To the classical beat of inferior cassettes

To the classical beat of inferior cassettes

JAKARTA (JP): Music hath charms to soothe the savage ... is it
breast or beast? Well, never mind. I am here to tell you that it
also arouses the beast, or savageness in breasts -- or whatever.
Actually, I am not being fair to that noble art, because it is
not music that's at fault here but commercial activities related
to it, i.e, the sales of classical music cassettes.

I like Mozart, Schumann and Schuman, Weber and Webern, etc.
What I don't like is them dressed up as somebody else. You still
don't get what I'm driving at, do you? If I appear incoherent
it's because the beast in me has been aroused by companies like
Deutsche Gramophon Gesellschaft, Philips, Sony and Decca, or
whoever, because of the inferior cassettes they sell here. If I
buy a cassette that, according to the label, contains Beethoven's
3rd Symphony performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by Wilhelm Furtwangler, I, on the strength of having
shelled out Rp 11,000, am fully entitled to hear Beethoven's 3rd
Symphony performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted
by Wilhelm Furtwangler. What I do not want to hear is a concerto
for five empty beer bottles and the Wagga Wagga didgeridoo
ensemble conducted by Sheila Splott. What I mean is that what you
read on the label may not have anything to do with the contents.

We have to go a bit into the dark days of intellectual piracy
when condemnation rained down on Indonesia from the above
mentioned companies, and resident bule from every corner of
Jakarta went to music shops in trucks and carted away loads of
cassettes which in their own countries were worth their weight in
gold. The complaints about Indonesia tearing intellectual (music)
rights apart took effect about a year or 10 ago, and what
happened then -- if memory serves me right -- is that some kind
of deal was struck whereby cassettes featuring recordings by,
say, DGG were going to be produced here, but would be "for sale
in Indonesia only" -- hanya untuk dijual di Indonesia. The price
of the cassettes increased but was still considerably lower than
in the recording's country of origin.

I know that I'm being unfair to DGG, Philips, etc., because I
am sure that copying the music from a master recording did not
take place in Germany (DGG), Holland (Philips), England (Decca),
or Japan (Sony -- if it still owns those American music
companies, that is). My trust in their knowledge and thoroughness
in doing a job is unshakable. It wasn't in those countries where
buttons were pressed to make masses and masses of Beethoven's 3rd
Symphony at one go.

What follows now is a bit of conjecture, but I don't think
it's that far from the truth. DGG, Philips and others appointed
somebody or some company here to do the copying from a master
tape, label the cassettes, pack them and toss them on the market.
Nothing wrong with that -- chimpanzees and gorillas have been
taught successfully how to press buttons. But little did they
know that they were dealing with people and companies whose
awareness of classical music equals that of a drunken idiot of
five. And it's not just mistakes in packing. Sometimes the button
presser starts a piece on the same tape which was used to record
another one. Or he/she suddenly realizes that the wrong work is
being recorded and hastily makes corrections. The result: a bit
of one piece which stops abruptly, followed by the right
(according to the label) composition. Some faulty cassettes
appear at the end of these scribblings.

I bought the things at a shop on Jl. Haji Agus Salim,
practically the only one in this town that has a wide range
(strictly in the quantitative sense) of classical music
recordings. My big mistake was losing the receipts, but the shop
assistant said a wrong purchase could always be exchanged for the
right cassette (same performers, same brand, same everything).
But here's the snag: the tax seal cannot be broken, which means
you cannot check the new one. Now, with packers packing hundreds
of cassettes, all taken from one master tape, handled by the
idiot who made the mistake, how do you know you're getting a
faultless cassette?

Answer: you don't because you can't check them at the shop.
Here is a list of three cassettes in question: Philips 420 862-4
(Beethoven violin sonatas). Content: guitar music; DGG 427 497-4
(Brahms 4th Symphony). Content starts with a strain from Handel's
Messiah before beginning the symphony; Sony SBT 46-546 (Chopin
Polonaises, Alexander Brailowsky). Content: orchestral music
(this cassette was bought in another music shop).

I have another one but can't find it. It's a recording of
Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain. Anyway, when buying
classical music cassettes in Jakarta, be careful and keep
receipts -- not that it really helps. And here's a message for
DGG, DECCA, etc.: music shops here sell inferior stuff on
your behalf.

-- Jak Jaunt