The Fredösphere

Congratulations to Scott Spiegelberg, whose blog Musical Perceptions turns one year old today.  You will recall Scott is the scion of Satan, the brother of Beelzebub, the heir of the Erl King, the apple of Apollyon's eye.  See his recent post on research into high-definition MIDI.

Alex Ross has a lot to say about American operas, including those by Lorin Maazel and  William Bolcom.  Barber's Antony and Cleopatra gets a mention.  I really like A&C, and wish that the bozo who lost the Ann Arbor library's recording of it would find and return it.  You may recall I extend my approval (whatever it may be worth) to operas only reluctantly.  The story about A&C is that it never recovered from the botched production of its premiere.  I should add it to the list of operas I'd like to see.

My friend Alan urges me to check out MPR's report on the Cleophone.  I'm going to resist the overpowering urge to put an umlaut on the first "o."

What looks like a dulcimer and sounds like electronically altered Balinese gamelan? The answer is the Cleophone. The instrument's Minneapolis inventor created it mainly for the sheer pleasure of sonic exploration.

I feel I must warn you, this article contains Weird Band Name Content that some readers may find disturbing:

During the day Krecji works for a Twin Cities PR firm. At night he sometimes plays in a loud rock band known as the Reverend Strychn Trio. What he likes about the Cleophone is its potential to reach audiences beyond the dingy bar scene.