Patric Quinn and a Musical Test

Either Pat Quinn didn't drop his lantern in a tub of varnish starting the fire that destroyed the shovel shop back in March, 1852 or the Ames family was a very forgiving family. Now a name like Pat Quinn probably was a common one in 19th century Massachusetts, but it's hard to believe there was more than one with wife Eliza and son Frederick. Pat "the Lantern" Quinn was still employed by the shovel company in 1855! By that time Pat and Eliza had two more kids. They apparently weren't living in company housing, but Pat was cashing a company paycheck. Don't know if the loss was covered by insurance, or whether Oakes and Oliver Ames didn't want to risk a strike by their Irish workers, or whether they genuinely were willing to set an accident aside, but Pat Quinn's name didn't live in infamy like Mrs. O'Leary and her cow in Chicago. Mrs. Ames reports that as many as 50 carpenters worked to build temporary shops which were completed by March 28 only 25 days after the fire.

This article from NPR brought back fond memories. Once in the good old days I was lucky enough to have Megan Fergusson, one of the best young violists in the country in my philosophy class at OA. A debate broke out one day about computer generated music. I took the side that given a digitized score and the right synthesized instrument all but a professional musician wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the computer and a human performer. Meg took the other side insisting that not only could an ordinary person easily recognize a computer that they could also tell the difference between two high level musicians playing the same piece. We learned a lot about computer music as it existed a decade ago (today's computers actually create the tiny imperfections of human performers). At that time strings were hard to simulate on a computer so the class challenged Megan to prove her claim that we could tell the difference between one of her solos and that of a recorded adult. I and the class failed miserably. Megan played beautifully and the record sounded exactly the same! Now you can take a similar test. The attached article let's you compare a modern violin with a Stradivarius. Professional musicians participated in a double blind test on several instruments and couldn't consistently distinguish a Strad from a modern violin (by the way the Red Violin is a great movie about these remarkable instruments).

I've listened to a lot of music since Megan was in my class. Really listened, and she was right you can tell the difference between YoYo Ma and Pablo Casals versions of Bach's solo cello music. I could even pick out the Strad in this test (I listened to each five times before I made my guess-listen for the famous warm tone). Thanks Megan for teaching me to really listen! Here's a link to Megan's website where you can hear her playing! Dr. Fergusson! I always assume students forget me about two minutes after they leave my class (and always apologize to those who don't forget!), but I'll always remember that class fondly and particularly Megan and her viola.