The Gentle Women of Kyoto

[rturenne]

I just viewed "The Gentlewomen of Kyoto" on the Beechbrook site. It is a visual delight with the images very well presented. But I was left with a sense of unease. The women on the screen were a living embodiment of a rich culture going back thousands of years. But the soundtrack was from a totally different culture on the other side of the planet. There was a real disconnect. How much more powerful this presentation could have been had it used a more culturally appropriate traditional Japanese music.

Roger

[Miles2go]

Hi Roger

As a courtesy to me as the creator of the show, I wish you had contacted me first to give me your feedback instead of merely posting your comment in the forum. In Beechbrook my email address is there, next to my Gentle Women in Kyoto icon, for you to click on.

Be that as it may, it is not easy in my country to find traditional Japanese music that is "lively" enough to accompany my slide show. I had to settle for the French music from Les Choristes which, whether you understand the lyrics or not, projects the joyful mood I experienced when I was in Kyoto taking the pictures.

Do bear in mind that music is a universal language. There are time and money limitations in looking for the perfect musical accompaniment and making the right match when you are a hobbyist, not a commercial PTE producer.

It was only this week that I finally found an authentic Japanese composition that fits in perfectly. Unfortunately I do not want to replace my current version of Gentle Women of Kyoto at this stage since Bill will soon be taking down the shows that are more than a month old.

I look forward to seeing eventually your PTE presentations too.

Ning

[cottage]

Hi Ning,

Although you correctly stated my new "time limit policy", let me ease your mind with a bit of further explanation. During a typical month, if no new presentations are uploaded, I do not necessarily plan to remove older shows.

Therefore a presentation that is over the 30 day limit may in fact stay online longer. I will probably only remove older presentations as new ones are uploaded. In other words, the presentation with the oldest time-stamp will be the first to be removed when a new show arrives. I hope this makes the policy clearer.

All the best,

Bill

[rturenne]

Hi Ning,

Your point is well taken about communicating with you before posting my comments on the forum. I apologize for not doing so. I do believe, however, that the forum is an appropriate place to post ideas on how to improve our presentations. My comments were not so much directed at you but were rather intended to encourage PTE presenters generally to strive towards harmony between the visual and the audio portions of presentations. I see that on the substance of the issue, we are in agreement. Perhaps my problem is that I have recently seen Les Choristes and could not get the choirboys out of my mind when listening to that music! I agree with your comments about the universality of music. We should not be bound by rigid formulae and should remain free to experiment.

By the way, I do have two PTE presentations on the site: Canoe Country and A National Park Struggles to be Born. Feel free to comment.

Roger

[LumenLux]

Perhaps my problem is that I have recently seen Les Choristes and could not get the choirboys out of my mind when listening to that music!

I think your statement above is often true with many of us. When our first experience with a music score is linked with a visual view - it is thereafter hard to dis-associate one from the other. I hope Ning does understand your comment and that such comments, and responses, really help us all to understand what we are doing and why.

If you are in the mood for making further sound-track-related comments, I would invite you (and others) to comment on the soundtrack I used in my PTE sequence The Subway. Though hundreds of people have downloaded the show via Beechbrook, I think I may have only received one comment about the sound. If you download the Subway, the zip file contains two PTE shows. Please run the ZionSubway forum 3 show first. That show links into the Rosewood pte which actually invites comments specifically on the soundtrack.