Bear Hug (2014Aug12)
Tag Archives: improv
If Only, If Only (2014Aug08)
This first one was before I sight-read 45 minutes of Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 (transcribed for piano):
This last one was after I sight-read 45 minutes of Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 (transcribed for piano):
The actual Tchaikovsky-playing itself was so awful that no one should ever have to hear it.. Bye!
Four More (2014Aug08)
Here they are:
Hope you liked them!
Me n’ Serge n’ Niko (2014Aug03)
Now, I’m adding two more (I’m too lazy to create a new post–and it’s all from the same day, anyhow)…
“Publishing Piano Improvs on YouTube” (2014Aug03)
1,414 videos posted to date
[ Original published online May 1st, 2014 by Mike Cook, Pro Drummer –on Tumblr ]
Dear Mike:
You probably thought I spaced out on your request, but I’ve actually given it some thought nearly every day since you suggested it. I had some false starts, and some technical glitches, but I wanted to show you what I have so far. Please let me know what you think—
Thursday, April 17, 2014 5:32 PM –thru- Friday, April 18, 2014 6:18 AM
The Story of My Video-Making Video
Mike, a percussionist friend emailed me in February saying, “I was wondering if you would be interested in sharing your knowledge for composing piano pieces and recording them.” I agreed to try and make a quick video, an off-the-cuff, how-to video in which I imagined myself both talking and playing examples at the piano, etc.—nothing to it, I thought.
So then I turned on my camcorder and tried to talk extemporaneously about music, music-making, and the ins and outs of creating a video to be posted on YouTube (or wherever).
A Playlist of the complete session…
First, I started talking about the technical steps of shooting a video, uploading it to a hard drive, using special software to edit and polish the video, insert titles, credits, etc. Then it occurred to me that shooting, producing, and posting a video is no technical marvel nowadays—and was probably the last thing most people would want or need to learn. I should be talking about making my music.
But where to begin? Well, starting forty-something years ago, I had a roughly two-month period of actual piano lessons from a well-known pianist and subsequent piano-teacher, Muriel Brooks—she taught me how to read sheet music, she taught me the basics of fingering, the shape of the hand, touch, ornamental figures, sharps, flats, double-flats, naturals, key signatures, tempos, dynamics, phrasing, and so on. I began with scales and some Bach Preludes. She had bad news for me—and lots of it.
Firstly, fifteen years of age is way too late to begin piano. Single digits are required, the smaller the better. Worse yet, my fingers were stubby—making them too wide to go between the raised black keys (something one must be able to do). Lastly—and this one I figured out for myself—piano requires a discipline that I never had. So I quit my lessons—they were expensive, and wasting her time and mine—as with school, in which the only books I didn’t read were books that were assigned reading—the only time I didn’t play piano was when I thought about my obligation to practice every day. I’m contrary that way—I can’t explain it, but there it is.
So from then on, I continued to play the Bach pieces, but not the scales—I was never going to slide up and down a given key-signature’s scale with the grace of swans gliding across a mirror-smooth lake—that stuff is for virtuosi, not for the musical hoi-polloi like me. And fifty years on, I still can only play a scale unevenly and slowly. I also had problems with my left hand—I hardly noticed I had one before the piano—I am right-handed with a vengeance. Piano requires the player to send his or her left hand, without looking, to a far-down bass note—this, to me, was like trying to land a Tomcat on an aircraft carrier at night. This has improved with time, but will never be the unconscious motion of a capable pianist—and it saddens me especially because the ‘walking bass’ is one of my favorite things about jazz and rag-time piano.
The other thing that came to me right from the beginning was a desire to improvise. Once I realized that I could play chords and bass-notes in a one-four-five progression, I began to do that, over and over. And over—no one who lived with me back then could bear the sound of me banging on the same chords day after day. I was playing (and enjoying it) but I wasn’t listening to myself. I tried to put new chords in; I tried to play in a key other than C major—it was slow going. Then came cassette recorders—suddenly I could hear myself—and I did not like what I heard. Thus began my long journey towards listen-ability—an unfinished journey still—but one I will never stop traveling.
At the time, Keith Jarrett’s “Live At Köln” album was released, I happened to hear it—and I knew what I wanted to do with the piano. Subsequently I was also enamored with George Winston’s earlier LPs. I was, then, not aware that Keith Jarrett was tripping his brains out at Köln, or that George Winston wasn’t exactly improvising his performances. And it doesn’t really matter now, either, now that I know—their sound was what I was working towards, not their techniques (although, of course, the two are usually one and inseparable).
And there was another, more basic, drive behind my piano playing—I decided that, if I couldn’t be good at it, I could at least be original. So my improvs have only one iron-clad rule—they can’t sound like any other musician’s music—they would be ugly and clumsy, but they would be different from anything you’d ever heard. In that sense I succeeded long ago—nobody sounds like me—but I’m still working on that listen-ability factor.
In a world that has gone copyright-crazy, I am a producer of original content—no small thing—and if I could get anyone to listen to it, I’d be in like Flynn. That is the only discernible value my YouTube videos possess—but I don’t use it—I post everything into the ‘Public Commons’ part of YouTube, which means anyone can use them without threat of lawsuit. I should be so lucky that someone thought my music worth ‘stealing’.
April Fools Improv No. 2
I thought I’d address this aspect of my videos—I’d make quick cuts of me doing Vanna White’s arm-wave at my huge sheet-music collection, then my huge CD collection, then my huge LP collection (which, nevertheless, would have represented only a tenth of the LPs I once owned). I would explain how I had spent most of my adult life with classical-music radio stations playing in my office, in my living room, in my bedroom. As a tween, I became a consummate ‘stacker’—I could load a record-player with more LPs at once than anyone else I knew—this allowed up to two-hours-plus of hands-free music listening.
I studied music for a while, music theory, that is. I sang tenor in both high school and college choir. I have loved music all my life—but I did nothing but listen to it until Junior High School. That’s when I discovered the piano. The piano makes me happy—and boy, what a shot in the arm to music appreciation—no one can listen to and marvel at a great performance half so well as one who has tried to play the instrument. I thought Glenn Gould was very nice to listen to—but after I started taking lessons, his recordings practically made my head explode.
And it goes beyond that—even violin, which I have never played—and which I didn’t care to listen to as a solo instrument up until that time—just the knowledge that someone’s fingers are teasing these exacting sounds from an instrument changes the experience beyond imagining. I used to feel sorry for people who avoided classical music—the idea that they would exclude centuries of great music from their lives seemed terribly sad to me.
Nowadays, I save my pity for people who have never played music. As solely a listener, I had already grown to love the sound of music—to have it explode into an even greater thrill as a consequence of taking a stab at it myself, that was without question the greatest thing life had to offer—and the average adult spends his or her whole life missing out on that—it’s just unbearably sad. The stats for youngsters aren’t much better—unless you count Rock-Star Hero, that video game with the guitar-shaped controller.
