R. Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a (Time-Lapse) Theme of Thomas Tallis

Three summer days of time-lapse clouds, culminating in a direct hit by a huge thunderstorm over the San Juan mountains of southwestern Colorado, were set to the timeless music of R. Vaughan Williams, performed by the New Conservatory of Dallas' Next Generation Orchestra at Fort Lewis College during the Music in the Mountains Gala on July 23, 2011. Each summer for more than a decade, Arkady Fomin has attracted young musicians to Durango from all over the USA and around the world. For example, this year we had students from Finland, Russia, Poland, China and South Korea. They ranged in age from 12 to 30.

There is a lot of dynamic range in the soundtrack, but it is a high-quality recording with plenty of bass, so if you don't have good speakers connected to your computer, consider earphones.

The audio of the performance, and the short video excerpts from the performance, are courtesy of Miki Itashiki, audio producer and photographer specializing in the performing arts and non-profit organizations. Mike does it all, contact him at www.musichost.com.

This time-lapse video has been nearly a year in the making, considering concept, travel, lugging equipment to the tops of mountains after approaching as close as possible via Jeep, sitting for hours, dodging lightning and rain, and finally compiling the raw footage into the finished product.

The video was shot with my little Sony HDR-CX550V (need a better cam!) which does not have a time-lapse mode. Instead, the camera is left running for the entire shot. Then, the raw video is rendered using Sony Vegas Pro and the Huffman YUV lossless encoder into huge .avi files so that it can subsequently be decimated using VeeDub64.(http://www.videohelp.com/tools/HuffYUV) and (http://www.virtualdub.org/index). The decimated files are re-imported into Vegas for the final editing and synchronizing with the music. The YouTube video was rendered as a 900 MB .mp4, 1920x1080 at 8 Mbps.

If you don't like "Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis" you probably won't like this video. If you, as do I, regard "Tallis" as one of the best string-only orchestral pieces of all time, the video will bring tears to your eyes.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• R.
• Vaughan
• Williams
• Fantasia
• on
• Theme
• of
• Thomas
• Tallis
• time
• lapse
• cloud
• clouds
• thunderstorm
• rain
• hail
• Colorado
• Durango
• Silverton
• San
• Juan
• Mountains
• mountain
• new
• conservatory
• Dallas
• Arkady
• Fomin
• next
• generation
• orchestra
• Fort
• Lewis

[Supervideodrome]

Truly an inspired melding of sound and vision. I have loved this piece since childhood when I first came across it on vinyl. All your efforts and only 1156 views to date? Something wrong here. We must all spread the word. Maybe if the numbers go up you'll be inspired to do more!

[stevecrye]

@Supervideodrome Thanks for the kind words, your reaction is what keeps me trudging up mountains, sitting in the cold for hours, editing for weeks until my back is ready to seize and my fingers cramp. Working on another big project, theme will be El Paso, about 4 months from completion.

[xoio]

Good Grief, if you listen carefully at the very end, that is someone's damn phone going off!!!?  Idiots! didn't deserve to be there in the presence of such a powerful & moving performance.

[stevecrye]

@xoio Yeah - the performers heard it too! But, they learn to ignore that stuff. And how about the horrible cough near the start? Oh well ...

[molshe1]

What a find on a dark and dreary December Sunday morning in England! Thank you SO much for your truly awesome video. I can't add any more to all the lovely comments here. Thank you again. xx

[stevecrye]

@molshe1 You are most welcome, I hope to someday visit your lovely island ... grey sky and bare trees can be very beautiful.

[imperiallover]

One of the best versions of an epic piece of music and a stunning video to match. Absolutely superb stuff. I've just become a massive fan of your work! All the best from the UK.

[xoio]

Such a quality, powerful & moving recording.. Shame about the coughing though :-/

[stevecrye]

@xDwepee Hi! I was hoping someone from the NCD group would watch and comment. Did we ever meet? Do you remember Jewell? She really enjoyed the last three summers in Durango. I don't think she will make it this year, every penny is going toward college. Thanks again for watching. You and all the other musicians were amazing.

[stevecrye]

@music784151 Thanks! I first fell in love with 'Tallis" in 2009 when the founder of the El Paso Symphony Youth Orchestras, Ben Loeb, chose it for the Side By Side performance where the top orchestra and the one below it combine on stage to perform. From the very first day of rehearsal, I was captivated. This is a piece where it seems as if every chord, every note, every transition is perfect - like they were not written so much as discovered, as if every human's brain already contained it.