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"Since much of music is experienced live," well it isn't.

Posted by Timbo in Oz (A) on November 22, 2014 at 12:37:38

In Reply to: RE: Have you heard of Thalidomide? posted by Analog Scott on November 22, 2014 at 09:31:21:

Most consumers of classical music do so most of the time through audio only recordings whether chosen deliberately and knowingly, or through FM radio or some streaming service, where we may not have made any such decision, making for a blind audition.

You started out with "Do you audition classical recordings blind?" Which isn't at all the same activity as being at a concert, which the science purports to be about. OR a competition concert.

Even IF we know what orchestra or performer it is, on the recording that does not mean we have ever seen them live.

And that is what I was pointing out.

And, given that most such recordings are still audio only, I wondered out loud here how relevant the reported study was to choosing recordings we might pay for.

I had already read both reports in 'The Strad' and the referenced abstract and the attached article listing similar studies. I was mildly disappointed to not find the values of Alpha and Beta for any of them, but I have come to expect that.

This is within the discipline of Psychology, yes? Go to Wikipedia's page on Psychology and scroll down to the Criticism section, and read it.

Further, I doubt the efficacy of these tiny slices of 'music' being very good at helping us listen, but I am certain that they are very very good at focussing humans on visuals.

What the report does suggest is that some concert goers might:

i) prefer attending for known rated performers who are established recording artists

ii) prefer physically expressive competitors, perhaps even good looking ones.

It also suggests that music performance competitions are a busted flush. But I knew that already. And most people I know who are into this music also know that.

Gee, what a surprise?!!!!

Australia's national classical FM broadcaster regularly broadcasts the whole of the Sydney Piano Competition. The radio audience - those that bother and get highly involved - rarely comes to the same conclusions as the judges OR the audiences in the venue/s.

This report wasn't about how we choose recordings but about i) how musician judges judge at those repetitive concerts called competitions and ii) how audiences judge in concerts.

Nowhere does it show that I am more likely to buy a recording - based on such influences than not, because the report isn't about that process. And, because I know that just isn't how I arrive at such decisions.

But, that is what you came here to suggest does happen, and I don't think it does. Yes I was from the beginning having a go at you, for how you think about science. :-)

I am a skeptic. You'd just like to think you are.

Warmest

Tim Bailey

Skeptical Measurer & Audio Scrounger

Edits: 11/22/14

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