On the off chance that you are curious about the currently over 400 files available for listening at pianonoise.com, I thought I'd take you on a quick tour. The collection consists of music for piano and for organ.
What the oldest piece of music on the site?
I've got plans to record selections from the '"Robertsbridge Codex" a manuscript of the earliest surviving keyboard music, which dates to around 1360. The piano was invented around 1700, so there is quite a bit of organ music that predates anything on that side. That will happen sometime this spring when time permits. As of February 2015, the oldest music on the site is probably either the group of pieces by Antonio Cabezon (1510-66) or the single piece by John Redford (died 1547; that's all we know). There is also piece of 21st century piano music ("O ignee Spiritus" by Marteau) based on a hymn chant written by Hildegard of Bingen which is itself from the 10th century.
What's the newest piece of music on the site?
"Cocheareu's Nightmare" is an improvisation from January 2015. Just like the oldest music, I have plans to keep expanding the boundaries here also. The newest thing I play at my church every week is when I improvise, and/or when I've just written something for the occasion. I'll be posting new compositions and improvisations regularly.
Seven centuries of music! That's a lot of temporal variety!
Yup.
What different styles can I find there?
A lot of it gets called classical, a term I don't like. For starters, that term includes music written all over Europe and parts of Asia and the United States (at the very least) and covers over four centuries (at least). It also includes conflicting styles. More specifally, classicism and romanticism in music are really opposites. But both classical music (dominant in the 18th century) and Romantic music (dominant in the 19th) are given the umbrella term Classical. Then there's Baroque music (17th and 18th centuries) and all the various types of music from the 20th century--impressionism, minimalism, serialism, aleatoric music, neo-baroque, neo-classical, and neo-romantic music, and a lot of combinations of these. What all these different musics have in common is that on this site they are mostly played on solo piano or organ, and they tend not to be as repetitive and predictable as popular musical styles. And they have no words.
In addition , there is some ragtime, various kinds of jazz and blues, a bit of gospel, a smidge of minimalism and a touch of new age. And there will be more of those no doubt as I keep adding things. When you have a passion to understand, you tend not to ignore even styles you don't care for as much, so there is a good bit of eclecticism in the catalog as a result. I don't post things by category, however. You get to find those interesting byways the same way I do; by continuous exploration!
That's pretty diverse, huh?
Well, it is and it isn't. Most of the catalog is music in the public domain because I can't get copyright clearance for a lot of things, though some composers who themselves have copyright have generously agreed to let me post their music. So there are some living composers, just not enough. Virtually all of them are men; I'm trying to work on that, too (I think only 2 are women right now.) So, most of the music is from the early 20th century or before. And most of it is from Europe or America. But I've posted a few pieces from China and South America, and would like to continue to post pieces from different cultures. If you know of some interesting piano music from more "Eastern" cultures, particularly if it is public domain, or under a Creative Commons License, or you wrote it and can give me copyright permission, let me know!
There isn't as much of the "standard classical repertoire" as I'd like, but there are some nice rarities, and I'll keep posting those as well. I'd like as many important musical voices to be represented as possible. Some of the pieces are rather profound; others are lighter and more "listener friendly." I'm going to try to add more of these in the coming months as well.
How will I be able to find the music that I like?
That's the catch--in the index, you won't, unless you already know the music or the composer. You'll just have to explore (horrors!). However, in many ways the index page is a portal to the rest of the site. There are, for instance, articles about composers, and various music topics on the site, and there I've gathered relevant pieces of music. In that case you'll have some ideas about what kinds of pieces are there before you listen. The index is really a way for me to keep track of every single piece no matter where it is 'located' throughout the 100 page website or referenced in hundreds of blog articles. It is a useful way to listen to everything, but you can also explore the site and listen to those pieces in a different context. Eventually, there will be a lot more cross-indexing than there is now. But, alas, many of my other ideas are still in embryo.
Such as....?
As I write blogs about the various pieces I've recorded, I'm going to start inserting little links next to those pieces in the index so you can read more about those pieces if you are curious about them. They may contain factual information, or, more likely, my thoughts and experiences when playing them, or what to listen for to make the piece come alive for you. I'm also working on a "Meditation Garden" which will serve as a kind of musical therapy for those wishing music that serves their current emotional needs. That's an idea that's still just in my head. But it'll make its way to the internet some time next year.
How many composers are currently represented in the archive?
72 at the moment.
How long would it take to listen to everything there?
