Tomita : Reverie (after Debussy)

I will leave it up to each of you to decide whether this is how Beethoven would have wanted it to be if he was a 21st Century composer – I sort of suspect there will be a mixed response to that

Moonlight Sonata (after Beethoven!)

This was partly triggered by listening to an “interesting” rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at the CPAC conference in Orlando over the weekend. Not surprisingly this has resulted in a number of YouTube “tributes” – but one that caught my ear was done by a music producer who, to quote his own video title, “heroically fixed botched anthem”.

If you are sceptical or unfamiliar with what can be done using technology to ‘improve’ performances I suggest you listen to both the original and the ‘fixed’ version. Links in the comments below.

It got me thinking about who the technology has changed in my lifetime and I was going to share some “Switched on Bach” – however that seems to be absolutely banned online for copyright reasons – so, instead here is a BBC interview where the technology is explained. There will then be a second, bonus, post tonight illustrating what can be done now (using a rather smaller bit of kit!!!)

Wendy Carlos : Moog Synthesizer

Comments :

George R McConnell

This is the original version of the National Anthem

George R McConnell

The ‘fixed’ version

I didn’t keep a record of what was played at each of the courses so this choice may not be from that year – and this is certainly not the version we played – but I couldn’t find the concert band version online.

At the time this was a very famous pop song – one of the earliest which was almost entirely synthesizer music – that has come a long way since 1976!! The reason I remember this in particular from the military band course is that it was (I think) the first time I ever played the glockenspiel.

The arrangement used had a lot of notes for glock, including the melody throughout most of the piece, and none of the students on percussion were willing to risk their career on it – so I volunteered. Like much of my glock playing since I suspect that I got about 80% of the right notes in the right order – but nobody usually notices the difference.

Anyway this is a bit of a fun choice….

Gershon Kingsley : Popcorn

Comments :

George R McConnell

Here is a pic of some of the members of the Glasgow School’s Military Band to go along with today’s music post – again not quite sure what year this was (perhaps you can help Jon?) It is taken outside of my old school – well remember lining up there in our classes for my first day – several years before this pic was taken

George R McConnell

If one version wasn’t enough – here is another one just for laughs