HOME – The music by Armand Amar

Lunatico – Gotan Project

Music using ONLY sounds from Windows XP and 98!

Delicado – Waldir Azevido

Here’s some proof from Decca in 1950! I can see the needle collecting fluff on the 45 RPM record.

Delicado – Oscar de Ellia

Thanks Manuel who commeted on this post – Tango music in motorcycle diaries .

But now I note that the previous blog of the guitar version, is said to be by Waldir Azevedon ???   Anyone know who was the original composer of Delicado?

Delicado (Motorcycle Diaries) – Found it

Thanks to a comment by Manuel Rios who says “Delicado is the name of the tango song by Oscar De Ellia (Argentina)” I have now discovered several versions, this one performed on guitar. Manuel also sent a link which I shall post after this.

Consonance – Dissonance

Consonance
Notes that sound good together when played at the same time are called consonant. Chords built only of consonances sound pleasant and “stable”; you can listen to one for a long time without feeling that the music needs to change to a different chord
Dissonance
Notes that are dissonant can sound harsh or unpleasant when played at the same time. Or they may simply feel “unstable”; if you hear a chord with a dissonance in it, you may feel that the music is pulling you towards the chord that resolves the dissonance.
“An unstable tone combination is a dissonance; its tension demands an onward motion to a stable chord. Thus dissonant chords are ‘active’; traditionally they have been considered harsh and have expressed pain, grief, and conflict.” —Roger Kamien (2008)

Inside the right brain.. a first hand experience

Yesterday marked the fourth Theory W course held at Pakalane in Hout Bay. A video was shown of Dr Jill Bolte Taylor and her astounding story of the stroke she suffered in her left brain.One of the most interesting aspects of her report was that as a brain scientist she was intensely curious about what was happening to her, and tried to recall and document the entire experience. Because her left brain almost completely shut down she was in the position to experience herself and the world from an almost purely right brain perspective.

Click here to see this amazing video.

iPhone arrives in South Africa – first impressions

The iPhone arrived in South Africa, well in Cape Town anyway and being the sucker I am, made the inevitable purchase. Inevitable, yes because it seemed like a step up in technology. At first i wasn’t convinced but I have to admit that its in another league from other cell phones and PDA’s. Actually its unfair to classify the iPhone as a cell phone. I think after using it for 2 days that its more like a laptop minimised !

What”s there to like about it? Well firstly it makes Twitter come alive. (See previous post.) Secondly its’ 3G connection to Gmail is awesome and thirdly it synchs with the iTunes program; no,not just music, but photos, podcasts,contacts,calendar,videos…. and more.

So you get an iPod, a phone,internet that is highly readable and oh yes… a host of apps (applications) that you can download and makes the engine purr. Like WordPress (lets you blog from the iphone with ease), Twittelator (lets you manage Twitter), and an emulation of the 12C HP calculator. Thats all I have had time for so far. But it made me wonder about the philosophy of Apple, who have for so many years have demonstrated not only creativity, but its’ application – innovation - in their range of products. I think in further posts it may be worth exploring the mind of Steve Jobs. Stay tuned…

Motorcycle Diaries – You Tube – Tango Dance

Following the story from the previous post the following You Tube video shows the dance on 3.11 of the 5 min 33 sec insert.

Tango Music in Motorcycle Diaries…… creating possibilities

Ever hear music too beautiful for words, only to find there’s no trace of it on iTunes, Amazon or anywhere on the web ??

The movie Motorcycle Diaries has a short Tango, (probably a Milonga) where Alberto Granado (Roberto De la Serna) dances with Mia Maestro to a hauntingly stunning piece of piano music. Its not on the soundtrack for some reason and countless Google searches failed to uncover the music, its score or tabs. While watching the movie with a friend I made the remark that I was sufficiently passionate over the piece of music, that if I could track it down, it would move me to teach myself the piano, and naturally it would be the first thing I would play. Tipper, who is always up for a challenge decided she would find it to test my declaration of intent.

Well its a long story from there but last night Tipper presented me with the score of the Tango music from Motorcycle Diaries and here it is.

motorcycle diaries tango – the sheet music

How did she find it?

Well she made me wait a long time before she revealed the answer to that. First she sent me six bars from the score. I think she was testing me ! naturally in my excitement I rushed out, bought a keyboard, and painfully taught myself to play the first 6 bars not knowing how to read music. Then last night she presented me with the rest of the score.