By the end of the year (July) it should be up over 24 hours. Right now it is just under 22.
Showing posts with label questions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label questions. Show all posts
Monday, February 2, 2015
Friday, January 9, 2015
Now that I've called you all here...
There's an old Peanuts cartoon in which Linus does a very peculiar thing. In the first panel you can see him making a snowball. Then that snowball turns into a snowman. But he makes another. And another. Pretty soon you can see he's got quite a collection of snowmen, all of them in a grid, facing the same direction. In the last panel, he's built himself a podium, and, standing at it, he addresses the snowpeople by saying "I suppose you're wondering why I called you all here today...."
Linus addressing a phalanx of inanimate snowpersons is not all that unlike posting things on the internet. You have no idea much of the time whom you are addressing, and most of the time they don't answer. Occasionally you'll get a comment or an email from someone, and then it is almost like having a regular conversation. But the real fun comes from checking your webstats and discovering the searches people did to find you. What questions did they want answers to, and were they likely to find them? The quotes below are actual search strings that people typed into their web browsers which brought them to pianonoise.
I've already written about this phenomenon here and here. But for the latest installment of mailbag, hang on to your seats, because here it is. Remember, these are letters people didn't actually write, so if I don't actually answer some of them, we're even:
"A major quote by a professional pianist that is very helpful"
This leaves plenty of room, doesn't it? So long as you don't ask for a definition of 'helpful.' What was the inquirer seeking, I wonder? Inspiration to practice? Insight into the musical process? A cure for cancer? Of just something to post on the bulletin board of your 6th grade music classroom?
I don't know what this person found, though I do recall typing the phrase "that didn't seem very helpful....but when a professional says something"--I think that's from my article on Bach's quote about playing the organ. Just a guess.
"ability to listen to music in head"
ok, I've written about that one here, if you're curious.
"Beethoven had trouble paying attention"
I have to wonder about the motivation of the interlocutor. Was this person looking for justification? It seems as if it might be the musical equivalent of "Einstein failed Algebra," which once furnished lots of little Einsteins with superior retorts to their parental units. I mean, if Beethoven had ADD, how bad is it if I have it, too? Not so much, right? It also reminds me of a story I read in childhood about some genius composer who was trudging through his piano exercises when suddenly, looking out the window, his fingers began to create a glorious improvisation based on how he felt about the great outdoors. Exercises be darned, this kid was expressing himself from the heart, and sincerely, meaning without practice. This is a pretty good example of how non-musical geniuses often see the process of creation, which is one part true and six parts without-a-clue-how-it-really-happens. Anyhow, I think the story may have been about Beethoven. And, naturally, it's the only part of the book I can remember, and it probably was completely made up by the author.
Somebody was looking for some sheet music for a piece by Yanni. Good luck finding that around here! Someone else was looking for a "church piano standard repertoire list." I might compile one of those some day but it wouldn't be very conventional. I'm not a big fan of the standard "church" repertoire for a number of reasons which I'll complain about in a future installment.
I'm really curious as to what the "bwv 543 Bach science project" is. The piece in question is Bach's Prelude (and fugue) in A Minor, catalogue number 543. What that has to do with a science project I don't know. I'll have to put that on my "when I'm bored here are some things to google" list.
Somebody wishing to send a question to my question-and-answers page here might want to know "good questions to ask piano players." I wish I had a list. You get asked a lot of the same questions, and people are obviously trying to make a connection after concerts and at parties but don't really know what to say. I wish I could tell them, although a simple sure-fire question probably doesn't get at the nature of the beast. If you know enough to ask informed questions you wouldn't need such a list, and they probably wouldn't work in all situations anyway. Here's an idea: follow my blog. Questions will come. You can even send them via the internet!
"How do pianists memorize so many notes?" I've written about that before. But it really is the wrong question. It is like asking how a Shakespearian actor can memorize so many letters. Letters form words, phrases, convey meaning. That's how you memorize. Figure out what those little bits add up to. And then spend a lot of time working hard at mastering the material.
"is transposing a good habit should one learn all the keys" I get a lot of questions asked out of context. That is, I have no idea about the experience or experiences of the person who asked the question, what their goals are, or their abilities, or their work habits. In different situations I would answer these questions differently. In a vacuum the answer would be yes. But there is quite a difference between preparing for an international competition and playing for fun in your own living room. Is taking the trouble to learn the patterns of all the major and minor keys worth it? It is for me. It helps me to understand the big picture. It helps me improvise, sight-read easily in any key, move a piece down to where a singer feels comfortable. It's about agility, and understanding. But it might be too much wasted time for a pianist who can't get there or just doesn't want to.
