RockViolin

Pfff.... in return for what? Maaad laptop skillzzz? Well, it seems fiddlers do have some history with the devil. But nah, I coughed up a large chunk of my youth to a practice room. I'm set. Maybe if Johnny hadn't done runned off that there fuller the devil put him up against so easily I'd have more respect. He was no Paganini. The devil should probably stay focused on armageddon, and the apocalypse. That seems to be going rather well. Maybe down the road a piece from there fiendish skills on a musical instrument will be worth considering trading for again.

Better late than never...I reckon. A gnarly whiplash injury precipitated a long hiatus in my case. But even so, I was in here talking about the stuff. Music, that is. It has kept me going and pulled me through some rough patches...even if I was only just talking about it. In a parallel universe somewhere the same circumstances led me to sell everything remotely related to music and take up calligraphy, and I considered variants of that in this one. I still have all my gear though, and the better part of *the goods*. And hey, this turmeric stuff combined with other natural products works pretty good. Eighteen years on hope springs eternal...or maybe some things are just hard to kill. Well, I'll turn it loose, I guess. Post your long lost, mystery music loves here. Even if it doesn't follow Vivaldi particularly well. Even if it's "Fool For The City". I've done worse. 😉 (I used to make mix tapes where I'd follow a Mahler Adagietto with The Power Station's version of "Get It On (Bang A Gong)" or similar. I guess it highlighted my quandary at the time. Split right down the middle.)

He does indeed. Apparently this Largo has had quite a bit of play. Not as much as The Four Seasons, but I've read that it has been used in several movies, Sesame Street, Good Morning America and... a Simpsons episode. That's quite a bit more than the other 99% of his music. Fortunately I was busy practicing during all that, the only association I have to steer around is negligible and 33 years seems like a fair trade. Nothing I've encountered by him moves me like the above though. Having found one of the above sections, my heart was in my throat 20 seconds in...when the violins move. It has a strange effect on me like few other pieces do. Everything is suspended, I am transfigured, and it sets the mood for days...long after I've heard it last. And I'm not sure that 5 guesses would have been enough if I hadn't seen the movie credits. Change the instrumentation to something more modern and I might not even pin it down as Baroque. Maybe it's because I'm really only familiar with his violin works, and when he was at the guitar he wrote differently, as I do when I'm at the keyboard, I dunno.

I was driving in the mountains of West Virginia 33 years ago when I caught the last minute or so of a piece that I found very captivating on the radio. The announcer came on afterwards, "We've just heard music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Tomasso Albinoni, and".....static. I didn't exactly engage in a search, but over the years I've kept watch I suppose, I never forgot anyway. Occasional encounters with works by Albinoni were always listened to with a hopeful ear. Nope. And I sorta ruled Bach out. Anyway, I was kicked back on the couch with the bad neck watching a John Wayne movie, The Cowboys, on Grit... and there it was. A bit of follow up informed me it was Vivaldi. Vivaldi!! I've played my share of Vivaldi violin concerti, and heard a fair bit more. It's all good, and churns along in Vivaldi-esque fashion, if you know what I mean. I was blown away to find that he had composed this. I think he out did himself...wonderfully! I guess sometimes as a composer the butterfly lands in your open, outstretched hand. I can't help wondering if he knew...and if this piece didn't one day practically write itself. His mastery has never shown itself to me more. It's perfect. All it needs to be and nothing more. I've played and heard a lot of beautiful music. This about takes the cake. He's gone from top 20 to top 5, with me. Bach is still the champ, but Antonio shall not hang his head around Johann in my presence. 😊 I post 3 versions. I like each for different reasons, but generally prefer the straight ahead approach without a lot of ornamentation. The nuanced guitar with color changes in the first, the full bodied sound of the lute and reasonable amount of ornamentation in the 2nd, (some interpretations overdo it IMO...I don't know what gets into some people) and the motion in continuo as the guitar rests in the 3rd is well done I think. I like it the most. I recently used the 3rd version for a DVD I made of footage of my son's childhood for his 13th birthday. Though I was motivated to write something for it myself, after hearing this there was only one choice. I guess I just wanted to share. 33+ years. Bravo Vivaldi!!!

I was going to say something similar. Doesn't every instrument have that which it lends itself to more easily, and conversely that which it doesn't? That said I think the sax could have worked. It just should have been the side of applesauce to Dusty's pork chop, not a pork chop shaped pancake.

Well, I'll try. But if I hear that Alvin and the Chipmunks have gone the full auto-tune robotic for "Here Comes Santa Claus"...there will be no stopping me from Scroogin hard.

Seems to me from what I've seen and heard that Elvis always had some serious crew. Well oiled from the flicks and Vegas gigs I'd suppose.

