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Radical Totality

~ an experimental creative laboratory by Mark Snyder

Radical Totality

Tag Archives: Bach

Lightship

24 Sunday Nov 2013

Posted by Mark Snyder in NaBloWriMo, poetry

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Tags

abstract, Bach, NaBloWriMo, poetry

morning sea,
auspicious humor detainee,
recurring inlet leisurely,
an absolutely hemispheric tranquil uproar centimeter key,
an oscillating emendation backward shaky useless effort disentangled plea,
go comfortably difficulty proposition introverted questionably free,
the open-minded independent hippie skeptic outmaneuvered advantageous difficulty
checkmate surefire up-and-coming always open focus pivot absentee,
or twilight culmination knockout deadline day of judgment glee,
amidships congregation charismatic gyroscopic
captivating spellbound lightship open doorway hypnotizing me,
and sympathetic atmospheric spree,
flow jet propulsion mesmerizing me,
the joyful blastoff captivating me.

When all men are clear

12 Tuesday Nov 2013

Posted by Mark Snyder in NaBloWriMo, poetry

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Tags

Bach, found poem, US Navy, USS North Carolina, World War II

When all men are clear of door
pull handle and hold
when all men are clear pull handle
when all men are clear
all men pull handle
pull handle and hold
when all men are clear
all men are clear pull handle
pull handle and hold
handle and hold
hold hands when all men are clear
handle hold handle pull and hold
when all men are clear
all men pull handle all men hold hands
all men are clear pull handle and clear
all men are clear when door is closed
all men in direction of arrow
when door is closed
when all men are clear
in direction clear, all men
all men are clear in direction of arrow
all men is a closed door
pull handle and hold
when all men are clear of door
pull handle and hold
when door is closed
turn handle in
direction of arrow

Suite No. 5 in C Minor (Bach), BWV 1011: IV. Sarabande

23 Thursday May 2013

Posted by Mark Snyder in music

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Tags

Bach, bass guitar, cello suites, music, sarabande, solo

 

Suite No. 5 in C Minor, BWV 1011:  IV.  Sarabande, composed by J.S. Bach.   Performed on acoustic bass guitar by Mark Snyder.

Sarabande

09 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by Mark Snyder in music

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Bach, bass guitar, cello suites, Coursera, Introduction to Music Production, music, sarabande

Sarabande from Cello Suite No. 1 by J.S. Bach, performed on acoustic bass guitar.

Recorded by me today for the Introduction to Music Production class at Coursera.

Not meant to be a perfect performance, just a demonstration.  For those of you who don’t know the piece, Yo Yo Ma played it at Ground Zero to mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

Here is the text from the accompanying assignment:

For this assignment I completed a recording of my playing the Sarabande from the Cello Suite No. 1 by J.S. Bach on an acoustic bass guitar.  The following is a description of the preproduction, production, and post-production processes involved in making the recording.

This recording can be found at https://soundcloud.com/peculiaritiesandreticence/sarabande-from-suite-for-solo

First, I prepared the room, making sure I had adequate space to work, no distractions, and no stray noise (such as cats or dogs.  The house is empty as my family is not at home.)  I tuned the guitar, warmed up, and spent about 10-15 minutes rehearsing the piece (one I know well but am a bit rusty on, not having played it for a long time). Once I felt ready to play, I connected the guitar’s output jack to my bass amp via an unshielded guitar cable (since I don’t have any unshielded cables and the distance is short).  I placed the amp in front of me, facing away to avoid feedback.  I connected the amp to my computer through the line out jack, with a 1/4″ cable at one end and a phono jack at the other.  The jack connected to an auxiliary USB sound card, which plugged into my laptop.

I started Reaper (the first time I have used it).  I created a new audio track (a mono track, since I was recording input from one instrument), armed the track for recording, then tested levels and EQ, trying a number of variations to get the right sound without feedback, noise, or muddy levels.  Once I was satisfied, I pressed “record” and performed the track.  I did this twice, intending to have enough takes to edit and create a comp recording, then found that the input levels were really too low to be adequate.  I turned up the gain on the guitar and reset levels, then recorded another track.  This time I was satisfied with the levels, but recorded two more tracks, again intending to make a comp recording.  I therefore performed and recorded five separate takes of the Sarabande.

