Hekla!

[thedarkages]

I just got a CD of what is reputed to be classical music's loudest recorded piece: Jon Leifs' Hekla. Program music designed to give the listener the experience of witnessing a volcanic explosion, it uses a battery of noisemaking instruments unequaled in the orchestral repertoire, including anvils, stones, sirens, church bells, chains, a huge wooden hammer, shotguns, and cannons. Because I live in an apartment, and because my speakers are 25-year-old bookshelf Baby Advents, I was unable to get the full experience. Suffice it to say that with the volume knob turned down to 4, the subsonics made me dizzy and nauseous, while the audible spectrum was hair-raising. BIS, the record label, used to have a warning label on its recordings saying that they could blow out ears and speakers. G-d knows what this would sound like on an audiophile system with tube amplifiers, a subwoofer, and enormous Magnepans. I'd probably throw up two minutes in, but after that, the experience would probably be as sublime as intended. This piece has two practical uses:

1. Testing equipment at the stereo store.


2. Dispersing the louts in the apartment downstairs who have the parties with rap music and who smoke outside our window.

I think the CD is a keeper. As Tim Taylor would say, "More Power."

Comments

[mrbalihai.livejournal.com]

Interesting. This is the first I've heard of this piece.

After 25 years, your speakers probably have cracks in the cones and the magnets have gone microphonic. A pair of relatively cheap bookshelf or computer speakers would almost certainly sound better at this point.

For sentimental reasons, I kept my father's KLH speakers for 30 years after his untimely death, and finally replaced them with a pair of Wharfedales. The difference between them was so pronounced, I just stood in between them with my mouth hanging open for about 10 minutes.

[thedarkages]

Hekla is not available on iTunes, although some of the other tracks are; MP3-ization would destroy most of what makes the piece special.

In a lottery-winning contingency, I'd love to pick up a pair of Magnepan 1.6 planar speakers. As it is, I think that the Baby Advents will stay around for a good while.

[mcohenmn.livejournal.com]

In the lottery-winning contingency, your new abode would also be large enough to accommodate the Magnepan 1.6.

[thedarkages]

Oh, I've devised a cunning plan to get them into the current apartment. One would go in front of the non-working fireplace, and the other would replace a couple of old chairs sitting by a blocked-off window. A pipe dream, I admit.

The question is whether my NAD 7000 receiver would have enough juice to drive those speakers. :-)

Better in the testing capacity?...

[djenner.livejournal.com]

It seems to me, now that you have this, you could profitably use it to talk yourself out of new speakers, and so on. I am not in a posish to judge (in my speaker boxs, it's not the cones, not the magnets, it's the flexible rim around the edge of the cone that's perishing). And my favorite test piece is the Kaffeekantate (the music and the voices are a good mix of what I listen to by choice). But think of the fun you could have, going into audiophile shops and testing speakers with your own music.

Actually, I have some doubts about the probity of audiophiles. People who want music better than the original performance in the studio, who want something that isn't there — something wrong here?

Re: Better in the testing capacity?...

[thedarkages]

On the contrary! This piece is an argument for better speakers all by itself. Those Baby Advents are good enough for listening to the radio and the little solid-state Sony CD player I got on eBay for $75. But for addressing the sublime? One day, I hope to have the time and money to really listen to what I've got, not as accompaniment to my daily life but as the main event, and I'll take all the technological help I can get. If that's an "audiophile" position, then so be it. I probably will never get there, so, at this stage, it's all supposition.

Re: Better in the testing capacity?...

[djenner.livejournal.com]

Well, you make a case perhaps for newer speakers. Better is something else. Part of this may have to do with the music I most enjoy; it comes off better live. On the other hand, I have to confess I do spend more time listening to my MP3 collection (about two-thirds being my old vinyl converted, by now; I am doing Don Giovanni as I type this...).

[burritomama.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to let you know that I enrolled per your suggestion.