So, long story short, I know music. And the advantage to that is in knowing when I’m playing something that someone else has already done. They say that twelve tones is a surprisingly small number of notes, considering that every song, symphony, or Mario Bros. background-track is comprised of nothing else but these twelve tones. But it should be remembered that this is only true of the Western Cultural music of Europe and the Americas. In the Orient there are instruments that allow for quarter-tones—which is why we Americans always perceive it as somewhat ‘twangy’.
Anyway, the point is that I was uniquely qualified to recognize bits and pieces of other people’s music whenever they came up, throughout my ongoing thrashing amongst the old eighty-eight (that’s slang for a piano—88 keys to a keyboard, you know). And as lackluster as my sound may be, it is no one else’s music re-hashed—or perhaps I should say it is all of music re-hashed—as the Beatles lyric says, “There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done. Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung…”
There are things I always do the same—I almost always play octaves with my left hand (if I can’t be left-handed deftly, I might as well give those notes power and substance). And I rarely play anything other than major and minor triads with my right hand. As the years pass, I make forays into melody, and base-lines—but I always come back to my comfort zone. For me the playing is a meditation—any time it becomes too much about making good music, it takes me out of my musings. In a way, my improvs are just extended lullabies, whispering comfort to my tautly-strung nerves.
You may understand by this point that any description of my video-posting ‘process’ is a matter of too much to say—and yet nothing much to say at all. How shall I describe how to make up your own music as you go along? You just do. There are some rules, I suppose, but not good rules in a musical sense—allow yourself to be bad, allow yourself to be repetitious, allow yourself to change tempo at will, to change key at will, and most of all, don’t listen too closely—it makes you more likely to play recognizable tunes (it’s that pattern-recognition thing our brains are so good at—it works against the piano-improviser’s best interests).
Happy
Finally, as with so many things in life, if you’re not having a good time, you’re doing it wrong. My piano playing technique is customized for a player without an audience—I could count the number of times I’ve played in front of other people on one hand. And stage-fright is no help when one is trying to plumb nirvana with a push-button music machine.
So, I finally realized that I needed a script—improvising music is one thing, improvising an explanation is quite another. Here I am now, writing this rough draft of my talking points—but there’s no hurry. My faithful old camcorder decided a few days ago that it would only shoot out-of-focus pictures and videos from now on—the audio recording is still good, so I’m okay with it—but I can’t keep posting blurry videos to YouTube, no matter what kind of music I’m making. The new camcorder is due tomorrow, so the world will not end just yet.
Two as One (2014Aug02)
When I record my piano-playing, there’s usually an improv at the beginning, and another improv at the end–but I count them as one sitting, so I post them all as a single work. For some reason they always sound better if I reverse their order, which is cheating, yeah, but so is taking out all the bad sight-reading that goes in between, so mix nox. In this recording I have inserted some candid footage of deer in our yard today (just a minute or two) in between the two improvs, which is why this one is so long…
Two Versions of Sunday (2014Jul29)
Happy Birthday to Ethel Louise Dunn! (my sainted mother) who has just moved from her home on the outer shore of Hilton Head Island to a smaller place near the bridge…
BTW–if anyone knows of a buyer looking for a place on Hilton Head, please let me know! (She has been unable to sell her old place, so far.)
click Photo to link to Open Listing (Zillow)
Today’s offering is unusual–I have produced two versions of the same improv – “Sunday At The Hop”.
This first one has been modified (and the one below it is unchanged from the original recording):
Don’t be fooled by the weird Title Card–I made this ‘As-Is’ version after I’d created the ‘Modified’ one, so I just applied the ‘psychedelic’-color-effect to the existing card…
Seascapes, Bombast, and Russian Folk (2014Jul24)
Seascapes
I’ve made a study of ‘watery’ type music–a sort of mental collection (maybe because it’s my favorite type of sound image). I’m a big fan of Handel’s “Water Music” suites (and his “Music for the Royal Fireworks”–which was also performed on the same barges, upon the Thames). I once had a CD of solid surf recording for 55 minutes –guaranteed sleep aid–I wonder where it went?
Regardless, the following five pieces are my top picks for ‘oceanic coloring’ in music:
Apparently, the makers of “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” (2003) felt the same way I did about this piece–parts of it seem to be virtually the sound of the sea.
Ralph Vaughan-Williams – Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910)
(Skip ahead to 02:30 in the following recording)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAtx578yaZ8
This Rachmaninov piece has been ‘borrowed’ by Eric Carmen for “Never Gonna Fall In Love Again” (’76) and by Barry Manilow for “If I Should Love Again” (’81). But it is so iconically romantic and lush that I have always thought of it as a sea voyage.
Sergei Rachmaninov – Symphony No. 2 Op. 27 III. Adagio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNRxHyZDU-Q
I defy anyone to listen to this famous bit of Brahms and not feel the deck roll beneath their feet.
Johannes Brahms： Symphony No.3 – Mvmt. 3 (starts at 22:33 in the following recording)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK4NcLcUH9o
And then there’s this gem–liquid, flowing, tidal, surging–It’s pretty oceanic, to me.
Jan Sibelius – Symphony No.2 – Mvmt. 4: Finale (Starts at 29:52 in the following recording)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPd9znWgGLk
And one last bit of Sibelius–an excerpt from his 5th Symphony (Skip to time-mark 20:00 or so–the ending of the 3rd movmt leading into an unbelievable last mvmt!)
The above is a comment I put on a thread RE: Katchaturian’s “Spartacus”, the Adagio, of course (although I’ve learned to enjoy most of the entire suite, over time) which is undeniably gorgeous and very ‘seascape-y’. Why do I spend an hour preparing such an ‘essay’ of a comment for the one or two people that might actually read it (strangers, however)? What else am I going to do?
Anyway, speaking of music, I have here a new Improv and a selection of Russian Folk songs:
Click to Play:
Bombastico II
Click to Play Russian Folk Songs
Good evening, all.
Rip Tide (2014Jul21)
My new camera has been going gangbusters–but then my PC’s harddrive bit the dust! Five or six days without access to my programs and websites (like this one). This backlog was tremendous, but I’m nearly there–soon I’ll be living in the present again.
First off, there was a righteous jam session with my friend (and professional drummer) Pete Cianflone–
A Playlist of the complete session…
Then I had some hummingbird footage I lucked into from our garden–
Then I did some silly improvs–
and some silly song covers-
There’s some other stuff left over, but I didn’t have the peace of mind to do any writing or poetry or drawing (I get out of sorts when my system is down), so this will do for now.
Should I add some stills? Yeah, why not?:
ttfn!
Lazy Dreamer (2014Jul08)
In this improv, I attempt to use thirteenth-chords and eleventh-cords (at least, I think I am doing so). It’s a little slow in the tempo, but I was doing a lot of thinking between chords (like I have to, when it’s a new idea or technique) so please don’t hold it against me. I think it came out kind of dreamy (hence the title) but it has a certain ugliness, too, because of the strange discords such complex chords tend to create… But I don’t mind ugly.
