I found quite a few references on the subject, and here a short summary on the effects of human touch deprivation. Also, stony and non-responsive facial expressions cause severe distress, but that aside:

<Debra Fulghum Bruce PhD, Healthcare

A “touch-less” society can lead to failure to thrive and death with newborn babies. The perils of a touch-less society became apparent in the early 1900s, when Dr. Luther Emmett Holt, known as one of America's first and finest pediatricians, decided that parents were spoiling their children by cuddling and holding them too much. Good parents took notice and immediately followed his order, beginning a trend of “hands-off” parenting. Within just a few years, doctors across the nation started to notice a dramatic increase in infant deaths—particularly in seemingly healthy babies. It soon became apparent that these infants experienced “failure to thrive,” simply because they were not getting enough human contact through touch. There are hosts of studies of babies in orphanages concluding that those infants who suffered from touch deprivation achieved only half of the height normal for their age.>

Even the holding of the infant to the chest, not by the mom, but by "strange nurses", is extremely important and beneficial, because of the proximity to the actual pump, the heart, which is among many things a very powerful generator of electro-magnetic energy. The brain idem dito. Kids of course intuitively know this and will climb all over you, will fall asleep without a care in the world if they are being held, or, rest their head in your lap.

Provides a pic of my mic(rophone) and a neat description, of this - after all these years - still one hundred dollar mic. -

- <Electret condenser stereo microphone for advanced amateur use>

- Mid/side (MS) capsules create natural stereo panorama

- Adjust pickup angle (90-120 degrees) for single voice/instrument or multi-voice/instrument

- Oxygen-free copper cord

- Ideal for portable digital recorders

I'm sure, as advanced amateur, you agree with me that the <OXYGEN FREE COPPER CORD> is the feature that jumps right out, and draws you in.

These can be precious...

I can't wait to get the first sound files of your work.

That does look like a fine microphone and the price is right too. Best part is YOU ALREADY HAVE IT!?

heh

<OXYGEN FREE COPPER CORD>

I'm more of a "retarded amateur" than advanced, so I've not heard of this feature. It sounds good though. Why would a microphone need oxygen?

I can tell you that three years AFTER I bought my microphone, I got a "recall" email from the manufacturer telling me that the handy carrying case contained "potentially hazardous amounts of lead."

I refused their offer of a replacement. I want my microphone protected by the "best lead available."

Ironically we need the elements of iron and lead in our body to function, carry oxygen, heh, and it beat me initially why a copper chord would benefit from being free from oxygen, except for oxydation/rust!

Today is a cooler day and I will use it to "clean house", but will send you a few smallish files later on, tomorrow morning at the latest.

Be sure to dunk your head in a bucket of cold water!

I remember advising you to get an air conditioner 5 years ago... but

When Richard lays down vocal tracks here, we turn off the air conditioning, because my mike is so sensitive it records the cool blowing sounds.

You know there are many, many websites that offer copyright free "movie scoring sound files"- but these are invariably awful, because the entire genre of "movie scoring" is awful.

You know, the cliche, stock strings and boom booms used for "tender sequences", "ominous sequences," "contemplative sequences" and so on.

They all have one thing in common. They are trite, cheaply manipulative, and bloody awful.

This is the litmus test for me: scoring music and sound has to be art in and of itself.

It has to be able to stand alone as art.

If you wouldn't want to just listen to a movie score without seeing the images and listening to the dialogue, then that score is something I don't want.

This kind of scoring ruins many movies and documentaries for me.

When I hear the cliche "music" it actually calls attention to itself as a cliche, as an "order" to feel a certain way.

This takes me out of the world of the film, rather than draws me more deeply in.

The artificiality jars me out of whatever actual verisimilitude is in the movie or documentary.

This is one of the main reasons I'm looking forward to working with you- I want to hear your art, your music, and your performance- I don't want to hear scoring.

