MetaFilter posts tagged with piano

Speaking Piano

Burhanistan — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:32:01 -0800

The Speaking Piano, and Transforming Audio to MIDI - Austrian Composer Peter Ablinger has transformed a child speaking so that it can be played as MIDI events on a mechanically-controlled piano, making the piano a kind of speech speaker.

You've Been Ragrolled!

FfejL — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:26:06 -0800

Classic 80s hits interpreted for ragtime piano. (SLYT)

It's a concerto with a cat. So it's a CATcerto.

jbickers — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 09:15:25 -0800

Mindaugas Piečaitis has performed his "CATcerto," an original score written to accompany Nora The Piano Cat's piano improvisation. Here's the video of kitty with orchestra. Please don't show it to Uter the weiner dog. It'd make him feel terrible.

Le Earworme.

lazaruslong — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:06:02 -0800

Emily Loizeau's Je Suis Jalouse was for me the kind of song that immediately makes you want more. Emily's debut album L'autre bout du monde (The Other Side of the World) was released in 2006. She began studying piano at the age of 5, and cites Georges Brassens, Bob Dylan, and The Beatles as her primary influences. Listen to more wonderfulness with Sister, Je Ne Sais Pas Choisir, or the title track from her debut album. More listening if you are at last.fm

Light-Paint Piano Player

DaDaDaDave — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:12:11 -0800

Light-paint Piano Player, a short video by Ryan Cashman. (SLVimeo) (Via this small anthology of videos, which would have been the main link if so many of the best ones hadn't already appeared on the blue. Also: previously featured light painting.)

Kathleen Supove rocks

fcummins — Sat, 23 May 2009 11:56:52 -0800

Kathleen Supove, pianist extraordinaire. [via] The first performance in the second link is live piano accompaniment to a bizarre slice-and-dice remix of gym/infomercial patter. Also, on MySpace, and an interview.

It takes a lot to be always on form

cashman — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:51:21 -0800

Imogen Heap (previously video) has been having loads of fun recording her newest record, Ellipse. She's putting up half hour long sessions of her playing piano, having album art contests, and losing her keys. Oh and beatboxing.

Twenty-seven hours of Solo Piano

tapeguy — Sun, 17 May 2009 13:08:52 -0800

Pianist, producer, and songwriter Gonzales (real name Jason Charles Beck) is currently attempting to break the Guinness World Record for the longest solo concert. He's aiming for 27 hours, and at time of writing has around six hours left to go. You can follow the attempt live online. The record is currently held by India's Prasanna Gudi for his 26 hours and 12 minutes sitar recital. Here's where Gonzales explains his motivation for his attempt.

probably my heart

washburn — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:58:48 -0800

"Maybe, just maybe, we've found the next Mozart." Not just a six year old virtuoso, but a composer as well, Emily Bear seems likely to keep us listening longer than most precocious child pianists. As one tv talk show host has learned, as a composer Emily is both speedy and prolific.

Mario's Music Sight-Read

knave — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:19:04 -0800

Fans of video game music and/or piano aficionados, I present three pieces from the Super Mario Bros series: Super Mario World's Air Platform rag, SMB2 overworld theme, and SMB1 overworld theme, expertly played "blind" by ragtime pianist Tom Brier. According to the video descriptions, Tom doesn't play video games and hasn't heard any of these tunes before. If you're a ragtime enthusiast, you can see more of his playing in Keeper1st's video stream. His ability to sight-read ragtime is mind-blowing. I don't know these guys, but I've found myself watching these videos over and over, and decided more people should see them. Hopefully the attention isn't unwanted, but either way, please go easy on the snark (I know, it's a lot to ask).

The Music According to Lafayette Gilchrist

box — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:06:29 -0800

Lafayette Gilchrist is one of my favorite piano players. Featured on a Down Beat cover a few months ago (with Vijay Iyer and Jason Moran), he has released a half-dozen or so albums with his group, New Volcanoes, and he's the regular piano player in saxophonist David Murray's quartet. His playing and composition styles are informed by funk, go -go and hip -hop. And he's from Baltimore. Of course, you might also know him from his appearance on the soundtrack to The Wire.

Sooo Funky

Roach — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:49:32 -0800

29 year old Hiromi Uehara first mesmerized the jazz community with her 2003 Telarc debut, Another Mind. 4 albums later she continues to astonish and inspire. On February 3rd, she released the album Duet, a collaboration with Chick Corea, having first played with Corea at age 17. A graduate of the Berklee School of Music, Hiromi tours relentlessly with her crack band. I defy your jaw not to drop at their performances here, here, and here. I would have linked directly to the tour dates on her website, but her sites inner pages all reflect the same main URL. Enjoy.