Listen, I play my song books every day; I have a zillion of them, and I have carefully documented nearly all my preceding videos of piano covers with the Title, Composer, Lyricist, and Copyright holder of each song. But on this recording, I give the cover of the songbook (The Johnny Mercer Song Book) and I leave it to you to look them up if you’re interested. Johnny Mercer was an incredible Lyricist, but he also published many songs with both Music and Lyrics by him–making him rather unique amongst his peers.
Here I just play fifteen minutes of songs I like–I didn’t sing along this time, but sometimes I have, on previous recordings.
The War for Heaven on Earth (2014Jul03)
Hi everyone! I wrote a poem today, then a drew an illustration for it, then I recorded a music background for it.
Click here to hear the poem:
Click here to listen to my piano soundtrack:
Click here to see the Graphic Print Version of the Poem.
And here are the drawing and photos used for the artwork:
- Original Sketch
- Photo-shopped
- our Bee-Balms…
- Catnip
- Blueberries ripening…
- Our little baby watermelon–coming along…
Hope You Enjoyed…
O—and, since this is the next day—Happy 4th of July!
All Good Things (2014Jun30)
June is such a beautiful month–I’m sorry to see it go. July and August are nice and hot–but they can get awfully serious about that ‘hot’ business….
The last thirty seconds of this video is just the wind in the treetops. (Yes, I was in the yard with my camera/camcorder again). The trouble with the sounds of nature is that they are invariably more beautiful than any music, especially mine. So I left the sweeter sounds for the end:
MORE PIX:
Ta-da!
Two More from The “Hand-Maid” and Two More from Me (2014Jun06)
And here are the pictures I used in “Rum-ta-ta-Tum” :
Two for the Italian Baroque–Two for Me (2014Jun21)
Well, things have been weird lately–Claire just started her new ‘Work Study’ job, Jessy just got offered extra work doing Real Estate photography on weekends, and Spencer and I are enjoying my new arrival of sour candies! I’ve been doing a lot of piano playing without the camera on–but here’s some new stuff I just did…
Hope you liked it!
Nobody’s Perfect – I’m A Perfect Example (2014Jun09)
Ugh–blood draws tomorrow. Can’t eat after midnight, so I’ll make this short. Yes, I’ve played this stuff over and over–and my improv is nothing new or spectacular–but this is what I do.
Two From the Front Yard and Two From the Beach (2014Jun08)
I’ve taken some pictures and some outdoor footage and some piano recordings (and a little singing) and mushed it all up together for your delictation
The flowers are still showing off.
We have two old accordionist gnomes (actually, they’re squeezeboxes or something)…..
I just love the Beach Boys (contrary to the slaughtering of their songs!)
And here’s the stills:
Th-th-that’s all, Folks!
Confusion Rampant (2014Jun05)
Hello, everyone. I’ve been getting my meds adjusted recently. Many trips for tests and exams and sonograms–but all is as expected–I shall live… although it has certainly cut into my video-making time, not to mention the time to sit at the piano and make the recordings–but I hope you can sense the increased clarity of mind in these two pieces.
This one was recorded several days ago but, as I said, I’ve been too distracted to edit and post it.
Hope you liked it!
This Way To The Spectacle (2014May23)
Xopher’s Little Suite No. 1 (2014May16)
Tweet-Tweet…Tweedle-De-Dete (2014May14)
Hi All. For today we are serving a taste of bird songs, followed by four folk songs from Russia–after that, I just happen to have an Improv, as well. Enjoy!
Being out in the yard is not just pretty flowers–you can hear the birdies singin, too. Stills of the shoot are displayed below the two videos…
Two Improvs, flowers included. (2014May12)
Our lilac bush is blooming–love that aroma.
There were some other interesting flowers out there.
The pink one is called lady-slippers. (I think.)
I don’t know what the big leafy things are–
I’m really not up on my plantology.
I know dandelions–
and I should know the little purple ones–
They’re all over the yard.
Gifts for Mothers Day (2014May11)
Happy Mothers Day to one and all (but especially Mothers). Here I have once again used photos I took of our front yard as backgrounds for the Titles and Credits stills.
The actual photos are displayed, as well.
For No Reason or Rhyme (2014May06)
Helpless Against Monday’s Destructive Power (2014May05)
Howdy, y’all!
Here are two more improvs:
-and-
The Darling Buds Of May (2014May01)
Well, I went outside today to take pictures of the Daffodils and Hyacinth (and that one that might be bluebells, I don’t know my flowers all that good).
We like to commingle our assets vis-a-vis lawn and garden–the bulbs are everywhere. It makes the lawn-mowing a lot tougher, but it’s more fun…watching to see what springs up where.
My new camera is doing very well–And I managed a short improv to go with the photos in today’s YouTube video.
I’ve also included some of the stills below that formed the source of my video overlays–happy May Day to all’yuh!
SOS [Same Old Stuff] (2014Apr27)
Of all my piano playing, the most common improvisations I do are all in a minor–so don’t be too disappointed if these two sound very familiar…
(Sometimes, it’s just about working the ax)
Coupla Tings (2014Apr25)
Hello–nothing much new going on–just breaking in the new recorder–these two came out:
Just one note on this last video. In my confusion, I thought I was playing next door this evening
–but it’s really going to happen on May 23rd– I’ll do my best to catch a recording–
but I don’t do quite as well with an audience–and using a digital keyboard.
Stay tuned.
Clean Up and Apology (2014Apr15)
Here are the final four videos I will be shooting with the broken, busted, blurry camcorder–a new unit is on its way. If I can control my compulsion to make videos until Friday, I should be all set.
As for the titles, yesterday’s improvs seemed a sorry result for all my decades of listening to and performing classical music. So, these titles are by way of apology to the titans of classic music.
Today’s title should not be unfamiliar to anyone pressed for time on April 15th.
In spite of being unwatchable, I do hope some of you may enjoy listening to these videos…
Blurry (2014Apr14)
Unfortunately, my camcorder has opted for ‘permanently out of focus’, so until I can replace it, and since it can still record the audio alright, I’ll be posting blurry videos. My apologies in advance–will put a rush on the replacement, but first must get OK from the boss (Claire)…
Two For The Road (2014Apr09)
Well, tomorrow is Claire’s Birthday! We’ll be having a joint celebration–because Jessy and Seneca (& Tuesday, the Wonder Dog) will be leaving on a road trip to California the next day.
I’m hoping they have a great trip–and that they find many new and exotic experiences out on the shore of the Pacific.
Their transportation (bought, paid for, registered, insured and inspected just today) is a 2006 Volvo hatchback–a beauty of a car (I’m jealous).
