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Bali Wha? Being from that part of the world that John Culshaw writes about in "Bali Hoo!" [July], I would like to point out that the finest dances and good gamelan music were usually reserved for the rulers of Indonesia; they are traditionally performed in the kratons [roughly translated, hideaways] of the sultans. Consequently, if one wants to hear this authentic music and see the real dances, one must still seek them at the traditional places. The sultanate in Bali is hardly what it was in the late 1800s. More appropriate places would be the kratons at Jogjakarta or Surakarta. Mr. Culshaw's expectations are a little like asking for the quality of the Metropolitan Opera or the New York Philharmonic on the beach at Miami. -Paul A. Elias, New York, N.Y. The tourist only courts disappointment if he asks a Balinese taxi driver to take him to the evening's display of Barong, gamelan, or Ketjak dancing--as my wife and I found during a visit to the island two years ago. Far better to sound out the local people, hire a motorbike, and head off inland for the true village ceremonies. Expect your hotel to be innocent of running water if you want to enjoy three days of wedding and funeral festivities, as we did in Ubud, miles from the coastal tourist centers. Balinese music is intricately woven into the unique religious culture of this beautiful island. Small wonder, then, that the Balinese jealously preserve its true performance for authentic family occasions. Tapes that I made while eavesdropping on such events indicate (to me, at least) that their musical culture is no less healthy than it was when it fascinated Debussy and Britten. I've broadcast them in the past on the BBC and just recently on the CBC-FM net work. -Keith Homer, Toronto, Ont. Of Destiny and Mistaken Identity Figure my chagrin to open the April issue of HIGH FIDELITY (my mail comes late. naturellement; frankly. I feel fortunate receiving it at all) and find [in "Rosa Ponselle Reminisces"] a purported photograph of my self-together with a then popular Neapolitan tenor and a parvenue American soprano-in the 1918 premiere at the Met of Lu Force du Destin. Alas, mon pole, who ever may be the dim character skulking be hind that farcical zareba, it is not Leon Rothier! Perhaps this type is some furtive admirer of the lady? Doubtless we shall never be sure, for (as you, copain, will be the first to forgive my observing) even our anonymous subject would be hard put to recognize himself beneath the burden of so preposterous camouflage. "Pleads for divine mercy," read the caption about our subject as Padre Guardiano. "Pleads for divine mercy" indeed! That vulgar gesticulation in the photograph would better serve to entice an unengaged caleche or a vagrant cocotte. Invoking the Maker is a solemn thing, unsuited to the arena-style of that epitomic nonentity. I should not have resented your conferring my identity upon the image of an artiste: of a Plancon, a Journet, or possibly, in a pinch, a Vanni Marcoux. But upon that of a nondescript impostor who may even, for all I know, be some talentless gravel-voiced Spaniard of the sort of Jose Mardones? -Leon Rothier, c/o A.C. Hall Dallas, Tex. Figure our chagrin to consult the Metropolitan Opera annals and discover that indeed it is Mardones' visage that is obscured by that so preposterous camouflage. But in the interest of historical evenhandedness, we must dissociate ourselves from M. Rothier's somewhat intemperate artistic judgments at the same time that we offer our sincere apology for the error. MXR Compander Your evaluation of the MXR Compander in the article "Get the Noise Out of Your Sys tem" [July] has caused much concern on our part at MXR. We feel the recording and playback levels were improperly set during the evaluation, as indicated by the references to a "false brightness" added to signals without sufficient high-frequency con tent, tape saturation during "very fast transients." and the "relatively high noise level of the cassette" medium used during the evaluation. Contrary to statements in the article, I feel one of the most beneficial uses of the Compander is in conjunction with cassette equipment, as evidenced by the intentional absence of high-frequency pre- and de-emphasis, and the Compander's price (about $130). This high-frequency tailoring places more stringent demands upon the capability of the user's tape equipment; therefore, we opted for no high-frequency tailoring in our design of the Compander in an attempt to cover a wider range of applications. Another design requirement was that the cost of the noise-reduction device not approach or exceed the cost of the equipment it is benefiting. The reference to the lack of "convenience features" was interesting. There was no recognition of the fact that the Compander simultaneously compresses two channels and expands two channels, allowing continuous monitoring of the actual recording on three-head machines and eliminating the need for record-play switches on the Compander. The Compander has no bells, whistles, or unneeded flashing lights. -Richard Neatrour, Chief Engineer, MXR Innovations, Inc. On the assumption that there may have been a malfunction in our first sample of the MXR-though the unit showed no obvious signs of it--we did further testing with another sample. The second sample, unlike the first, did not seem significantly slow in "grabbing" the fast transients. But it did, like the earlier sample, cause audible "breathing" of the cassette tape hiss. De spite the Compander's increased dynamic range (by comparison to Dolby B) with steady-state signals, and working with what we would consider musical signals of normal dynamic variation, the noise (which can suggest brightness) via the MXR is, if anything, a little more apparent--at least in some passages and with some equipment. FM Limiting In "Ten Loudspeaker Shopping Tips" [June] readers are told not to use FM stations for evaluating speakers unless the stations are known not to "limit or otherwise process" signals being transmitted. Regardless of what they may say, 99.99% of all stations limit their signals with compressors, peak limiters, or clippers, or else they would overload their transmitters, distort, go off the air, or face FCC citation. FM pre-emphasis requires automatic devices to bring high-frequency transients under control in order to broadcast them legally. Luckily, the latest generation of audio processing equipment, like the Orban OPTIMOD, does this so well that much of the action is inaudible. And if one is going to listen to FM radio with the speakers, it stands to reason that one should evaluate the speakers with FM radio! I can cite two personal examples: At one audio salon, I was given a speaker demonstration on a souped-up system using Sheffield records. What I heard bowled me over. But I asked to hear a few FM stations I knew and enjoyed so that I could tell what typical program material sounded like. At another store, the only classical discs were two incredibly scratched and mangled copies of Copland's Rodeo. I had to turn to FM to get a perspective on the differences between speakers. Using FM stations to check for voice quality is also helpful. I tune in stations that appear to have natural-sounding mikes and announcers and listen for speakers with a tendency toward tubbiness or nasality. Perhaps I am writing from an oasis in the broadcasting desert, but in the San Francisco Bay Area we seem to have many FM stations that are doing an outstanding technical job. -Stephen R. Waldee, San Mateo, Calif. If you plan to listen only to FM, there's nothing wrong with using only FM signals in picking speakers. If you want to repeat at home the type of enjoyment you evidently derived from the Sheffield discs, however, you'd better make sure your speakers will also handle signals that are more demanding than FM-such as those from your own discs. Reviewers Reviewed I was very pleased to see a magazine finally give proper credit to one of the original geniuses of the modern record industry. I speak of Todd Everett's review of "Phil Spector's Greatest Hits" [June]. This album is a basic repertoire item that should be in every collection. Most of the popular music we hear today is either a slight modification of or a variation on Spector's famous "wall of sound." -Paul W. Urbahns, Radcliff, Ky. Jim Melanson's review of Emerson, Lake and Palmer's newest release, "Works" [July], prompts me to write. He says, "The idea of having members of a super-group momentarily part ways on the same release is precedent-setting in itself." But in 1969, Pink Floyd released the legendary "Umma gumma," a two-record set. On the first disc, the group plays four cuts live in Cambridge, England. The second disc features one solo studio piece by each member of the band, plus an extra piece of multitracking genius by Roger Waters (bass. Vocals, synthesizer, spiritual leader of Pink Floyd) entitled "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict." (A Pict is a Scottish Highlands aborigine.) -Larry Rogak, Coral Gables, Fla. Mr. Melanson replies: While I can appreciate Mr. Rogak's point, I still maintain that ELP's "Works" is precedent-setting. True, Pink Floyd members Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Rick Wright have a solo cut apiece on the studio portion of "Ummagumma"-produced by Norman Smith, whereas only the "live" sides were produced by the group. On the who,- hand. “Works" contains fall individualized sides, virtually mini-LPs, by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, each player having conceived and produced his own from start to finish. "Ummagumma" may or may not have been a source of inspiration; I don't know. But I wouldn't call it a precedent merely because of its solo cuts. "Works" broadens the age-old notion of a group player going solo to the point that structurally the result stands alone. [John Storm Roberts provides a full-scale overview of ELP's career in BACKBEAT this month. -Ed.] Hubris or Criticism? When Janet Baker is described as having "severely limited" vocal resources [review of Bach arias, July] in a magazine that regularly praises Jan DeGaetani, one begins to wonder what you are listening to. Anyone who has heard Miss Baker sing in Carnegie Hall, the Coliseum, or the War Memorial in San Francisco-all large halls-would find such a wholesale condemnation ridiculous and insulting. This kind of lofty, inaccurate judgment is hubris, not criticism. -Stephanie von Buchau, Performing Arts Editor, San Francisco magazine, San Francisco, Calif. Surely it is a temporary lapse, brought on by excessive spleen, that permits Ms. Von Buchau, a professional journalist herself, to write of "a magazine that regularly praises Jan DeGaetani" and to wonder "what you [sic] are listening to," as if