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Crescendo Now, Pay Later

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:01:27 +0000

In the hierarchy of musical priorities, dynamics have often appeared to me to be relegated to fairly low niche and left there to languish, their immense potential for beauty and expressiveness being overlooked and ignored. Even in recordings of professional orchestras it is not at all unusual to here a crescendo or diminuendo begin and end without any unified idea of where it is heading. Concerts or recordings where the music making is otherwise of a very high calibe all to often approach the dynamics with far less care and intelligence than other musical matters.

Every musician knows what dynamics are and will tell you that when they see an mf on the music, by golly they play mezzo forte! And when they see a crescendo to a fff, watch out, buddy!

Crescendos (or crescendi, for our purist friends) seem to bring out a primal Darwinian, survival of the fittest impulse in many of us. If you can do it, e.g. low brass, most percussion, etc., then do it. If you can’t, e.g. low register flutes, middle register clarinets, etc., then get out of the way. It is quite understandable. After all, you flutes and clarinets get all the great melodies and technical calisthenics while we timpanists and trombonists are stuck back here counting rests. So, when we are finally allowed to speak, our voices will be heard! Then to our delight and to the delight of our audiences, excitement happens! Everybody wins, right? Absolutely. The only casualty is the music.

I don’t wish to claim any tremendous pre-eminence in this area, but I have listened to what others have to say on the topic and have explored a number of approaches on my own. I also don’t wish to suggest that any of my findings are original with me. Au contraire, anyone with keen musical sensitivities would be very apt to make similar explorations and discoveries on their own. So with your kind indulgence, perhaps we can investigate a few of these principals together. If you find something here that might squeeze your own creative juices, then my fondest hopes will have been realized. If not, then I recommend you demand a full refund from the author.

Why don’t we continue flogging the subject of the crescendo for just a moment or two? Most of them seem to have a destination or a specific point in the music when the energy and momentum gathered by it is released in a heightened moment of drama or intensity. Obviously, for the full dramatic potential of the passage to be realized there has to be general agreement exactly where and when that moment will arrive. If a few people in the ensemble peak on the crescendo prematurely the effect is spoiled, and the audience slinks out of the hall feeling violated and unclean.

A question that is too rarely asked is, “What should the shape of the crescendo be?” The written symbol has two converging straight lines, yet in most instances, to shape the crescendo like a trumpet bell would be musically and dramatically much more effective, i.e. very little crescendo at first, then gradually increasing the volume, saving the final 50% of the crescendo for the last 10% of the passage. You may wish to experiment with this idea in a few select passages to see if you agree with the results. My guess is that you will be heralded as a genius and promoted at least as high the custodial staff.

Another oft-neglected question is, “Who should crescendo when?” May I offer a suggestion here, also?

A typical passage containing a crescendo might consist of the melodic material in the upper voices, the harmonic or accompanimental figures in the middle voices, a bass line, and some rhythmic figures in the percussion. If you were to encourage the melodic instruments to begin the crescendo first and the accompaniment to construct their crescendo entirely in support of the melody, but never upstaging it, you will find that the melody will maintain its primacy. Now, if through coercion or perhaps even bribery, you can appeal to the percussionists’ better angels and make them aware of the ever-present danger of premature gesticulation, you may have crated the ideal crescendo. If the percussionists save a solid 80% of their crescendo until the last couple of beats before its apex, they will provide the perfect dot for the perfect “i” and prove once again, even to the most skeptical, that, except in certain one-on-one disciplinary actions, intelligence and sensitivity trump brute force every time.

It is my fervent hope to continue to lobby for the liberation of the crescendo. If there is any true justice I have recruited you to become a like-minded zealot to this most noble of causes.

Any comments about your own glorious victories you might wish to contribute would, no doubt, serve as an enduring inspiration to us all.

Credit Cards: What Do Psychologists Have to Say about It?

