Post-convention cool down.

September 5, 2008 10:41 AM

Something calming after the frenzied conventions. John Williams and Julian Bream team up to play a guitar duet of Debussy's Claire De Lune.
posted by RussHy (14 comments total)

*Andres Segovia rushes into the cathedral just as the last bars of the piece finishing ringing*

Andres: Guys! Sorry I'm late. The traffic on 95 was unblievable, you guys literally would not have believed it. Anyway, you didn't start without me, did you? Oh, god damn it.
posted by shmegegge at 10:59 AM on September 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

Nice. By the way, it's Clair de Lune (not "Claire"), so you might want to fix the tag in case anyone else looks for it.
posted by languagehat at 11:06 AM on September 5, 2008

Oops. Fixed the tag. Now I have to listen again to regain my mellow...
posted by RussHy at 11:17 AM on September 5, 2008

Nice! But he middle section (where the arpeggios start) needs to be up an octave, however. Wonder why they did it lower. Overall, the voicing senorities don't work as well on acoustic guitars as they do on piano, but that's OK, it's still beautiful.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 11:31 AM on September 5, 2008

Clair de Lune is just pandering to middlebrow tastes. Give me Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune or give me death.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:43 AM on September 5, 2008

Yes, very nice. More of this and less convention-nuttiness, please.

CDL is one of my all-time-favorite classical pieces. Many classical pieces that get over-play in movies, advertisements, et. al. sometimes grate on me for that very reason, yet I always seem to welcome another adaptation of this particular work of art. I thought it was particularly well used in The Game, Ocean's 11, and Man on Fire.
posted by allkindsoftime at 11:48 AM on September 5, 2008

I regret what I said about pandering. It came out in the heat of the moment. I just ... get ... so ... WORKED UP about Debussy.

And don't even get me started on Karol Szymanowski.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:52 AM on September 5, 2008

Give me Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune or give me death.

Seems like Astro Zombie wouldn't mind either Clair de Lune or death.
posted by DU at 12:05 PM on September 5, 2008

*gets Astro Zombie started on Karol Szymanowski*
posted by languagehat at 12:32 PM on September 5, 2008

This cools me down after all that nasty rhetoric. Well it's more of a cold anger, anyway.
posted by Tehanu at 12:39 PM on September 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

King Roger is not performed nearly often enough. I presume people think it's a musical version of King Ralph.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:05 PM on September 5, 2008

Because that is how a guitar is tuned; it's an octave down from standard notation. To play it up an octave would have been very difficult and kind of thin/quiet.
posted by chuckdarwin at 1:19 PM on September 5, 2008

Ah, so that's where that song comes from that's featured in so many movie scenes. Thanks!
posted by furtive at 3:34 PM on September 5, 2008

Since I moved, I can't get Classic Arts Showcase any more.

I MISS YOU, SMORGASBORD OF ARTS!
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 12:23 AM on September 6, 2008