What are you listening to right now?

[beeline]

[Project Willow]

[Project Willow]

With the lovely Stephen Fandrich.

[Allegro]

For this piece, I guessing Mr. Fandrich chose
the celesta sounds on an electronic piano.
I listened with closed eyes. Thank You, PW.


^ In a Landscape | Stephen Fandrich

[Allegro]

^ DakhaBrakha (backstage) | Rose

An excerpt from the link, above.

…The main stuff of the group are the folk-group “Kralitsa” singers (artistic director - Ivan Sinelnikov), who are learning the Ukrainian folk music for many years and are in search of the traditional songs all over the Ukraine. The energy for singing is taken by the girls Kievites not only from the native culture but from other cultures as well.

Modern ethnic music needs a sort of reconstruction. And in a way, it means to search for roots, to move back. But if one belongs to urban culture and has no initial experience of traditional life, how can he find these “roots”? This “authentic music” will come out artificial, because it is an imitation only. The Ukrainians still have no developed “urban folk” music, so called world music. It depends on the specific social and cultural development. So, now the vital decision is to make a step forward with a help of an inner inspiration and fantasy: you hear an impulse, and then create a new world of sounds based, perhaps, on more deep culture roots, but not on the superficial traditional forms of it.

Thus, the energy for singing can be taken not only from a native “source”, but from everywhere. And it is a right way according to Ukrainian culture because this culture always composed itself on other cultural crossroads. In Ukrainian authentic “symphony” one can hear the European and Oriental motives, the Christian and Moslem ones.

[Belligerent Savant]

.

[Elvis]

[Allegro]

[Allegro]

^ The Voca People

The Voca People are an Israel-based ensemble performing vocal theater combining a cappella and beat box vocals to reproduce the sounds of an entire orchestra.

The Voca People claim to be aliens from another planet where the main method of communication is sounds. Dressed completely white in appearance except their lips, which are red, they float around in space in their ship, which is powered by nothing more than music. They arrive on Earth which has a great repertoire of music. They have performed in Spain, New York, Hungary, Italy, France, England, Israel and many other places. They incorporate the public into their songs and change or add bits depending on which country they are in (e.g. If they were in Spain they would perform songs in Spanish and incorporate the Spanish public into their performance.)

The creators, Lior Kalfon and Shai Fishman envisioned a group of performers dressed completely in white with red lips. The Voca People claim to come from the Planet Voca (somewhere behind the sun) where all communication is based on music and vocal expressions. Their motto is: “Life is music and music is life.”
From Wiki.

POST 2951

[Allegro]

^ Ararat (vocal) | Armenian


^ Duduk wind instrument | indigenous to Armenia

[Project Willow]

For this piece, I guessing Mr. Fandrich chose
the celesta sounds on an electronic piano.
I listened with closed eyes. Thank You, PW.

Stephen and Gamelon Pacifica play all Javanese instruments. I'm not entirely certain, but this piece sounds like slenthem, bonang, and gong.

Stephen also plays one of these, a celempung. He sits with it in front of him and plucks the strings upward. It is not easy to tune.

[Allegro]

Stephen and Gamelon Pacifica play all Javanese instruments. I’m not entirely certain, but this piece sounds like slenthem, bonang, and gong.…

I looked up Javanese instruments, and even with snippets of sounds on their wiki pages, I’d go along with your experience of the instruments.

I’m pretty sure I had just listened to Stephen play his ballade on the piano after which I listened to his “In a Landscape.” So, I guess I had my quasi-piano ears on when thinking he was playing celesta sounds on an electronic keyboard. Oops. (Yeah, the celempung has some 26 pins for controlling pitch(es) variation; even the slightest twist can be significant, I think.)

You know why I enjoy Stephen’s playing? He’s not a show off. I see him as an authentic player performing his originals vs. showoffs who’ve been commercially branded in North America and Western Europe.

There’s a spectacle happening wrt too many performers meaninglessly swaying their bodies, or lifting their hands into the air, or throwing back their hair while performing piano—all for pubescent, dramatic effect; or playing a well known, traditional piece too fast, allowing little time to finesse a phrase, let alone properly; or while playing, their countenance seems pained, looking up to the ceiling or stage lights as if they were waiting for a sign from the Gods above; or behaving purposelessly some silent, grand moment that’s presumably some emotionally strategic musical pause. It’s such a show ad nauseam on youtube, in university settings, and music competitions: little or no show of scholarship; just a musical fuzzy-feel-good branded naiveté. I blame many teachers and coaches, first, who understand more about corporate branding than outstanding piano and violin performance technique.

But, there are too few others who are continually distinguishing themselves demonstrating, i.e., the Western European piano and violin performance techniques that took some 100 years to perfect and teach, a virtuosity that will remain with us artists into old age.
And We Know That, too. Happily!

Anyway, Stephen is indeed a prize unto himself with his own piano technique.


^ Ballade | Stephen Fandrich

[Project Willow]

(Yeah, the celempung has some 26 pins for controlling pitch(es) variation; even the slightest twist can be significant, I think.)

I don't remember exactly when it was, sometime around the holidays last year, we sat and talked as he spent at least half an hour tuning the thing and producing some extraordinary noises. I have a part who has perfect pitch, so these incidents tend to stick in my mind.

There’s a spectacle happening wrt too many performers meaninglessly swaying their bodies, or lifting their hands into the air, or throwing back their hair while performing piano—all for pubescent, dramatic effect; or playing a well known, traditional piece too fast, allowing little time to finesse a phrase, let alone properly; or while playing, their countenance seems pained, looking up to the ceiling or stage lights as if they were waiting for a sign from the Gods above; or behaving purposelessly some silent, grand moment that’s presumably some emotionally strategic musical pause. It’s such a show ad nauseam on youtube, in university settings, and music competitions: little or no show of scholarship; just a musical fuzzy-feel-good branded naiveté. I blame many teachers and coaches, first, who understand more about corporate branding than outstanding piano and violin performance technique.

I had not noticed the trend so much, although a neighbor of mine is a younger pianist, and I cannot escape his rehearsals. Finesse does seem to be an issue. Back when I used to play myself, even with my (very) limited skill, the music moved me, involuntarily. I felt it throughout my body and my muscles would move according to my emotional response. I am a fan of Nadja Solerno-Sonnenberg who occasionally comes under fire for the physicality with which she plays. Once I sat close enough to her in concert to see how well she'd shaved her arm pits. It was a very memorable performance. If instructors are coaching young musicians to feign this kind of emotionality for stage effect, then it is truly unfortunate. As you said, the key is authenticity.

Anyway, friends of Stephen, and he himself read RI from time to time. He's an incredibly talented fellow.

[Six Hits of Sunshine]

Maybe this should go in the "I'm Wasted" thread...feeling the blues tonight RI.

[Allegro]

Anyway, friends of Stephen, and he himself read RI from time to time. He's an incredibly talented fellow.

My best to Stephen!

…As you said, the key is authenticity.

Yes, I think so, with many as yet unvoiced distinctions, to be sure. And, as far as I’m concerned, Sonnenberg has met performance technique and intonation standards assumed by many practicing musicians who are as ensconced with commitment as she has been to the performing arts. Although, she’s been tagged a bit predictably unpredictable in live performance, must we open the history books, again ?!

A little bit on edit: on matters of under arms?
Best noted for the future between those razor
witted ones who like the hairies. There’s just
no accounting for taste.


POST 2956