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From: dross@cambizola.cs.wisc.edu (Dan Ross)
Newsgroups: alt.cd-rom.reviews
Subject: Re: Review Wanted: "So I've Heard" series
Date: 5 May 1994 02:56:48 GMT
Organization: University of WI, Madison -- Computer Sciences Dept.
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In <2q6afe$737@nwfocus.wa.com> jennings@coho.halcyon.com (James Jennings) writes:
>Voyager has a five volume cd-rom series on Music History called "So I've
>Heard", by Alan Rich. It appears to be a Hypercard Stack with text,
>illustrations, and excerpts from classical recordings.

>Has anyone sampled these? Are the excerpts any good? What level is it
>aimed at? How much actual information is there?

>I'm particularly interested in Vol 1: "Bach and Before". The package
>says that it contains 40 musical excerpts. Can someone tell me what
>those excerpts are and how long they are?

I have Vol 1: "Bach and Before".  It is a hybrid data CD/audio CD, and
you must copy a folder (on the Macintosh) to your hard disk.  It is
a HyperCard stack with text and (black and white, unfortunately) illustrations,
and XCMDs/XFCNs that drive the CD-ROM drive as an audio CD player to play
the appropriate track at the right moment.  You can also pop it into
a CD player and play tracks 2-whatever for a nice "mix" of music.

The excerpts are all from commercially-released CDs (and a discography
is included); I guess the intent is to give you a cross-section sampler of
CDs you might want in your collection.  I think the excerpts were mostly
"complete" (i.e., a complete movement from a sonata, but not the whole sonata).
It starts with an interpretation of an early Greek "musical piece" (symbols
decoded from ruins or something), and moves on up to the time of Bach.
Some of the excerpts may have Alan Rich talking about something (not sure).

(I loaned it to someone, so I don't have the disk or the software installed
to tell you more and/or refresh my memory.)

I paid $21 for it, and I've seen it for even less.  I think it's kind of
neat, although I was a bit disappointed it wasn't in color.  (When they
talk about the Notre Dame school of polyphony, they have a B&W dithered
picture of Notre Dame de Paris that looks like a cross between a Seurat and
a Monet--I believe it actually was a photograph :-(

Dan					    dross@cs.wisc.edu