical is almost always performed live without any amplification. That is why one who listens to classical and attends a lot of classical concerts finds it the most difficult to settle down with a system which can impart that sense of realism to him.
 
Later, I thought of how inadequate conventional audiophile vocabulary is in conveying this experience. Separation, detail, soundstage, depth, gave no indication of the performance at all. Of course, you could clearly hear the instruments separately, but what came through was music as a harmonious whole.

Dear Viren
How lucky of you to have had such a concert. I miss my concert going. I was part of a group that organized and sponsored orchestral and chamber concerts and had the opportunity to attend sometimes as many as two a week!
You are absolutely right that the best audiophile systems get the timbre and tone right. I just mentioned this in a post somewhere else on this forum yesterday where we were discussing the sense or non-sense of high rez digital downloads (192 kHz). Sometimes the audiophile attributes that we so strive for overwhelm the music - soundstaging becomes unnaturally precise almost like we are the mikes themselves suspended over a group of instrument and the "harmonious whole" that one experiences in a concert is just completely lost.
It isn't that I don't revel in an audiophile presentation, which often can make you go "wow" with the right system but the impact of a concert is just about the music. For example it is hard to explain how muted a string section can sound sometimes (without experiencing it) compared with the tilted up treble glare that we often are used to through some audio system presentations.
Nowadays, I just give up on making the expectations of the two meet - they are two very different experiences I think and I wonder if the pleasure each offers should perhaps be enjoyed for what they are......
 
Extremely well writeen Viren Sir.

Seems as if the music you heard in the concert nudged you to express these emotions. Had I known this concert was happening, I would have also attended. Nevertheless, many more to come.

In the recently conducted Jazz festival in Delhi, even though the sound was not very refined, all I was trying to do there was to keep my eyes closed and realize how the piano notes, Cello bass and the instrument separation were coming through. I wanted to take it back as a reference sound and listen to these instruments/facets on my home audio setup. Because what we strive and hope for is to see how real the music feels when we listen to it at home on our setups.

Kudos to you Viren Sir for designing this gem of an equipment - your phono stage. The meaning of sound has completely changed. It seems how it was all a lie before this phono stage. I am still in the learning phase but in my audio journey so far, I have truly understood how each component plays a significant role in improving and refining the sound.

Regards
Kartick
 
My envies are with you, Viren! As they are with Thad for having a thoroughly enjoyable schedule of attending various Live concerts - that too on a weekly basis!

But yes - about what you are saying, it is very easy for most people here to agree with what you are saying. It is entirely different to really understand the spirit and then go on to apply this understanding and spirit to the equipment we are using at home to produce such music.

Often we tend to get lost in the details. The magic - as I recently read elsewhere - is all in the transients....

To me that sentence is almost poetic....especially when we consider that we too are transient beings...in a transient world....
 
My envies are with you, Viren! As they are with Thad for having a thoroughly enjoyable schedule of attending various Live concerts - that too on a weekly basis!

On a daily basis, if I want, which I sometimes do. All the credit for that goes to Chennai! And not having working hours which interfere with evening freedom, of course.

Had actually planned to visit two concerts today :cool: ---which I seldom do, it's like eating a rich meal immediately after finishing another--- but ended up missing both, waiting for an engineer to fix my broadband :mad:
 
Was lucky to have also listened to this Trio at the Alliance Francaise yesterday. Listening to such music in a small group of about 100 people without any amplification was unique. Bangalore school of music has lined up a few more concerts at Alliance Francaise and those interested can keep a track on these... Thanks Viren and Staxxx for your comments....how true...
 
Buy from India's official online dealer!
Back
Top