A lot of life's questions can't be answered on the internet for that very reason. Such casual and incidental contact between persons seems to rarely yield much value until time is spent in understanding and recognizing. And, eventually, maybe it will be. In the meantime, though, some of those questions can be pretty entertaining.
Linus addressing a phalanx of inanimate snowpersons is not all that unlike posting things on the internet. You have no idea much of the time whom you are addressing, and most of the time they don't answer. Occasionally you'll get a comment or an email from someone, and then it is almost like having a regular conversation. But the real fun comes from checking your webstats and discovering the searches people did to find you. What questions did they want answers to, and were they likely to find them? The quotes below are actual search strings that people typed into their web browsers which brought them to pianonoise.
I've already written about this phenomenon here and here. But for the latest installment of mailbag, hang on to your seats, because here it is. Remember, these are letters people didn't actually write, so if I don't actually answer some of them, we're even:
"A major quote by a professional pianist that is very helpful"
This leaves plenty of room, doesn't it? So long as you don't ask for a definition of 'helpful.' What was the inquirer seeking, I wonder? Inspiration to practice? Insight into the musical process? A cure for cancer? Of just something to post on the bulletin board of your 6th grade music classroom?
I don't know what this person found, though I do recall typing the phrase "that didn't seem very helpful....but when a professional says something"--I think that's from my article on Bach's quote about playing the organ. Just a guess.
"ability to listen to music in head"
ok, I've written about that one here, if you're curious.
"Beethoven had trouble paying attention"
I have to wonder about the motivation of the interlocutor. Was this person looking for justification? It seems as if it might be the musical equivalent of "Einstein failed Algebra," which once furnished lots of little Einsteins with superior retorts to their parental units. I mean, if Beethoven had ADD, how bad is it if I have it, too? Not so much, right? It also reminds me of a story I read in childhood about some genius composer who was trudging through his piano exercises when suddenly, looking out the window, his fingers began to create a glorious improvisation based on how he felt about the great outdoors. Exercises be darned, this kid was expressing himself from the heart, and sincerely, meaning without practice. This is a pretty good example of how non-musical geniuses often see the process of creation, which is one part true and six parts without-a-clue-how-it-really-happens. Anyhow, I think the story may have been about Beethoven. And, naturally, it's the only part of the book I can remember, and it probably was completely made up by the author.
Somebody was looking for some sheet music for a piece by Yanni. Good luck finding that around here! Someone else was looking for a "church piano standard repertoire list." I might compile one of those some day but it wouldn't be very conventional. I'm not a big fan of the standard "church" repertoire for a number of reasons which I'll complain about in a future installment.
I'm really curious as to what the "bwv 543 Bach science project" is. The piece in question is Bach's Prelude (and fugue) in A Minor, catalogue number 543. What that has to do with a science project I don't know. I'll have to put that on my "when I'm bored here are some things to google" list.
Somebody wishing to send a question to my question-and-answers page here might want to know "good questions to ask piano players." I wish I had a list. You get asked a lot of the same questions, and people are obviously trying to make a connection after concerts and at parties but don't really know what to say. I wish I could tell them, although a simple sure-fire question probably doesn't get at the nature of the beast. If you know enough to ask informed questions you wouldn't need such a list, and they probably wouldn't work in all situations anyway. Here's an idea: follow my blog. Questions will come. You can even send them via the internet!
"How do pianists memorize so many notes?" I've written about that before. But it really is the wrong question. It is like asking how a Shakespearian actor can memorize so many letters. Letters form words, phrases, convey meaning. That's how you memorize. Figure out what those little bits add up to. And then spend a lot of time working hard at mastering the material.
"is transposing a good habit should one learn all the keys" I get a lot of questions asked out of context. That is, I have no idea about the experience or experiences of the person who asked the question, what their goals are, or their abilities, or their work habits. In different situations I would answer these questions differently. In a vacuum the answer would be yes. But there is quite a difference between preparing for an international competition and playing for fun in your own living room. Is taking the trouble to learn the patterns of all the major and minor keys worth it? It is for me. It helps me to understand the big picture. It helps me improvise, sight-read easily in any key, move a piece down to where a singer feels comfortable. It's about agility, and understanding. But it might be too much wasted time for a pianist who can't get there or just doesn't want to.
