[MUSIC] Letters from Great Musicians to Young People, by Alethea Crawford Cox - kd

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InTheDesert
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Post by InTheDesert »

Letters from Great Musicians to Young People, by Alethea Crawford Cox (1852 - 1909)
The object of this little book is to bring the reader nearer to the great masters in the realm of music, and make him or her acquainted with the man who worked, played, and suffered as do other men.

Though confining themselves to a simple style, the authors have tried to enter into the life of each composer, and, wherever possible, by means of earnest study of letters and other data which have come down to us, to copy that composer's tricks of speech, manner of writing, and various idiosyncracies. (Summary by Preface)
Source text (please read only from this text!): https://archive.org/details/cu31924022331486/

Deadline: Please submit your recording within 1 month of placing your claim. If you cannot complete the recording within this time, please post in the thread to relinquish your claim or to ask the BC for an extension. If your recording is not completed by the deadline, your claim may be reassigned at the BC's discretion.

Claiming sections: Look in the Magic Window below for the list of available sections. Post a reply in this thread asking for the section you would like to record.

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BC Admin
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Genres for the project: *Non-fiction/Music

Keywords that describe the book: Mozart, Handel, Marie Antoinette, piano, orchestra, composition, violin, libretto, musicians, organist, vienna, weber, oratorio, singers, fugue, harpsichord, motets, musicians -- biography, musicians -- corespondence, musicians -- correspondence, musicians -- correspondence reminiscences etc., musicians -- england, musicians -- europe, musicians -- fiction, musicians -- germany, musicians -- great britain, musicians -- italy, musicians english, musicians french, musicians german, musicians italian, buononcini, der freischütz, palestrina, cantata, italian opera, giovanni pierluigi da palestrina, domenico scarlatti, johann sebastian bach, george frederick händel, ritter christoph willibald von gluck, wolfgang amadeus mozart, ludwig van beethoven, carl maria von weber, giacamo meyerbeer

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LibriVox recording settings: mono (1 channel), 44100 Hz sample rate, 128 kbps constant bit rate MP3. See the Tech Specs

Intro to recording:
Leave 0.5 to 1 second of silence at the beginning.

Say:
"Section # of Letters from Great Musicians to Young People. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit librivox.org." [Optional: "Read by your name."] "Letters from Great Musicians to Young People, by Alethea Crawford Cox. Section Title."

Special Notes:
  • The ending page number may exceed the real end. Follow the instructions in the notes which are always correct. The start pages for each section are also all correct.
End of recording:
Say:
"End of section #." [Optional, and if not stated in the intro: "Read by your name, city, date."]
If you are recording the final section of the book, add:
"End of Letters from Great Musicians to Young People, by Alethea Crawford Cox."
Leave 5 seconds of silence at the end.

Filename: greatmusiciansyoungpeople_##_cox_128kb.mp3 where ## is the section number. (e.g. greatmusiciansyoungpeople_01_cox_128kb.mp3)

Upload to the LibriVox Uploader: https://librivox.org/login/uploader
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MC to select: KiltedDragon

Copy and paste the file link generated by the uploader into a new post in this thread along with the file duration (mm:ss). Watch this thread for prooflistening notes.

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Last edited by InTheDesert on September 15th, 2024, 6:08 pm, edited 7 times in total.
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InTheDesert
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Post by InTheDesert »

I said I would stop doing music BCs but both of them have been wildly popular so it's no difficulty for me to set up another one and see how far this train goes.

DPL sought.
Projected total recording length: 4 hours

Sections (preclaims welcome):
  1. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (3549 words)
  2. Domenico Scarlatti (4095 words)
  3. Johann Sebastian Bach (2457 words)
  4. George Frederick Händel Part 1 (2457 words)
  5. George Frederick Händel Part 2 (3003 words)
  6. Ritter Christoph Willibald von Gluck (3549 words)
  7. Josef Haydn (2184 words)
  8. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (4641 words)
  9. Ludwig van Beethoven (4095 words)
  10. Carl Maria von Weber Part 1 (2730 words)
  11. Carl Maria von Weber Part 2 (2184 words)
  12. Carl Maria von Weber Part 3 (3003 words)
  13. Giacamo Meyerbeer (4641 words)
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jpercival
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Post by jpercival »

Hello Desert, am I getting repetitive? This sounds very interesting and I’d be happy to DPL for you :D
Jessie Percival Formerly Known as Ancilla
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InTheDesert
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Post by InTheDesert »

jpercival wrote: September 14th, 2024, 8:04 pm Hello Desert, am I getting repetitive? This sounds very interesting and I’d be happy to DPL for you :D
I'd love to have you as DPL!
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KiltedDragon
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Post by KiltedDragon »

I will MC. MW ready to go.
Barry
My Recordings except this one.
The only thing I know is that I know nothing, and I am not quite sure that I know that.
InTheDesert
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Post by InTheDesert »

KiltedDragon wrote: September 15th, 2024, 3:24 am I will MC. MW ready to go.
Team and MW set. Ready for claims!
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lkirk
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Post by lkirk »

I would like to volunteer for sections 2 and 3. Thank you.
InTheDesert
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Post by InTheDesert »

MW updated!
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lkirk
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Post by lkirk »

Section 2 is ready for proof listening, thank you.

https://librivox.org/uploads/kilteddragon/greatmusiciansyoungpeople_02_cox_128kb.mp3

24:43
lkirk
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Post by lkirk »

