Music Reviews

The Music of Mr Demachy

A recording of works from one of the lesser-known baroque composers in Sonic’s collection:



These are beautiful solo pieces for Bass Viol with 7 strings dating from 1685.

Le Sieur de Machy (we do not know his full name) was a French viol player, composer, and teacher remembered for his Pièces de Violle en Musique et en Tablature (1685).

This recording by Jordi Savall is worth a listen – you can preview the music here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHRLSmGmdH4

If you like the music, go order it online.  Support the making of rare music!

Sonic

The Paetzold Contrabass Recorder

Recorders are usually associated with renaissance and baroque music.  However while the majo0ity of the repertoire for both solo and ensemble recorder music is indeed from those eras, there are also modern works written for recorder.  Sonic has some in my collection played by David Munrow.

A recorder ensemble looks like this:



(Source: Texas Early Music)

Notice the large recorder on the Right.  That is the bass recorder.  Historically all recorders were made as tubes and this has been the design for centuries.

Recently Paetzold of Germany developed recorders with square cross sections. And their bass recorders look like this:



Here is a video by Sarah Jeffery who gives a very animated description and demonstration of these odd looking recorders:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTvSRe-7D4I

Fascinating isn’t it?

Listen to some modern music composed for the contrabass Paetzold recorder:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbUKilNdg40

This is Susanne Froelich performing Oscar Bianchi’s Crepuscolo (2004).

If you listen to this on the tiny speakers of your laptop/iPad, it will be a mess of honking, quacking and clicking noises.  But play it back via your full frequency range music system (preferably Tuned   ) or at least a good pair of headphones plugged into your laptop, you will really hear what the Paetzold can do.

As always, please support the composers and performers of unique music by buying their CDs, LPs, official downloads or attending their concerts if they come to your town.

Sonic

Hi Sonic

Great stuff! That's pretty wild.

The HMV 510 Lumiere Gramophone

We often associate the acoustic playback of 78 rpm records with large horns. Here is something of an alternative approach to horns – the Lumiere Gramophone.

Have a look, route the signal of this youtube clip through your system (preferably Tuned) and enjoy a selection of music of an age past:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbytitIj4gw

Look at that contraption, especially the arm… (if you must rush, Zonees can see more of the arm from 4.00… and more through the video)…but Sonic played this through my system, all 52 minutes of this “Lumiere Broadcast”. You might have to EQ the sound a bit with some lift below 400 hz to make the sound of the gramophone less thin and midrangey (possibly due to the recording equipment being used to make this video -- you can tell this also with the recorded tone of the "DJ's" voice).

Sonic

Robin Gibb’s Odessa

The final album of the first generation Bee Gees as the trio of Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb was the double LP Odessa.



Source: Uncut

The recording of this album was fraught with tension and when the recording sessions were being done, the Bee Gees as a functioning group was over.  The songs on the album were great, some brilliant but with a properly resolving system (Tuned the Michael Green way) you will hear the patchwork of instrumental and vocal tracks laid separately with different spatiality, reverb.  This so the band members could minimize face to face meetings during the making of the album.  Soon after this album’s release in March 1969, Robin quit and the Bee Gees became a duo. They eventually re-formed in two years as the Generation 2 Bee Gees but that is another story.

The title track Odessa is a typically melodramatic piece by Robin.  And two versions exist.

Here is Odessa as it was released: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMuvTZT0PJI

There is also a “demo” version which has far more of Robin Gibb’s creative stamp on it. It is fascinatingly different. Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-DUhJpz9K8

This alternative version again shows the creative tension within the group and partly answers the question of what the Bee Gees might have sounded like if Robin emerged as the dominant creative force of the group instead of Barry.  

For new Zonees, Sonic is a fan of Robin Gibb’s early recorded works and I wrote about his underestimated genius in my post here: https://tuneland.forumotion.com/t397p150-tuning-and-musical-adventures

Sonic

Peter Lang and Macyn Taylor – Extraordinary Acoustic Guitar Players

Peter Lang is one of the greatest fingerstyle guitarists of our time up there with Leo Kottke.

See him making very fine music in this video clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEjsWzynu3M

And from a new generation of guitarists is this young lady: Macyn (pronounced “Mason”) Taylor. Here she is playing Ragamuffin on a Martin D28. Given that Macyn says she was playing without using the pickup on the instrument and that it was just externally miked -- think of the power she is applying to create this sound!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z47_kjnXLsk

In Sonic’s opinion, the Martin D28 is a somewhat formidable guitar to play complex fingerstyle on when unamplified. While I love my HD28 for its deep tone, shimmering treble plus snap and punch, I find the Taylor dreadnoughts to be instruments that are easier to pick up and play. They dance with you and invite you to improvise, encouraging you to take musical chances in a live performance and then helping you get away successfully to audience applause even when you are playing right at the edge of where your skills are about to “clip”.

Sonic

Hello Zonees

Sonic is listening to this album by French jazz singer Camille Bertault. It is "Pas de geant” or “steps of a giant” and there is a song “La out u vas” that uses the tune of John Coltrane’s Giant Steps.



She is really good and her scat singing is excellent.

You can listen to and watch her here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ76xbFWY90

Sonic

Tchaikovsky's Orchestral Suites

Among the most beautiful pieces of music in classical music’s standard repertoire is Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C Major (Op. 48). Sonic has this work paired with Antonin Dvorak’s Serenade for Strings in E Major Op.22 on both FLAC and LP.

I went looking for more of this sort of orchestral music from Pyotr Ilyich that had the same “emotional feel”.

This is what Sonic found and is enjoying:



These are the four Orchestral Suites.  Sir Neville Marriner and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra serve the music well and of the four suites, Nrs 3 and 4 are my favourites.

To give Zonees a taste, here is a link to the Iceland Symphony Orchestra’s performance of the 3rd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AdVa3UIW7E

Sonic