A lot of life's questions can't be answered on the internet for that very reason. Such casual and incidental contact between persons seems to rarely yield much value until time is spent in understanding and recognizing. And, eventually, maybe it will be. In the meantime, though, some of those questions can be pretty entertaining.
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
You've come to the right place...I guess
The other day I made an astonishing discovery that should rock the scientific community. You remember how some computer was supposed to have passed the Turing Test last week?
Ok, I'll back up. If you didn't hear about this, the Turing Test was proposed by a computer scientist named Alan Turing in 1950 in a paper in which he discussed the possibility that computers would one day possess (or be able to "fake") artificial intelligence. He proposed a test. Put somebody on one side of a wall and have them ask questions of two different parties. One of them will be a computer. Based on the computer's answers to the questions (written out and passed on to the person doing the "judging") if that person is fooled into thinking that they are conversing with an actual person, then the computer has passed the Turing Test. Last week, it was claimed (some say rather weakly) that a computer actually had, finally, passed this test, for the first time.
Onward. What transpired on Monday was that, viewing the statistics for pianonoise.com, which I had been monitoring more closely than usual after I noticed a distinct upsurge in traffic, was that a number of "bots" were account for most of the traffic. That's not the least bit new, or the least bit odd. It happens to everybody with a website or blog, all the time.
What did seem odd was that a few of my sound files, in particular, the Mendelssohn organ sonatas, which I have posted rather recently, were using up enough memory to suggest that someone, some few, dedicated persons, were listening to the entire sound file, beginning to end. This is what was new.
I therefore concluded that these "bots" have started to listen to Mendelssohn. Also my recordings of it. If that isn't a wise, and intelligent choice, what is?
Ok, I'll stop the goofing around now. (I'm also getting ready to ban the bots)
However, one thing lead to another, and I happened to notice the questions actual people (one can only assume) were asking that lead them to my site. Some of them were no doubt answered, others....
It's early in the month so there are only fifteen of them so far. Here are my favorite few:
"How difficult is Moszkowski piano concertos?"
There is only one. I'll have to get back to you when I've learned to play it, which will probably be never. My guess is somewhere between Tchaikovsky 1 on the easy end, and Rach 3 on the hard end.
"How to do human on the piano"
Wha......... I mean [captch wha]
"Mozart plays another composer's music better than the original"
I'll bet you're thinking of that scene from the movie "Amadeus" (1984). I'll be doing some blogs about that movie in the fall (since it turns 30 this year). That is a great scene. It is also entirely made up. What the script writer(s?) chose to do there was very clever. Instead of taking a piece by Salieri, the "other composer" who was so jealous of Mozart, and then trying to "improve" it and make it sound like Mozart would have written it (a tall order, no?), they started with a piece that Mozart wrote, and wrecked it so it would sound like "Salieri" (who wasn't half as bad a composer as his music sounds in the movie, but after all, they had to make the contrast really obvious for all ears to be able to detect). The actual piece is "non piu andrei" from the opera "The Marriage of Figaro" (Le Nozze di Figaro).
The scene occurs about a third of the way into the movie when Salieri and Mozart officially meet for the first time at the court of the emperor. Salieri has composed a march of welcome which Mozart then sits down and plays from memory, adding ornaments and changing some harmonies when he doesn't like something ("that doesn't really work, does it? Have you tried...."), and finally launches into an inspired "improvisation. Also in the scene Mozart mentions a theme of Salieri's on which he wrote some variations, something that actually happened (we know because we have the variations.) I'll play them for you in the fall.
"Last piano key sound"
Are you perhaps referring to the one on the extreme right? That very very high C?
Ok, here it is. [listen]
Probably not a bad idea that the piano's range stopped there about 150 years ago and nobody much has bothered stretching it in that direction since. Or in the other one. There are a few extra bass notes on Bosendorfer pianos, but they sound like helicopters taking off, trust me.
"piano gross noises"
No thanks. Not making an audio file of that. No idea what they are anyway (although to me having a pedal squeak during recording qualifies).
"the metal part of the string are struck with two hammers"
You might be thinking of the fact that in the upper part of the piano there are three "strings" (two of them actually belong to the same piano wire loop back around, but never mind) struck by one hammer. In the tenor ranger of the piano the hammer only strikes two strings (thicker, and individually strung this time) and in the bass, only one string. Or you might just be confused.
