The cheapest of filler
typed for your pleasure on 20 March 2010, at 4.27 pmSdtrk: see below
I am writing! Which may seem like a silly thing to announce, but Things have been going on with me as of late, and they’re the sort of Things that I want to keep under wraps until they’re very close to finalisation, cos I’m cautious coy like that. But there’s been so much stuff going on that it’s kept me from writing; in fact, one of the articles I’m tackling would be this month’s ‘Any Synthetiks-related etc etc?’, which is probably going to come out next month instead, as it’s feckin’ bloated. It’s another example of ‘there’s so much I need to impart, where do I begin?’ But it’ll be done, nevertheless…
Remember the days back when ‘Shouting etc etc’ actually focussed on topics other than Synthetiks? Heh, neither do I!
In the interim, however, this is killing me: it’s a piece by Marc-André Hamelin, a 20th century composer, for two player pianos. It’s titled ‘Circus galop’, and it will rip your mind open. If Venetian snares wrote music for player pianos, it’d be rather like this:
More later!
Random similar posts, for more timewasting:
18 May 1980 on May 18th, 2005
Stuff from Canada, music from Omaha on October 11th, 2004
March 21st, 2010 at 12.03 pm
Very cool. I sent you this link a while back, and now encourage all interested parties to give an ear to one of the pioneers of music for player piano (specifically, music that can only be played by player piano), the late great Conlon Nancarrow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8luthj74xqI
March 25th, 2010 at 2.30 pm
My ears are unable to keep up with that autoplayer piano thingy. (I have a different taste in music to many. Some classical music is to me indistinguishable from the orchestra tuning up.) However, here is my fave piano version of ‘Lilium’, the Latin theme tune of ‘Elfen Lied’ (Song of the Elves):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFLXp0BF6xY&feature=related
‘Elfen Lied’ is my current thing to be fascinated by, and here is my review of that anime:
http://www.dollcoffeeshop.com/Articles/ElfenLied/ElfenLied.html
March 28th, 2010 at 8.14 pm
WG –
Good ol’ Conlon Nancarrow. Even his name sounds impossible! Which is partially why I couldn’t remember it, cos I would’ve made mention of him in the post if I were able to. Good ol’ Wolfgang to the rescue!
One of the YooChoob commenters mentioned something interesting. Someone named prosapiensable said: ‘Normally composers ciompose [sic] for humans. AFAIK, He proposed a question “How would the composition change if we could handle higher speed?’ Recently, I was listening to a WNYC podcast episode of Radiolab (a show I highly recommend, by the way), concerning Time. Amongst the many tangents it covers related to time, the hosts speak about time relative to the listener, which is then explored through a snippet of a performance where an orchestra performs Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, but the piece is slowed down so that it lasts twenty four hours. I know! It’s crazy! But if you were listening to ‘Circus galop’, or any of Nancarrow’s pieces, whilst perhaps brimful of methamphetamine, would they sound like they were a ‘normal’ rate of speed? Something to think about…
Everhard –
Perhaps you simply haven’t found the right classical musician for you! To be honest, a lot of The Great Names in classical music sound alike to me, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy them — I simply haven’t delved into them enough to be able to discern Brahms from Beethoven, or Liszt from Bach, or etc. Maybe you need to do what I do, and stick with the 20th century composers, like Michael Nyman, György Ligeti, or Krzysztof Penderecki. Did you like the soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’? Then you’ll love Ligeti and Penderecki. 🙂
Between you, our lad PB Shelley, and my dear friend Monti, I’ve only heard praise for Elfen Lied. One of these days, I’m gonna have to set some time aside to watch that series…
March 30th, 2010 at 9.10 pm
WOW… *that* was hard to keep up with!
Er, did I say “Hard”? I meant IMPOSSIBLE, unless you have four hands and twenty fingers and are a pair of conjoined mechanical monkeys hyped up on meth :-O
The only time I’ve seen a score that complicated was from the hand/mind of Frank Zappa. Now I’m exhausted.
Thanks, I needed the rest!
I can’t really tell the great Classical musicians/composers apart either, despite my parents subscribing me to a “Classical Music for Children” record-a-month when I was a youngster.
Cruel and inhuman, perhaps? Depends on your perspective, I suppose. That groundwork did allow me to appreciate many of the more classical-leaning progressive bands, though, so it was a win for me. Depends on how badly one might want to “get” Keith Emerson, I suppose… YMMV, of course!
Which reminds me… there’s a very funny and cute anime that just finished its third season entitled “Nodame Cantobile” in which the focus is heavily on classical music, and although mainly snippets are played, the creators took special care not only in animating the orchestras and piano-playing, but also put up title-boards whenever those scenes come up. The “bookend piece” was Mozart’s “Sonata for Two Pianos”, the first, from season 1, is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozbMWQ5Js0c&feature=player_embedded
Dunno if that’ll work, sorry 😛
If I recall correctly, didn’t “A Clockwork Orange” have a great classical soundtrack as well? Must see that one again…
Yep, Elfen Lied was my first anime, and nothing in its genre has topped it for me. From the Gregorian-like opening sung in Latin to the intriguing ending moments of its last episode, it’s a masterpiece of anime. If you don’t mind flying body parts and attendant gore, that is! I don’t 😀
Regards to all,
PBS, Lily, Eden-in-a-box, Soony, and Pennie
March 31st, 2010 at 1.53 am
Speak of the PB and the PB appears! I am, of course, referring to peanut butter. 🙂
I dunno; I think I would’ve appreciated the ‘Classical Music for Children’ record subscription! Well, I say that now; as a child, I might not have thought much of it. But it’s a cool idea!
And yes, ‘A clockwork orange’ has a shedload of classical music in it, as our malenky droog and narrator Alex was quite keen on the old Ludwig Van. I think that might’ve been the first soundtrack I bought — on cassette, of course. Although I don’t think it was so much the classical aspect that initially snared me regarding the music; it was the use of synthesisers that transformed the organic sounds of Beethoven into the synthetic arrangements that… well, explain quite a bit about me, especially these days. 😉 From that soundtrack, I got into Wendy (then Walter) Carlos, and the rest is history. Plus, dig this cover! It’s feckin’ incredible. 🙂
And certainly if you play several episodes of ‘Nodame Cantabile’ at 4x their speed simultaneously, wouldn’t you have something approaching Nancarrow or Hamelin’s ‘Circus galop’? Let’s find out!!