Longtime visitors to RAMH know (as I have said) what I don’t know about music could fit, barely, into a large stadium. (A roofless one, so that the heap of facts and sensibilities inside can actually rise higher than the walls.) So for me to claim that some musical performance awed me — well, that doesn’t claim much.
But this…
Before seeing this piece, I was completely unfamiliar with pianist Jon Schmidt and cellist Steven Sharp Nelson, who collaborated on it. They’d intended to do a mashup, a “Mozart-style arrangement involving several songs by modern artists” — but couldn’t get permission to use the tracks they had in mind. The original composition they came up with instead, says one site, “[weaves] together inspirations from a handful of known influences, including Michael Jackson, Mozart and U2.”
Whatever the source(s) for the final product, yes, I am awed. It’s a dizzying, exuberant blend not just of musical genres but of virtuosity and special effects, both video and audio. (And it took twelve hours just to film.)
Here y’go:
From the YouTube page:
On the recording, Steven Sharp Nelson laid down over 100 tracks including cello textures never known possible. Every single sound on the video was made using only the instruments shown: piano, cello, mouth percussion and kick drum. We utilized some cool effects on lots of stuff… for example the U2-style delay on Steve’s pizzicato at the beginning.
The extra string on the electric cellos (the black cello has an extra high string and the white cello has an extra low string) allowed us to cover the full range of the orchestra. The deep bass drum sound is a bump on the body of the cello with a little help from some effects. The shaker sound was created by Steve rubbing rosin on his bow. The record scratch is Steve scratching a quarter on the strings… you get the idea.
Those two electric cellos look like musical instruments from the planet Tralfamadore.
Jumbled together with the other things in that stadium I mentioned: knowledge of musical notation. But I did glance at some of the sheet music for “Michael Meets Mozart.” Among the annotations interspersed between and within the staves:
- delete F if you can’t reach
- this is what the computer prints when you slide your right elbow up the keys
- let ring as long as possible with half pedal
There’s this, at the very top (whatever it means):
- chills up
and later (my favorite):
- Watch your fingers on the lid hit! (I found out the hard way)
Ha! And also: Le sigh.
Jayne says
My 12 year old daughter, sitting in another room, upon hearing this music says, Mom, that sounds really cool. And I tend to agree with her.
And your right, those cellos look alien. Must be fun to play. Glad you included the sheet music with its annotations, very interestingy and humorous!
A lot of passion in the piece. Wonderful :)
John says
Jayne: Your sorta dancing daughter might be interested to know, then, that Schmidt also offers a “Choreography Edit” of the song, in MP3 format: “a shorter version more suited for the length of choreographed dance performances.” It’s here.
I don’t know if “interestingy” was a typo, a qualified gerundive, or a mashup of interest(ing) and stingy. In any case but the first, I think you’ve made a nice contribution to the language. :)
Jayne says
Oh, now that’s very cool, says the sort of dancing girl. (And her mother, too.) She’s downloading the MP3 as I write this. Thank you!
Ah, yes, that’s it–gerundive. No, if I were really smart I would have mashed interest(ing) with stringy, so that the piece is interestringy. Or just–interestring. (Or, perhaps, I should just learn to edit my comments.) Alas, the real answer is that my two index fingers tend to fight for space at the keyboard and sometimes get into a finger wrestle at the junction of certain letters. ;)
(I think you read my poem: I Miss my ” “? Well, I’m missing more than just my E these days. Seriously, all the vowels are gone, plus the TRNM and S!)
John says
Jayne: haha — you’d be in bad shape playing “Wheel of Fortune,” having to buy all those consonants too. Better stick to Scrabble!
John says
P.S. for those who don’t know Jayne’s “I Miss My ‘ ‘” poem, it’s here.
s.o.m.e.one's brudder says
Me thinks I see a pattern here – EVERY week now has a midweek music break to look forward to. What’s a blogger gonna do if and when he has to disappoint all us music lovers that lie in wait for this post every week -NEVER being disappointed by what it turns up? 40 years later and you’re still leading me to stuff I would never have come across if you hadn’t been rummage around in the world of sound. Awesome – again!
whaddayamean says
this is incredibly cool. thanks.
