Fresh Starts: September Community Concert

Ken Radford I like simplicity and minimalism in piano music. Is that what you mean? 

I had worked up an idea to record a piece entitled “The Family” by Max Richter from his Blue Notebooks. 

https://youtu.be/9eEFHMvgcqc?is=6BlVl2Au8mvybh7k

I heard an interview with Richter in which he said he tried to produce “a maximum intensity with a minimum material.” Is that what your composition teacher is asking of you? 

Here is that interview,

https://youtu.be/Ym-uzQgBIZ8?is=-Z05RQbVyKYpGQRN

Anyway, I passed my idea by an old classical guitar duo partner and she said that there was nothing going on musically in that piece, which kind of hurt, to be honest. Is that true?
So, minimalism can easily evoke strong criticism, maybe much more so than maximalism. 

With minimalism, there is so little material that every note must be perfect, something that is difficult to achieve.

Anyway, I decided that I couldn’t convincingly play something so simple at my level.
My new teacher has sent me back to play about the simplest Minuet by Leopold Mozart, father of Wolfgang and a violinist. It works as a good etude for the classical style.

Is there shame in playing simple music? I think not but it seems so sometimes.

Larry K I totally concur with the “maximum intensity with a minimum material” concept, and there is absolutely no shame in keeping it simple. My teacher keeps telling me that keeping it simple is very challenging, and that it is the way to go.
There is no accounting for taste of course, and if people want to compose and/or play complicated stuff, good for them. I have a confession to make though - I have a goal to be able to improvise fugue by 2032, so mixing in a bit of complexity seems to be in my destiny.

Max is obviously a very talented musician and his go-to synth is a Minimoog Model D. By coincidence I bought one of these in the late ‘70s and used it throughout my professional career in a rock band. Shame on me for selling it in the ‘90s.

Ken Radford 

I think simple is difficult. There is nowhere to hide.

You can buy a reissue of that synth. I know, it would cost you a lot but it is available. Look at Reverb.

I almost sold my Yamaha DYUS5 piano to my teacher, the one who kept canceling lessons, lol. I woke up one morning and decided to back out of the deal. I am glad I did.

It would probably cost me almost double what I paid for it just six years ago to buy a new one.

I didn’t realize you played in a professional rock band. Anybody I know?

In New York, I knew a bass player who had played with Public Image Limited. He dropped out of that crazy scene. We ran in a running club together. He was one cool dude.
 

Larry K Nobody you would have heard of. We were always on the brink of “making it” but never did. I have a live recording of an instrumental piece I wrote in the ‘80s and my Minimoog comes through loud and clear. I will share if you’d like to hear it.

Ken Radford Sure, I’d like to hear it!

Larry K See if you can separate the Minimoog from the lead guitar :)

Ken Radford Haha, maybe I can’t. 
 

I am going through videos that show the extensive use of that synthesizer. It is clear how much popular music is in debt to the synthesizer.

Larry K Maybe we should start a separate thread for synth music. I have abandoned hardware for software instruments and somehow miss the need to twiddle knobs between numbers. Presets are great but…

Ken Radford I wish I could help but I know nothing about synthesizers even though I wrote software for forty years. I am sorry.

For some reason, I am addicted to acoustic instruments, and classical music.

Every digital instrument I have ever bought, electric violin, electric guitar, digital keyboard, one manual digital organ, etc, I have sold not long after purchase.

A friend of mine put me to sleep explaining his signal chain for replicating Exile on Main Street. I seem to have no patience for it.

Larry K I just started a separate thread for synths. Wendy Carlos and Switched-On Bach had a major influence on me as a young musician.

Ken Radford sounds like Synth solo begins around 1:21, and maybe the big vibrato's at the end of each basic phrase are from the synth rather than the guitar.  Anyway, very nice track, quite intense, and seems very tight and well-rehearsed compared to the bands I've played in!  and is this in 7/4??

Peter Golemme Nailed it Peter! Big vibratos were one of my things :) Not sure there’s any 7/4 there though.

Ken Radford Nothing like a Moog for those swooping vibratos!  I had thought the rhythm sounded something like 4+3 throughout? Maybe it's just the clever accents and syncopations creating that as an illusion.  And I haven't mentioned yet what a nice composition it is! very impressive overall!

Ken Radford oh yay another brave soul willing to play an original piece ❤️ I can’t wait to hear yours as well! 

 Yes, there are sections of 4/4 and sections of 3/4 (or 6/8) throughout the piece as you say. 

Peter Golemme Thanks for your comments Peter. As you say, there are sections of 4/4 and 3/4 (or 6/8) throughout the piece. It was great fun to play and I like to think that - what with the heavy use (bordering on overuse) of the Moog wobble wheel and pitch bend wheel - I had a “sound.”

Ken Radford Moog was a high school classmate of my father!