A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.
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Back in April Stephen and I visited the Pickens Flea Market and stopped by the Musician’s Circle. One of the regulars, Robert Perry, played a homemade tub bass and had a distinct persona.
Stephen struck up a conversation with Robert’s girlfriend, Sharon, and she told us about a weekly gathering at Robert’s place. This past Monday neither of us had Chorale rehearsal or other engagement, so we decided that we would head up and check it out.
Today the Greenville Chorale Chamber Ensemble presents its winter concert at Furman’s Daniel Chapel. The program is entitled “Music for the Soul”, and the music was chosen to be both soothing and uplifting. We start the concert with Gabriel Faure’s Requiem as the major work on the piece. I’ve performed this piece several times, and … Read More “Music for the Soul” »
As my friend Duck Hunter pointed out on his blog, not only is it football season, but it’s also marching band season. The Furman Band has really been sounding good the last several years, and this year continues this trend.
Of course, we’ve taken more interest in the band the past several years since the son and daughter of our friends Alan and Mary have been in the band. Joshua graduated last year, but Caitlin still has a couple of years to go. So, we’ve been following the band’s repertoire closer than usual.
Videographer Valdas Katovas recorded our spring concert, a performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Greenville Symphony Orchestra and Greenville Chorale. This video is the entire fourth movement. You can occasionally see me on the front row of the Chorale, next to the tympani and behind the trombones. Beethoven No 9 from Valdas Kotovas on … Read More “Beethoven’s Ninth Video” »
To Joy
Joy, thou beauteous godly lighting,
Daughter of Elysium,
Fire drunken we are ent’ring
Heavenly, thy holy home!Thy enchantments bind together,
What did custom stern divide;
Every man becomes a brother,
Where thy gentle wings abide.
Be embrac’d, ye millions yonder!
Take this kiss throughout the world!
Brothers—o’er the stars unfurl’d
Must reside a loving father.–Friedrich Schiller, 1786
Last night the Greenville Chorale joined forces with the Greenville Symphony Orchestra for a performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. The 9th is one of my favorite pieces, and I’ve had the privilege to perform it once before. Last night’s performance, though was one of the most stirring I’ve ever experienced.
For the Chorale, the piece came together fairly quickly. Many of us were familiar with the music, but also the chorus doesn’t sing that much in the concert. We’re only there for the last half of the last movement of the piece – about 20 minutes worth. Bing Vick often let us out of rehearsals early, which was a nice change of pace.
However, that is a VERY challenging 20 minutes. First there is the range. The piece is written at the extreme upper vocal range for all parts. I can’t think of another piece that has the basses singing a high F as many times and as long as this one does. Then there was the tempo set by Maestro Tchivzhel – fast, then blindingly fast. We had to squeeze a mouthful of German syllables into such a fast pace that I don’t think any of us got all of the words correct, even in the final performance. Oh, yeah, they had to be on the right pitches and at the right dynamic, too. It was a bear.
Last night Laura and I went to see Thomas Dolby at The Handlebar. It was the first band we had seen in a long, long time – a great show, and a throwback to our college days.
Dolby is currently touring the country in his “Time Capsule Tour.” The show features lots of steam-punk kitsch, and a mocked up “time capsule” in which visitors can leave a “30 second message for the future” (basically a webcam uploading to YouTube.) The time capsule is a mini camper tricked out with steam-punk accoutrements.
I’ve mentioned before that I collect hymnals. I prefer older, antique hymnals, but I’m just as interested in newer versions, particularly if it’s from a congregation with which I’m not as familiar. One of the first things I’ll do when visiting a church is grab a hymnal to see what they are using.
On occasion I’ll Google the term “antique hymnal” to see what comes up on eBay or other sites just to see if there are some interesting hymnals available. Recently these searches have found something that really makes my skin crawl. I think the phrase is “Antique Hymnal and Ephemera Crafts” and I’ve come across this blasphemy most often on that bastion of bad taste, Etsy.com. No, I won’t be posting any links because to me that would be just like posting a link to porn.
Crafters are using old hymnal pages to create all manner of evil, from wreathes…
…to roses…
…to gift wrapping…
Sunday afternoon the Greenville Chorale Chamber Ensemble presented its annual concert at St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral. The concert was entitled “Sacred Music for a Sacred Space” and featured sacred music by contemporary composers. The pairing of music with venue was well-planned, and somewhat modeled the liturgy that might be followed in a traditional service.
Saturday morning we had our dress rehearsal in the cathedral, and I brought along my camera to get a few shots of the interior. I started with exterior shots…
…then moved to the interior to photograph the stunning mosaics above the altar.
So far we’ve looked at iOS devices as digital audio workstations, notation readers and scorers, and as musical synthesizers. This time we’re going to take a look at the devices as effects processors.
The phrase “effects processor” is a catch-all term that refers to just about any way that sound is manipulated before its amplified, recorded, etc. This could be as basic as adding reverberation to make it sound like your in a large auditorium instead of a small recording studio, or as complex as auto-tuning, looping, or otherwise radically altering the sound.
Effects devices typically took two forms. There were rack-mounted devices that controlled EQ, compression, reverb, delay, etc. Then there were performance devices. These were usually geared toward guitarists, and included the Fuzz, WahWah, Flanger, and distortion peddles. Now a whole range of effects peddles can be found. Rack-mounted effects are still important in studio work, but most of those effects can now be found on performance devices themselves, such as keyboards, etc.
Effects apps for iOS seem to look more like performance level devices, and this makes sense. The portability of the device makes it a great alternative if you needs some quick effects and don’t want to lug all your gear with you. If you’re doing a jam session or just practicing, these are great. I’m not sure how it would work in a studio setting, though.
Some time back I posted a wish list for audio file sharing. I was looking for something analogous to YouTube, but for audio only. I found two services, Audioboo and SoundCloud, that seem to work well, and I’ve been using those. However, a third one has come onto the scene. Chirbit is about audio hosting system, and it seems to meet most of my wish list items.
Chirbit as many of the same features as Audioboo and Soundcloud. It appears to be set up more on the Audioboo model, which allows user an unlimited number of files, but restricts the length of of those files. Accounts are free, but there is an upgrade to a paid version which allows longer files. Here’s an example using my traditional test file, my reading of Edgar Allen Poe’s Annabel Lee…
As with the other services, you can upload various audio files, or you can record directly into the service from your computer’s microphone. Chirbit offers two other options. First, you can strip the audio from YouTube videos to upload to the service. You input the URL for the video, and it uploads that to Chirbit.
