Re: CD's published by marketers, not by musicians

[Bradley Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

At 06:01 AM 7/25/2000 -0700, Jim Morrison wrote:
> Listen to the "Spielt Nicht Bach" CD (My prized copy is in German)
> (...)The fourth track is from  C. P. E. Bach's Wurrenberg Sonata, which sounds
> like we're back to a Steinway.  It was recorded in 1968 so it probably is.

"Wurrenberg"?!  That's one of the most glaring typos in the "Glenn Gould:
Images" set (in English), but you're saying the German release got that
wrong also?  They misspelled a place name that every German citizen over
the age of ten knows?

In the "Images" set (both in the set itself and at
http://www.glenngould.com/gg/62588.html) it lists this piece as "Wg. 49"
instead of "Wq. 49" (Wq standing for Wotquenne catalog).  Granted, that's
not as painfully obvious, but a music publisher should certainly know it.

And it lists the first movement of the Prokofiev 7th sonata as "Allegro
inquiero."  There's a fairly big difference between "restless" (inquieto)
and "I inquire."

At least those two occurrences of "Sinfornia" are only on the web page, not
in the set.  (Sinfornia, now there's a word to rival "buffstoppage.")  And
"Emanual" is only on the web page, not in the set.  Ditto for "Deau
Morceaux" (what's that, a piece Homer Simpson would enjoy?).

There exists a professionally-issued recording of Handel's "Messiah" whose
back cover lists the movements, and simply stops at whatever will fit onto
one line.  So, we get the following as some of the most amusing examples:
"Thus saith", "Behold a virgin", "There were", "Then shall", "He shall
feed", "All they", "He was cut", "But thou didst not", "Unto which", "How
beautiful", "Their sound", "I know", "Behold, I tell you", "Then shall be",
"O Death".  Obviously, the problem is a lack of space, but....

Who proofreads these things?  Is there no sense of a CD as a historical
document, as opposed to an entertainment product?  I know, I know, now
we'll get into a discussion of "Galaxy Quest."  What happens when beings
from some distant planet hear GG on the Voyager record and bring a whole
ship full of GG fans here to meet him?  Or has that already occurred?


Bradley Lehman
Dayton VA
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl