Beautiful music and beautiful fish swimming… sigh…

Chopin Etude #4

Chopin, Waltz in E Minor. Sergei Rachmaninoff, piano. Recorded February 18, 1930.

Chopin. Nocturne in E Flat, Op. 9, No. 2. Sergei Rachmaninoff, piano. Recorded April 5, 1927.

This music was found on Internet Archive, a non-profit internet library that features texts, audio, moving pictures and software, as well as the facinating Wayback Machine, which allows the user to explore over 150 billion web pages archived from 1996 to more recently.  Check out Google circa 1998, Microsoft 1996, YouTube circa 2005, or virtually anything else from 1996 forward.

A nearly complete bone flute in 12 pieces, closely resembling a modern-day flute, was unearthed in September 2008.  The original instrument was 21.8 cm long, with a diameter of  8 mm, and there are 5 existing finger holes. There are two V-shaped notches in one end of the instrument, through which it is believed the player blew.  The bottom of the flute was not found.  It was created by carving the wing bone of a griffon vulture, likely with a stone tool .  Pieces of three other flutes carved from mammoth tusks have also been discovered nearby.  Most of these flute pieces were found among other artifacts, including burnt animal remains, suggesting that they were used in a social setting.

The cave at Hohle Fels has been the site of many interesting discoveries, as the oldest known carved human figure was also found here, only 70 cm from the location of this flute.

It is believed that the humans leaving these artifacts behind came to the area as a result of their migration through the Danube Corridor.  In addition to the presence of music in their culture as early as 35,00 years ago, there was also the emergence of figurative art, and other innovations and new modes of expression, including symbolic artifacts, personal ornamentation and alcohol.  The existence of music in their culture, which was apparently wide-spread given the number of instruments discovered, would seem to indicate a maturing social environment, featuring more complex communication and a more sophisticated creative atmosphere.

These finds will go on display in a museum in the German city of Stuttgart.  The archaeologists’ findings were originally published in the science journal Nature.

Slacker Personal Radio

If you love music, any kind of music, then you should check out Slacker. Slacker Personal Radio is free personalized radio with millions of songs from thousands of artists from around the world. For a few dollars a month, you can even lose the few ads, have complete song lyrics and unlimited skips, and their Slacker G2 portable mini player.

The site is very easy to navigate, and is organized into stations. There is a wide range of preprogrammed stations to choose from, including a Slacker’s Spotlight Station and the Top Stations that others are listening to, or you can program your own custom station. While you are listening to a station, you can explore a clickable playlist for the station, and a clickable listing of the artists included on the station, and related artists. It’s so easy to go off clicking and exploring, and end up listening to something completely amazing and unexpected. While the music is playing, you can view a biography of the artist, the album’s cover art, and song lyrics. Slacker also remembers what you have recently played.

There are many active forums, where users can share musical discoveries or their custom stations with each other, or chat about the various preprogrammed stations. Requests can be made here for additional new artists or stations to be included.

And, you can take it everywhere with Slacker’s mobile application, either on your Blackberry Smartphone, IPhone or IPod, or the Slacker G2 device. CNet called Slacker Personal Radio “Best. Streaming music app. Ever.”

I  listened to Bluegrass music and Comedy, discovered the incredible John Lee Hooker and Cristina Branco, and remembered how much I liked Christina Aguilera and Antonin Dvorak.

A word of warning though: it’s too easy to spend hours looking through all of the great music, finding new favorites.  Also, it’s not really designed to listen to song after song by the same artist, but to listen to different artists across a musical genre, much like what you would hear listening to a traditional radio station.  I often keep it playing in the background while I work on something else.

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