All reet!

ericbop — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 08:20:00 -0800

Thelonius Monk's advice to Steve Lacy (as transcribed by Lacy)

Playing him out.

progosk — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:15:43 -0800

Henry Hey's new Bush Song. (SLYTP; previously; via waxy.) Bonus link: download the mp4. Bonus tune: McCain&Palin Song.

The Uncle Floyd FPP!

not_on_display — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:01:28 -0800

Deep in the Heart of Jersey you'll find "Uncle Floyd" Vivino, roaming the streets of various towns and cities, kibbitzing with the locals. In Belleville. Nutley. Bloomfield Avenue and Ferry Street in Newark. Kearny. Cliffside Park. Main Street, Paterson. An abandoned lot in Paterson. What, you never heard of Uncle Floyd? From 1974 to 1998, Floyd Vivino hosted The Uncle Floyd Show, a low-budget mess of a parody/tribute to variety shows and kids' shows, at the same time championing many local and/or outsider musicians, and accumulating a wide underground following via the UHF airwaves--why, David Bowie even wrote a song about Uncle Floyd. Here's a link to the entire Uncle Floyd Show Album Floyd currently plays over 300 gigs a year. His booking website gives a few examples of his New Jersified vaudeville stylings (not to mention some great publicity photos): 1 2 3 [music automatically plays when page is loaded] Here's more of UF on the pee-yanner. The late CM "Mugsy" Calam was a favorite performer on the Uncle Floyd Show; archive.org has some footage neatly arranged for you; there's plenty more of Mugsy on YouTube. Some newspaper articles about Floyd: NYT 1/10/88 ...more by Anthony Buccino, reporter for various NJ newspapers: 3/3/77 visiting the set | 3/17/77, Uncle Floyd Meets the Mayor of Bloomfield | 11/3/77 Web presence? Yeah! Uncle Floyd on Facebook Uncle Floyd on Flickr Photos: Backstage with Uncle Floyd And, finally, Uncle Floyd's Web Site, with updates on what cast members are doing these days.

Dulcitone 1884

netbros — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 12:17:08 -0800

Pendle Poucher is a UK based composer, sound designer and lover of funny noises who has written, produced and performed soundtracks for every major UK TV station. He has devised large scale public art projects and written chart-topping dance music. However, what I find most interesting, he is also one of relatively few musicians within the UK who owns a dulcitone. Poucher claims that his Dulcitone 1884 is the world's first multi-sampled dulcitone. A dulcitone is a keyboard instrument in which sound is produced by a range of tuning forks, which vibrate when struck by felt-covered hammers activated by the keyboard. The instrument was designed and manufactured by the firm of Thomas Machell & Sons in Scotland during the late nineteenth century. A significant feature of the dulcitone was its portability, a product of its lightweight and compact construction and the fact that the tuning forks (unlike, for instance, the strings of a piano) were not prone to going out of tune. However, the volume produced is extremely limited, and the dulcitone's part is frequently substituted by a glockenspiel or other celesta type instruments. For those electronic musicians out there, Pendle Poucher is selling his sampled libraries. What is offered at Dulcitone 1884 is sampled instruments, built from many megabytes of stereo samples, and split over three velocity layers. It is offered in Kontakt2/3, Ableton Sampler, EXS24, Soundfont, Shortcircuit, SFZ, NN-XT/Reason Combinator, Wusik, and Giga formats. Poucher's site on Virb.com also has sample libraries for a grand thrift autoharp, a ships piano, a tiny binaural harpsichord, and steel drum percussion. Each library is only £15.00.

The Pianist of Pianists

Joe Beese — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 09:19:42 -0800

Leopold Godowsky's technique was such that Arthur Rubinstein wrote, "It would take me 500 years to get a mechanism like [his]." Which came in handy playing his 53 Studies on Chopin's Etudes - which are often nominated as the most difficult pieces in the repertoire.

SARAH PALIN'S BAADASSSSS SONG

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 03:29:26 -0800

PALIN SONG

Leo Ornstein: The Sonata on the Edge and the Chaos Beyond.

