Archive October 2005

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October 31, 2005

Never be surprised

Well, well, well... Today the newspaper (AD) I mentioned in my post that stopped writing about classical music had an article about the decay of classical music in the Netherlands. And it seems serious as such.

A colleage - music critic and artistic manager - who is much better connected to the scene than I am, told me last week the budget cut message is hitting hard at the moment with composers, ensemble- and orchestra managers alike. And it was about time...

Posted by Renske at 21:50 UTC | permanent link

October 25, 2005

Upcoming performance

Yankee Doodlers in NurembergNext week accordionist Gertie Bruin gives the first performance of VE-Dances. And as appears to be normal, the concert is out of my home town Amsterdam. I don't know what it is, but I have had quite a couple of performances in Groningen the last two years. May be that is why I am so positive about the city in the most Northern province of the Netherlands.

The latest performance I had in Amsterdam was by the end of 2003 with gROUND although it was premiered in Breda. The first scheduled performance in Amsterdam is Fiddlers by the Matangi String Quartet in the former Amsterdam Stock Exchange Beurs van Berlage.

Posted by Renske at 20:25 UTC | permanent link

October 24, 2005

Culture - Dutch treat

My last post was about the proposed termination of transmitting classical music on public radio in the Netherlands through the FM band. Not a happy story. And although I thought otherwise, it is still under investigation. (You can post your protest here).

In recent history Holland cultural life has been rich and strongly subsidized. At this very moment classical and contemporary music is under heavy pressure, and as one of the broadcasting senior managers said it last week:"under pressure solid things become fluid".

Summarizing:

• Three mayor broadcasting organizations closed down their classical music departments.


• The national daily AD (Algemeen Dagblad) doesn't write about classical music anymore.


• The main broadcasting organization NPS will (if plans are carried out) be liquidated in 2008. This is the number one organization spending time on classical/contemporary music and arts.


• Radio4 - national Dutch classical music channel will only transmit through cable and not FM frequency.


• The mayor fund for supporting Dutch composers Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst will be terminated by January first 2007.


• Donemus - the Dutch publisher for new music almost went bankrupt two years ago and is still at risk.

On the upside of things is that Italian media are in a far worse state than Dutch countreparts with media-tycoon Berlusconi as prime-minister. I read in a recent article that people are trying to escape the emptiness of television and that they rediscovering the theatres again. So may be, their is still hope.

Posted by Renske at 11:16 UTC | permanent link

October 11, 2005

Poverty politics on classical music

This entry is going to be a little complicated (and somewhat Dutch).

The board of Publieke Omroep (this means: Public Broadcaster) proposed last week to close down Radio 4 to give the FM frequency to FunX, a radio station for adolescents.

-- If you don't understand and still hang in, I'll explain below:

Holland, the country where I live, has a for foreigners unexplainable complicated mass media structure. Many public broadcasting organizations work together on a couple of FM radio frequencies and three television stations (and internet is changing this, but that's a different story altogether).

-- Are you still with me? Please, read on.

To control the time and type of programs each company broadcasts we have an organiation called Publieke Omroep. The influence of this Publieke Omroep is BIG, because they divide the budgets given to each public broadcasting company.

Explanatory: The why's roughly go back to the 1920s when Holland was clearly divided in Catholics, Protestants and - yuk! - Socialists and they still were suspecting one of the other groups was transmitting the Plague.

-- Still here? WOW!

Due to the rise of commercial television station the public funded media are faced with budget cuts. Because of this several of the broadcasting companies were forced to stop by Publieke Omroep airing classical music on our national classical radio-channel: Radio4.

So (repeat from above), the board of Publieke Omroep proposed last week to close down Radio 4 to give the FM frequency to FunX, a radio station for adolescents. This to better reach young people, something that can't be done by the other 30+ frequencies aimed at this group.

BUT (JAY!)

Our national politician in control on this subject, Medy van der Laan, yesterday screwed the Publieke Omroep by stating in Dutch parliament that the termination of Radio 4 is out of the question.

This subject is settled for now, but it is a bad sign for anyone interested in classical or art music in the Netherlands. When budget cuts are needed in the future, we are forewarned where we can expect them.

Posted by Renske at 20:54 UTC | permanent link

October 3, 2005

Codecs myriad

Not so much about music this time, not even about aviation, but codecs.

Since the beginning of this year I am uploading small videoclips I made to my website. Most of these are mp4 clips. Then I discovered the Sorenson codec which creates smaller files with a little better image quality.

A couple of months ago Apple (I am on a Mac) introduced Quicktime 7 with h.264. At first I was unimpressed, especially because of the large size of the demo and trailers on the Apple website. That the video quality is outstanding with these large files is no surprise. But I don't want short clips of 150 megabytes on my server.

But last weekend I was fiddling with codecs again and I discovered I can reduce the filesize of my videos with 50 percent compaired to mp4, and maintain a better quality than both Sorenson or mp4.

The trick is to reduce the bitrate, and I had to go below a bitrate of 256 to see the image lose quality dramatically at the size I publish my movies: 320*240.

I will maintain the old movies formats for a while, but at some point I will switch to h.264.

Posted by Renske at 20:00 UTC | permanent link

October 1, 2005

Ringtone terror at your convenience

I start this entry with a confession: yes, I own a mobile phone.

Probably nothing special, you say, and you are right.

BUT

I am one of those folks who find mobile phones a terror. When I am commuting to work there isn't a single day someone nearby isn't talking to someone else over the phone, discussing private stuff I DON'T WANT TO HEAR.

I don't like to be called on my mobile phone, because I never know where I will be when it rings. As an example, it is only three weeks ago I heard over my mobile someone dear to me died, while I was standing near the dairy products in a supermarket. Normally I have my phone turned of when I am shopping, but I new he was in a bad state. (Next time I prefer to be notified at home and will keep the damn thing off!)

At work people are reluctant to shut off their phones in meetings, because they might get some important call. When these cell phones go off, all the time they play these stupid ringtones: at the best a sampled old fashioned phone sound like a bell, but more often some stupid melody or pop song.

Altogether, for me the mobile phone is a real adrenaline trigger.

But I have found a way to do something back. On the site Wolfram Tones I created my own ringtone based on a Messiaen scales. Finally a 'weapon' to fight back to all those oblivion mega dance house ringtone users on the train.

Posted by Renske at 00:21 UTC | permanent link