Thus today’s two improvs:
Session of Fools (2014Apr01)
Peter Cianflone came by on April Fools Day and here is the result, played on Piano, Bongos, and Assorted Tympani….
The Girl from Ipanema
April Fools Improv No. 1
April Fools Improv No. 2
The Look Of Love
Two For Today (2014Mar31)
Before you get all caught up in April Fools cut-ups and capers, check out my latest:
…
One Grisly Nightmare [& Two(2) Piano Covers]
Flashy Title (2014Mar28)
Five Spot for (2014Mar26)
You’ll find lots of flubs and fluffs in the two sheet-music videos–can’t be helped. Try the three Improvs–they’re more listenable.
Early To Rise (2014Mar24)
Got up with the sun today–see how it changes my lighting……
If that doesn’t work, please click here:
When You Wish Upon A Piano (2014Mar16)
XperDunn plays Piano Covers
March 16th, 2014
Improv – Th’Irish Wristwatch: All credit goes to Geo. Takei’s FB post of this seasonal (St. Pat’s Day) tongue-twister!
Improv – Debbie Reynolds & Tony Randall: I just watched their amusing movie (on Turner Classic Movies channel): “The Mating Game (1959) is an MGM film directed by George Marshall and starring Debbie Reynolds, Tony Randall, and Paul Douglas in his final screen appearance… It’s a great film, especially if you enjoy 1950s-1960s rom-coms. It stuck with me, and I needed a title for this piece….QED
George Winston’s “Longing” and “Lullaby”: I’m a rabid fan of George Winston–when I first began piano lessons, one of my goals was to be able to play some of his music someday–and while that day is yet to come, I get a real kick out of sight-reading through the music-book score!
Two – fer (2014Mar14)
************** ************** **************
************** ************** **************
************** ************** **************
************** ************** ************** -bye!
Improv – Nürbugring (2014Mar11)
Shakes Pear (2014Mar08)
Click Pic to Listen on YouTube…
One Solo, One Duo (2014Mar05)
…
Thudeh, Thudeh, Thudeh, That’s All, Folks!
Espanea (2014Mar01)
A Great Bounty (2014Feb24)
Please enjoy:
Seven Songs from the Sixties:
====================================
[NOTES & CREDITS]
========================================
Strangers in the Night
[From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]:
“Strangers in the Night”
is a popular song credited to Bert Kaempfert with English lyrics by Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder. Kaempfert originally used it under the title “Beddy Bye” as part of the instrumental score for the movie A Man Could Get Killed. The song was made famous in 1966 by Frank Sinatra.
“Strangers In the Night”
Song by Frank Sinatra from the album Strangers in the Night
Released 1966
Recorded April 11, 1966
Genre Traditional pop
Length 2:35 (original album/single version, incorrectly listed as 2:25 in the original back cover)
2:44 (extended version from “Nothing But the Best”)
Label Reprise
Writer Bert Kaempfert, Charles Singleton, Eddie Snyder
Composer Bert Kaempfert
Producer Jimmy Bowen
Strangers in the Night (1966)
Writer : Bert Kaempfert, Charles Singleton, Eddie Snyder
Composer : Bert Kaempfert
========================================
Suzanne
[From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]:
“Suzanne”
Song by Leonard Cohen from the album Songs of Leonard Cohen
Released 1967
Genre Folk
Length 3:48
Label Columbia
Writer Leonard Cohen
“Suzanne” is a song written by Canadian poet and musician Leonard Cohen in the 1960s. First published as a poem in 1966, it was recorded as a song by Judy Collins in the same year, and Cohen himself recorded it for his 1967 album Songs of Leonard Cohen. Many other artists have recorded versions, and it has become one of the most-covered songs in Cohen’s catalogue.
========================================
The Sweetest Sounds (1962)
Song by Richard Rogers
The Sweetest Sounds
[From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]:
“The Sweetest Sounds”
Song from No Strings
Published 1962
Writer Richard Rodgers
Composer Richard Rodgers
“The Sweetest Sounds” is a popular song, written by Richard Rodgers (unlike most of his compositions, writing both music and lyrics) for the musical No Strings, in 1962. It is also used in the film adaption Cinderella starring Brandy, Whitney Houston and Whoopi Goldberg in 1997. Barbra Streisand recorded the song for “Barbra Streisand…And Other Musical Instruments”. Sergio Franchi recorded the song in 1963 on his RCA Victor Red Seal album Broadway, I Love You. Ella Fitzgerald’s swinging version can be heard on her Verve Records release “Hello, Dolly!”. The melodic theme appears to have been inspired by an orchestral figure in the final movement of Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 (Brahms) (measures 64-80).
========================================
Those Were The Days (1968)
Writers: Boris Fomin and Gene Raskin
Those Were the Days (song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the All in the Family theme song, see All in the Family#Theme song.
“Those Were the Days”
Single by Mary Hopkin
B-side “Turn! Turn! Turn!”
Released 26 August 1968 (US)
30 August 1968 (UK)
Format 7″ single
Recorded mid-July 1968
Genre Folk[1][2]
Length 5:05
Label Apple
Writer(s) Boris Fomin and Gene Raskin
Producer(s) Paul McCartney
“Those Were the Days” is a song credited to Gene Raskin, who put English lyrics to the Russian romance song “Dorogoi dlinnoyu” (“Дорогой длинною”, lit. “By the long road”), composed by Boris Fomin (1900–1948) with words by the poet Konstantin Podrevskii. It deals with reminiscence upon youth and romantic idealism.
Georgian singer Tamara Tsereteli (1900–1968) and Russian singer Alexander Vertinsky made what were probably the earliest recordings of the song, in 1925 and in 1926 respectively.
The song is featured in the 1953 British/French movie Innocents in Paris, in which it was sung with its original Russian lyrics by the Russian Tzigane chanteuse Ludmila Lopato, but is probably best remembered in English-speaking countries for Mary Hopkin’s 1968 recording, which was a top-ten hit in both the US and the UK. On most recorded versions of the song, Raskin is credited as the writer, even though he wrote only the later English lyrics and not the melody.
History:
In the early 1960s Raskin, with his wife Francesca, played folk music around Greenwich Village in New York, including White Horse Tavern. They released an album which included the song, which was taken up by The Limeliters.
Raskin had grown up hearing the song, wrote lyrics in English and then put a copyright on both tune and lyrics. The Raskins were international performers and had played London’s “Blue Angel” every year, always closing their show with the song. Paul McCartney frequented the club and, after the formation of The Beatles’ own Apple Records label, recorded the song with Mary Hopkin, McCartney’s agent having purchased the song rights from Raskin’s.
The song was subsequently recorded in over twenty languages and by many different artists and Raskin was able to live very well on the royalties, buying a home in Pollensa, Mallorca, a Porsche Spyder and a sailing boat.
At the peak of the song’s success, a New York company used the melody in a commercial for Rokeach gefilte fish, arguing that the tune was an old Russian folk-tune and thus in the public domain. Raskin successfully sued and won a settlement, since he had slightly altered the tune to fit his lyrics and had taken out the valid new copyright.
