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Summer Ode Challenge Voting Results |
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The results are in. We had 8 voting entries, which received 174 valid votes from 49 voting entities. We've sliced and diced them as many ways as we could stand to - and they're pretty interesting. The first entry got the largest number of evaluations - quite possibly by simply being first in the series. Perhaps in future challenges we can somehow rotate which entry appears first to the viewer. The first four entries were put up in a group, and overall they received the largest number of evaluations - around 30. By contrast, the last couple of entries received only 10 and 5 evaluations respectively. This is problematic, especially because the last entrant (Mike Will), with only five evaluations, appears to have the overall highest score. Mike played very well, but his victory might have been better solidified by a larger sampling of opinion. We've given summary information, but also vote-by-vote details and comments, arranged both by player and by voter. The voter sort is rather interesting, as it shows the habits of each voter. Some voted on only one entry, while others on several. The higher voter numbers indicate later voting, though we have no actual date information. However, website traffic statistics indicate that most page viewers - and likely voters - came early. In future, we may hold all entries until the posting deadline, then post them all at once, so that everyone will have the same time window for evaluation. The voting machinery worked well, but not perfectly. Some of the voters' comments are cut off before the end, probably due to a software screwup. We also found 26 fragmentary scraps floating loose without being attached to a vote - unfortunately, we had to discard these in presenting the results. We also had a few comments, again unattached to any entry, that tried to place the evaluation scores in the comments field. It may be noted that two of the web workers on this site, Winslow Yerxa and Hans Mikelson, entered renditions in the contest. Hans was the one who controlled the voting machinery, but I think if one looks at how he fared, no-one could accuse him of cheating. Winslow, while he did not entirely escape negative evaluations, did well. He assures us that he did not tamper with the results, and that he did not himself cast any votes. |
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Non-Voting Entries |
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We had two very interesting entries, from Robert Bonfiglio and Joe Filisko, that did not meet the challenge rules, but were fascinating nonetheless. I wish now we had provided for listeners to send comments about these entries - it might have been quite interesting. | |
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No.1 (chromatic): Robert Bonfiglio | |
Many voters were unhappy with the hand vibrato used by Harmonicus Canadensis in Voting Entry No. 1. Here, Bonfiglio shows how to do it right. The original recording starts in G and goes up through Ab, A, B, C Db, D, Eb, E, F and F#. It's over four minutes long and therefore a long download. We've chopped it up into shorter segments (with the performer's permission), grouping dissimilar keys like Bb and B together, and it's quite remarkable how they come out sounding so similar in tone and phrasing - breath and slide changes don't seem to affect the even tone and articulation. Click here to hear the whole thing (long, and a big download). Click here to hear it in G. Click here to hear it in Ab, then A. Click here to hear it in Bb, then B. Click here to hear it in C, then Db. Click here to hear it in D, then Eb. Click here to hear it in E, then F, then F#. | |
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No. 2: Joe Filisko Top of Section | |
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Joe broke two rules. He played it first in 7th position (Db on a G-harp), then again in the required second position (D on a G-harp). But when he played it in second position, he added a chord, also against the rules. However, the chord he added is very difficult to play. It's a split between Draw 1, and Draw 3 bent down two semitones (with Hole 2 tongue-blocked). Doing this at all is pretty amazing, but he does it in tune, which is even better. | |