What she had done after realising it was imposible to find, was to find a composer (Matthijs van Dijk) who, off the DVD, and note by note transcribed the music to paper and this is a copy of the score. Not satisfied with the score alone, Tipper then recruited a colleague to play the piece, and record it.

Its a story of creating possibilities, of someone being determined to find a piece of music to the extent she created it by having it transcribed. Its a pure example of an “I can” approach to life. Incidentally the composer said it took him 6 hours to transcribe the first 40 seconds of the music !

In a later post I will post the music played by Tipper’s colleague and I will also find the video of the dance.. and post that. Watch this space…..

Why sad and angry children become accountants

Ewen Callaway

Did you live a coddled childhood filled with unbridled playtime and few reminders of the harsh real world? You might have been dumber as a result.

Children coaxed into a jovial mood performed worse on a simple test of geometric shape recognition than kids put in a dourer mood, report Simone Schnall, of the University of Plymouth, UK and colleagues in a recent issue of Developmental Science.

You may wonder whether these psychologists hate happy kids or just fun, but their conclusion is supported by other research. For instance, adults in good spirits do worse than sad adults on similar tests.

To uncover the same effect in children, the researchers, thankfully, didn’t resort to insults or mind-altering drugs.

Instead they played one of two classical tunes to 10- and 11-year olds. Fifteen kids heard Mozart’s jolly ditty Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, while the other 15 had to suffer through Mahler’s doleful Adagietto. Previous research suggested these songs put kids in happy and sad moods, respectively, and Schnall’s team confirmed that by surveying the kids.

While listening to the tunes the children played a game where they hunted for a specific geometric shape – a triangle joined to a rectangle, for instance – within a picture. The merry Mozart kids took noticeably longer finding the shapes than the children who were forced to listen to Mahler.

Not content with proving that happy pre-teens are daft, the researchers aimed their hypothesis at 61 six and seven-year olds. Instead of hearing classical music, the kids watched three movie scenes.

One, from Disney’s Jungle Book, features the singing and dancing of an ebullient bear. A neutral scene from The Last Unicorn shows a knight reaching a castle. The sad scene comes from The Lion King, another Disney cartoon. Even this reporter, who watched the movie as a teen, shed a tear when Simba mourns his father’s death.

Miguel Zenón – 2008 MacArthur Fellows

Miguel Zenón is a young jazz musician who is expanding the boundaries of Latin and jazz music through his elegant and innovative musical collages. As both a saxophonist and a composer, Zenón demonstrates an astonishing mastery of old and new jazz idioms, from Afro-Caribbean and Latin American rhythmical concepts to free and avant-garde jazz. Beginning with his 2001 recording Looking Forward, Zenón has exhibited a high degree of daring and sophistication in the manipulation of conventional jazz forms. His third album, Jíbaro (2005), illuminates his intense engagement with the indigenous music of his native Puerto Rico. Forgoing the Afro-Caribbean sound that characterizes most Latin jazz, Zenón was inspired by la música jíbara – string-based folkloric music popular in the Puerto Rican countryside. Unlike other attempts to fuse jazz and jíbaro, which have retained the traditional instrumentation with little harmonic variation, in Zenón’s hands the essential elements of jíbaro serve as the compositional and rhythmic underpinning of his contemporary jazz arrangements. The result is a complex yet accessible sound that is overflowing with feeling and passion and maintains the integrity of the island’s music. This young musician and composer is at once reestablishing the artistic, cultural, and social tradition of jazz while creating an entirely new jazz language for the 21st century.

Miguel Zenón received a B.A. (1998) from the Berklee College of Music and an M.A. (2001) from the Manhattan School of Music. His additional recordings include Ceremonial (2004) and Awake (2008). He has performed at venues and in festivals throughout the United States and abroad, including the Jazz Standard, the Village Vanguard, and Carnegie Hall.

Leila Josefowicz – 2008 MacArthur Fellows

Leila Josefowicz is a young violinist who is captivating audiences with her technically precise and emotionally resonant performances of both traditional and contemporary works. Since her Carnegie Hall debut at the age of sixteen, Josefowicz has blossomed into one of today’s preeminent soloists, performing around the globe with the world’s most prestigious orchestras and conductors. Her recent recording of Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and Violin Sonata (2006) features eloquent interpretations of these haunting and sorrowful pieces, written in Stalinist Russia. Not content to simply master the standard repertoire of Mendelssohn, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky, Josefowicz is stretching the mold of the classical violinist in her passionate advocacy of contemporary composers and their work. She is a close and regular collaborator with the leading composers of the day, often premiering their new compositions. Through her performances, recordings, and recital programs, she introduces traditional, classical music audiences to noteworthy new works, illustrating the excitement and beauty that emanates from the juxtaposition of the avant-garde and eclectic with the more traditional. Josefowicz’s genuine commitment to the music of today, coupled with her keen musical intelligence and virtuosity, is inspiring new compositions for the violin and significantly broadening the instrument’s repertoire.

