Essential Stereo

I recently picked up some heritage vinyl from a local charity shop.  It was one of the exploratory albums overtly flirting with the wonder of stereo as it came into being.

Some of the effects were very clearly over pronounced and must have been quite magical at the time for recorded music. Over time that use of stereo has become more subtle of course.  And the application and development into home cinema and surround systems is now common place.

However despite that stereo breakthrough, the irony 50 years on is that in a lots of public venues where music is played, and especially where it's played loud in the clubs and late licence pubs, what's being broadcast is in fact mono.  Not surprising really when spaces are not uniform or symmetrical, and often small speakers can be scattered all over, at any one time you're only near a single speaker.  Hence it's generally a more complete sound to hear something blended rather than only half the signal.

Without Music...

...life would be a mistake.

That's a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche, the famous German Philosopher (1844-1900).  It turns out that he had quite a few philosophical things to say about music, and interestingly also about dance.   Here are some of those quotes...

In music the passions enjoy themselves.

We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.

I do not know what the spirit of a philosopher could more wish to be than a good dancer.

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

Another of Neitzsche's many quotes was "What does not destroy me makes me stronger".  Given those music and dance quotes above, it's fascinating that the stronger quote has itself materialised as paraphrased in pop title and lyrics.....What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger),  Kelly Clarkson (2011).