Today I threw out 1576 pictures (6,6Gb worth) of iPhoto 2. That means I only have 3166 (or 13,3 Gb) of them left on my computer. I bought iPhoto 5 being reasonably happy with iPhoto 2 but being promised better performance. Now that didn’t turn out well. (yes, it was faster, but it should handle the photo collection of an average DSLR amateur) iPhoto is the program that crashes most frequently on my computer. Only reason for going with iPhoto was that f-spot wasn’t stable on OS X, and last I checked about a month ago it still wasn’t. I’m recompiling now, though, hoping that OS X stability comes around soon. (It’d be awesome having it included with fink) This guy won’t be upgrading to iPhoto 6 anytime soon. Apple hasn’t taken a single bug report regarding iPhoto 5 seriously. No stability patch has been released. Bad enough it being dreadfully slow. Sorry Apple, you had my money, leave photography for the rest and build those wonderful computers you’re so good at.

During a visit to the coffee shop with Ulrik and Ketil recently, I learned that in the renaissance the zink/cornetto and the oboe are described as the instruments that are closest to the voice, so one can speculate if singing technique has changed from very nasal in the renaissance to a more “classic” ideal that is closer to the flute when Quantz writes On playing the Flute.

While discussing embouchure (Chapter 4, page 55) Quantz notes how close the flute is to the human voice and saying that working with chest voice and falsetto is just like tightening the lips when playing the flute (in his view it is this that makes the flute a natural instrument), he comes with the funniest attack on the French and their singing:

“The Italians and several other nations unite this falsetto with the chest voice, and make use of it to great advantage in singing: among the French, however, it is not customary, and for that reason their singing in the high register is often transformed into a disagreeable shrieking, the effect of which is exactly the same created when you do not cover the mouth hole sufficiently on the flute, and when you try to force out the high notes by blowing more strongly.”

Unfortunately I haven’t heared many (only one comes to mind) recordings where the singers have experimented with using shrieking or very nasal singing. Perhaps the contemporary ways of baroque singing is still too nice?

In On playing the Flute paragraph 17 chapter I, page 34, Quantz describes the “flutes d’amour” as a flute that is a minor third lower than the common flute. Funny, as I always imagined it was a name for the voice flute (a recorder in D), being a minor third lower than the alto recorder.