Mertens' soundtrack is absolutely great art in and of itself. And when it's married to a great film like "Belly" it makes both itself and the film more beautiful than it would be without being combined in one art work.

Here is an example from the film- exquisite juxtaposition of musical and filmic art:

I just want to point out that the specific genre is irrelevant, the only important thing is that both music and film are works of art in and of themselves, and they make a truly magic combination.

<Ennio Morricone> with <Sergio Leone>:

I feel you, and your response excites me. Absolutely feel free to experiment and do whatever you want, you are the artist I want to work with.

The artist needs full free reign, that's part one of the process. Later we can judge and marry ideas together and hopefully make a fine documentary film.

When the legendary art rock band <Popol Vuh> agreed to work with <Werner Herzog> on "Aguirre, the Wrath of God," they asked Werner

"So what kind of music do you want"?

All Werner said to them was "Give me space. Give me lots of space."

This was the result of Herzog's "musical direction":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJNn...

For me, this five minutes alone stands as one of the greatest artistic achievements in film/music history.

Notice the quadruple marriage of soundtrack, film, vocal narrative, and recorded cannon shot/thunderclap at the very end of the sequence.

######################

A reminder- I can't put anything up on youtube that is not

<1.> An original composition

<2.> A composition at least 100 years old in an original performance (by you in this case- heh)

Anything else is subject to copyright strike and possible banning of the documentary off youtube.

I live in constant fear of this now- it takes so long to research and construct these chess history documentaries, I'm horrified by the possibility they could just be censored off the internet.

But, according to current American, Canadian, and European copyright law, so long as points <1> and <2> above are observed, I can legally refute any false copyright strike.

Contrary to what seems to be popular belief, I find spoken German to be beautiful.

There's some kind of elusive combination of intellect and mellifluousness that I hear in spoken German.

The spoken German in the opening of <Aguirre> is music to my ears.

There is a reason some are called leadsingers ;)

Oh, and Sergio and Enio are a match made in musicheaven.The track to "Once upon a time in the West" is always hitting me deep.

Could easily beeing played to my funeral.

Glad to hear the temperature is better <achieve> ! Soon a reduction here as well.

Trivia question : One of these 2 gyus moved around a lot during childhood

1 : Johnny Deep
2 : Brad Pitt

<Niels> do you meant the music on the Petrovs clip I already sent you?

That's <Wagner>, Shirley?

(His less well known sister Shirley Wagner).

YES! That one is ok because the piece is more than a 100 years old and because the performers explicitly, and formally, licensed their performance under <creative commons>.

I can actually view a copy of the license; its posted on the website I got the sound file from. This and many hundreds of other classical music performances I have comes from the same site, which I recommend highly:

https://musopen.org/

With regard to us, you don't even need to register or license your performances under "creative commons."

They do that at the musopen site because the site is an official distributor of copyright-free music files.

Here's the full explanation with regard to our work, and sorry if it's a little complicated.

Every performance of a music file by someone who works under a contract with a studio or record company has an audio "water mark." So if Arthur Rubinstein has a distribution contract with WGM, if you upload one of his files playing Beethoven, WGM has the right to take your video off youtube for copyright violation.

But the program youtube uses to prevent themselves from being sued is a "copyright trawler" that does not actually check the audio watermarks. It just checks the music itself.

So let's say I put a file of you playing Beethoven on a video.

In the first few days or even weeks, I might get a copyright notice saying "WGM owns the rights to this performance by Arthur Rubinstein."

But this is not a critical problem. I simply fill in the "first form" on the page, and say the notice is in error because the performance is not by Arthur Rubinstein. I don't even have to say who it *is* by. The best part of this is that once I fill in this form, any ban or block on my video is automatically lifted, and the company in question has one month to either confirm or release their claim on my video.

The next step is that my error notice is automatically forwarded to WGM. Once at WGM, they will normally check the watermark. Once they see it's not a Rubinstein performance, they release the claim on my video.