"organ registration no. 3"
Is that anything like love potion number nine? Seriously, you might want to check with somebody familiar with Hammond or home theater organs; that sounds like one of their terms. A pipe organ doesn't have set registration numbers.
"online reputation management"
Ok. That's all we have time for. See you on Friday!
Ok, I'll back up. If you didn't hear about this, the Turing Test was proposed by a computer scientist named Alan Turing in 1950 in a paper in which he discussed the possibility that computers would one day possess (or be able to "fake") artificial intelligence. He proposed a test. Put somebody on one side of a wall and have them ask questions of two different parties. One of them will be a computer. Based on the computer's answers to the questions (written out and passed on to the person doing the "judging") if that person is fooled into thinking that they are conversing with an actual person, then the computer has passed the Turing Test. Last week, it was claimed (some say rather weakly) that a computer actually had, finally, passed this test, for the first time.
Onward. What transpired on Monday was that, viewing the statistics for pianonoise.com, which I had been monitoring more closely than usual after I noticed a distinct upsurge in traffic, was that a number of "bots" were account for most of the traffic. That's not the least bit new, or the least bit odd. It happens to everybody with a website or blog, all the time.
What did seem odd was that a few of my sound files, in particular, the Mendelssohn organ sonatas, which I have posted rather recently, were using up enough memory to suggest that someone, some few, dedicated persons, were listening to the entire sound file, beginning to end. This is what was new.
I therefore concluded that these "bots" have started to listen to Mendelssohn. Also my recordings of it. If that isn't a wise, and intelligent choice, what is?
Ok, I'll stop the goofing around now. (I'm also getting ready to ban the bots)
However, one thing lead to another, and I happened to notice the questions actual people (one can only assume) were asking that lead them to my site. Some of them were no doubt answered, others....
It's early in the month so there are only fifteen of them so far. Here are my favorite few:
"How difficult is Moszkowski piano concertos?"
There is only one. I'll have to get back to you when I've learned to play it, which will probably be never. My guess is somewhere between Tchaikovsky 1 on the easy end, and Rach 3 on the hard end.
"How to do human on the piano"
Wha......... I mean [captch wha]
"Mozart plays another composer's music better than the original"
I'll bet you're thinking of that scene from the movie "Amadeus" (1984). I'll be doing some blogs about that movie in the fall (since it turns 30 this year). That is a great scene. It is also entirely made up. What the script writer(s?) chose to do there was very clever. Instead of taking a piece by Salieri, the "other composer" who was so jealous of Mozart, and then trying to "improve" it and make it sound like Mozart would have written it (a tall order, no?), they started with a piece that Mozart wrote, and wrecked it so it would sound like "Salieri" (who wasn't half as bad a composer as his music sounds in the movie, but after all, they had to make the contrast really obvious for all ears to be able to detect). The actual piece is "non piu andrei" from the opera "The Marriage of Figaro" (Le Nozze di Figaro).
The scene occurs about a third of the way into the movie when Salieri and Mozart officially meet for the first time at the court of the emperor. Salieri has composed a march of welcome which Mozart then sits down and plays from memory, adding ornaments and changing some harmonies when he doesn't like something ("that doesn't really work, does it? Have you tried...."), and finally launches into an inspired "improvisation. Also in the scene Mozart mentions a theme of Salieri's on which he wrote some variations, something that actually happened (we know because we have the variations.) I'll play them for you in the fall.
"Last piano key sound"
Are you perhaps referring to the one on the extreme right? That very very high C?
Ok, here it is. [listen]
Probably not a bad idea that the piano's range stopped there about 150 years ago and nobody much has bothered stretching it in that direction since. Or in the other one. There are a few extra bass notes on Bosendorfer pianos, but they sound like helicopters taking off, trust me.
"piano gross noises"
No thanks. Not making an audio file of that. No idea what they are anyway (although to me having a pedal squeak during recording qualifies).
"the metal part of the string are struck with two hammers"
You might be thinking of the fact that in the upper part of the piano there are three "strings" (two of them actually belong to the same piano wire loop back around, but never mind) struck by one hammer. In the tenor ranger of the piano the hammer only strikes two strings (thicker, and individually strung this time) and in the bass, only one string. Or you might just be confused.
"organ registration no. 3"
Is that anything like love potion number nine? Seriously, you might want to check with somebody familiar with Hammond or home theater organs; that sounds like one of their terms. A pipe organ doesn't have set registration numbers.
"online reputation management"
Ok. That's all we have time for. See you on Friday!
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