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WeeklyBeats.com / Music / Q-Rosh's music / spirit of art

spirit of art

By Q-Rosh on April 21, 2024 1:21 pm

what do we have here? it is an old cassette live-recording of a cembalo concert, that took place November 1987 in my parents house. They invited a musician, wo dedicated his live to the full exploration of Johan Sebastian Bachs "Kunst der Fuge". He not only learned to perform this difficult and complexe piece of music, he also constructed the cembalo on this own, to get get the best sound he could have for Bachs music interpretations.
I remember very well how he came that day with his Mercedes 200E and his cembalo in the trunk. We had to carry the instrument carefully in the livingroom, where he had to retune it for a whole day. this was as tiring as important.
In the evening, when the guests came, he became nervous, because the rising of the temparature and the humidity could cause a detuning again. Nevertheless he played beautifully and the cembalo sounded divinely good.
I could make the recording with an Aurex Toshiba System 10 and only one stereomic.(!!) I used to play violin at this time, knew a little bit about classical music and was blown away by the performance and the sound of this cembalo. It was a lasting impression, how far an artist can go for his will to achieve his goal. Many people who were in the audience, thought he was an autist or a nerdy freak, but they did not understand the spiritual and intellectual level he was at. You can hear it in the 30 seconds of their applause, how little emotions they offered for 80 minutes of pure divine music.
The next thing you can hear is my harmonium, that I have bought and repaired last year. It is like a melodica, with endless sustain. For the velocity I used the Eddie van Halen trick by Mr. Hainbach, I saw on Youtube.
unfortunately the harmonium died after the recording. the ventilator must have been damaged. I also played some drums and used a guitarjam I did on the fly. there are little effect- textures and a lot of "spirit of eden" vibes.

super chill track! sounds amazing!

the spirit of art - indeed. What a dedication to music and to Bach, to go all the way and build a cembalo. The playing is so great. In a way, it's not just the music itself, it's the culmination of all these elements. I like the thematic consistency with the harmonium, where you also went and repaired yours and recorded it. The art is in all the steps - the hardware love, the performance, the composition, and the intense passion around all aspects. Thank you for sharing this!

The Bach section is highly impressive and shows some really immense dedication to craft, both in the performance and the fact he built his own cembalo.  The transition into and out of the Talk Talk section works and you've captured that vibe really well.  I actually just went on a Talk Talk kick this past week and listened to The Colour of Spring, Spirit of Eden, and Laughing Stock pretty much back to back, so I'm definitely feeling this.

This is wonderful.

love the track and the post, really amazing, thanks for sharing!

the harpsi sections are fantastic! I listened to some classical guitar yesterday and this hits perfectly. the audience maybe seems less excited about it in the moment, but such is the magic of music that you continue to be inspired by this performance so long ago, and now you are sharing it with us! thanks!

btw: here is the guy I discovered yday on youtube, he plays one of my fav compositions - pictures at an exhibition by mussorgsky, and he also has some bach of course. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjOQ69JjTRo

horatiuromantic wrote:

the harpsi sections are fantastic! I listened to some classical guitar yesterday and this hits perfectly. the audience maybe seems less excited about it in the moment, but such is the magic of music that you continue to be inspired by this performance so long ago, and now you are sharing it with us! thanks!

btw: here is the guy I discovered yday on youtube, he plays one of my fav compositions - pictures at an exhibition by mussorgsky, and he also has some bach of course. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjOQ69JjTRo

Thanks for that link!!! This is incredible. Next level was the constant tunings he did in milliseconds.

Love it. The initial recording is so good. The vibe switch when harmonium and guitars kicks in is very nice too. Nice reverb on the drums, kick is super deep, nice journey!

i love everything about this! wow, that level of dedication is truly something. how cool that you were able to experience it live and share it with us in this format. and your parts are so inspiring. 'spirit of eden' vibes are immaculate heart

whoa! What a story. This is a beautiful track and the story adds so much to the vibe.

Wow that is an awesome story and quite the interlude for a chill harmonium track smile  Almost feels like the room is spinning around at intervals between the cembalo and your laid back lovely grooves.  Excellent recording too!

this is incredible on 10 different levels
this is like a trip around the world in 6 minutes

also shout out to your parents for being amazing to have this musician come over, wow
but interesting (and i agree) about hearing the lackluster applause

wow! this is awesome! q-rosh has the spirit!

love coming back to this

What a story and what a great journey this is! Huge respect for someone who builds a cembalo, lugs it out, retunes all day, then plays complex Bach piece. Respect that dedication! And what an intro to you creation here, as you guitar comes in its nice change to the mood. I love harmonium. I watched Krishna Das perform recently, he plays harmonium and chants some Hindi spiritual chants, was very peaceful. I need to go see what this Eddie Van Halen velocity trick is from Hainbach, sounds interesting. This piece really captures the spirit of art, thanks!

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