HF were a monolith with ears. In that region of each issue in which HF publishes signed re views, it is merely a slate on which its contributors write. The resulting conglomeration of opinion is subject only to the dictates of factual soundness, good taste, and fair play; no strictures are placed on how praise and censure may be allotted. Kenneth Furie, who wrote the review Ms. Von Buchau quotes, hears Baker's vocal re sources as "severely limited," an assertion he regards as objectively verifiable with evidence not even the artist's mast perfer vid fans would call into question. Others, could they offer data of a similar kind to support the opposing view, would be equally welcome in HF's columns, where their postulates and those of our music editor could exist in benign contradiction without raising any moral requirement that "we" take sides. And who says a pinch of hubris isn't an ingredient of good criticism? MHS Reclamation Reviewer David Hamilton laments his in ability to find a record, once on the Da Camera label, containing a performance of Hugo Wolf's Goethean disquisition on alcoholism, "Sie haben wegen der Trunkenheit" [June]. It is obtainable from the Musical Heritage Society as MHS 1868, which contains a number of other unusual Wolf items. It also suggests that singer Gilvan prefers to spell his name Raimund, as do the other Gilvan records I've encountered. -David M. Greene Bethlehem, Pa. David Hamilton replies: Mr. Greene is perfectly correct, and I suppose we must all learn to check the Musical Heritage Society catalog regularly, for it now reaches into virtually every corner of the repertory. Viennese Light Music Society In his "Tape Deck" column [June], R. D. Darrell discussed the Viennese Light Music Society, which produces cassettes of the great waltz kings, etc. Since that was writ ten, we have been appointed agents for the Society on this side of the Atlantic. We are attempting to carry stocks of all the cassettes in this country for sale and to operate on a nonprofit basis. All revenues go into new recordings. Membership is no longer required under this arrangement. The cassettes are priced at S9.00 for one and $8.50 each for two or more, postpaid. Most of the music is not commercially available. We welcome inquiries (as well as orders!). -John Johnston K. C. Co. P.O. Box 793 Augusta, Maine 04330 Hungerford Memorial Many HIGH FIDELITY readers will be aware by now of the tragic death in an automobile accident of the eminent pianist Bruce Hungerford on January 26, 1977. The Bruce Hungerford Memorial Foundation, Inc., has been established in response to the wishes of many of his friends and admirers around the world. So far, it has presented two programs in his honor, in Westchester County, and in New York City. Also planned is a two-record memorial album based on a broadcast by three of his closest friends and associates over WNCN-FM, New York, a few days after the fatal accident. This will be issued by private subscription in a limited edition to contributors to the Foundation of $25 or more and will include portions of live concert performances by Hungerford never be fore released. Eventually, the Foundation hopes to raise funds enough to endow a Bruce Hungerford Memorial Scholarship. Contributions (which are tax-deductible) or inquiries will be welcomed at the Foundation's address, 101 Station Rd., Irvingtonon-Hudson. N.Y. 10533. - Werner Isler, President, Bruce Hungerford Memorial Foundation, Inc. Irvingtonon-Hudson, N.Y. Posthorn Postscript May I make a few further remarks about the posthorn part in Mahler's Third Sym phony [March review and Maurice Abravanel's comments on it. "Letters," June]? In the summer of 1970 I had the opportunity to help prepare the International Gustav Mahler Society's "Critical Collected Edition" of this work, and a lot of material from its archives was made available. In the manuscript, the posthorn part was originally marked "trumpet," but this was scratched out and changed to "flugelhorn," as shown in the first edition. In Mahler's personal copy of the first edition, with re touches made in red ink, "flugelhorn" was changed to "piston" (cornet), but this in turn was scratched out in favor of the post-horn, the instrument designated in the second edition and, of course, also in the Society's version (Universal Edition), which represents Mahler's final intention. Incidentally, the music for the posthorn is prudently cued into the first trumpet part. -Parks Grant Oxford, Miss. Helping Hand? Our church has received some 1,300 recordings as donations. They are mostly classical, and we would like to introduce more people to "better" music. Unfortunately, our equipment is for the most part antique. We'd love to replace it with modern high-quality equipment, but we've no funds with which to buy it. Is there anyone among your readers who might consider donating badly needed equipment? Physical appearance is unimportant as long as the equipment is in good working order. We specifically need a basic amp (70 to 100 watts, two- or four-channel), two or four large speakers, a single-play turntable and cartridge, a preamp, an equalizer, a noise-reduction device, headphones, and cassette deck. We'll he grateful for any help. The Rev. Theo Wagner Church of the Helping hand. Inc. 2150 E. Washington Ave. Madison, Wis., 53704, USA (High Fidelity, Oct. 1977) Also see: |
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