Added: 4 years ago
From: datimpster
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  • I like the vibrafeel of this. Good pairing.

  • People here need to lighten up. Music is more than just the composer's intention, I hope in the future that people let the natural evolution of music take it's course. Really nice playing and interpretation!

  • nice playing by the way!!!

  • your programme note is excellent, can I use your programme note in my video? I acknowledged that Program Note by Justin R. Stolarik, if you don't like it, I will delete it. thanks. :)

  • Buddy your technique leaves something to lacked

  • @MOTSOTL There's a lot more to music than perfect technique! :)

  • @datimpster Im sorry i mean no disrespect this is a great rendition for vibraphone. I study vibes and the past few months "proper technique" has been being punished to me with that said bravo!

  • @MOTSOTL I'll say that your grammar leaves something to be desired. Others might say your grammar is lacking. But perhaps you said it best - your grammar "leaves something to lacked"

  • @MOTSOTL that sentence is incomprehensible.

  • Some tightly bunched panties around here. There are around 3079 beautifully performed takes on the piece out there featuring the solo flute (as intended). It's become common practice in the 'tradition" of both the classical and new' forms of western concert music. Sometimes these arrangements work. sometimes they don't.

    This one *does* , imo, and sheds new light on one of the best known 20th C modern pieces.

  • You want to get pissed at the destruction of some great French art music? Go after the folks cranking out the horrid Satie arrangements. I've heard some that'll make you want to retch.

    FWIW, I think people would respond much more viscerally to this transcription if you got it into a proper recording studio and use some close (plus distant) mic'ing to capture the timbral intensity and attack that we're missing here.

  • Some tightly bunched panties around here. There are around 3079 beautifully performed takes on the piece out there featuring the solo flute (as intended). It's become common practice in the 'tradition" of both the classical and new' forms of western concert music. Sometimes these arrangements work. sometimes they don't.

    This one *does* , imo, and sheds new light on one of the best known 20th C modern pieces.

  • Sounds like Frank Zappa's The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue

  • Music is not a museum it's a living dynamic thing and open to interpretation.

    This is a remarkable interpretation and must stand as such.

  • @malgray2 This is a nice demonstration how a beautiful composition for flute sounds terrible on a vibraphone.

    I would not call it an interpretation. It is a distortion or destruction of the original idea.

  • denso.

  • una rottura di cazzo mostruosa

  • platinum vibes???

    hehe...

  • that performing it on vibraphone annoys some people makes it more artistically justified than performing it on flute for the millionth time

  • It makes no sense to play this work on a vibraphone.

    Varèse composed a lot for percussion, but never for the vibraphone. He very much disliked the timbre of the it. He only used it once: in Déserts as a minor doubling instrument to colour other instruments.

    Why not play it on the ukulele?

  • why not indeed. do you have one i could borrow?

  • mine of course was a rhetorical question, and yours - I hope - is too ;-)

  • @annedegro

    Try reading the comments of the original poster.

    I know it's easy to forget to do that but sometimes they have something important to say that makes sense of the video they post.

    If the ukulele can play the notes, then that would be awesome too.

    Close your prejudices and TRY to enjoy the music for in the end that is what music is all about.

    What if Varese, after hearing this, thought he was wrong and preferred vibraphone over flute?

    Would you then like this?

  • @Galactu5

    My comment has nothing to do with prejudice, but with respecting the composers wishes and taste.

    "What if Varese, after hearing this, thought he was wrong and preferred vibraphone over flute?"

    This comment demonstrates that you have absolutely no idea about Varèses aesthetics.

    This version is so completely 'au contraire' what Varèse wants. There is a reason that Varèse composed this for the flute and not for the vibraphone or ukele or oboe or violin. It is a simple as that.

  • My point was about what if he thought he was wrong/changed his mind. Would you then change your mind as well about what he really wanted? Are you suggesting that people never change their minds or opinions?

    My aesthetics, and I'm sure I'm not unlike many people as they mature, have changed and the times have changed.

    My comment need have nothing to do with Varese specifically, the point is that minds change; can yours change as well?

    That isn't a rhetorical question.

  • @Galactu5 The point of departure of your question doesn't make any sense, since you haven't asked yourself WHY Varèse chose to compose this work for the flute.

    Of course compositions have been rearranged in the past, and not at all always succesfully.

