Web sites, Varese

About these items...

Web site delivery/programming:
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There have been voices raised regarding advanced programming and multimedia
delivery on the web. Just one quote, such as this from John ffitch:

>May I add my voice against all these gimicks? Animation on Web pages
>are distracting and usually pointless. Because of the use of trap
>pages and the like I usually run with Java an Javascript switched off
>anyway. How about using teh web for giving information rather than
>exercises in flashy visuals which add nothing?

Since John brought it up here, I'll add my two cents: good web programming
is a matter of craft, skill and dedication -- to paint coding techniques
with this broad a brush is a tad egregious. While not a full-time HTML
jockey, I've spent many hours making sure that anything I add to Corporeal
Meadows *above and beyond* textual information does *not* impede the user,
or exclude any but the most primitive platforms and applications. The
majority of the site will still work on 2.0 browsers with 14.4 connections,
and I have many 'users' in the UK.

Beyond that, the ability for me to not only write *about* a Boo part but to
be able to *show* a page from the part and have a decent sounding example
*play* while you look at the part is a real bonus. I wouldn't say this if I
didn't receive positive feedback from many users, including non-U.S.
accesses, where bandwidth can be precious indeed. One indicator is how long
many actually stay on-site.

My point is simply this: a well-crafted site can be useful to virtually
every visitor, be they using a cable modem on a Silicon Graphics box to a
486 with 256 colors coming in from some public library. The only difference
is the amount of work the builders of the site are willing to put in, and
with browser wars and many platforms, it's not easy. Your choices for
content delivery must match what your audience can access, or your audience
will certainly go elsewhere.

Mr. Varese:
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I still find my favorite reference to V.'s _life_ the bio done by his wife,
Louise ("Varese: A Looking-Glass Diary"), if for no other reason to see a
reprint of the editorial cartoon depicting New York after the premiere of
"Hyperprism", complete with buildings crumbling, cars crashing, general
mayhem. Lovely.

There have been a couple of different 'complete' recordings recently; the
Chailly set has been talked about a bit, and I thought I saw that Kent
Nagano had done some? Anyway, the stuff is out there. BTW, is it known
around here that N. Slonimsky conducted the premiere of "Ionization" in
1933? What a guy.

For those of you following the Zappa thread, be sure to see a great article
(monz will appreciate the references to La Mesa) entitled "Edgard Varese,
The Idol of My Youth" by FZ, originally in Stereo Review and kept online at:

http://picasso.cslab.wesleyan.edu/~jfei/varese/zappa-sr.html

The main site, which is simply:

http://picasso.cslab.wesleyan.edu/~jfei/varese/

has some interesting things. Their link to the American Music Resource
(dated, but lot's online) is old; see AMR at:

http://www.uncg.edu/~flmccart/amrhome.html

EV is one of those composers that I dearly wished had written more music,
but I'm happy to have what is there.

Cheers,
Jon
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Jonathan M. Szanto : Corporeal Meadows - Harry Partch, online.
jszanto@adnc.com : http://www.corporeal.com/
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