Wiardgroup

I wrote:

>>New instruments also tend to be novelties with limited musical
usefulness.<<

Doug P.(Hi Doug!) wrote:

>What about the banjo, saxophone, vibraphone, and pedal steel guitar?<

The banjo sounds like a guitar with a sinus condition.

The saxophone sounds like a clarinet with a sinus condition.

The vibraphone sounds like a xylophone crossed with The Cowardly Lion.

The pedal steel guitar put the "Ho" in "Don Ho."

>[Although sometimes I get the impression that John would never 
willingly listen to a piece of music employing any of those 
instruments ;^)<

Live long enough and you will not be able to help it.

>All are capable of creating incredibly expressive, emotive, artistic 
(well, ok, maybe not so much the banjo) music - just as a Theremin 
can in the hands of a skilled performer<

This will get me in trouble, but the theremin has had only ONE truly 
skilled performer--Clara Rockmore. But even she couldn't wring much 
beauty from the instrument without the visual theatrics. If you 
*watch* her it is amazing.  If you just *listen* to her, it sounds 
like a bagpipe in menses.


>>If Buchlas were as common as Moogs, they would fetch far
lower prices today.<<

>A meaningless statement; if Moogs were as common as the Wurlitzer & 
Lowrey living room organs that people can't give away these days, 
they would fetch far lower prices, too. But they aren't.<

Please do not forget that Moogs were integrated into such organs, if 
memory serves me (and it so seldome does).  

Moogs could NEVER have been more popular because they were so 
impractical.

Hmmmmm... Am I getting off track?  This environment sends me into 
musing...

Now, insofar as the Wiard is concerned, I would like to officially 
challenge a Wiard owner to do a piece of classical music.  What, has 
Wiard no Elhardt?  If the oscillators are as stable as claimed and 
the instrument is as broad ranging as claimed, let's hear it, gents!

Gino?

And Doug, what is this about no orchestral music being written within 
the last 150 years?  Don't MAKE me list the composers!

johnm