    I disagree that there is no destuction of the original composition. Example: Varèse had a reason not to write fluttertongue. A crescendo on the vibraphone is only possible as a tremolo.

  • @Galactu5 My point is that when Varèse would have changed his mind and had composed it like it is now performed on the vibraphone, it would not be the masterpiece it is on the flute.

  • @annedegro

    We are having an ideological difference in regards to music. Essentially this is a matter of sticking to the original composers exact score, versus my point of music of all sorts are valid and could and should be explored.

    There will always be musicians who play the original score as written with an understanding of the composers times, temperament and values.

    Can't we at least sometimes, as musicians, take a chance and do something daring? Nobody will get hurt, I promise. ;)

  • And there are compositions rearranged for other instruments all the time. This argument is no different than colorizing black and white movies etc. There is no destruction of the original composition, people can still play it more closely to the way it was intended if they wish. Just because one performance was altered doesn't render it invalid/bad/not worthy of being performed.

  • @Galactu5 There are other inexcusable alterations.

    - All the notes that aren't available on the vibraphone are played an octave lower. Like for instance the high g (which happens to be the same note as the dramatic surprise note of the oboe in the beginning of Octandre) is played one octave lower, which ruins the intensity!

    - The keyclicks that have a different timbre on the flute, are played as normal notes on the vibraphone, completely neglecting Varèse purpose to have a change of colour.

  • @annedegro don't speak for the man. He could just as well have changed his mind about it if he lived till this day.

    now this man is making music, and that is all that matters.

  • Varèse was very clear in his ideas about percussion instruments. I'm not speaking 'for the man', but happen to know Varèse work very well. Varèse was very precise in his composition of timbres (Klangfarben). This musician doesn't know the score or the aesthetic ideas of Varèse. You have to know the music before you can play it properly. That is what art and music is about and not randomly performing a melody just because you happen to like it.

  • There are so many beautiful works for this instrument. Why deform a work that really can only be played on the flute?

    The vibraphone by its nature is not suitable for Density. I can however imagine you want to play it on your own instrument.

    But this work makes no sense when it is played on the vibraphone. The tremolo is irritating (although necessary to get sustained notes). If Varèse would have liked tremoli, he'd have written fluttertongue in his work.

  • nevertheless i consider this kind of initiatives very interesting, more if they come from the performer: the arrangement is good, and it is very well played!

    and you can see he was giving a Solo Percussion Recital, entitled "An Unconventional 20th Century Retrospective." so, with that instruments he really should play this piece if it was possible, dont you think?

  • Hey, I'll bet you liked it if you your preconceptions weren't telling you that you shouldn't like this piece

    Music is an INTERPRETIVE art form, as such, i'd say he's more a musician that you are, because his performance was excellent

  • If Varèse would have wanted this piece to sound like a vibraphone, he'd have composed it for the vibraphone. He wanted the sound of the flute. He didn't compose these ugly tremoli!

    This is a COMPOSITION. Different interpretations are possible on the flute. A soundsculptor like Varèse choose the timbre of the flute. The tremoli make no sense at all, even if his performance is excellent.

  • i'm just throwing out there that this was commissioned but a flute player - so really Varese didn't chose the instrument. He just wrote for the flute (flute only, and specifically) because that was the commission.

    I don't know - all y'all keep arguing now.

  • @revions don't speak for the man. He could just as well have changed his mind about it if he lived till this day.

    now this man is making music, and that is all that matters.

  • Varese wanted electronic machines to perform music so that performers' interpretations wouldn't stray from the composer's interpretation.

  • I like this much better by the Marimba then by the Flute... the marimba took this piece to the next level!

  • sublime! great performance!! and hats off for Varese!!!!!

  • Utterly original and totally inspired. NOT.

  • congratulations. today this video was selected by New Musiology.

  • What is New Musiology?

  • i buy that!!!

  • I surely would buy, Jasmin! And I'm a rock lover! Anyway... this is awesome music. I don't mind the way Edgar did it, I don't mind the chords! That's good and that's all!

  • What chords?

  • some brilliant play here by a young performer.

    Thanks for posting this. The music of course is classic and if some of the listening audience does not hear how much is in this music, that's OK too.

  • Awh, this is indeed an interesting usage of diminished seventh chords and tritones, interval cycles, and partitioning of chords. Indeed a complex masterpiece. Density 21.5 is excellent in the sense that it is both unpredictable,ethereal, and moody.