Then I put on my headphones and listened.  I found, to my surprise, that I was quite satisfied with Take 5 and had no need to edit further.  I did find, however, an annoying ringing noise in the recording that seemed to be from the guitar.  It sounded very much like an alarm bell ringing and was quite annoying, even though it was low in volume.  I found using the sonic visualizer that there seemed to be ringing overtones of this bell-like noise at approximately 4000 Hz and 8000 Hz.  I experimented with several techniques to get rid of the bell- low-pass filters, EQ, and others in Reaper, but strangely none of them eliminated the bell sound.  Giving up on this, I added ReaVerb (reverb from one of the stock VST effects in Reaper)- which converted the sound from mono to true stereo- and exported the file to wav format.

From there, I imported the file to Audacity, where a simple band stop filter applied at 4000 Hz virtually eliminated the bell sound (though it was hard to tell now as I was experiencing tinnitus that sounded ike it was at the same frequency!)  I added fade in and fade out.  I had read that bass guitar producers often apply a band pass filter at 250 Hz to eliminate muddy sounds, but after trying it I was not happy with the sound, so I undid the 250 Hz band pass.  I experimented with applying a low pass filter, but doing so took away the brightness of the timbre and the brightness of the higher notes, so I ended up leaving them alone, with a fairly clean recording that sounds much like it did in the room when I played it.

There are several things I would do to make a better recording.  First, I would consider rehearsing the piece for a longer period of time to give a better performance.  As noted above, this piece is comfortable to me but I have not played it in a long time, and it could have been sharper.  Second, I could do more takes so I could have more pieces to edit to create a better recording.  Third, if possible, I would find the source of the 4000 Hz bell noise and eliminate it if possible so it doesn’t get into the recording.  Fourth, if I had the technical capability, I would take input both from the pickup mounted to the guitar body into the amp and from a microphone placed in front of the amp, in order to better capture the sound of the performance in the room. (Unfortunately, this is not possible with my current equipment, as I would need a second computer to record- though I do have a preamp that might be able to be used for the microphone.)

I hope you enjoyed the recording and this description of the process.  Thank you for reviewing this assignment.

Aside

07 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by Mark Snyder in music

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Bach, double bass, Gavotte en Rondeau, music, Partita No. 3

I’m on a Bach kick again.  They say if you learn to play Bach you can play anything on your instrument.  I learned to play bass guitar by studying Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1.  It kicked my butt, but I improved a lot and went form zero to pretty good.

I was inspired by finding that Youtube video I posted yesterday of the bassist playing the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.  I never thought that was possible.  I have no hope of ever being able to play that piece, but I feel it’s time I move beyond rudimentary exercises on the double bass.  I could play the Cello Suites, but I am interested in something new, and from what I understand, it’s recommended bassists play the Cello Suites an octave up so they are in the same range or tessitura as the cello.  I’m not ready to start playing up there, as I’m still working my way up the fingerboard and haven’t explored much beyond V position (and not at all in thumb position, which I would need to play the Cello Suites).

I started combing through the solo violin literature and came upon an old friend- the Partita No. 3 for Solo Violin (BWV 1006)- in particular, the gavotte en rondeau.  You’ve heard it, even if you don’t know the title.  I was surprised to find no one had posted or published a transcription for bass, except for one that changed the key- and I didn’t want to do that- so I set out to do my own arrangement, by hand, note for note.

I had a few decisions to make along the way.  I removed double stops (two notes playing simultaneously)- they sound good on a violin but not at the very low pitches of the bass.  When there are two separate voices, I made concessions and hinted at one voice while continuing the main voice.  One interesting feature I like about this is that while the entire range of most of the piece is about an octave and a half, I hit a D# at the beginning of measure 86 that is too low for my bass to play.  I could either play the D# an octave up and drop down an octave to play the rest of the scale, or I could stay up there, which I did.  The result is a Mannheim rocket-like run that takes us up to the high C#, which is about as high as the instrument can play without playing harmonics.

I got no business even looking at this, but I’m going for it.  I’m going to be at this for quite a while, but I’ll be a lot better for it.

Here’s the current draft of the arrangement.  I haven’t proofread it note-by-note, but I’ve listened a few times and it sounds right.

Gavotte en Rondeau Bach Partita 3 for contrabass

Link

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, performed on solo double bass by Mauricio Romero

05 Saturday Jan 2013

Posted by Mark Snyder in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Bach, double bass, music

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, performed on solo double bass by Mauricio Romero

This guy is a little better than me.  Just a little.  Well, yeah, a lot.  I didn’t think this was possible. 

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Just another human being who's trying to reach new levels of consciousness.

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Poetic Landscapes Of The Spirit

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"free-verse" poetry from the soul

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