Leila Josefowicz received a B.Mus. (1997) from the Curtis Institute of Music. She has performed with orchestras throughout the United States and internationally, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the London Symphony.

Walter Kitundu – 2008 MacArthur Fellows

Walter Kitundu is a young sound artist and inventor of original musical instruments that navigate the boundary between live and recorded performance. Inspired by hip-hop, other modern musical forms, and traditional Asian and African instruments, Kitundu’s phonoharps are hybrids of turntables and stringed instruments. At once highly sculptural art objects and functional instruments, the phonoharps offer a wide range of melodic possibilities and are surprisingly versatile in performance. The turntable’s pickup collects and amplifies any sound transmitted to it, allowing the performer to employ percussion and string resonance as well as digital manipulation, or sampling, of prerecorded material. Kitundu takes full advantage of the phonoharp’s flexibility in electro-acoustic compositions that seamlessly incorporate experimental, jazz, and pop music influences. Many of Kitundu’s artistic pursuits, including ambitious proposals for public installations of his instruments, reflect his ongoing interest in the interaction between technology and the natural world. His elemental phonoharps, for example, draw on natural forces such as wind, waves, light, and the movement of birds to produce unique sound sculptures. An experimental instrument builder, composer, and musician, Kitundu’s interdisciplinary approach to music-making and performance is inspiring a wide range of musicians and audiences.

Walter Kitundu has been affiliated with the Exploratorium Museum of Science, Art, and Human Perception since 2003, where he is currently a multimedia artist. In 2008, he is the Wornick Distinguished Visiting Professor of Wood Arts at the California College of the Arts and artist-in-residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts. His work has been exhibited and performed at such national and international venues as the Singapore Arts Centre, the Gunnar Gunnarsson Institute, Iceland, the Walker Art Center, and the Museum of Craft and Folk Art. He has also created instruments for and performed with the Kronos Quartet at several venues across the U.S.

Alex Ross – 2008 MacArthur Fellows

Alex Ross is a critic whose
writing captures the often-elusive aesthetic and technical aspects of
classical and contemporary music with clarity, grace, and wit. A staff
writer for the New Yorker, his frequent essays display an
expansive knowledge of music and a facility for guiding his readers,
who range from professional musicians to scholars to the general public
alike, to a richer experience of the complex pieces and artists he
explores. With a finely tuned grasp of a full spectrum of styles, he
places works by a broad variety of artists – from Mozart to Schoenberg
to Bob Dylan – within a continuum and sets aside categories and
classifications that impede the appreciation of works on their own
terms. In each article, Ross strives to demonstrate how a specific
piece of music, be it centuries or months old, conveys meaning and
feeling in the present. In addition to his work in essay form, he
recently published the book The Rest Is Noise (2007), a
cultural history of 20th-century music that journeys through pre-World
War I Vienna, Paris of the 1920s, Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia,
and New York of the 1960s and 1970s. Through a widely read blog of the
same title (www.therestisnoise.com),
he further expands the reach of his interpretive skills and enthusiasm
for championing overlooked composers and out-of-the-way ensembles. In
an era when many proclaim the imminent demise of concert halls due to
waning attendance, Ross offers both highly specialized and casual
readers new ways of thinking about the music of the past and its place
in our future.

Alex Ross received a B.A. (1990) from Harvard University. He has been the music critic for the New Yorker since 1996 and served previously as a music critic for the New York Times (1992-1996). His writing has also appeared in the New Republic, Slate, Lingua Franca, and the London Review of Books.

Out of the blue – $500,000 – No strings for creativity

CHICAGO, Sept. 23

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation today named 25 new MacArthur Fellows for 2008. This past week, the recipients learned in a single phone call from the Foundation that they will each receive $500,000 in “no strings attached” support over the next five years. All were selected for their creativity, originality, and potential to make important contributions in the future.