  • @standasone37 did u just copy the bones of that in depth analysis from the description box? nice

  • These videos are pretty good.

    I like the way the notes often resonate with each other, gives off a sound that I like.

  • with art anything is possible, but maybe notart is exploration of the universe, insofar infinite.

    to call exploration of the universe to shit on a stick, or to try to max your basnk account might be something different, i suppose

  • guys, what is art for you?

  • i can't explain art, however i can explain my choice of art over mathematics. with art, anything is possible, and i mean anything. you can shit on a stick and call it art. whereas with mathematics, you can piss about with equations and make insane discoveries, but in the end, you will always come back to the set rule that 1 + 1 = 2. 2 x 8 = 16. With art, there are no boundaries. I could go on and on about art. I could write a book about it. in fact, i might... but not now.

  • When the 20th century came around, all the rules changed as to what is acceptable. Especially in Varese's music, he definitely intended the piece to be play EXACTLY as written. Not only would Varese be horrified you adapted it, he probably would out right forbid you from ever doing it again. Mozart, Bach, Beethoven arranging other pieces was acceptable at the time. Different culture. This is really not appropriate.

  • adapting, and potentially "wrecking", varese's stuff is what varese would have wanted. maybe not consciously, but definitely subconsciously. varese is not the closing paragraph to the zeitgeist.

  • Actually I'm sure it would be quite the opposite. He wrote this at a time where classical stylings/structure/rules were being broken and restyled/structured into the modern era. If Varese was such a conformist to what EXACTLY is written, density 21.5 would sound more like it was written in 1536. If he sucked at the variation...well THEN he might not have liked it lol.

    But he's a modern era composer, I don't think he'd condemn variations of anything. Learn the rules so you can break them.

  • I have to say that's very 17th century conformist of you.

  • i agree with GymnopedieTornado but why do i always see people arguing about music on youtube? its just lame to fight over the net either like or dislike the video, explain why YOU think so with a comment and leave it at that dont take potshots at other peoples opinions

  • Music, films, and painting are art: they are a matter of taste: like it, or run away. No arguing, no discussion. Say "I like", or "I dislike". Taste can not be argued. In the best case, it can be detailed, and explained, but not argued, thus, not countered.

  • Doublehp: "...it [art] can be detailed, and explained, but not argued..." Perhaps you could enlighten us on why something which can be 'detailed' and 'explained' can _not_ be argued--better yet, explain why the many arguments regarding both the musical and visual arts put forth by the Great Masters of the Baroque and Classical periods are void?

  • The point of my post was exactly that ... I will not :)

    For example, I really, personally, hate the Baroque period, and my sister really love it :) I hate it because I found that non-sens, illogic (while I find logic in later, and newer music movements), and because the sound (timber ?) of instruments of that period just ... horrible :) My sister love it, maybe for exactle the same reasons :)

    I mean: what is a con argument for me, may become a pro argument for someone ...

  • ... thats how ... I can give reasons for loviong something, or hating an other, and it still will NOT be an argumentation.

    Because taste is taste.

    Thus I shall respect people that have different taste than me. I can in the best case say what i like, and why, but never try to convience anyone. That is exactly the point of freedom and taste.

    And, art is all about taste (from the viewer point of view; the artist of of view is about something else).

  • That said, I suppose it is to more sensible and enlightening an end--my own self holding Baroque music highest in heart--that I argue not with you and like minds of music but converse instead with like minds of your sister.

  • I feel that it is the composer that creates the masterpiece, not the performer.

  • the performer's job is to add his personality into the song, if ther performer is passionate about what he is playing, it will directly reflect in his playing. even if he has played the notes perfectly and in time, his personality should shine through the piece. in all it adds the icing to the composer's cake, which sounds totally wrong, i admit...but you get what i mean

  • Y'know what? It sounds really, really good. So props. Perhaps Varese might have been offended by it; he was a stickler for scores...but you made something beautiful and pretty. Congrats!

    (It's not worse than the original, or better; just different.)

  • Sorry, can't see the point of this - "Density 21.5" is a flute piece, "Ionisation" is a percussion piece. There's a reason for it...

  • Sometimes a musician will like a piece played on a different instrument and will want to see what he can do with it on his. James Galway did a fantastic Hora Staccato. That is a violin piece, but many people thoroughly enjoy his rendition. Should he have never played it because it was written for violin? Musical expression is the point. He likes it, and many others on this page do, too. He's not using a platinum flute, but it sounds great. Sorry, I can't see the problem...

