Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2014 October 9

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October 9

good ragtime recordings?

Can someone recommend some good-sounding ragtime recordings on CD? Probably something recorded in the last 15 years. I have some recordings by Erwin Helfer and on a good system, they sound almost like he is in the room with you. That is the sound I'm looking for. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 02:06, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

I like ragtime, but can't personally recommend any great recordings. Looking around a bit, I'd try this though [1], from John Arpin. Recorded in 1989, it should have decent quality, and it's a who's who/greatest hits type album of classics. Also plenty of Arpin on youtube, so you can sample his work for free [2]. You can also listen (free streeam) to the second disc of Arpin's Scott Joplin collection here [3]. I wasn't going planning to listen to ragtime today, but after a short sampling it seems like good work music :) SemanticMantis (talk) 15:27, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

Thank you - I like his playing. I've ordered Kings of Ragtime - used, the only way it is available at a reasonable price. I'm streaming the one you linked me to right now. He has a one-CD, a two-CD, and a four-CD (complete) collection of Scott Joplin. The two- and four-CD sets are at really great prices. But the four-CD set might be more than I want, so I'll probably get the two-CD set. It was made in 1997, so it will probably sound OK. (Most CDs made before about 1994 don't sound good.) Thank you again. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 23:44, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

Gadhimai Festival November 2014 and Beheading

The Gadhimai Animal Beheading Festival in Southern Nepal, occurs every 5 years in honor of a HINDU goddess.

This festival will occur next month and more than 500,000 animals (cows, pigs, sheep, dogs, snakes, etc.) will endure decapitation, where they stand or lie.

In the WIKIPEDIA definition/listing of "Beheading" the Gadhimai Festival is NOT mentioned.

I know that Wikipedia, was not created to take political stands on any topics but I just think that it would be a great kindness if WIKIPEDIA were to include the Gadhimai Decapitation Festival under the words "decapitation" and under "Beheading".

While this probably sounds a little bit bizarre of a request, I just think that so many people use WIKIPEDIA all the time, as I do and that the mention of this Festival in the above defininitions might help to bring about worldwide awareness of the suffering that the intended victims, endure before they finally succumb to their injuries.

I thank you for listening and hope that WIKIPEDIA owners can understand and empathize with my request. I am hoping that this festival will end once and for all, some day. I understand the need for religious traditions, but I personally think that 500,000 unanesthetized, hacked and butchered animals is a little excessive. I am hoping to bring about a global awareness of this festival and WIKIPEDIA is a great place to start. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.67.1.78 (talk) 02:42, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

1. The Gadhimai festival page does not state that the animals are beheaded, only "sacrificed".

2. The article on Decapitation deals with the decapitation of humans, not animals.

3. Wikipedia is actually not a great place to start your campaign.

- Eron^Talk 04:09, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

Eron, I think it's bad form to place a "resolved" tag to mark a question as resolved, when you yourself are the sole respondent. Usually the OP is the one with the privilege of placing the tag. I will personally be ignoring the tag to compose my answer, as I do not think you have resolved the question. Additionally, you seem to have mistaken WP a a reliable source, which it is not. Please see my response to the OP below. SemanticMantis (talk) 15:49, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

First, let's look up "behead" in the OED [4]. To save a click, it says "To deprive (a man or animal) of the head, to decapitate; to kill by cutting off the head." So, the fact that our WP article is focused only on humans is in contradiction to this most reliable source. Indeed, I can't think of any other words than "behead" and "decapitate" that would describe the killing of an animal by removal of it's head. I agree with Eron that WP:SOAP is not a great motivation, but we can still improve Wikipedia by adding relevant information to our articles. I might suggest the OP ask at the talk page [5] about including a section on "decapitation of non-humans" or similar.

Now, onto the matter of the festival. Regardless of what's said in our article, it is clear to me that beheading of animals does occur at the festival, because I watched this video of a man cutting off the head of an animal (using a large kukri) at said festival: (warning: graphic video of decapitation of animals - [6] - one occurs at ~3:50, there are probably others). There are also numerous other sources that discuss this beheading, [7] [8].

I conclude that beheading/decapitation is the right word for cutting off an animals head, and that such practice occurs at the Gadhimai festival. I also think it is appropriate to add the terms "beheading" or "decapitating" the the festival article, with citations to these or more reliable sources. Finally, adding a whole new section to beheading is a lot of work, but it would be relatively simple to add a link to the festival under the "see also" section. I encourage OP (or anyone else with an interest) to be WP:BOLD and WP:FIXIT, provided care is taken to use WP:NEUTRAL point of view, and cite reliable sources. SemanticMantis (talk) 15:49, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

Looking for the TV-making term...

Resolved

... for the guy who shoots on a tabletop rig (or certainly in a studio) for documentaries etc. He generally has to pan over photos, birth certificates, etc, create still-type footage of artefacts, etc. It's just escaping me for the moment. Thanks in advance. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Theediscerning (talk • contribs) 11:07, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

Rostrum camera. -- Finlay McWalterᚠTalk 11:17, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

Of course it is. Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Theediscerning (talk • contribs) 11:20, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

I've got to ask, Theediscerning, is this question linked to Big Train's sketch about Rostrum Cameramen?! (It's all I can think about now I've read it!) -LÒÓkingYourBest^(Talk|Edits) 13:03, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

Polyrhythm

Polyrythm in piano pieces is common such as 3 in the left hand against 2 in right hand. However, are there pieces that have this in the same hand? I don't mean pieces with upper and lower voices with different rhythms in general, which are quite common, but pieces with different tuplets involved in the same hand at the same time. --2.245.211.141 (talk) 11:22, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

This applies to the first movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, where the right hand often has a figure with dotted quaver + semiquaver in the upper voice and triplet quavers in the lower. I can't think of any other examples offhand, but I did once have a book of studies (I can't remember the composer) that included an exercise of playing 3 against 5 in the same hand. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 11:31, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

One piece I know is Mendelssohn's Song Without Words in A-flat, Op. 38/6, subtitled "Duetto". In most places, the right hand plays the melody with the thumb and index finger and an accompanying filigree with the other fingers. The problem of the melody in 2-time clashing with the filigree in 3-time occurs in measures 9, 17, 21, 25, 29, 35 (see here, from p. 14). I'm sure Brahms would have a few examples too. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 09:00, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

That gives us the question why this is so rare. There are pieces with all these other crazy technique. --2.245.169.139 (talk) 19:43, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

I've read your response a number of times but can't seem to make much sense of it. Can you perhaps rephrase it? -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 18:28, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

I mean why is this so rare? There are so many etudes on scales, leaps, arpeggios, voicing, polyrhythm in different hands and several other things. Is polyrhythm in one hand really so problematic that hardly anyone wrote pieces with this technique? --2.245.150.147 (talk) 23:10, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

It's not too problematic when it's only 2:3 or 3:4 in my experience, but I find that composers usually end up aligning the notes anyway and creating mathematically impossible alignments (Chopin comes to mind immediately!). See this paper for examples of this sort of thing. Double sharp (talk) 02:32, 13 October 2014 (UTC)