Here’s a video of Hilary Hahn playing Schubert’s Der Erlkönig as arranged by Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst:
I wasn’t familiar with this arrangement, and was blown away by it, and the performance as well.
For those who might not now, Der Erlkönig is one of Schubert’s best known songs, a setting of Goethe’s poem of the same name. Here is Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau singing it. Compare, contrast, etc…
I found out about this George Lynch CD in which he plays some orchestral pieces. It supposedly came out in June, but there’s very little information about it. I can’t even find anything on his own website.
I’m hardly a Lynch fan, though I was fairly into Dokken’s Back in the Attack in my younger days. Still, I’m curious to hear what he’s doing on this CD. All I’ve found is the page on Amazon, but 30-second clips just don’t cut it.
You’d think in this day and age there’d be at least one full-preview somewhere?
Here’s a tab of a small section of Death and the Maiden – Part 1. It’s a fun little arpeggio section; makes a great picking exercise.
Here’s the section where it’s from:
Download it here. Have fun!
While we’re on the subject of fugues, I was recently reminded of Yngwie Malmsteem’s Guitar Concerto.
I haven’t really heard the whole thing, but when I noticed one of the movements was titled “Fugue” I was intrigued. Unfortunately the “fugue” isn’t it a fugue at all.
I know that in the grand scheme of things this isn’t that important, but if you’re highly known as a neo-classical guitarist and you compose a concerto for electric guitar and orchestra, I expect something that’s called a fugue to actualle be a fugue!
So what makes a fugue a fugue?
Well there are many places that will give all the theory, but in a nutshell, a fugue is sort of like a canon on steroids
A typical one will start with a voice playing a theme. Then a second voice will come in playing the theme in another key while the first voice plays in counterpoint (sometimes with a secondary theme). This is followed by a third and/or a fourth voice (somteimes more). The theme is then played in various keys, with accompanying counterpoint, until it’s finally played one last time in the original key.
Yngwie’s on the other hand follows a pretty normal song structure, with the main theme being the verse, and the floaty part with the choir being the chorus. And there’s clearly a main melody throughout. In a fugue all voices have equal importance.
Not that the song itself is bad or anything, I’m just a bit miffed by the faulty advertising…
I’ve been listening to a lot of Jeff Beck lately. I’m constantly amazed by his vocal-like phrasing and complete control of the guitar.
The track that really stands out to me on his latest album is Nessun Dorma, from Puccini’s Turandot:
I generally have an issue with combining rock instruments with orchestras. Modern rock production just doesn’t tend to go well with natural acoustics of the orchestra. But on this album it’s handled phenomenally.
Here’s a video of Pavarotti performing the original:
If you’ve been here before, you may have noticed the site looks quite different. It has a lot to do with my new plans for Death and the Maiden.
My original intention was to think of this as a “band”, which would eventually have other musicans, play live, release CD’s, etc. But right now I’m focusing on my solo music, and I’d rather focus on one thing at a time, rather than do both in a half-assed way.
So Death and the Maiden is going down a bit in the priority list, but that doesn’t mean I won’t keep working on it. I still have a lot of arrangements on the to-do list which will be popping up here from time to time, along with the occasional tab or lesson.
As for the site, I’m turning it into more of a blog of all things classical-meets-hard rock/metal or other interesting cross-overs, not just my own stuff. Hopefully it can be a place where all those with similar tastes and ideas can come together.
So in summary, Death and the Maiden is now more of a website/blog than a band, but there’s still more music to come!
Here’s a new video for Bach’s Fugue in C minor from the Well-Tempered Clavier.
I was going to do it with just guitar at first, but I started messing around with drums, and well…there you go.
If you’ve been here before you may have noticed the site looks a bit different. More on that in the next post.
Ron Fuchs wrote a review of A Metal Tribute To String Quartet over at Prognaut. Big props to him for taking the time to listen to and write about it.
Apart from that, things have been a bit slow lately. I admit I’ve been focusing more on my own music lately, but I’ve been working on many new arrangements, and I should be posting a few sneak peeks here and there.
I also intend to make more videos, but my camcorder broke, so that’ll have to wait till I save up enouh to buy a new one.
That’s all for now, more coming soon…