Although the song was popularized in the early 1960s by The Limeliters, Welsh singer Mary Hopkin made the best known recording, released on 30 August 1968, shortly after Hopkin had been signed to the Beatles’ newly created Apple label. Hopkin’s recording was produced by Paul McCartney and became a #1 hit in the UK Singles Chart.
In the US, Hopkin’s recording reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Billboard Easy Listening charts for six weeks. In the Netherlands it topped the charts for 2 consecutive weeks.
The Russian origin of the melody was accentuated by an instrumentation which was unusual for a top ten pop record, including Balalaika, clarinet, hammer dulcimer, tenor banjo and children’s chorus, giving a klezmer feel to the song.
Paul McCartney, who produced the session, also recorded Hopkin singing “Those Were The Days” in four other languages for release in their respective countries: Spain, Germany, Italy, France.
========================================
A Time For Us
-Romeo and Juliet (1968 film soundtrack)
[From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]:
Romeo and Juliet 1968 film Soundtrack album
Released October 8, 1968
Genre Film score
Label Capitol
Producer Neely Plumb
The soundtrack for the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet was composed and conducted by Nino Rota.
It was originally released as a vinyl record, containing nine entries, most notably the song “What Is a Youth”, composed by Nino Rota, written by Eugene Walter and performed by Glen Weston. The music score won a Silver Ribbon award of the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists in 1968 and was nominated for two other awards (BAFTA Award for Best Film Music in 1968 and Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score in 1969).
The soundtrack is referred to as “Original Soundtrack Recording” on the front cover with further credits to the film itself.
Composition:
The original track list includes anthems, song snatches, compositions for the ball and for a strolling trombone player.
The neo-Elizabethan ballad “What Is a Youth” is performed by a troubadour character as part of the diegesis during the Capulets’ ball, at which Romeo and Juliet first meet. The original lyrics of “What Is a Youth” are borrowed from songs in other Shakespearean plays, particularly Twelfth Night and The Merchant of Venice.
Although Rota’s original manuscript is believed to be lost, the love theme is known to have an original published key of G minor. Romeo’s theme was described as “a slow-paced minor key idea, first played by a solo English horn with strings”. In the scene, where Romeo sees Juliet dancing with her family, the theme is sounded by a solo oboe over a background of tremolo strings.
========================================
The Times They Are a-Changin’ (1963)
Song by Bob Dylan
[From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]:
“The Times They Are a-Changin'”
Single by Bob Dylan
from the album The Times They Are a-Changin’
Released January 13, 1964 (album)
March 8, 1965 (single)
Format 7″
Recorded October 23 – 24, 1963 at Columbia Studios, New York City
Genre Folk
Length 3:15
Label Columbia
Writer(s) Bob Dylan
Producer Tom Wilson
“The Times They Are a-Changin'” is a song written by Bob Dylan and released as the title track of his 1964 album, The Times They Are a-Changin’. Dylan wrote the song as a deliberate attempt to create an anthem of change for the time, influenced by Irish and Scottish ballads. Released as a 45 r.p.m. single in Britain in 1964, it reached number 9 in the British top ten and was Britain’s hundredth best selling single of 1965.
Ever since its release the song has been very influential to people’s views on society, with critics noting the general yet universal lyrics as contributing to the song’s everlasting message of change. The song ever since has been an occasional staple in Dylan’s concerts. The song has been covered by many different artists, including The Byrds, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Simon & Garfunkel, The Beach Boys, Joan Baez, Phil Collins and Bruce Springsteen. The song was ranked #59 on Rolling Stone’s 2004 list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Inspiration and composition:
Dylan appears to have written the song in September and October 1963. He recorded it as a Witmark publishing demo that month, a version that was finally released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991. The song was then recorded at the Columbia studios in New York on October 23 and 24, and the latter session yielded the version that became the title song of Dylan’s third album.
Dylan recalled writing the song as a deliberate attempt to create an anthem of change for the moment. In 1985, he told Cameron Crowe: “This was definitely a song with a purpose. It was influenced of course by the Irish and Scottish ballads …’Come All Ye Bold Highway Men’, ‘Come All Ye Tender Hearted Maidens’. I wanted to write a big song, with short concise verses that piled up on each other in a hypnotic way. The civil rights movement and the folk music movement were pretty close for a while and allied together at that time.”
========================================
Try To Remember (1960) from “The Fantasticks” –
with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones
[From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]:
“Try to Remember” is a song from a 1960 musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones, “The Fantasticks”.
It is the first song sung in the show, to get the audience to imagine what the sparse set suggests.
Its lyrics famously rhyme “remember” with “September”, “so tender”, and “December”, and repeat the sequence -llow throughout the song:
Verse 1 contains “mellow”, “yellow”, and “callow fellow”;
verse 2 contains “willow”, “pillow”, “billow”;
verse 3 contains “follow”, “hollow”, “mellow”;
and all verses end with “follow”.
“Try to Remember” was originally sung by Jerry Orbach in the Original Off-Broadway production of The Fantasticks.
“Try To Remember” made the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart three times in 1965 in versions by Ed Ames, Roger Williams, Barry McGuire, The Kingston Trio, The Sandpipers, and The Brothers Four. Patti Page released a version in 1965 on her album Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte. Andy Williams released a version in 1966 on his album The Shadow of Your Smile. Perry Como released a version in 1968 on his album Look to Your Heart.
========================================
One or Two (2014Feb23)
Add One Dog and Stir (2014Feb17)
Just So You Know There’s A Dog:
Two Little Ones (2014Feb16)
Hurray! I was useful today–I helped someone make a video–so, here’s my own videos from this weekend:
that’s all for now–gotta run and watch Downton!……
Three Songs And An Improvisation (2014Feb12)
XperDunn plays Piano
February 12th, 2014
3 Standards: ‘Look of Love’, ‘Lovers Concerto’, ‘Love Is All Around’
====================================
[From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]
The Look of Love (1967 song)
Released January 29, 1967
Recorded Philips Studios, London
Composer: Burt Bacharach Writer: Hal David
Ursula Andress inspired Burt Bacharach to compose “The Look of Love” watching her in an early cut of the film Casino Royale.
The track is played while Vesper Lynd seduces Evelyn Tremble, observed through a man-size aquarium.
“The Look of Love” is a popular song composed by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and sung by English pop singer Dusty Springfield, which appeared in the 1967 spoof James Bond film Casino Royale.
In 2008, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It also received a Best Song nomination in the 1968 Academy Awards.
====================================
====================================
[From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]
“A Lover’s Concerto” a single by The Toys
from the album: The Toys Sing “A Lover’s Concerto” and “Attack!”
Released 1965
Writer(s) Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell, Christian Petzold
“A Lover’s Concerto” is a pop song, written by American songwriters Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell and recorded in 1965 by The Toys.