If for some reason they still insist it's Rubinstein, even though I know it isn't, (it will be you), I can then fill out the second form.

This demands that WGM file an actual DMCA notice.

They won't do this, because there are serious legal penalties to them if they file a false DMCA claim.

So once WGM gets the second form, they will take a good hard look at the audio file and realize their mistake. At this point, they will release their claim on my video.

But in your case, since I know you, and you know you (heh), if WGM ever filed a DMCA claim against your performance YOU COULD SUE THEM AND WIN MONEY.

<Musopen.org> has done a lot of work with the Czech Symphony Orchestra, and when I use one of these files I know that Musopen will actually countersue any music company who makes a claim on one of these files. I know because I'm in frequent email contact with Aaron, the kindly <Musopen.org> founder and webmaster. He has assured me that I have the support of his company if anyone tried to take down my youtube video that uses music from his site.

So I'm safe with <Musopen.org> music files, but I'm just as safe with you.

So as you can see, the copyright issue is not the primary reason I want to work with you on this project. That's just an added bonus.

I want to hear your art- I'm expecting to like your art because of your vast knowledge of musicology and your excellent taste in music.

I'll quote the King from the movie "Amadeus":

"You have excellent taste in music. It exactly coincides with my own."

Well in those cases, with the <Mahler> and others, I do not at present have any video posted that is guaranteed free from copyright claim.

That's why I'm in constant fear.

I've been lucky so far- I had so many "automated youtube copyright crawler strikes" on my combined chess videos that my youtube account was "not in good standing."

So I gambled, thinking that "I bet most of these trawler strikes are mistaken."

I contested the claim on every strike, and around 90 percent of them were released because the trawler did in fact get it wrong.

Then my youtube account was judged "in good standing" again.

The other thing is that really cool artists such as the great Hungarian composer/performer <Vig Mihaly> has a really cool record company that never, ever blocks a video.

They just want you to acknowledge on the copyright strike form that you know it's their company. This way, Mihaly will get part of any revenues from any ads that appear on a video I post that has his music.

But the real danger is this- there's no guarantee that things won't change.

Let's say Vig Mihaly signs a big new deal with WGM- well in that case my "Akiva Rubinstein part 3" video could potentially be banned from youtube.

So this is one of the reasons, apart from mastering <Sony Vegas> and being a lazy fatass, that I haven't posted a new chess documentary in almost two years. I want the music to be immune to copyright strikes.

With <musopen.org> files, of which I have hundreds, as I said, I'm safe. I have the institutional backing of their company and such.

And with Andrew Sweeny I'm safe. And with you I'd be safe.

Safe forever. Unless you hit it big and signed a deal with WGM and they took down our video!?

Actually in that case you could just phone WGM and tell them "I said it's ok for Jess to use my music" and they would presumably obey you.

Or not!

Some of these big music corporations don't really care about the wishes of their artists.

Andrew's "folky American" style would match <Pillsbury>, I think, or a <Ken Burns> documentary too.

But Andrew is raising a family and has no time, so in one year he has only sent me around 5 minutes worth of music I could use.

But for Petrovs I think a more "continental" sound is in order.

But who knows what you will make and send me?

I agree "Once Upon a Time in the West" is another example of the "Morricone-Leone" magic.

Wasn't his father in the army or something?

OK ;) Since it is you !

Same taste as my wife...and she is proven to have a fine taste :)(open windows)

Just a little story a propos : a guy I once knew were frequenting his local pub having a nice chat with a couple of customers ata table.His wife were there too,chatting with her friends.

After the arrival to their home he proudly told his wife that he has had a fine coversation with John Terry ,the famous Chelsea midfielder.That is fine she replied,but you didn´t talk to the fellow next to ,Terry ? "No,I didn´t.I did not even notice him" What a shame,she said.It was Johnny Depp" !

That is why I never wear sunglasses :)

Well it just goes to show the power of football.