The Loose Filter Project

Bernstein and the FBI

Leonard Bernstein was a person of considerable interest to the FBI, as the 800-page file on him indicates.

Symphony of the Air

Occasionally there was a burst of speech, a snatch of music, the reassuring flurry of violins playing a sweet, late-night melody. The audience giggled, coughed, and applauded wildly when a recognisable fragment of Mozart blasted out.

The premiere performance of John Cage's Imaginary Landscape No. 4.

Oliver Sacks on music and the brain

Six questions for Oliver Sacks about music and the brain.  Best bit:

An interesting corollary is that our exposure to different types of music, and hence our musical literacy, has certainly expanded, but perhaps at a cost. As Daniel Levitin has pointed out, passive listening has largely replaced active music-making. Now that we can listen to anything we like on our iPods, we have less motivation to go to concerts or churches or synagogues, less occasion to sing together. This is unfortunate, because music-making engages much more of our brains than simply listening.

Be sure to check his latest, Musicophilia, if you haven't already.  (That's an Amazon link that also has a few good short videos with Sacks, talking about--you guessed it--music and the brain.)