[NetBehaviour] Music to Listen to

Alan Sondheim sondheim at panix.com
Wed Aug 9 07:45:32 CEST 2023



Music to Listen to

https://youtu.be/A4eF9yfkgf8 video

David Smith and Alan Sondheim, Dallas, 1985-1987

"Was the concert numerously attended last night? The house room
was so full that we were suffocated with heat. In that case I am
glad not to have been there. My dear it is a great pity for you.
That concert was highly interesting. I did not see the program;
but I had heard that very remarkable artists were to be there.
It was so; the most distinguished performers in this country and
several famous Texan and Pennsylvanians virtuosos were there.
The pieces of music were as well selected as could be. They
began with the Symphony and chorus. I don't like that style and
that music always great upon my ears. And yet he attained great
success that night. The first flute at the opera delighted us.
The organ concerto was executed brilliantly. In find the
orchestra was accompanied with rare precision ." (19th cent.
Guide de la Conversation Francais-Anglais, A L'Usage des
Voyageurs et des Etudiants, L. Smith, modified.)

Dallas Texas, David Smith's Mac electronic music studio

Unsure who did what here, a long time ago. He had the most
brilliant, streamlined, intense, sound manipulation / creation /
recording system I've ever seen. And he's passed on, like our
equally brilliant friend Lee Murray, filmmaker, who collaborated
with him. The studio was one room, a very large empty U-shaped
desk, a very large monitor and speakers, everything white or tan
or beige as I recall, very sparse, a couple of chairs, computer
keyboard, mouse, music keyboard. From what I remember.
Everything I think may be wrong.

I found cassette tapes of the two of us, from a long time ago.
They were pristine. I played them back on my Sony TC-152SD
cassette machine which still functions well after 45 years.
Line out went into a Zoom H2.

I detect the long moments of exhalation which would have come
from me. There's no way I can tell at this point, but what is
true, the music is wonderful, and this would have been recorded
while I was teaching at University of Texas, Dallas, sometime in
1985-87.

Glad that the tapes survived. The single image is of a slime
mold after a fairly violent storm.


+++



More information about the NetBehaviour mailing list