Effigy2000 — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:01:44 -0800

Leo Ornstein is generally considered to have been one of the greatest pianists of the early twentieth century. His performances of works by avant-garde composers and his own innovative and even shocking pieces made him a cause célèbre on both sides of the Atlantic. By the mid-1920s, he had walked away from his fame and soon disappeared from popular memory. And although he passed away in 2002, the internet still remembers him and his amazing legacy of work. At this website dedicated to the artist and his work, you can read all about him as well as listen to many of his scores and MP3s-on-demand. There's also readable sheet music here at the International Music Score Library Project . And there's a register of archived documents spanning Leo's career over at Yale University's website. If all of that has grabbed your attention and you find yourself thinking "you know what? I really want to learn more about this Ornstein guy", here's some more links you might find of interest. Leo Ornstein interviewed by Charles Amirkhanian on Leo's 100th Birthday. Another interview, this time between Leo and his wife, conducted by Vivian Perlis. Max Schubel and Jennifer Rinehart interview Leo. Marc-André Hamelin's performance of Suicide in an Airplane from the Hyperion Leo Ornstein: Piano Music. A video of a 2002 performance of Morning in the Woods for solo piano by Sarah Cahill.

Gold Medal in Piano!

grapefruitmoon — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:14:34 -0800

Winning the Gold Medal in Young International Piano Superstardom is Chinese pianist Lang Lang. The 26 year old former prodigy compares himself not to Glen Gould, but to Tiger Woods. Given his "star appeal" and numerous endorsements, it's an apt comparison. Some performances by Lang Lang: Horse - a traditional Chinese piece played with his father on the erhu Valse Brilliante by Chopin Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #3, 1st movement: part 1, part 2, part 3

A New Mozart?

MythMaker — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:59:56 -0800

5 Year Old Adopted South Korean Blind Piano Prodigy Yoo Ye-eun can play songs after hearing them once. Watch her perform with Britain's Got Talent's Connie Talbot in a South Korean TV show called "Star King".

This Band Rips

netbros — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 13:35:56 -0800

Smooth Jazz, also sometimes referred to as new adult contemporary music or instrumental pop, is generally described as a genre that utilizes instruments and improvisation traditionally associated with jazz and stylistic influences drawn from mostly R&B, but also funk and pop. Since the late 1980s and into the 1990s, it has become successful as a radio format. [source wikipedia] The average smooth jazz track is on the "downtempo" (most widely played tracks are in the 90–105 BPM range) side, layering a lead, melody-playing instrument (saxophones, guitars, piano) over a backdrop that tends to consist of programmed rhythms and various pads and/or samples. Although many people and record companies group smooth and contemporary jazz together, both genres are slightly different in the way they serve the listener. Smooth jazz is generally considered background music, whereas "serious" jazz is seen as demanding the listener's undivided attention. Following are some of my favorite Smooth Jazz bands and tracks. Enjoy. Tourist in Paradise -- The Rippingtons Together Tonight -- Brian Culbertson Rollin -- Fourplay Notorious -- Boney James and Rick Braun Do You Miss Me -- Mindi Abair Midnight in Manhattan -- Peter White and Dave Koz Return of the Eagle -- Craig Chaquico It's All Good -- Brian Simpson Well, that's enough from me. Do you have any of your own favorites you'd like to add?

Glenn Gould's chair

carsonb — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:00:14 -0800

Monsieur, you vill not speak disrespectfully of a member of ze family! It is a boon travelling companion, without which I do not function, I cannot operate. It has been with me for 21 years, zis thing, this chair!

Glenn Gould performed for 21 years seated in a folding card chair modified by his father to be height adjustable. That one chair accompanied him around the world in support of each of his recordings and performances, and now resides on a pedestal at the National Library of Canada. Luckily, exact replicas of the skeletal, cushion-less chair are available for only €990. Glenn Gould was quite the eccentric musician. Witness his quirk firsthand at the CBC Digital Archives' Glenn Gould: Variations on an Artist. Via AskMe

Something to Watch While You're Procrastinating

salvia — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 11:28:04 -0800

This post goes out to everyone who is supposed to be working right now. Perhaps you can relate.

While His Piano Gently Weeps

amyms — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:48:35 -0800

Free Bird on piano [YouTube]. The 14-year-old musician, who calls himself UnclassicalPiano on YouTube, currently has 16 other selections, including Stairway To Heaven, Behind Blue Eyes, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Message In A Bottle and Black Sabbath's Paranoid (his main interest is metal), all of which he says he learned to play by ear.