Their original version of the song was a major hit in the United States, the UK and elsewhere during 1965. It peaked on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart at number 2
====================================
[From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]
“Love is All Around”
Single by The Troggs
Released October 1967
Label(s): Page One/Fontana UK; Fontana (Mercury) US
Writer(s) Reg Presley
“Love Is All Around” is a song composed by Reg Presley and originally performed in 1967 by Presley’s band, The Troggs, featuring a string quartet and a ‘tick tock’ sound on percussion, in D-major. Purportedly inspired by a television transmission of the Joy Strings Salvation Army band’s “Love That’s All Around”, the song was first released as a single in the UK in October 1967.
On the US Billboard Hot 100, the record entered at No.98 on 24 February 1968, peaked at No.7 on 18 May 1968, and spent a total of 16 weeks on the chart.
====================================
Lastly, the graphics are by Hokusai
Pete’s Back!
Peter Cianflone
brings Snare and Cymbal to the Party!
at
XperDunn plays Music
February 6th, 2014
Improv – Pete’s Back
Happy Birthday To Me!
rapidly expanding supernova ejecta.
Today being my birthday, I was sung to quite a bit. It’s a nice song, but I went ahead and played two improvs of my own: ‘Happy’ and ‘Birthday’. I hope they sound happy–I certainly felt that way while playing them.
Happy
Birthday
SuperNova
Four by Three (2014Jan29)
Please Note: The last video is two song covers of songs written by : Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz
====================================
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Dancing in the Dark (Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz song)
“Dancing in the Dark”
Music by Arthur Schwartz
Lyrics by Howard Dietz
Published 1931
Recorded by Artie Shaw, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire, et. al.
“Dancing in the Dark” is a popular song first introduced by John Barker in the 1931 revue The Band Wagon.
The 1941 recording by Artie Shaw and His Orchestra earned Shaw one of his eight gold records.
It was subsequently featured in the classic 1953 MGM musical The Band Wagon and has since come to be considered part of the Great American Songbook.
====================================
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Alone Together (song)
“Alone Together” is a song composed by Arthur Schwartz with lyrics by Howard Dietz.
It was introduced in the Broadway musical Flying Colors in 1932 by Jean Sargent. The song soon became a hit, with Leo Reisman and His Orchestra’s 1932 recording being the first to reach the charts.
The first jazz artist to record the song was Artie Shaw in 1939.
====================================
[Improv – Poem Pop: “Seasons End”] XperDunn plays Piano -January 23rd, 2014
Two Wintry Ones (2014Jan22)
A Sobering Tuesday
(with my apologies for the mistakes…)
Notes:
Illustration from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner”
Engraved by “Paul” Gustave Doré [Jan. 1832–Jan. 1883]
[From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]:
“Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)”
Single by Barbra Streisand
from the album A Star Is Born: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
B-side “I Believe in Love”
Released December 1976
Label Columbia
Writer(s) Barbra Streisand, Paul Williams
Producer Barbra Streisand, Phil Ramone
Streisand and Williams earned an Academy Award for
Best Original Song as composers of the song.
With “Evergreen”, Streisand also earned a
Grammy Award for Song of the Year.
She and Williams also won Golden Globes
in the category of Best Original Song for the song.
Sunday Drag
Magnificent Seven (2014Jan06)
I watched “The Magnificent Seven” yesterday and was reminded of one of the reasons it’s a classic–that incredible Elmer Bernstein score, including the theme used for so many years by ‘Marlboro Man’ TV spots, back when Marlboro cigarettes were allowed to advertise on TV. Unfortunately, my improv has no connection with that stirring music, except as the inspiration for today’s title…
Perhaps it will help if I include a YouTube link to the M7 soundtrack
(It’s most Magnificent thing about the movie):
Almost Made It–But The Battery Pooped Out On Me
A New Year Extravaganza! (2014Jan03)
Okey-smoke, folks.
Snow has fallen. Air is sharpened by wind. Good day to stay inside.
Jessy lost one of her memory cards–if anyone knows where she left it, please advise…
Well, I don’t usually inflict an entire Bach keyboard partita on my long-suffering followers, but today I had a whack at the a minor, see results below.
Hope you like it….
Improv – At The Cut Off (2014Jan02)
You Deserve A Break Today
Happy New Year!
The Stars, Our Origin… (2013Dec29)
Holiday Aftermath (2013Dec26)
Four New Vids (2013Dec20)
Okay, I have a long one here, 20 minutes or so of xmas carol songs–I neglected to sing along, so it’s just the piano part.
Then I did two improvs in that same recording session that I’m calling ‘xmas stuff’ & ‘more xmas stuff’.
And the final upload, a left-over from a few days back, totally non-holiday-related.
Enjoy…
Improv – Hardly Working (2013Dec11)
Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918
Improv – The First Christmas (2013Dec09)
Upon Reflection (2013Nov29)
Backwards Bach
I’ve been playing Bach for several decades (make that trying to play Bach) and sometimes, just to keep things fresh, I start at the end of the book and play each dance in reverse order. I still repeat the minuet after its middle part–but otherwise I go from last dance to first dance. Anyhow…
Click to watch YouTube Video
Click to watch YouTube Video
Click to watch YouTube Video
Troubled Mind
This Is One Of Those
Monday, November 11, 2013 5:58 PM
Marconi at his desk
WIKI: [“They All Laughed” is a song composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, written for the 1937 film Shall We Dance where it was introduced by Ginger Rogers as part of a song and dance routine with Fred Astaire.]
Lyrics Excerpt:
“They all laughed at Christopher Columbus /When he said the world was round
They all laughed when Edison recorded sound
They all laughed at Wilbur and his brother/ When they said that man could fly
They told Marconi, wireless was a phony / It’s the same old cry
They all laughed at Rockefeller Center / Now they’re fighting to get in
They all laughed at Whitney and his cotton gin
They all laughed at Fulton and his steamboat
Hershey and his chocolate bar
Ford and his Lizzie kept the laughers busy
That’s how people are…”
True that, as the kids might say. That’s how people are. Why is doing something new such a big deal? Why is it that people go crazy whenever a person tries to stop an old mistake, or make something new that makes things better?
You’d think we’d have gotten over it by now—or at least learned not to be panicked by the new. When astronomers said the Sun didn’t go around the Earth, I could see why some of them could have been burned at the stake—it was a long time ago, and who really knew anything, right? But then they used that information, along with telling time, and a compass, to navigate out of sight of shore.
Did the big bosses at the Vatican say sorry? Well, yes, they did. But it was just a year or two ago—like, six centuries too late for those crispy scientists-on-a-stick—o, well! Then there was slavery. It’s eerie how the Spielberg film, “Lincoln”, showed legislators in Congress debating whether slavery should be forbidden—very similar to the same scenes in old movies, and in modern movies and now on CSPAN (et.al.) right up to the latest news-cycle—like recently, when the government shut down for two weeks because they were against something new, I was watching CNN, CSPAN, and the PBS-related news-programs. At times, these days when I have too much time all the time, I’ll have to sometimes check myself, and differentiate the ‘current events’—extended TV show and any of the fictional entertainment I might be channel-surfing past.
