TQ: Music

This week's meme from Mark covers music. This is perfect since I just got back from the season opener of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra: Bartok's The Wooden Prince.

1. What is your favorite way to listen to music?
Live. OK, beyond that, probably in the car. I'm not so much interested in the volume as the acoustics and immersion factors. Being in a small, enclosed space that has six or eight speakers sounds great. Not as great as it sounded tonight at Powell Symphony Hall, though.

2. What classical composer doesn't get enough credit/airplay in your opinion?
In the spirit of the evening, I'll say Bartok. I must confess I was not at all familiar with him until tonight, but his composition was truly enjoyable. It was a fast paced, varied score that kept a 103 piece orchestra very busy for almost an hour non-stop. While I probably preferred the Mozart concerto that proceeded it, I'm glad to have been introduced to this Hungarian/Romanian composer.

3. What band / artist would you like to see (cough) retire immediately?
Pretty much any rapper, especially St. Louis's very own Nelly. I just don't think a rapper singing explicit lyrics represents the spirit of St. Louis.

4. Looking into your crystal ball, what will replace the mp3 player?
The MP3 player, in as much as one means an electronic player that plays digital audio files from some solid state or hard disk storage, I think the MP3 player is pretty much here to stay. Primarily, I suppose I see the same thing happening to it as has happened to the PDA: it will become increasingly part of cell phones rather than a stand alone device. Perhaps the successors to the 80 GB iPod, and other high end devices, will stick around in independent form, but in 2010, I think most people will use their 100 GB cell phones that can connect to the iTunes Music Store wirelessly for no additional charge.

Note: The questions on this page written by Mark are governed by the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.5 license. I believe my responses are allowed under fair use and therefore are not licensed under the Creative Commons license (I don't want people messing with adapting my personal opinions, thank you very much).

Wow, David Robertson is some conductor! That was spectacular tonight. The SLSO is an amazing orchestra, but Robertson's conducting was simply an amazing performance all by itself. It was a good way to ring out this year; tomorrow's my birthday.