More romantic stuff

[ted]

Many of my improvisations have been turning out romantic too lately. I hope shrinking the mp3 hasn't degraded the quality too much. 

[chopinatic]

Very effortless and beautiful. I think the chord changes are wonderful and your piano has a fantastic sound. The quality hasnt been effected in my opinion.

I liked ( 1.47 ) I think it was quite powerful.

Great stuff

[ted]

Thanks chopinatic, I am glad you like it. Ha ha, yes, I like that section around 1:47 too as it happens. When I was young I used to mentally catalogue all such events and try to form them into compositions, or at least remember them as future improvisational vocabulary at the conscious level. However, I could rarely capture the power of the first spontaneous event, and the originally vital phrase easily turned into just a hackneyed mannerism. Indeed, it has always seemed to me that the less I think about what I am doing, the less I try, the less I analyse, the better the results. The truth is that most of the time I haven't a clue what harmony I am playing in any theoretical sense. I don't even know the proper names for most chords I use. And yet harmony is the thing people invariably first remark about in both my improvisation and my pieces. I think at my age I would do well not to start thinking about why, and continue to just let it happen.

I bought my Weinbach (about 5' 10" I think) new in 1971 and reduced the action to tatters over thirty years. I had it completely rebuilt in 2005 by a technician and tuner called Jonathan Mason here in Auckland. I mention his name because he is brilliant and I recommend him without hesitation. How pleased I am now that I decided against buying a new piano. 

 

[chopinatic]

Thanks chopinatic, I am glad you like it. Ha ha, yes, I like that section around 1:47 too as it happens. When I was young I used to mentally catalogue all such events and try to form them into compositions, or at least remember them as future improvisational vocabulary at the conscious level. However, I could rarely capture the power of the first spontaneous event, and the originally vital phrase easily turned into just a hackneyed mannerism. Indeed, it has always seemed to me that the less I think about what I am doing, the less I try, the less I analyse, the better the results. The truth is that most of the time I haven't a clue what harmony I am playing in any theoretical sense. I don't even know the proper names for most chords I use. And yet harmony is the thing people invariably first remark about in both my improvisation and my pieces. I think at my age I would do well not to start thinking about why, and continue to just let it happen.

I bought my Weinbach (about 5' 10" I think) new in 1971 and reduced the action to tatters over thirty years. I had it completely rebuilt in 2005 by a technician and tuner called Jonathan Mason here in Auckland. I mention his name because he is brilliant and I recommend him without hesitation. How pleased I am now that I decided against buying a new piano. 

 

I Agree with you when you say the less you think the better the results, ive always found a spontaneous improvisation will always sound better. Maybe the memories that are captured come out in the music Subconsciously, so when  you switch off too much thought your no longer blocking thoes emotions and memories, they are therefor free to come out.

I too dont know what chords i play, then again my improvisations are no where near as good as yours. I find i just hit notes and dont think too much.

[rachfan]

Hi Ted,

This is a marvelous improvisation!  It is extended, so strikes me in the same way as a "larger work" of Schumann or Brahms in terms of scope and complexity.  And you create your improvisations so spontaneously.  I love the romantic sound and the very interesting changes in tonal centers as the piece unfolds.  This is one of your finest ones in my opinion.  Great!

I too worry about the violence of mp3 format, but have found that if I increase the sample rate to about 44,100Hz and a bitrate of 192 kbps, it takes some of the curse off of it.  I stop there though, because when I've experimented with even higher sample rates and bitrates, the music sounds diffused and spaced out to me.  So I enhance without going crazy with it.  I understand and can sympathize with the server limitations of hosting sites like Piano Street, but it would still be grand to able to post WAV or even DSD files!

Thanks for posting this wonderful improv.  

[ted]

Thanks, I am glad it pleases you. I had not consciously thought in terms of changing tonal centres, but yes, that description is probably as good as any. Since my harmony seems all right to most people, and because I haven't the faintest idea, at least deliberately, what is going on, I would probably do well to let sleeping dogs lie. I am very aware that many of my openings are weak and that it takes me at least fifteen minutes to "take off". I suppose that is a lesser evil than the other way around though, which seems much more common. Endings I find more anomalous than problematical; I just don't like stopping at all once ideas are flowing. My teacher used to talk incessantly about the need to "round things off" but I was never very good at it. The difficulty is that there appear to be only a few general ways of ending music and they have all been done to death. The other criticism I have of myself is that, possibly because finger technique has never worried me, my sounds tend to be very "notey" in places. Orchestral effect can be achieved through varied chordal figurations too and I tend to neglect taking that option through habit and a desire for rhythmic impetus.

Improvisation is a very subjective process though, for both player and listener. If it could all be worked out, if I knew exactly where I was going, there would be no surprise and no delight. If I lost the capacity to surprise and delight myself I would rather spend the time in the garden.    

[furtwaengler]

I can identify with this meandering world. I cannot repeat it, but I can feel it's feel...I think I've hit this gear in a different language.

Ah, the recording sounds great. I'd never have guessed the bit rate was so low. I get the full sense in living color. It's always nice hearing you play.

[ted]

Thanks furtwaengler. I relish ineffability, suggestion and mystical elements in my music. I like each idea to be a springboard to the next. I like dynamic, organic forms  rather than static, architectural forms. I like to be constantly surprised and I am ill at ease with any approach which seeks to tie everything up in theories and rules, however ingenious at the intellectual level. I also listen to much music other than piano music, in many idioms, not judging it, but just letting the subconscious take it in and use it later on without my directive.


 

[point of grace]

really romantic...!!

[ted]

We all use the word "romantic" on the assumption that everybody knows what we mean by it. In fact, an unequivocal definition is elusive. In piano music most apply the term to a particular collection of keyboard vocabulary popular in the nineteenth century, but this is too restrictive and misses the wonderful melody writers of the twentieth century. Personally, I prefer to think of the term as a mental state, of creator or listener or both, wherein the mystical and visionary are in control rather than the pragmatic and the logical. But does anyone really want to be pragmatic and logical about piano music anyway ?

[furtwaengler]

I think it was Penderecki I heard recently at a talk before a concert he was conducting, saying about some of his own music "people call it romantic because it sounds good," as opposed to some of his experiments which I guess people don't think sounds good(?) Rather broad...