We watch “Lincoln” and we think to ourselves, well, of course they’re going to prohibit owning people—but that’s only because we know how it ends. At the time, those conservative yahoos truly argued, with straight faces, against the criminalization of their presumption of superiority. The more frightened they were at the thought of changing the status of the African-Americans from chattel to citizenry, the harder they argued to keep things as they were. One might speculate that having a vehement opponent—which righteousness is prone to be—the conservatives’ fear of the unknown may have been brought to the level of panic by the addition of the sense that they were being rushed into something. Either way, there is neither any change in a conservative’s feeling of being rushed nor in his, or her, belief that all change is a bad thing.
I was young enough to be surprised about the male uproar over women’s lib, as it was labeled in my day—I thought, here we’re well into the fight for racial equality—most intelligent people have come to feel uncomfortable with showing themselves to be bigots in public—and yet the simple commutative principal that I’d used to equate accepting the equality of African-Americans with our own mothers and sisters—and daughters—being given that same equality before the law—and, rightfully, in our hearts—this ‘elephant in the room’ of mine was invisible to many men. And it was easy to see why—they were terrified—they’d seen too much Donna Reed as children—and someone was trying to shut down all the Stepford Wives, leaving them with a bunch of chores they didn’t know how to do—and that part was just scratching the surface.
Shunning had thrived in the later centuries, under its new guise of ‘propriety’. The World Wars that take up the first half of the twentieth century kept everyone’s face in the dirt. But once we woke up to the 1950s, women had both served in an official capacity—nurses and WACS and WAFS, etc.—and in bomber-manufacturing, etc., at home—the majority of them weren’t about to object to the dream of keeping a nice big house while the man did all the paid work. But indoor plumbing, a modern range-oven, washer-dryer, vacuum, station wagon to the market—all such activities had reached a tipping point.
We had reached a civilization milestone—a woman no longer required the full twenty-four hours of each day to do the once-gargantuan task of doing all that stuff without appliances, or hot and cold running water. It passed by with little fanfare—no doubt most men suspected their ‘homemakers’ weren’t really ‘working’, you know, like they were—and saw no great change being implied. Big mistake. Women work very hard—in my experience most women work harder than most men. Once they could reach the end of the work before the end of the day, they didn’t stop working. The just started working on new things, new ideas—and you know, I’m sure, how that kind of nonsense ends up, right? Yeah, next thing you know, they’re saying, “Hey, we didn’t care when we were too busy to listen to your bull, but now that we have the leisure to consider your verbal nonsense, you’re starting to piss us off.”
Now, I saw this coming a mile away—I just couldn’t believe the conservative line on women’s lib—bunch of Bible stuff and a dash of reductionist sociology, et Voila! Nothing. What can one say? Am I going to walk up to my mother and tell her she doesn’t deserve as much respect as I do? In what universe?
It’s a constant drum-beat throughout history—Monotheism is an abomination—kill the Pharaoh! Christianity is wrong—kill the Christians! The Christians are in charge—kill the non-Christians! Alchemy is witchcraft—kill the chemists! Astronomy is sacrilege—kill the mathematicians! And—you know—I just wanted to pause here, and consider that there has been a major change—we don’t just kill people in bunches any more—well, most of us, most of the time, anyway.
And so the new fashion is to ridicule discoverers and inventors and explorers or scientists in general. We’d still kill you for some atrocities—like if you were gay or transvestite or Jewish or Gypsy… ..well, anyway, a lot of murders go unsolved, even today when every drama show is a training tape for the police academy—so you can imagine how easy it was for the sociopaths to prey on the outcasts in earlier times, up to say, the 1950s and 60s.
After that, the FBI started using new evidence collected through science—and now it’s like a science fiction movie what the police go through at, say, a murder scene. But we still haven’t changed anything about our prisons—there was a time of optimism, when Robert Redford played a new prison warden (with a heart, of course) and they took to re-naming prisons as ‘rehabilitation centers’, but there is no significant change in the way we punish criminals—except they have to do their time without a cigarette nowadays.
I don’t know nothing about criminology—all I know is no one changes anything about prisons—and I’m pretty sure we have found better ways to deal with criminals by, what’s it today? –2013, yeah—well into the twenty-first century and we still put people in cages—that’s just wrong. We’re not even trying, on that one.
But aside from prison and the grave, ridicule can still do harm to people that are only trying to make things better. Those germ guys—Lister and Pasteur, the established medical community gave them both a very hard time. Did they spend years afterwards, giving speeches of apologies—no, that doesn’t happen. The ridicule—always—the sincere retraction and apology—only spoken of, never witnessed, to my knowledge.
Who else—O, yeah—the whole electricity crowd—people refused to believe Bell when he first demonstrated it in public—not everybody, just the you-know-whos. And Marconi’s wireless radio, O—and I almost left out the big dog, T.A. Edison—let’s tick’em off, shall we? 1st Electrical Turbine, 1st Light Bulb, 1st to offer Electricity to Homes as a Public Utility, 1st Audio Recording, 1st Record-Player, 1st Motion Picture—and those are just the highlights—and that’s not mentioning the many developments of these basic inventions throughout his many years of experimentation. Now Edison, as you may imagine, was found to be difficult to laugh off—sure, one could grumble about ‘new-fangled’-this and high-falutin’-that—but at the same time, you can see where you’re going, indoors, in the dead of night; there was no open flame in every room any longer—and no need for candles and oil lamps. And one could listen to a symphony play Beethoven, right in their own parlor—it sounded a little more professional than the family’s traditional caterwaul. Edison was like Euclid that way—like him or not, he’s hard to argue with.
So I’m learning all this stuff in elementary school, and even then I noticed that any big advance in civilization involved someone being given a very hard time, ranging from laughed-out-of-town to burnt-at-the-stake. And I see it on TV—African-Americans in the southern states standing up to people that would do anything to keep those protestors relegated to second-class citizenship. And I thought to myself, hey, it’s Galileo and Louis Pasteur all over again—can’t they see they’re trying to hold back civilization’s natural impetus towards making us a better people, a fairer people, a kinder people? And after the race riots, the news showed the Viet Nam war—people killing and dying—I think that must be a bad scene in real life—I didn’t even like seeing it on TV.
Conservatives—are they the natural result of an evolutionary process that makes most of the herd dislike change, while only a few will go rogue and strike out after something different? Is that why they’re so politically powerful—because at heart most people don’t want change of any kind? Is that why rabble-rousers have to do so much rousing? Is that why every great person will eventually find themselves wondering if they’re crazy? And, if so, is that the corollary to all crazy people thinking they make perfect sense?
