the dreams that you dare to dream Really do come true

A perfect piece of music, performed perfectly:



We've featured this wonderful guitarist here before, here's a bit more about her:

Born in Tokyo, Japan, Kaori Muraji received her first lessons on the guitar from her father Noboru Muraji at the age of three. From ten, she continued her studies with the renowned guitarist Shinichi Fukuda. From quite early on, her presence was dominant in competitions, winning the 1989 Junior Guitar Competition, and the 1991 the Student Guitar Competition for all categories. In 1992, she was the winner of both the Leo Brower International Guitar Competition (Tokyo) and the Tokyo International Guitar Competition.

In 1993, Ms. Muraji gave her debut recital at Tsuda Hall in Tokyo, which was soon followed by the release of her debut CD “Espressivo”. Her orchestra debut came in 1994 with the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, and in 1995 was selected as soloist to tour with the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI on its Japan tour. In May of that year, the same orchestra invited Ms. Muraji to join them in one of their subscription concerts in Turin. This concert, which was broadcasted on TV throughout Europe, marked Ms. Muraji’s European debut.

ari

We skipped a light fandango . . .

Politics are so ugly right now that I need to wrap in a cocoon of music. I've chosen this young man to warm my cold heart, and remind me that art is, above all, a healing thing:



Oh, and he's 13 years old. Who know what he might do when he, you know, grows up.

'Cause I can play this here guitar, Pt. 29

To piggyback on a post I did recently on Bach for the guitar, here's another version of what is commonly called "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring". To all you hotshot guitarists out there, all I have to say is: Try. To. Play. This. Then fall down on your knees and worship true rock'n'roll guitar, as shown by fine classical guitarist Ronnie Wiesauer:



This guy has serious skills, and deserves a listen.

She blew my mind behind the wrecking machine

Pardon my obsession with the music of Bach, but since it really speaks to me, and the blog has my name on it, well, here's some more Bach.

A lot of what makes Baroque music so wondrous is the often insistent tempo. Just when you think you can't take it any more, it keeps on going with a new variation of the theme, which makes the relentless rhythm seem even more OK, as a driving force to take you to the mountain top. Like the Little Engine That Could, Bach was.

One of the better examples of this is the 10th movement of the cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, commonly called Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. The original first line, Jesus bleibet meine freude (Jesus remains my Joy) is perhaps a better rendition of the sense of the whole lyric.

Since I am a recovering guitarist, I naturally look for guitar interpretations of music I love. Christopher Parkening has been the greatest arranger and advocate of Bach for guitar: see Parkening Plays Bach.

But here's the problem for guitarists. While Segovia said "the guitar is a small orchestra", and while in theory it can play up to 5 voices at one time, the reality is that Bach's counterpoint can require many more voices than 5. So an arranger for solo instrument has to pick and choose which voices to present, and which to drop.

Parkening's arrangement of "Jesu" is wonderful, and his playing so smooth, yet still doesn't capture quite the essence of the insistent accompaniment underneath the main melody that never ever stops except in the first half of each 'verse'. Because there simply aren't enough fingers to do that.

But wait, other folks can rock some Bach too. Here's Koari Muraji, a young Japanese woman who, while not having Parkening's longer years of expression and performance, has a great sense of what Bach should sound like. And she nails the continuo in the 2nd half of each verse, while not letting the melody get lost. Sublime musical technique and taste. This is rock'n'roll:



(Title is a lyric from a Skid Row song called Sweet Little Sister. Skid Row was fronted by a guy who went by the stage name Sebastian Bach. Dumb, I know. But it still made sense to me.)

Sheep may safely graze . . .

This from the great star of Fox News, Glenn Beck:

Vancouver lost, how much was it? they lost a billion dollars when they had the Olympics.

Reality:

With the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games fast approaching, the Operations Engagement Team (OET) has been created to provide local businesses and residents with the tools and information necessary to prepare for a successful and rewarding Olympic and Paralympic experience.

It hasn't happened yet!

Fox News: We make shit up, you decide.

And people who get their news from Fox? You're getting what you deserve.

Some palette cleansing music:



I really don't think you'll find a better performance of this piece. The modern guitar wasn't yet invented when this was written, yet much of Bach's work finds a happy home on the guitar.

I take issue with many interpretations of Bach, by otherwise really talented folks. Yo-yo Ma, a nice fellow and gifted player, does a major disservice to this piece in his interpretation. He plays it in a romantic style, all emotions and rubato tempi, with vibrato up the wazoo.

Dude, this is Baroque! It needs to be played almost to a metronome, that's part of the delicious tension that finally releases at the end. This swings and rocks as hard as Bird & Dizzy at their best, this is Clapton playing Crossroads live with Cream. This isn't Liberace or Lawrence Welk. The incessant tempo makes it rock, it drives it hard down the tracks.

Here's another player who gets it:



Because he only has 4 strings to work with, we miss many of the sustained notes available on the guitar, making it more true to the original Cello setting. Thing is, this type of solo baroque music depends on our brains to hear the chords, not the instrument to create them. the 1st 3 notes: G, D, B, define a GMajor triad, yet they are played as 3 separate notes. Our brain connects them into a G chord.

That's some of the mysterious beauty of this music, and of Bach's writing for solo instruments. You never have any doubt what the underlying chord is, yet you hear a stream of individual notes.

but boy could he play guitar

I've been doing some work lately for a really state-of-the-art modern rock guitarist, truly nice fellow with Mad Skillz™. But sometimes we need a grounding in history. So all you shredders out there, go away and don't come back until you can play this:



Yeah, I thought so.

Here's some more about the old dude with fat fingers:

The status of the classical guitar at the beginning of the twentieth century had declined, and only in Barcelona and in the Rio de la Plata region of South America could it have been said to be of any significance. When Segovia arrived on the scene, this situation was just beginning to change, largely through the efforts of Llobet. It was in this changing milieu that Segovia, whose strength of personality and artistry coupled with new technological advances such as recording, radio, and air travel, succeeded in moving the guitar forward to become more popular again.

Indeed.

And here he is, a little younger, playing some serious rock'n'roll:

Rock on.