TECHNOLOGY: Seasonal Media
2002; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 84; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1940-6487
Autores Tópico(s)Music and Audio Processing
ResumoSEASON'S GREETINGS! If you are tired of the old LPs you drag out of the closet every year at this time, then this column is for you. There is a wide variety of unusual seasonal music and video offerings that you might not have considered owning or giving as gifts. Some of the music and videos discussed below are a bit obscure, but I have already done the legwork and tracked them down for you. Image music, a genre unknown to many people, takes music and adds stunning video to it. For example, you can watch breathtaking video shot in the snow-covered Rocky Mountains while you listen to Pat Metheny's Last Train Home. Besides, why let your TV stand idle when you're listening to music? With the advent of laser discs two decades ago, producers began to exploit the excellent audio and video quality of the medium and created dozens of image music discs. Unfortunately, with the demise of videodiscs, most of the excellent image music went out of production and has only recently reappeared in the form of DVDs. The problem is that none of the major search engines or such sources as Amazon.com or DVDPlanet have a category for image music or even recognize the term. Perhaps the best-known image music is a series of four discs from the 1980s titled Seasons, featuring seasonal video shot mostly in our national parks and accompanied by music from various Windham Hill artists. Selections from these older Seasons discs are now available on a DVD titled Windham Hill Collection: Tibet, China, Seasons. DVDs hold a lot more material than laser discs did. This one is 21?2 hours long. A recently produced image music disc is Fireplace -- Visions of Tranquility. The disc has five different audio tracks so you can have Christmas music with and without the sound of a fire or just the sound of a crackling fire. There are two entirely different Christmas music tracks, one classical and one more modern. If you don't have a fireplace, this might be just the disc for you. Another recent seasonal image music disc is Moodtapes, Christmas Contemporary. This disc features 12 classic carols, performed in an upbeat fashion and accompanied by high-quality video of scenes like a mountain sleigh ride, snow in the forest, and fireplaces decorated for the season. The videos of snow in mountain forests are superb. Incidentally, image music discs make good starters for classroom writing lessons. The next DVDs discussed feel more like music videos than image music, but they do have some similar attributes. An excellent seasonal music DVD is Winter Solstice on Ice, which is narrated by Jim Brickman and features seasonal music and ice skaters and dancers. The disc is unusual in part because it was filmed in Finland at the Arctic Circle in winter and in part because to do some of the filming they took cast and crew on an icebreaker to some very remote places. One portion of the disc was filmed at an ice castle in Finland, which provided a unique backdrop for the musicians and skaters. I think I would like the disc better without the narration, but with a DVD it's easy to skip the talk. Another seasonal DVD that I heartily recommend is The Ghosts of Christmas Eve, by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The story is narrated by Ossie Davis and features the music of Jewel. One of the most unusual and excellent seasonal songs on the disc is Music Box Blues. This disc has an excellent interactive menu so you can find your favorite selections quickly. Still another DVD that everyone seems to like is Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas Live by Chip Davis. There are several Christmas DVDs from Steamroller, but this is my favorite. All of the DVDs mentioned above, except the first one, have DTS (Dolby Theatre Sound) stereo, so, if you have a good audio system, they will take full advantage of it. If you're shopping for seasonal media, don't forget the children. …
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