All good questions, but I digress. I had a point to make here—I’m almost certain of it. ‘sfunny how you get an idea about something big-ish like ‘social progress’ and no matter where you turn, you’re always getting caught up in details that don’t even make sense after a while? Well, this is one of those—sorry.
I really enjoyed that PBS part 1 of 2 Kennedy; American Experience—hope I remember to watch the end tomorrow night. O, and here’s a video of just me and another video of me playing some Bach:
Three Sweets to the Wind (2013Nov08)
Hello, you lucky people.
I finally have some postable Bach (not that it’s great–or even good) that is about as good as I get.
Please don’t feel bad if you don’t watch the whole thing–I get tired as I go along, so the mistakes and flubs become worse and more frequent as the video goes on….
I’m also very pleased with my Improv today–I didn’t really play the whole thing straight through as shown here–it was all in one recording, but there were three places where I played freestyle–and I didn’t have the patience for separate videos, so they’re all bunched into this one video. As always, I hope you enjoy it…
[Improv – Sweets to the Suites (2013Nov08)]
[J.S. Bach – selections from three (3) French Suites (2013Nov08)]
Sweets for the Suite
These recordings began as mixtures–I would play some of Bach’s French Suites 1-6 and intersperse that with my usual improvs.
The Bach is very challenging and it is rare that I get a good recording of me playing any of it–this time was not rare at all, so I’ve spared my listeners (who am I kidding? nobody listens…) the Bach and present here only the improvs I played in between the Bach massacres. Frustrated at my inability to post any Bach, I named these improvs in tribute ‘French Sweetys’ No 1 & 2.
I hope they are enjoyable. By the way… this time I didn’t download any single graphic image from Google Image Search–instead, I took a screen capture (control-shft-PrtScr) and pasted that whole array of pictures (the search term was ‘Painting Queen’). I post the original screen-capture below as a link to the playlist of both improvs–and then below that, I put the two separate improv links…
Backlog
I’ve just been catching up to myself–all recordings from the past eight days have now been processed:
Hope you enjoy….
Strawberry Hill (2013Oct28)
Wrote another poem today:
Poem (?)
Argffth! Spttoo-o-o-o-o-o-o! Yaughck!
Augh, I can’t.. Hack-Hack-spurtle..I can’t Breath! cough
cough
cough
Where’re the others?
O my god (cough)
What happened?!
-by XD
And then my lovely Claire came home (with a whopper jr w/cheese–the bestest) and I played for her–It came out kinda romantic, so I named it after those Spanish-language soap-operas they call ‘Novelos’:
Improv – Novelo
…As you can see, today’s graphics theme is ‘Strawberry Hill Gothic’, a old, brief fad in architecture. I couldn’t say what connection to the Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields” there is, if any–I always figured the Beatles did Strawberry Fields for the same reason the Kinks did “Ducks On The Wall”–because it was something their parents liked, and they hated.
All these pictures are examples–I guy named Walpole got rich from writing Halloween stories, and this was his dream house style–I read about in a post I shared earlier today (You can go on my Facebook page and find the one called simply ‘Halloween’) and I Googled images of the style…
so, here’s a few more:
Graphics Explosion
Okay, two new improvs and a look at some of the artwork contained in my video uploads:
GRAPHICS:
Back in the I-beginning, museum sites had no restrictions on downloading graphics of their paintings, sculpture, etc.
Back then, it took minutes for a hi-res graphic to download off a phone jack ISP, but I knew that someday the doors would all be locked–so I downloaded graphics like an obsession. Nowadays, security on graphic image files is pretty tight. It’s all ‘information’ now, and information is ‘owned’ now, too. But I don’t commercialize my sites, so nobody looks too closely. Also, there are special programs like that of the Rejksmuseum in Netherlands, which allows a user to download graphics of their masterworks for non-commercial use. I still grab stuff off the Google-Image search, but I have to be more careful about snagging something off of those new ‘graphics by fee’ sites–one of them threatened me with legal action a few weeks ago!
Anyhow–here’s some of my latest ‘artwork’ in service to my YouTube channel uploads, and the original files I used for graphics backgrounds. You’ll notice that I over-lighten or over-darken these paintings to make my Text stand out and be legible.
20131019XD-Improv-GYup_01_Art-HorseLexington-1968-Good
20131019XD-Improv-GYup_02_200_Currier_&_Ives_Ready_For_The_Signal
20131019XD-Improv-GYup_03_No_Known_Restrictions_Horse_Racing,_Currier_&_Ives_Lithograph_1890
20131019XD-Improv-GYup_04_Trotting_Cracks_on_the_snow
20131019XD-Improv-GYup_05_english_hunt_fence
20131019XD-Improv-GYup_06_Hunter
20131019XD-Improv-GYup_(CreditsCARD)
20131019XD-Improv-GYup_(TitlesCARD)
20131019XD-Improv-HYup_(CreditsCARD)
20131019XD-Improv-HYup_(TitlesCARD)
20131022XD-FitzWllmVrgnlBk_XV_Robin(TitlesCARD)
20131022XD-FitzWllmVrgnlBk_XVIII_BarafostusDream(TitlesCARD)
20131022XD-FzwlmVrgnl_17thCenturyEnglishMusic_01
20131022XD-FzwlmVrgnl_17thCenturyEnglishMusic_02
20131022XD-FzwlmVrgnl_17thCenturyEnglishMusic_Barfastus_s_Dream_01
20131022XD-FzwlmVrgnl_17thCenturyEnglishMusic_Barfastus_s_Dream_02_Baschenis_Musical_Instruments
20131024XD-Improv-Factory(TitlesCARD)
20131024XD-Improv-PrototypeX(CreditsCARD)
20131024XD-Improv-PrototypeX(TitlesCARD)
20131026XD-Improv-AdAstra(CreditsCARD)
20131026XD-Improv-AdAstra(TitlesCARD)
20131026XD-Improv-Aspere(CreditsCARD)
20131026XD-Improv-Aspere(TitlesCARD)
20131026XD-Rijksmuseum_MyStud_Art-Nouveau_interieur_anoniem_1890-1910
20131026XD-Rijksmuseum_MyStud_Delftsche Slaolie-Jan_Toorop_1894
20131026XD-Rijksmuseum_MyStud_Het_stadhuis_op_de_Dam_in_Amsterdam-Gerrit_Adriaensz-Berckheyde_1672
20131026XD-Rijksmuseum_MyStud_Portret_van_een_vrouw_tussen_bloemen-Eva_Watson-Schütze_ca_1910
20131026XD-Rijksmuseum_MyStud_Seated Cupid-Etienne-Maurice_Falconet_1757
201320811XD-PreRaphWomen_GoldenTrio
20131026XD-Rijksmuseum_MyStud_Mantelpiece_w_relief_of_Paris_n_Oenone-Jan_Baptist_Xavery_1739