John says
brudder: I’m so glad you’ve been liking these things. That “40 years later” line, though, implies that the musical transfer has all gone in one direction. NO WAY.
Really, these music breaks function more or less just as bloggish placeholders for me, while I’m trying to stay focused on Other Things. If I ever had to conduct any REAL investigations for them, and/or, y’know, compose them, I’d be in trouble. And so would the Other Things.
John says
whaddayamean: There’s nothing like seeing people who L,O,V,E what they do… well, doing that.
We watched a Mad Men episode last night, one scene of which took place in a Village club (in 1960, natch). The performers were “cool” poets and musicians — beatnik sorts, for the most part. (One guy’s act consisted of reading a, um, I think it was a newspaper report of a wedding. Of a non-famous couple. In a monotone.)
I’m not old enough to remember those sorts of performances first-hand, but I appreciate what they maybe meant to accomplish artistically, and maybe what they ACTUALLY accomplished historically and culturally.
On the other hand, they were (to me) also hilariously dull.
By contrast, the video of these two guys in this “Michael/Mozart” thing? Every time I watch it I feel myself going completely into it. Falling, fallen, absorbed.
Nance says
Sometimes I just want to copy an entire post of yours and plug it in somewhere on my page so I don’t lose it. As it is, I’m a RAMH Magpie; I swoop in, spot a sparkly, snatch it and take it back to my nest. I never ask. Can’t help myself.
I was struck, as I often am, by the musician’s faces. They actually live on that musical Tralfamadore. Aliens to be envied. True transportation. As Earth children, they usually don’t seem to fit well and you worry that something is wrong, that they’ll be left behind by life. They’ll break your heart with their sweet-furious-blind drive to find sensual true north. When they find it, you realize that you are the one left behind. The best you can do is worship them.
Dancers have a somewhat similar look. I have known what lives behind that particular other-worldly look and I know there’s a kind of heaven going on there…one with a door that’s tended by music. Schmidt and Nelson dance with every cell as they play and, for a few minutes, they let us visit their ecstatic planet. I could cry with gratitude.
John says
Nance: a magpie myself, I love finding others with whom to share the humming wires.
You’re onto something about music as a door-tender. Unlike the bouncers at exclusive clubs, though, it seems willing to admit anyone with enough enthusiasm. We don’t have to know (or be) someone to get in… although if we’re going to get up there on stage everybody else seems to appreciate it more if we, like, know what we’re doing!
I wonder if the slack-jawed Tralfamadorian sensibility is shared by those engaged in humbler activities. I hope this doesn’t mark me as a dope: I know for sure that I have sometimes caught myself just barely in time to prevent a bit of drool sliding off my lip while I’m reading a particularly absorbing book.
Hmm. And now I wonder if I go slack-jawed and dreamy while writing… Maybe next time I sit down for a writing session I’ll turn on the webcam for a half-hour. (But I don’t think I have enough hard-drive space!)
cynth says
Know what I love about these posts? Everyone is so melodic with their responses! I mean it! Nance’s comments are pure artistry. And you can just see Jane’s daughter dancing across the floor–and we don’t even know what Jane’s daughter looks like! Thanks for these John and all the contributors. These are lovely afternoons spent with wonderful writers.
marta says
I like this a lot–and have faved it over on youtube. It also brought to mind another recent fav…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vML70Tf8ZpA
marta says
I posted that comment before I meant to. I just wanted to add that I know the video I posted has something of a different sensibility–what you see is not what you get–but the music itself, the reason I enjoy the actual music, is the same.
John says
cynth: I love the comments they seem to inspire, too!
John says
marta: Oooh, thanks — I hadn’t seen the video of “Discombobulate” (from Sherlock Holmes) before!
Here it is, for the benefit of others:
I see what you mean by a “different sensibility,” in a way; to some extent, it distanced me from the performers’ involvement in the music, so it didn’t seem quite so much “about” that. But that enjoyment is there, all right. And the music’s great!
John says
P.S., about the Sherlock Holmes musical score, Wikipedia says: