That Little Speaker Embedded in Your Laptop
I love to listen to Rachmaninoff! His chords are lush and his motives sing with heart-rending clarity. His cadences range from comfortable to surprising without ever failing to provide a satisfying transition into the next section of the music. I willingly get lost for hours listening to Rachmaninoff's music. One day, as I trolled through YouTube, I found a recording of Rachmaninoff playing his own compositions. I was thrilled! And then I listened to it. The sound was lifeless. The chords were limp and the melody just barely stood out from the background. The whole song sounded like someone had stuffed it full of cotton balls. I was so disappointed! I walked away from that recording with a multitude of questions running through my head. Rachmaninoff was a renowned virtuoso. How could he have played so very badly without knowing to destroy the evidence? Or maybe it was a problem with the recording technology of the 1930's? Maybe they just didn't yet have the ability t...