The Death of an Audio Card

The death of an audio card was like this: first it lagged the whole machine just a little, if lag can be a transitive verb, then it started eating up half the CPU time, lagging the computer a LOT. Yesterday, my Aardvark audio card got its tongue stuck in its last ant hole and couldn't get it out-- no MIDI, no audio, nothin'. I went online to see what was happening at aardvark.com and discovered that the company has disappeared. I googled a bit to pick up any traces of advice on what I might do, but all I could find was a sad little petition dated a couple of years ago asking Aardvark to release the sourcecode for the cards, presumably so that people could make them work properly. Sigh. Of course this happens right in the middle of a project, so I'm using the old fashioned method of writing, playing at the piano, and guessing what it will sound like. In addition, I think that everything, including video, runs off the clock in the card, and so this is why nothing synchronizes anymore-- the video plays in high speed. Ah well, a temporary setback-- the new card is already on the way. I hope it doesn't have any trouble in my aging computer.

A last note-- I will stay away from name brands I don't recognize. Aardvark was a small company making a very nice product and so I bought it, BUT I had my first warning when it took forever for them to come up with a driver to work with the then-new Windows XP. The person handling my phone call when I was grumbling about the non-compatibility with XP was very unprofessional. I should have returned the card right then. Now I know two symptoms of a company at high risk for evaporating-- small staff and volatile support techs.

Back from Italy

I've been very busy the last couple of months working on Antietam and preparing a small choir for a tour of Southern Italy.

The trip went almost without incident and the incidents didn't really affect us at much at all. I posted some pics at a photo-share site-- some of these I pasted together for panorama views of some especially scenic sites. The concerts were varied and interesting. The first was probably the best of the formal concerts, in a small church in Pescara (S. Francesco). The Mass preceding our concert went overtime, so we started a bit past 9 pm. As is usual for these things, the audience started somewhat small and grew as people who heard the music outside wandered in. No one applauded after the first several pieces, so I just made a full turn and smiled after the third group at which point the audience applauded with some enthusiasm. It turns out that my proofreading of the program failed in that I somehow missed the fact that the groupings of the pieces wasn't indicated. After that first bow, they applauded more often, though I can't recall if it was after every piece or not. One benefit of all this was that the program was about 10 minutes over an hour long and that was plenty for our voices and my energy.

The program was:

I
O Quam Gloriosum - Victoria
Tu Es Petrus - Palestrina
Cantate Domino - Pitoni
Mass in A minor - Canniciari

II
Jubilate Deo - Mozart (?)
Ave Verum (a cappella) - Mozart
Thou Art the Glory of their Strength (a cappella) - Handel

III
O Salutaris hostia - Rossini
Locus Iste - Bruckner
Beati Quorum Via - Stanford
Lift Thine Eyes - Mendelssohn
Heilig - Mendelssohn

IV
Ubi Caritas - Durufle
Ave Maria - Biebl
O Magnum Mysterium - Carl Wiltse (local composer)

V
Don'tcha Weep, Sweet Mary
Wondrous Love - Parker/Shaw
Precious Lord (men only) - Ringwald
Steal Away - Hogan
Good News, Chariots a-comin'

I think that's everything.

The second concert was less formal and followed a Mass in Perugia (or a nearby suburb). We didn't know what to expect and when we arrived we were disappointed to learn that they didn't want to hear classical music. Ouch. So, we sang most of the last group for the outdoor Mass (definitely not our best acoustic!) and they were happy. They called their music "gospel", but it sounded to be like the urban folk of the 60's. However, it was well attended, largely by younger folks, and the musicians were a male guitarist and a female singer/cantor. A young woman was called out of the assembly to translate most of the homily for our benefit-- she was put on the spot and so was very nervous, but she held her own negotiating the two languages. After the Mass, a young women came up, spoke very good English (better than the translator at Mass), and expressed her appreciation of our singing. It turns out she is a classical guitarist (and probably could have blown the chord chomper out of the water) studying conducting at a nearby university. Sheesh. During this time that I'm speaking with various members of the parish, watermelon is being served and it seemed that almost everyone stayed for fellowship. I was pretty sure that they didn't want to hear our program, so I let them know that I didn't want to force them to listen to music they weren't interested in and that that was OK, no problem. However, we were prodded into singing for the promised half hour informal concert and I said that was fine, but was there any way we could use the church? No, too hot in there. I asked again, saying we were used to the heat and the kind of music that we sing does better inside, so they showed me into their modern building which turned out to have shiny, beautiful marble floors and stone walls and ceiling. (There was also a cool chapel-- the door was about 4' high and was doored by a round stone that could be rolled in front of the entrance to the side.) It wasn't a huge church and I suspected this might be the most perfect venue we would see on the trip. We assembled in front and, without any audience except what we brought with us, we started singing. The acoustic was astoundingly wonderful and we had some of our best renditions of our repertoire that evening. Within minutes of beginning this mini-concert, the crowd moved inside and listened attentively. Their applause was exceedingly enthusiastic (which makes me wonder what they think of when they hear "Classical music") and then simply rapturous when we repeated the Spirituals and gospel set. Who knew?

The third concert was in Perugia in one of the town-center meeting halls/ auditoriums. The room was live, but not special. We had just eaten a huge meal, it was especially hot, andsince it was late in the tour, many were very tired . It took us several pieces to reclaim our energy and perform well. The concert was OK, but only good in the last half.

The fourth event was Mass at St. John Lateran in Rome. The church is of course very special but was a little large for our ensemble and we were seated behind the huge altar, so there was no line-of-sight to the assembly. Still, they had mics up which apparently worked perfectly to make it seem, according to one of our groupies, that a choir of angels was singing unseen during the Mass. Cool. A young woman who explained that she was a member of a 60-piece orchestra and chorus in the area was very complimentary of our expressive singing (one of my primary goals-- I spend a lot of rehearsal time fussing about this). The Monsignor who presided at Mass sent a messenger after our first piece and said we could take pictures with him after Mass. I guess he either liked us or just forgot to say so before, heh. In any event, I was expecting this to be the least pleasant experience because I had heard that guest choirs singing in Rome were often cut off in mid-piece in order for Mass to continue in a timely fashion. Nothing like that happened, thankfully, and I carefully chose music (from our very short approved list) that would fit well. A very lovely, actually.

That's enough for now. Back to Antietam. Rob Child has shown me another "treatment" for a project they are asking him to take on. More work for me, I hope!