  • Of course you can do what you wish, that isn't the problem. But Hora Staccato isn't comparable to Density 21.5 because for Varese, I believe, the timbre is an integral part of the conception of the piece in a way that the violin isn't for Dinicu.

  • I actually prefer your version to the original instrumentation ;) Thanks very much for posting this!

  • wow... it's the first time i hear density played with this instrument!

    very nice!

    i love edgard! :)

    congratulations!

  • Cool stuff! I am planning to put this on a recital later this month. What mallets did you use, or what would be a good mallet to use?

  • Are you sure about the note about the diminished chords? Stravinsky had been using those for a long time (since at least 1913 when he wrote the rite of spring) and the dimished chords, along with the scale where one of the characteristically "russian" sounds developed even sooner by guys like Rimsky-Korsakov.

  • Vey nice indeed!

  • Good job. I like the way you stand to your views!

  • Where can I find the music to this?!

  • I just got it from the music library here at school, but I'm sure it's purchasable. I played right from the flute part and made articulation decisions based on that.

    Thanks for watching!

  • cool, i like that piece a lot, my favorite VArese along with Ionization.

    Excuse my ignorance (i'm no musician), but what's partitioning of chords?

  • Partitioning of chords refers to a method of creating segments (partitions) of a 12-tone set, often with drastic registral differences (high notes jumping to low notes, and vice versa).

    Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for watching!

  • Hi there. Thanks for posting. It was interesting, but I think that the idea of the piece (and spirit or Varese) is a little bit different. It was written for a flute just to explore the limits of the instrument. The Xylophone didn't rend this idea, since it isn't a flute :). I'll post my version soon as I've a camera lol.

    Another point is the "time". I'm sorry but, rythm is different that you are playing.

    In any case, I enjoyed watching your point of view (different of mine).

    Cheers

  • I chose it simply to expose the listener to Varese's music, and to show that a percussionist can play articulation. As far as timing, it's my personal opinion that this piece is more about the gesture than absolutely perfect rhythm. Thanks for watching and for your comment.

  • I read your comment, and i have to say that you made a mistake, it is written on the first page that it has to be played "always strictly in time - follow metronomic indications".I'm not a native English speaker, so don't pay so much attention to my grammatical mistakes. Okay, that's what i had to say.

  • I know what it says that at the top of the page, but as a musician, my interpretation is the way I played it and I stand by that!

  • Composers create music, not musicians - for you to dare to presume that you have better judgement than the composer is the most disgusting disrespect possible. Mistakes and poor technique do not add to any interpretation of a piece in any sense. With your attitude you would be much better off playing jazz...

  • freelancerkthnx is a moron. "for you to dare to presume that you have better judgement than the composer is the most disgusting disrespect possible". The only disgusting disrespect I see is from people like you. I'm surprised anyone ever posts a video with comments like this for their effort! Musicians interpret composers' music. These different interpretations make for interesting listening. Stupid!

  • Thanks for backing me up, tmjns60! You're very right - musician interpret composer's music.  Composers create it and musicians interpret it. Thanks for watching, and I'm glad you enjoyed it.

  • Oh no, not jazz!

  • freelancer, this is his interpretation of the piece. There have always been different interpretations of pieces, and lots of classical pieces are actually reinterpretations of earlier pieces. Was Mozart disrespecting michael haydn when he reinterpreted his "te deum"? Was Duke Ellington grossly disrepecting Tchaikovsky when he reinterpreted the nutcracker suite?

  • musicians should be free to perform and interpret the music any way they feel like...in this case i really enjoy the piece but i feel that the original is a bit better..!!anyway nice effort keep going m8!

  • IMHO you missed the point... it's not a romantic piece, and there's nothing modal about it (that is, if you play what is written on the score, without the wrong notes).

    dbeghetto, it's a vibraphone, not a xylophone.

  • I did not miss the point. And yes, there is something modal about it... according to the composer, at least. The way I figure it, that's pretty legit. Thanks for watching.

  • I don't know... I mean, I enjoy this version with the xylophone, but I like more whit the flute playing it.

    But, of course, it's glad to hear (and also see) other versions. Thank you :¬)

  • muy bueno!!

  • The flute is lacking the resonance to play this song, he should have written it for xylophone instead of flute!

  • I never knew this damn piece of music could be so beautiful! Thank you!

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