“The MacArthur Fellows Program celebrates extraordinarily creative individuals who inspire new heights in human achievement,” said MacArthur President Jonathan Fanton. “With their boldness, courage and uncommon energy, this new group of Fellows — men and women of all ages in diverse fields — exemplifies the boundless nature of the human mind and spirit.”  Recipients this year include: — an astronomer designing experiments and devices to advance understanding of the geometry of the universe and the story of both its beginning and its end (Adam Riess); — a neuroscientist tracing the natural interactions of differentiating neurons, bringing us closer to developing effective methods for treating central nervous system damage (Sally Temple); — a novelist inspired by events in her native Nigeria, exploring the circumstances that lead to ethnic conflict (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie); — an inventor of new musical instruments that transform and transcend the musical experience and navigate the boundaries between live and recorded sound (Walter Kitundu); — an urban farmer bringing low-cost technology to the cultivation, production and delivery of healthy foods to underserved urban populations here and abroad (Will Allen); — a geriatrician transforming treatment for millions suffering from painful life-threatening and end-of-life illness into more humane and effective care (Diane Meier); — an optical physicist demonstrating that power can be transmitted wirelessly, opening the door to the possibility of a range of devices operating free of traditional power sources (Marin Soljacic); — a saxophonist drawing from a variety of jazz idioms and the music of his native Puerto Rico to create complex, accessible sounds overflowing with passion (Miguel Zenon); — a critical care physician devising life-saving, clinical practices to improve patient safety in hospitals and to spare countless lives from deadly human error (Peter Pronovost); — a structural engineer restoring cathedrals and castles of the distant past and identifying ancient technologies for use in contemporary construction (John Ochsendorf); — a stage lighting designer pushing the visible boundaries of her art form with painterly lighting evoking mood and sculpting movement in dance, drama and opera (Jennifer Tipton); — an anthropologist illuminating the intellectual and emotional life of ancient Mesoamerican peoples through insightful interpretations of hieroglyphic inscriptions and figural art (Stephen Houston).

Bobby McFerrin and Jacques Loussier play Bach

Its late Friday night and I’m trawling through videos of songs I grew up with as a teenager. Wishbone Ash, Pat Methany, Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd and the amazing John Mayall doing Room to Move on the harmonica. Strange to put images to music one knew so well! And then as I got into the 80’s I came accross Jacques Loussier playing with Bobby Mc Ferrin. Its classic Bach yet how many of us would recognise it…  Try this by clicking the title above to better centre the video.

Mozart refreshes part of the brain others composers cannot

Rachel Thomas
The connection between mathematics and music has always found fertile ground in the work of Mozart. Many scholars have analysed the mathematical nature of his music, for example investigating if he used formulae like the golden ratio to decide how to section his movements. It has even been suggested that there is a “Mozart effect” – that listening to pieces by this composer can help students concentrate or even improve their test scores!

This effect has been a subject of much debate in the scientific community, but regardless of whether the theory can be proved, students at Windhill Primary School in Southern Yorkshire appear to be benefitting from the Mozart treatment.

The school is part of a one-year pilot program to investigate the effect of listening to music on the students’ overall educational experience. And it is not just Mozart that is on the play list. Chopin and Brahms are used for assemblies, Beethoven is played for its calming effects and even pop music such as the Mission Impossible theme or a tune from Kylie are suitable for more active moments.

However it is Mozart that seems to be particularly suitable for accompanying maths lessons. In one experiment, the pupils from a Year 6 class which listened to the composer performed 10% better than those taught without. “We have found that Mozart symphonies which have complicated note patterns stimulate mathematical thinking,” the head teacher Doulla Simon said. “The music reaches certain parts of the brain which other composers do not.”

So perhaps Mozart is music to a maths student’s ears after all!

The magical mathematics of music

by Jeffrey S. Rosenthal

The astronomer Galileo Galilei observed in 1623 that the entire universe “is written in the language of mathematics”, and indeed it is remarkable the extent to which science and society are governed by mathematical ideas. It is perhaps even more surprising that music, with all its passion and emotion, is also based upon mathematical relationships. Such musical notions as octaves, chords, scales, and keys can all be demystified and understood logically using simple mathematics.

Can we make music from a mathematical formula?

Daniel White

With chess, one could get a computer to analyse a particular position for the best possible move/s. There isn’t any ‘easy’ formula – it has to laboriously go through every single possible move branch to see which the best possible continuation is, so it’s (more or less) effectively doing what a human does, but faster.
Now music, is a million times more complex than this – because each new section that is ‘calculated’ (if such a thing could be done), would have to be cross-checked with every part of the tune that has just gone by.
Any possible program to create good music would probably be made up of many sub formulas (one dedicated to the melody, one for the harmony, rhythm etc. etc.) – each eventually combining and ‘growing’ music in some way to create the final piece. I believe if you start off with even a slightly different ’seed’ of music, the best possible continuation would continue vastly different and unexpectedly.

