Not Exactly Folk But...

Subject: Not Exactly Folk But...
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 12:51 AM

Technically, this is not folk music but it's some pretty impressive playing.

Not impressed? Try this one.

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: Not Exactly Folk But...
From: Helen
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 02:55 AM

Brilliant!

Subject: RE: Not Exactly Folk But...
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 04:10 AM

Brilliant but pointless.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Not Exactly Folk But...
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 06:23 AM

Incredible. i wonder if there's a medical term for it.

I supppose being that weird is marginally better than being the elephant man. Not sure about it not being folk. I can think of some folk clubs were it would just blend in.

Subject: RE: Not Exactly Folk But...
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 12:35 PM

Why pointless?

Is there any more point in playing the same tune on a pipe-organ, a grand piano or a guitar? In both videos, the players were skilful and entertaining. What more do you want?


DC

Subject: RE: Not Exactly Folk But...
From: olddude
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 12:52 PM

I love it

Subject: RE: Not Exactly Folk But...
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 01:17 PM

Thanks for the clip, led me to this sublime clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGftsRH7A2w&feature=relmfu

Subject: RE: Not Exactly Folk But...
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 01:21 PM

Absolutely brilliant, of course it's folk - played by folk for folk!!!

Subject: RE: Not Exactly Folk But...
From: Don Firth
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 02:04 PM

Thanks for posting those links, Bev and Jerry. Great stuff!

(Bev and Jerry. Don't you folks make ice cream or something?)

"Pointless" schmointless!!

The dancers on the big keyboard and the person playing the glass harp had to really know what they were doing to have done what they did. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, played with complete harmonies and voices the way these folks were doing, is not something you can casually pick out on your ukulele! It's a complex piece of music on several levels.

When I was attending the Cornish College of the Arts (a conservatory here in Seattle), one of my professors took the class out to a big church where he played the organ for services on Sundays. We stood around the console while Prof. Cowell demonstrated the various manuals and the many stops. We had banks of pipes to the right of us and to the left of us, some not much bigger than a guitar 440-A pitch pipe, on up to tree trunk size (Rumble Rumble!)!

After he had gone through the demonstration, he launched into the Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Standing there surrounded by pipes, it was one humongous sound, reinforced by the reverberation within the large cathedral.

When he finished the piece (big!), Prof. Cowell commented that, "while playing the music of God on Sundays, with all that power at his fingertips, it's easy for an organist to forget who is who!!"

In the opera "Lucia di Lammermoor," in Lucia's mad scene, the soprano is usually accompanied by a flute (along with the whole orchestra, of course, but with the flute playing a harmony line with Lucia's voice). In at least one performance, instead of a flute they used a glass harp. Eerie!! Very effective, but not done that way very often because people who can play one are few and far between.

(Trivia for today.)

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Not Exactly Folk But...
From: GUEST,999
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 02:05 PM

I'm curious. The keys are ivory. HOW did the get it through customs?

Subject: RE: Not Exactly Folk But...
From: goatfell
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 02:09 PM

good tune I like it

Subject: RE: Not Exactly Folk But...
From: MikeL2
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 02:18 PM

hi

Very entertaining and requires some high level of musical knowledge.

As to whether it is folk.......does it really matter??

I guess had the guy playing the glass harp been playing it on spoons it would have been folk...???? !!

Cheers

Mikel2

Subject: Did you notice...
From: Crowhugger
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 04:08 PM

I found it weird that the first 3 expressions of the opening motif, while each was visually an octave lower on the keyboard, all sounded in exactly the same register. Then after the 3rd motif, as an arpeggio went up the keyboard, the notes that had been the same pitches as the lowest were now one and two octaves higher. But then, the middle register that sounded middle only during the arpeggio, reverted to same-as-lower register when the two were playing together. That's where I stopped watching, so I could ask if anyone else noticed this?

Subject: RE: Not Exactly Folk But...
From: fat B****rd
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 04:32 PM

er...........no. I just liked it.

Subject: RE: Not Exactly Folk But...
From: Tootler
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 04:41 PM

Here is the Bach Toccata and Fugue played on a piano accordion.

Subject: RE: Not Exactly Folk But...
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 04:57 PM

Not exactly nuclear, either. and not quite submicroscopic......wotinhell are words for?

Subject: RE: Not Exactly Folk But...
From: TheSnail
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 07:21 PM

Crowhugger

I found it weird that the first 3 expressions of the opening motif, while each was visually an octave lower on the keyboard, all sounded in exactly the same register. .... I could ask if anyone else noticed this?

It wasn't till I was showing it to a friend that I noticed that. I don't think they were playing the music, just dancing to it and turning the lights on by hitting the keys. There were a few other points where what was coming out was a bit more complicated than their footwork.

I felt a bit cheated.

Subject: RE: Not Exactly Folk But...
From: Crowhugger
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 08:39 PM

At the second link, no apparent faking there: The glass "harp" guy has a real knack, to be able to get the glasses ringing so quickly.

Drift: The same principle of vibrating the rim of a vessel was recently introduced as a playing technique in the handbell world. Those bells being made of corrodable metal, it's not wet fingers but dry, unfinished 1.25" dowel, held parallel to the handle and firmly run around the rim to make the bell "sing". Nope, not exactly folk, but...

Subject: RE: Not Exactly Folk But...
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 09:51 PM

very nice, but not remotely folk. Didn't Benjsmin Franklin invent the Glass Harmonica(or harp?)

Subject: RE: Not Exactly Folk But...
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 17 Sep 11 - 03:16 AM

would that be the mechanical one with the rotating glass wheels? The Science Museum in London used to have one.