h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sorry Nigel, it isn't picture of "The Deep" in Hull-Yorkshire, or a statue of the iceberg that sunk the Titanic.
Have another scan of the intergalactic universe web IGU.Com

If jean Sutherland is singing "Merry Widow" there, then it's the Sydney Opera House. Of course, even if it's a museum there could *still* be music there.

My original caption would have been:

"Long ago, in a galaxy not far enough away..."

Sorry, that should have been *Joan* Sutherland.

(Jean Sutherland is busy taking photographs in Fife)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Sutherland

'The Frederic C. Hamilton Building in Denver, Colorado, holds the modern and contemporary art, African art and Oceanic art collections at the Denver Art Museum.'

- Library of Congress

Oceania covers a lot of territory, likewise Africa. I couldn't even begin to imagine what music genres would be appropriate.

For that matter, the art genres would likewise be diverse.

Here's some real music from the period.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_zjgZJOFl4

This is the medieval equivalent of a metal band, I think. It needs more krumhorn, though...

Those are real pictures from the period, btw. That's what they thought they looked like, not Hollywood's version.

Those singers sound good, considering they're about 1,000 years old or more.

When I sang in a Renaissance choral group, I encountered some really old music. I'm fond of the Agincourt Carol, though it isn't as old as "Sumer is icumen in" or "L'homme arme."

And there are some Irish Christmas songs that are far more ancient than that.

True. Though 'the king went forth from Normandie' isn't as catchy as Patrick Doyle's anthem for 'Henry V'.

I disagree. I found myself wishing they had used the *real* Agincourt Carol.

But what can you do?

I"m not saying that Doyle's tune wasn't lovely (It was). It would have been fine in some other movie.

I had a cousin who liked to listen to Gregorian chant when he was six. (He later played chess by phone with his grandmother.) Kind of a deep kid, and ultimately quite troubled.

There's beautiful music that existed many centuries ago, and it will never find an appreciative audience. Meanwhile, we have marketers writing robotic music for different age groups -- usually kids who don't know any better. Many people think we're in the rock age, but not much rock actually gets made these days. The next dominant genre has not yet been introduced. Rock is tired.

I hope I won't get stoned for writing that. We have the huge good fortune of being able to enjoy well-performed music from five or six centuries back. No one ever needs to get bored; all they need to do is leap to music from some other age -- "El grillo" (15th century) to a Brahms symphony to "Stormy weather" and back to Vivaldi, then forward to Leonard Cohen.

One day i tried listening to a radio that just played classic rock form the 1950s. I'm not saying it wasn't enjoyable, but afterwards there was a certain sameness about all of it. I get it that styles get dumped when people get tired of it and want something different.

Rereading the last post, I realized that i meant to say that we have five or six centuries' worth of recorded music to choose from. If that isn't enough to avoid boredom, what can you do -- except write your own, which I sometimes do.

I like some medieval music, too. But I really prefer Doyle's 'Non nobis' to the Agincourt Carol. Just piece-for-piece. More fun to sing, too.

I think it's a shame people spend so much time listening to recorded music.

They should be making their own.

You're a man after my heart, Dmitri.

In the 19th Century, it was a sign of having made it if you had a piano in your house.

We have a piano the previous owner of the house left it behind.
Shame really the cats use it as a sofa

"Kitten on the keys"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2IHWPhRnXc