Another great passes into the beyond

[crfriend]

It was with a sad heart that I heard the news today that Sir Neville Marriner passed at the age of 92.

Founder of "The Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields" a few more ensembles, Sir Neville was one of the foremost interpreters of the historical repertoire of his day, and his legacy lives on not just in his copious catalogue of recordings but also -- and perhaps moreso -- from his understanding that much of the early classical repertoire cannot be faithfully be performed by the Romantic-era orchestras that we take for granted today, but needed to be performed by smaller ensembles with sometimes-different tuning than what we have in the "modern era".

We have lost a grand-master. Thank you Mr. Marriner for your contribution to all of our lives, whether we necessarily recognise them or not. You are remembered -- and fondly.

[Stevie D]

Beautiful summary Carl, thank you.

I too am saddened at Sir Neville's passing. He was truly a great musician and conductor who changed the way we think about and interpret early music. He enriched the lives of many performers and listeners alike.

[skirtyscot]

Well said!

[crfriend]

If nothing else, I am rather passionate about music -- and especially music well done.

[Couya]

You are not alone, Carl.
I too love the baroque and other classical music, and have long been a follower of Sir Nevile.
Also I am thoroughly sick of today,s aggressive binary percussion that we are subjected to so often.

Martin

[Tor]

Thanks for that Carl. I remember him best for the recording of Handel's Messiah that he conducted.

Martin, I couldn't agree more on the excessive percussion. The problem goes back a good ways too. Case in point: The Simon and Garfunkel recording of The Sound of Silence I have from the CD The Best of Simon and Garfunkel. The first part I really like, but then there is a drum kit going through the second part that I dislike enough that more often than not I skip the whole song. I've heard another recording from them (at least I'm quite sure it's Paul Simon, and I certainly thought the two of them) that I liked much better without that drum kit that spoils my recording.

To Sir Neville, RIP, and know that there are other fans of good music out there keeping the light burning.

[crfriend]

I am a bit of a musical omnivore liking may styles with the notable exceptions of jazz and rap (which I usually pronounce with the leading "c"). I find jazz to be either extraordinary or absolute dreck with a strong hysteresis-point at the high end of the scale; rap has no redeeming virtues.

Tor -- Thanks for the memory-tweak of The Sounds of Silence. The original recording of it was the best; it's not a piece that lends itself very well to percussion. Also on that very short list is Bridge Over Troubled Water which is simply exquisite.

My personal favourite styles lean towards baroque (it's very tough to beat the combination of pipe organ and trumpet) although I very much like most of the classical repertoire with the exception of very modern stuff which has so little structure to it it sounds like noise to me. At the other extreme, I do find much modern electronic music remarkably comforting, especially some of the synthesizer and sequencer-driven work; this is down to the very rigid structure lining up with the way my mind sometimes works and the music becomes essentially a "clock-track" that I can use to steer thoughts (this is what I listen to when I'm programming or working on knotty logic problems).

I've got a Marriner performance of Respighi's The Birds that's wonderful, and quite a lot of his vinyl which I can't play at the moment as my turntable and pre-amps are all in deep storage. However, my mind can usually fill in holes here and there as I've head a lot of his performances over the years.

Come to think of it, it's been a bad year or so for classical music; we lost Christopher Hogwood as well not all that long ago...

[Tor]

I'll have to look up that original Sound of Silence recording. That's a song that seems to lend itself best to a near-a capella performance.

I think (from limited listening, mind) that some of the other S&G recordings are better, but I actually went so far as to evict about half the songs on the above mentioned CD from my playlist. Guess that's something to keep in mind to look up.

Most music involving a drum kit is likely to be on the list of things I don't care much for. Something about the highly repetitive drum figures bothers me to the point where if I'm alone even a new to me song is likely to be lucky to get played through. Songs with very short vocal segments (<~5 words) repeated often do it too. While we're on S&G, Mrs. Robinson is a good example of the latter.

On the other hand, I very much like the folk form with a chorus that comes back repeatedly, at least as long as the chorus is a decent length for the number of verses.

I find the opening to the overture of Les Miserables to be one of the finest openings to a musical that I know well. That one has a lot of good songs in it too. Empty Chairs at Empty Tables isn't the best known, but is one of my favourites.

[crfriend]

I'll have to look up that original Sound of Silence recording. That's a song that seems to lend itself best to a near-a capella performance.

If memory serves, the early recordings of it were quite minimal when it came to instruments, perhaps only having the guitars.

[Uncle Al]

In my mind, enjoying music is like enjoying candy.
The first thing you do is through away the 'wrappers'




Uncle Al

[Tor]

[Only guitars] fits my memory of the version I heard and liked.

I've got a few new CDs to rip thanks to a library booksale last week. Several of them highly suspect, but at fifty cents a piece, I'm not risking too much. One I'm sure is good is "a Lammas Ladymass" by Anonymous 4.

[Big and Bashful]

I hadn't heard this version of S of S:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zLfCnGVeL4

I like it without percussion, works rather nicely.

However, I also really like the version by Disturbed but suspect I am in a minority in the Cafe!

[crfriend]

I hadn't heard this version of S of S:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zLfCnGVeL4

That's the one I was referring to. Isn't memory amazing. There's a later one, which is slightly more lush, but which also lacks percussion.

There's also a humourous connection here. Back in the very early 1970s I had access to a rather new musical instrument called an Arp Oddysey and a 4-track tape recorder at the "junior high" school I was attending at the time. The Oddysey was a very nice little synth, but slightly quirky and strictly monophonic (meaning it could only play one note at a time (or two is you used both oscillators but could not vary the pitch-difference). I had a fascination with The Sound of Silence at the time, and had a knack for recording technology and synthesizer setup. This came to a culmination one time when I was banging down a 4-track recording onto two tracks so I could layer in another two thus yielding the six parts I needed for my arrangement. I was working on the thing when the music teacher barged in wondering, "What the Hell is going on here?", and I merely responded, "Coalescing tracks down so I can add another two which haven't been recorded yet." Her jaw went slack but let me finish off the 4-to-2 work and later admitted that it was "remarkable". (I was known for clarinet-playing at the time, had precisely no keyboard training, although a strong interest in electronics.) I still laugh at this when I recall it. I wish I still had the tape....

However, I also really like the version by Disturbed but suspect I am in a minority in the Cafe!

Link?

[Tor]

That's likely the version I heard and liked. I only heard it once, but I'm pretty sure it's at least close. Listening to it I hear it working well with an even sparser accompaniment, or perhaps just a more varied picked guitar rather than the strummed guitar in the later portion.

One song I spent quite a bit of time hunting down that I'd like to arrange so I can play it on my accordion is Thomas Pasatieri's Lullaby for a Lost Child. Whether it can be successfully arranged for accordion and voice I'm not sure. Empty Chairs at Empty Tables I'm sure I can manage, and is another I'm working on. I got a bit derailed when one of my bellows corners fell off, and I still need to repair that.

[Disaffected.citizen]

I hadn't heard this version of S of S:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zLfCnGVeL4

That's the one I was referring to. Isn't memory amazing. There's a later one, which is slightly more lush, but which also lacks percussion.

However, I also really like the version by Disturbed but suspect I am in a minority in the Cafe!

Link?

You're not a minority of one, though. See here.