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:01:09 +0000

The number one rule when you are choosing a credit card deal is to consider your spending habits. You should always keep in mind where you like to shop, how much balance you usually carry on your plastic and whether you spend enough to qualify for those rewards and cash backs. So it is obvious, that your credit card choice depends on your spending habits. However, your spending habits are greatly influenced by credit cards.
Psychological studies have shown that consumer behavior of those using credit is different from those paying with cash. The following experiment was conducted at one of the American universities. Two groups of people were bidding on the same items. Members of one group could only bid with cash, the others were allowed to bid only with credit cards. The result of the experiment was quite interesting. Those who could bid with credit cards ended up making bets twice as high as those made by participants paying with cash.
That means that every dollar spent with a credit card equals 50 cents spent in cash. In other words, people shopping with credit cards spend twice as much as those shopping cash. Why does this happen?
Buying things is pleasant. Paying for them is not. Usually a consumer tries to find a balance so that the pleasure of having overweighs the pain of paying for it. When a credit card holder uses his or her plastic pleasant consumption transaction is disconnected from the unpleasant payment transaction.
Of course, you still have to pay for what you have bought. According to scientific data people dislike paying credit card bills even more than paying parking tickets. But still, people enjoy buying something with a credit card more.
Studies have shown that even a credit card logo on a catalogue or a debit card excites people. This is another wonderful way to increase sales and many merchants know that.
So are credit cards enticing you to overspend? Pretty much so. So are credit card-issuers to blame for the increased credit card debt? Well, that would not be quite fare to say so.
Even though a consumer seems to spend more with a credit card but most people are able to stop when they know they are about to exceed the limit. And we are not talking about credit card limit, but the limit they have set for themselves, something like ‘I won’t pay for a pair of shoes more than 100 bucks’. Credit cards might make you spend more but they do not force you to overspend.
Rather, high interest rates and fees and those unpleasant credit card bills make consumers stop. People do not like giving money, especially to banks. From this standpoint overspending is more likely to happen when shopping with cash than with a credit card.
Credit card deals can be very beneficial for consumers if used wisely. Of course, they sometimes make you to spend more, especially if you want to get a cash back or earn bonus miles. But the decision is always yours. You are the only one who can answer the crucial question – to spend, or not to spend…

Creators Of Magic Tricks — A Brief History Of Magic Tricksters

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:00:20 +0000

We’ve all heard the term “magic.” Some of us use it in our daily lives. But what really is magic? Well, the formal definition of magic is something like this: Magic is the performance of illusions meant to entertain, baffle and amaze. The purpose of magic is to give the illusion that the impossible or supernatural has been achieved. Although magic deals with the illusion of the supernatural, no ghostly beings or entities actually have any part in a magic act. Truly entertaining magic is always done by a skilled performer who knows how to use natural means to create the impression that something next to impossible has been done.

Early magic was most likely probably used for cheating in gambling games such as cards or in times of war like the use of the Trojan Horse. But during the 18th magic became less of a series of seemingly pointless deceptions and more of a respectable activity done by professional illusionists.

The earliest recorded modern practice of magic tricks was done by Jean Eugene Robert Houdin in the mid-1800s. In fact, many consider Houdin the father of modern magic. Houdin, originally a trained clock worker, switched to the practicing of magic when he opened a magic theater in Paris in the 1840s. Houdin’s special magic trick of the time was creating small mechanical pieces that seemed to move and act as if they were alive.

After that the popularity of magic continued to grow. In 1873 two men, British performer J. N. Maskelyne and his partner Cooke established their own theatre, the Egyptian Hall in London England’s Piccadilly. The magic tricks these two men were best known for performing were hiding special mechanisms in their stages to control audiences’ points of view. So, the magic was in people and items suddenly disappearing and reappearing, or being distorted in some way.

The late 19th century brought on celebrity magic and celebrity musicians. This was the time of the world-famous Harry Houdini, whose real name was Erich Weiss. Houdini’s magic tricks were based on the ability to escape impossible situations. Today this term is referred to as escapology.

Depending on whom you talk to today, magic is a trivial passtime for children, or magic can be a real source of entertainment. At least that was the common attitude towards magic in the 1980s and 1990s.

Today magic seems to be in vogue again. But most modern workers of magic follow a strict code of ethics. For example, those who perform on television don’t use camera tricks and videotape editing to create the illusion of powerful magic. Magic workers today use only traditional forms of magic. This means they use the same forms of magic for television as they would for a live magic show.

The old saying about magic being smoke and mirrors is true. The art of magic tricks is all about fooling the audiences’ eyes and getting them to think they are seeing something that really isn’t happening. That’s what true magic and the practice of good magic tricks is all about.