VIDEO: Prelude in C Major BWV 846 by J.S. Bach as block chords

[michael_sayers]

p.s. to my latest post here - Classical music hasn't bottomed out totally yet.  There will be more financial problems with orchestras, and also with educational institutions, and some real collapses . . . it will need to totally bottom out and get cleaned out before the resurgence really can happen with new "owners" of the music and on a new basis as a Phoenix rising from the ashes.  And in our times of international and domestic economic and monetary malaise and chaos, this bottoming out is sure to happen.  This would be a subject for another thread, and probably at an economics or business forum.

[themeandvariation]

"on the Jacques Loussier jazz Bach arrangement link." …….
Yes, and I would argue that his treatment of Bach now falls under the category of jazz..  and the predominant model there of the freedom afforded when doing ''standards"…. And perhaps your approach, Michael, is more akin to this aesthetic… Using the composition as a lead sheet (w/o tempo markings).  Yet, where the idea of good taste (subjective) does  play a role in assessing the 'rendition' in question.  Perhaps much of the romantic compositions (and much classical as well) can be reduced to a lead sheet format… where an ax or a scalpel could be employed...
Maybe we just need another category of definition for classical music, where the interpreter is using the score  more perhaps as a lead sheet…. but I am not sure how one would apply this with polyphonic pieces, unless to just ignore the polyphony… Of course, many classical composers have done arrangements of others' music, (Ravel, Webern, Schoenberg, Stokowski to name some of the more recent)  but their notation is quite specific … and is not in the same category (to my mind) as the subject at hand…
I now name the new category, (however cumbersome), "the Classical Lead Sheet" approach, whose sign at the door is "enter with caution; throw caution to the wind"
Cheers!

[michael_sayers]

Hi themeandvariation,

That is an excellent idea.  I can't think of any better way to describe it.  And - much to perfect_pitch's chagrin - classical music used to be done in a way that is similar to how jazz is done today.  The piano parts of the Mozart piano concertos really are just "lead sheets" of a sort, according to accounts of Mozart playing them.  And with Beethoven's 4th piano concerto, this was performed by Beethoven differently each time but the publisher said that that only one version could be published.  And so it goes . . . on and on . . . the musical leaders of the past using lead sheets . . . 


Mvh,
Michael

[alistaircrane4]

You're the one who needs to make sense. "WE NEED TO STOP HIM FROM DOING THIS"

If you're not interested in his take on music then leave him be. Stop listening to him.  Not everyone in this world needs to cater to your damn interests.

By the way, taking everything at face-value doesn't make you smart. You annoying, inbred, egocentric, half-wit.

By you quoting me it sounds like you're the one taking things at face value. Go play your one Mazurka. Casual.

[perfect_pitch]

The economics of it and the need for other than what is being expressed through classical music in the era we were born in, these things and many free spirits all together will clear the path to the triumphant return to public greatness for classical music.  

I weep for that day.

[stoat_king]

This thread has got me thinking.
I am especially fond of Chopin's waltzes, well most of them anyway.
Beautifully written, deftly elegant and of a light delicacy that borders on the exquisite.

But there's a problem. The waltz itself is rather dead as a dance form.
Sure, Chopin cant possibly be blamed for this; nonetheless, Father Time has really taken a bat to the waltz.

So I got to thinking - could there be a modern dance form that might add to these wonderful pieces?
Why yes there is. Dubstep.

So while you are waiting for my arrangement of the "Dubstep Minute Waltz", may I offer this as a taster of the wonders about to be revealed:

[8_octaves]

This thread has got me thinking.
I am especially fond of Chopin's waltzes, well most of them anyway.
Beautifully written, deftly elegant and of a light delicacy that borders on the exquisite.

But there's a problem. The waltz itself is rather dead as a dance form.
Sure, Chopin cant possibly be blamed for this; nonetheless, Father Time has really taken a bat to the waltz.
[...]

Hi stoat_king,

I think, when attending dance-school, one even today will have to face the Waltz, in different shapes. I never, of course, have attended dance-school, because, I won't have been able to properly invite a girl to dance - but that's really important at dance schools. Instead, I would only say to her: "Play up! Dance with me! Now!"   - and of course I would be rejected.-

As we may know, Chopin was of the opinion, that some waltzes (or / and mazurkas) "aren't for dancing". And somebody wrote (was it Schumann?) that "only comtessas are able to dance them properly!"

(I don't think so, because I can imagine that at least some waltzes of Chopin can be danced well, if one knows about waltz-dancing (which I, as I mentioned, don't). )

As "dead" dance-forms are mentioned, there are others, which aren't even taught anymore at dance-schools, I think. For example, I cannot imagine too well, for example, somebody entering a disco, expecting hard rock, metal, or hiphop to be played and danced to, but then, instead, faces the fact, that the DJ gives "Menuets", "Sarabandes", or "Allemandes" to the modern disco-guests.  

On big festivities of traditional touch and value (e.g. the famous "Wiener Opernball"), waltzes are very important today, too, and Polonaises, e.g., too.

Cordially, 8_octaves!

[j_menz]

Why yes there is. Dubstep.

So while you are waiting for my arrangement of the "Dubstep Minute Waltz",

Hmm...  apparently 9 ain't enough...

[mjames]

By you quoting me it sounds like you're the one taking things at face value. Go play your one Mazurka. Casual.

What? Woopdeedoodadoo, you've been playing the piano longer than I have. Yeah I'll keep studying Chopin, Bach, Mozart, Liszt and all the other popular composers. I don't mind. When I study piano it's for my own sake and enjoyment. I'll keep playing the mazurka because it's a wonderful work.
Not only do you suck at pretending to be smart but you also suck at being an elitist. All those years of hard work with the piano and you still amount to nothing. First time someone has made fun of me for studying a mazurka.