I agree with Notes. In addition I'd add that the sax gives me the impression it's trying to do something that's difficult for the instrument to do. Maybe it's the player, I dunno. I know nothing about playing the saxophone. But it seems that by the time the instrument speaks it's quite loud. So the scoops really don't work and neither does the attempt at smooth breathiness. So it comes across as clumsy attempt to parrot Dusty. It might have even been better to turn the sax loose and let it lay into it and sing it out more legato... not going crazy, but not trying to be like Dusty. Or put some, maybe quite a bit of reverb/delay on it and put it around the corner and down the street, hauntingly. The trumpets should have been tossed altogether. Ouch.

Me too! Yes, my ear has been here and there as well. It's perhaps a fine line between a quote that tips towards a wee bit of a borrow which just 'accidentally' strays into pilfering that then waltzes right into full on robbery. But, I'm confident I can tell the difference. And as I said earlier, there's a difference between an homage quote and theft...or the complete bastardization of an entire lengthy melody as with "Never Gonna Fall In Love Again". "the copyright should not go in favor of the person doing the quoting." Not sure I follow. Do you perhaps mean it should not go in favor of the quoted? Anyway, it's more about the pretense that an idea was conjured up honestly and the taking of credit for it than who made or lost money...to me. And the $ determined by the court to be paid by the perp is more punishment than it is compensation for $ presumably lost by the plaintiff...to me. Rachmaninoff didn't lose any money either. That doesn't change one bit the degree to which his music was stolen. Piles of money should have gone to his descendants though the crime didn't rob them directly, just because, just to punish the artist, management, record company that took part in creating that abomination. If Rachmaninoff had at least been credited and thanked for the use of HIS beautiful melody, well, maybe I wouldn't be such a big meanie about it.

(That would be the 'ol incite right there.) Or don't. Just admit to yourself that you got nuthin and get out of the way. Go mow lawns or something. Go steal from Ms. Perry. You just have to do a better job of it than her team of *ace* songwriters did. Pbbb. That's what's surprising to me actually. They could have changed a few more notes in that keyboard line, maybe use a clearly different sound, add another word to the shout and place it a measure earlier/later, change up the kick a little bit more and it wouldn't have made a hill o' beans difference to the success of the track. We just wouldn't be having this conversation in a thread with her name attached to it. But please do refrain from marring great pieces of music for years to come. If you can't steal and disguise it with some degree of aplomb don't steal at all. And maybe someday Eric Carmen will be long forgotten and Rachmaninoff can be enjoyed clean and free of the taint.

"Oh Bwunhilde, you're so wuvwee". This is what comes to me when I listen to Tannhauser. Forever etched. And of course, "Kill Da Wabbit". It is funny. And perhaps Wagner and the whole German mysticism thing had it coming. But there's just no going back once something like that has been done. I wouldn't say that it's ruined it for me, but there's no getting around checking in with that bit of lampooning at first, then I can for the most part put it aside. Maybe 'serious music' is taken too seriously. Maybe nothing is sacred when comedy, or $ signs, or hubris are on the prowl. A stain is a stain though.

And "Never Gonna Fall In Love Again" is taken from Rachmaninoff's 2nd Symphony 2nd mvt. - lock, stock, and barrel. All but ruined here. I say "all but" because I've performed those works and at such times Rachmaninoff won. It still is a bit of work not to *go there* though. Talk about damage. Ya know, I don't think anything speaks better for humanity than the music of the great composers. It is in my humble opinion the highest of arts. And someone can put a mustache on the Mona Lisa - and the next time I see the real thing it won't be a problem. But music, and words, they stick. Top 40 in the 70's = arc welder. Stealing great, classic, masterpiece level music and putting words to it...as if it needed them... has got to be the greatest crime of all (mentioned in discussions of this sort). Not to mention the sheer pomposity and unmitigated gall. "A Fifth Of Beethoven" doesn't rise to the level, for me. There's a difference between paying homage with a quote or the thorough reworking of a motif and outright theft and defacement. At least there was some imagination involved. It's a shame. Someone should have stopped him, or them. No doubt the eyes were rolling with the $ signs. And I kinda liked The Raspberries at first. I was about 8 I think and one of their albums was the first my older brother let me borrow. (I guess that's saying something). Even then Eric struck me as kinda drippy. But I think that section in "Go All The Way" where the guitars rock out and he gets some grit in his voice might have been the first time I rocked out...a bit. Rant over.

Piano Concerto #2. And suing, were it possible, would not suffice. Rachmaninoff's living relatives should be taken care of for centuries. And there should be a special place in hell as well.