Hello InThe Desert,

I am having serious doubts about this book because there were so many inaccuracies in the Domenico Scarlatti chapter beginning with the wrong birth date. I went ahead and finished recording the chapter in spite of my doubts but I'm now wondering whether this is worth publishing. I would guess that many of the other chapters might also have such inaccuracies and no one has volunteered to record any of them in any case. Considering what I saw in the Scarlatti chapter I am much less likely to want to record the chapter on Bach. The title of the book, of course, implies that the composers actually did write these letters to young people but that is misleading and unless the reader looks at the preface they won't know that. Perhaps there is another book in the Internet Archive or Project Gutenberg that is musically related but that is more widely read (this had only 400+ views) and is more substantial and accurate. Thanks for your thoughts about this.
lkirk
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Joined: January 24th, 2022, 1:08 pm

Post by lkirk »

Hello again, I hope I wasn't offensive in speaking so frankly about the Scarlatti chapter and the possibility of other inaccuracies in the book and forgive me if that is the case. It just disturbed me to think that this inaccurate information might be passed on to young readers. Maybe the other chapters are just fine but the Scarlatti chapter made me wonder. Again, sorry if I overstepped in bringing this up. I just wanted to get your thoughts about this. Thanks.
InTheDesert
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Post by InTheDesert »

lkirk wrote: September 24th, 2024, 5:55 pm Hello InThe Desert,

I am having serious doubts about this book because there were so many inaccuracies in the Domenico Scarlatti chapter beginning with the wrong birth date. I went ahead and finished recording the chapter in spite of my doubts but I'm now wondering whether this is worth publishing. I would guess that many of the other chapters might also have such inaccuracies and no one has volunteered to record any of them in any case. Considering what I saw in the Scarlatti chapter I am much less likely to want to record the chapter on Bach. The title of the book, of course, implies that the composers actually did write these letters to young people but that is misleading and unless the reader looks at the preface they won't know that. Perhaps there is another book in the Internet Archive or Project Gutenberg that is musically related but that is more widely read (this had only 400+ views) and is more substantial and accurate. Thanks for your thoughts about this.
You're very welcome to express an opinion about the book, though in the end, it might just mean that you choose not to read for this project. Let me know whether you'd like to try Bach or whether I should free it up.

Could you give me another example of a factual error in the Scarlatti chapter? A birthdate might just be a typo so I'd be interested in knowing some more of them. She lists her sources here and I noticed that there was no book uniquely on Scarlatti so I presume she used the musical dictionaries she cited. There were 3 composers in the Scarlatti family so I also wonder whether she might have mixed them up in her sources. You probably have the knowledge to be able to spot errors in the Bach chapter without looking up the facts so I'd be interested in those too!
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lkirk
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Post by lkirk »

Thank you very much for your response. With regard to the errors, the birth date error does stand out because 1685 is known as the year when Bach, Handel, and Scarlatti were born so it was a significant year! Maybe the date given at the beginning of the chapter was a typo, hard to know. Another error is the reference to the Cat Fugue as being by the father with an elaborate story to go along with it but the piece is by Domenico. There is no concrete evidence that Scarlatti ever went to England in 1720 and there is no evidence that he returned to Naples at the end of his life. The most ridiculous and concerning error is the description of Scarlatti as very fat which supposedly accounted for why his later sonatas were easier to play (this is false) than the earlier ones due to the fact that because of his weight he could no longer manage the difficult cross over of the hands required. I don't know where she came up with this. There are few if any authentic, existing portraits of Scarlatti and no mention of extreme obesity. He wasn't composing sonatas for himself to play in any case. The number of harpsichord sonatas composed by Scarlatti is also incorrect, there are approximately 555. So, there are a number of errors and maybe even more than I have listed.

I guess because of this experience with the Scarlatti chapter I would like to be removed from the Bach chapter. I hope that you will find readers for the remaining chapters. Thank you.
lkirk
InTheDesert
Posts: 10969
Joined: August 20th, 2019, 8:25 pm

Post by InTheDesert »

lkirk wrote: September 25th, 2024, 10:08 am Thank you very much for your response. With regard to the errors, the birth date error does stand out because 1685 is known as the year when Bach, Handel, and Scarlatti were born so it was a significant year! Maybe the date given at the beginning of the chapter was a typo, hard to know. Another error is the reference to the Cat Fugue as being by the father with an elaborate story to go along with it but the piece is by Domenico. There is no concrete evidence that Scarlatti ever went to England in 1720 and there is no evidence that he returned to Naples at the end of his life. The most ridiculous and concerning error is the description of Scarlatti as very fat which supposedly accounted for why his later sonatas were easier to play (this is false) than the earlier ones due to the fact that because of his weight he could no longer manage the difficult cross over of the hands required. I don't know where she came up with this. There are few if any authentic, existing portraits of Scarlatti and no mention of extreme obesity. He wasn't composing sonatas for himself to play in any case. The number of harpsichord sonatas composed by Scarlatti is also incorrect, there are approximately 555. So, there are a number of errors and maybe even more than I have listed.

I guess because of this experience with the Scarlatti chapter I would like to be removed from the Bach chapter. I hope that you will find readers for the remaining chapters. Thank you.
lkirk
Thanks for the information. You seem very well-informed - I was actually thinking of BCing an old edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians but I suspected it would not find enough readers. I wonder if you would be the person to solo it, breaking it into manageable chunks.

I think she copied her info from this widely-cited but discredited source.

I have removed you from the Bach chapter :)
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lkirk
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Post by lkirk »

Thank you for your message. I was interested to know that she probably got the "fat" story from Burney. With regard to my seeming well informed there were some things I mentioned that I just knew but I double-checked a couple of others that I had questions about in a biographical source that I have. Thanks for thinking of me in terms of a Groves solo project but that is more than I would want to take on. I wonder whether it would find many readers, I know you had questions about that. Thank you for removing me from the Bach chapter and I hope that you will find additional readers.
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