DonPaul Entertainment

Last month I read a news item in the New York Times, describing the devotion that Condoleeza Rice, our current Secretary of State who has been on a mission to promote the Iraqui war, has to playing the piano with a weekly chamber music group. Being a violist myself, and a regular in my own amateur chamber music circuit, I was, quite frankly, surprised. I know that is a strong word, but the story almost came across as an oxymoron–Condoleeza Rice and chamber music in the same sentence?

For me, playing chamber music is pretty close to sacred–or at least special in an intimate and spiritual and listening and cooperating sort of way. Actually, in my smugger and more idealistic moments, I have even believed that playing chamber music holds the key to future peace in the world. Yes. Seriously…

Which brings me back to Condoleeza Rice. I hear that she plays well; beautifully in fact, with sensitivity and a good ear. It takes a lot of practice–and I mean a lot–to be a good chamber music player. First there is the sheer mastery of your own individual instrument. And then there is learning your unique part. Only after that comes listening, looking, feeling, sensing the subtle, but powerful nuances of rhythm, intonation, dynamics, phrasing, the breath… It is such an organism, a chamber music group and the piece of music being played. By its very nature, chamber music playing requires give and take, listening, compassion, courage, intuition and hard work.

There is no doubt in my mind that Ms. Rice is intelligent, talented and a very hard worker. But how is it possible to hear the pathos of a Beethoven piano trio, the depths of despair and longing, the agony of dissonance, and warm comfort in the resolution of that final chord–without also hearing the screams of civilians bombed, and feeling the terror of families made homeless by GI’S following the orders from her generals “to bomb”.

I know, she didn’t actually say “bomb” those people, but that is my point. Anyone who appreciates chamber music and especially those who play it, gets how the theme has variations, and that it can sneak in at the most unexpected moments, and that it gets traded off by different members of the group, in each of their solos and duets. In other words, every member of the group is responsible for the outcome, and each voice is integral to the entire system.

If Condoleeza Rice only got that her voice, like her piano, is integral to the system, and any change in one part, automatically affects the other parts and can lead to a completely different outcome…

Which brings me back to the chamber music effect. I say, put down your arms, and pick up your cellos. Even a scratchy, untrained string player sounds way sweeter to me than a gunshot.

And then it’s only a beginning, not an end.

By: Rebecca N Morgan

About the Author:

music news

There are a number of reasons why it might be a better idea to go with a cable TV company than a satellite TV company if you happen to be in the market for a new TV service. That’s because there have been some recent technological advancements that make cable a much more attractive source of home telecommunications services in general than satellite TV and many other forms of telecommunications.

The most recent advance to make a big difference in the ability of satellite TV to compete with cable TV is Switched Digital Video. SDV as this technology is called enables a cable TV company to make better use of existing bandwidth.

In the past, cable TV companies have sent all of their channels to all of their subscribers all at once and then let each individual digital receiver filter out all of the channels that the household wasn’t subscribed to and then further filter out all of the channels that weren’t being viewed at any given time. That system worked well enough when there were only a hundred channels, but now that there are literally hundreds of channels in existence and many data intensive HDTV channels on top of that, that system just doesn’t work anymore. Switched Digital Video offers an alternative by allowing a cable TV company to deliver just the channel that’s being viewed to any given receiver at one time. This frees up an enormous amount of bandwidth while taking away many of the practical limits on how many channels can be delivered over a cable!

As you might imagine, SDV technology ties in nicely with video on demand services. ON DEMAND is the service that delivers a large variety of movies on a pay per view basis as well as some free content. ON DEMAND is included automatically with every digital subscription. Premiums On Demand provides unlimited video on demand access to select programming from major movie channels in exchange for a monthly subscription fee.

While you might not be thinking of phone service or high speed Internet access when you’re shopping for a TV service, cable TV service from Comcast or another company like it can come with both of these useful services and you’re likely to get a much better value from cable company than through a satellite TV company or a conventional phone company. First of all, digital cable technology ties in extremely well with high speed Internet. This is easy to see from the fact that broad band digital cable high speed Internet service consistently delivers four times the speed of DSL or satellite Internet. There are also a number of advantages that a cable TV company can provide in terms of features and value for a home phone service as well.

A cable TV company is definitely worthy of your consideration when shopping for a number of services.

By: Julia Hall

About the Author:

Caffeinated Content