Here’s a little story illustrating the fundamental interconnectedness of all things that I wanted to share…
1) A while ago I started researching the technology of and history behind Yamaha’s OPL2 and OPL3 FM synths (just because I was curious).
2) Sometime later I read a wholly unrelated news article about a Hungarian baby.
3) The FM synthesis technique used by Yamaha was conceived and developed by John M. Chowning.
4) Chowning reportedly happened upon the idea behind FM synthesis while experimenting with vibrato in the 1960s.
5) Vibrato Wars rage between factions disagreeing on how classical music should be played with regard to vibrato to be historically accurate.
6) In The Vibrato Thing, David Montgomery makes very sarcastic remarks (on pages 5 and 6) about the perceived unlikelihood of Fritz Kreisler (an Austrian violinist born in 1875) being able to hear Gypsies play violin.
7) Wait a second! That article about a Hungarian baby mentioned a Gypsy musician named Mihaly Fatyol who “played the dance halls of Budapest and Europe from the 1920s to the 1970s, at a time when no restaurant, no society wedding was complete without a Gypsy orchestra”. Hmm, maybe Mr. Montgomery is the one jumping to conclusions and it was not at all unlikely for an Austrian living in Vienna to hear a Gypsy violinist in a Viennese café in the late 19th century? Then again, I’d rather not take part in the vibrato wars…
Anyway, there you have it—the connection between an OPL3 chip and a Hungarian baby.