Is Zander taking advantage of Beethoven’s deafness?

PRIVATE PASSIONS OF BENJAMIN ZANDER

World Link

The magazine of the World Economic Forum

For the past 30 years, Ben Zander, Conductor, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, has been waging a one man war against the Romantic treatment of Beethoven. Here he tells Charles Darwent what has driven his approach to the German maestro

The guests at the London Radisson have never seen anything like it. An elegant, bushy-haired man is dancing around the breakfast bar shouting, “This is what a marche funèbre is like! Half steps! Half steps! Like this! So the one in the Eroica should go da-da-DEE-da, da-da-DEE-da, not DEE-da-da-da, DEE-da-da-da.” Fellow diners avoid his eye and call pleadingly for their bills.

Where Math meets Music – Joseph Heimiller

Where Math meets Music

Ever wonder why some note combinations sound pleasing to our ears, while others make us cringe? To understand the answer to this question, you’ll first need to understand the wave patterns created by a musical instrument. When you pluck a string on a guitar, it vibrates back and forth. This causes mechanical energy to travel through the air, in waves. The number of times per second these waves hit our ear is called the ‘frequency’. This is measured in Hertz (abbreviated Hz). The more waves per second the higher the pitch. For instance, the A note below middle C is at 220 Hz. Middle C is at about 262 Hz.

Now, to understand why some note combinations sound better, let’s first look at the wave patterns of 2 notes that sound good together. Let’s use middle C and the G just above it as an example:

Now let’s look at two notes that sound terrible together, C and F#:

Do you notice the difference between these two? Why is the first ‘consonant’ and the second ‘dissonant’? Notice how in the first graphic there is a repeating pattern: every 3^rd wave of the G matches up with every 2^nd wave of the C (and in the second graphic how there is no pattern). This is the secret for creating pleasing sounding note combinations: Frequencies that match up at regular intervals

Milonga triste

Now here is some of the most creative work of music ever produced. Yes, its tango and I selected a You Tube video where the dance wasn’t completely in the dark.  Its very visible, the woman’s white stockinged legs celebrate the fluidity and subtleness of the Argentine tango. It is also the opening track of “The Tango Lesson” a movie starring and directed by Sally Potter. On a later track Sally Potter provides the lyrics and vocals to the same tune of Milonga Triste in a tune called “I am You”. She uses the the bandeleon and Yo-Yo Ma on cello. I’ll post that later for comparison, but for now, if you haven’t heard this music of Milonga Triste….enjoy

COMPOSED BY: SEBASTIÁN PIANA & HOMERO MANZI

PERFORMED BY: HUGO DÍAZ Y SU CONJUNTO

DOUBLE-BASS: OMAR MURTAGH

GUITAR: ROBERTO GRELA

PIANO: JOSÉ LEONARDO COLANGELO

HAMONICA: HUGO DÍAZ

RECORDED IN BUENOS AIRES, IN 1972.

Cape Town Philharmonic – hearing seven voices

Yesterday saw the Cape Town Philharmonic orchestra perform under the conductor Ben Zander. A rather glum faced group without shining eyes looked a bit as if they had heard it all before, as Zander ran a commentary on clasical music using the orchestra to demonstrate his point. The music however spoke more than the faces. Playing Beethoven’s 5th Zander brought in parts of the orchestra in stages, each one a voice he asked the audience to hold on to. First the Cellos, then the double bass, then the violas, the bassoon, the clarinet, and the violins. Seven distinct instruments or voices deomposed and then together. Final rehearsal for Beethoven’s 9th on Wednesday night at the City hall. Should be worth it.

Gustavo Santaolalla – De Usuahia a la Quiaca

I’ll come back to tango many times in this blog but right now I want to open up the channels to some other  music that rocks my boat (read inspires). This is from The Motorcycle diaries and is another Argentine musician and composer Gustavo Santaolalla who wrote the music and in this video is playing the Charango

The charango is usually made with a dried armadillo shell for the back and wood for the soundbox top, neck etc, today charangos are commonly made of wood, with a bowled back imitating the shape of the armadillo shell. Unlike most wooden lutes, the body and neck are typically made of a single block of wood, carved into shape. The charango’s ten strings require quite a large headstock, often approaching or even exceeding the size of its diminutive sound box. Aside from these visual distinctions, it resembles a small ukelele.