The Whole Music Experience

In a previous post I spoke about the noise level with many businesses.  I have reached the point where I wouldn't even want to work for business or organization where I must listen to music all day long.  Don't get me wrong, I love music and I feel passionate about it.  However, too much music is hardly a good thing and can lead to fatigue. As this topic has occupied my brain for some time, today when I was placed on hold for a company I called and had to listen to the company's advertisements and music blasts, I decided to write this post for businesses who still don't get the concept of silence.  And then they wonder why 15 minutes later (hold time) they deal with irate customers.  I would like to see the psychological studies that prove that customers enjoy staying on hold while having advertisements blasted in their ears along with music they might have never liked in the first place.  And who decides the best music for the diverse customers or...

Classical Julian Cochran Extracts From Romanian Dances, Animation Suite and Mazurkas Independent release English pianist virtuoso/composer Julian Cochran gazes fondly at Eastern European folk dances and 19th and 20th century composers who composed mainly for piano.  While Cochran has a good ear for delightful and playful melodies, his compositions don't stray far from piano works by Liszt, Ravel, and Prokofiev.  In fact, my first impression of the opening piece, Russian Toccata  (on the CD Extracts from Romanian Dances...) reminded me of Prokofiev from the first quirky piano phrase, and since I like Prokofiev, I mean "quirky" as a compliment.  While the pieces here are obviously finger-twisters, in their complexity and speed, Cochran plays with these pieces with gleeful abandonment. The folkloric dances appear on tracks 3 through 7 and for this section, I'm reminded of Chopin's dreamy piano works.  The only problem I have with this recording is ...