more on eMusic



Two really good friends of mine thought I might have been a bit harsh regarding eMusic's catalog selection. I meant no such disrespect in all honesty---my point is just that eMusic is not a panacea. There are some great things there, but perhaps they're not as easy to find.

So I did a more diligent search, and in addition to the Terry Riley and Harry Partch stuff I had previously found, I grabbed my full allotment for the month with these gems:

* Wozzeck (the more recent Karl Bohm recording, which is almost as good as Bohm's old LP version with Evelyn Lear; I downloaded this one to complement my existing Barenboim recording, which is ok, but I miss the original Karl Bohm records I listened to a very long time ago)

* A ton of stuff by Giacinto Scelsi. I grabbed a bunch of his piano music and reed pieces. I've known his music for some time and always liked it, but now I really love it and need more of it.

* A string quartet by Julia Wolfe (there are supposed to be two more on the album, but only one was available)

* Some organ music by Schoenberg and Ligeti (the latter's Ricercare)

* A bunch of piano works by Stockhausen

* In the "I can't believe I did this" mode---the first and second piano sonatas by Boulez. Yes, I know he's not my favorite composer by a long shot, but I liked my old LPs of these two pieces (particularly the second sonata as performed by Pollini) and figured it was worth another look. I still am not warm to his music, but these two works are tolerable---better than the third piano sonata, which is aleatoric but nowhere near as great as indeterminate pieces by Cage, Feldman and others.

* Fog Tropes by Ingraham Marshall (an oldie and still a goodie)

* Channels Passing by Paul Dresher (like the Marshall work, I have this on LP and am just too lazy to digitize it right now)

* Night Peace and The Far Country of Sleep by John Luther Adams

That all maxed out my account until Feb. 20th. I'm going to keep it going for now, since there is a lot of good stuff. I'd like to see more releases from Mode on there, but I'm told that will be coming. I'd also love it if they might provide album art, but that's a small point. A larger issue is that some albums, like some of Glenn Branca's symphonies, are there but you can't download any of the tracks, which is as good as their not being in the catalog. In other cases, some tracks of an album may be available but others aren't. Perhaps it's a copyright issue?

So there---it's a good service, relatively cheap, with a growing catalog of new music, and it's easy to download things on a whim that one might not otherwise experience, just like I used to do with LPs when they were really cheap and plentiful. And there's no DRM, which is a real plus!

Posted: Fri - January 26, 2007 at 10:18 PM          

©