my neighbor is trying to learn bach's tocatta and fugue on saxophone

[JVS]

this should be fun for the next few days

[pagerbear]

1. Which toccata? Which fugue? For that matter, which Bach?

[bridgit]

26. bet'cha dollars to donuts it's this one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipzR9bhei_o&mode=related&search= i love Bach, he's so orderly, so filled with good industry :headbang:

edited to put this one in too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-HefyaeQAA

[pagerbear]

32. Mmmmmm.....donuts......

:donut:

[FloridaJudy]

41. On the sax?

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{shudder}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
:yoiks:

I'd invest in a good set of earplugs. I need them anyway because the laundry room in my complex plays Faux News continuously: even an amateur saxophone is preferable.

[swag]

2. Haven't tried d minor on a saxophone myself.

Best of luck with all that.

[Lisa]

3. good luck. My neighbor's learning the bagpipes ...

And my landlord's daughter is just getting started on the violin.

[Bjornsdotter]

12. Okay

...I know it's really NOT funny, but that's funny!

I do feel sorry for you...:hug:

[Lisa]

37. the weird thing is, I actually don't mind bagpipe music

When I was growing up back in Ontario, there was a guy down the street who practised his piping in a field back of our house. So there's that kind of nostalgic appeal for me.

However, my landlord's daughter ... a nice kid, but nobody can help making squawking noises when they're just starting out ... plus, her dad has decided to start practicing the piano again, and I can hear the violin screeches filtering down the air ducts from her room, mixed with her dad's butchering of Beatles instrumental tunes filtering down from the other set of ducts ... I don't have much of a choice, beyond getting industrial-strength earplugs or fleeing the house!

Thanx for the hug -- any chance I could hang out at your place so I don't have to "face the music"?

[Bjornsdotter]

38. Anytime

...like you I don't mind bagpipe music, it's the learning part that might be an issue. My kids learned to play the sax and the trumpet at the same time. While they would practice together the dog would howl, I just wanted to cry.....but the best part was watching my neighbors run around and shut their windows.

Come on over anytime, you are always welcome!

:toast:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

4. I often wonder what music Bach would have written

specifically for saxophone, clarinet, and electric guitar.

He was so innovative. I'm sure he would have written for them if he'd lived long enough.

[JVS]

6. Bach on the electric razor

http://www.musanim.com/mp3/OHauptVollBlutUndWunden.mp3

Deena: We're going to warm up with something easy, a Bach
chorale, number eighty, O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden.

Stephen: (under) Schnitt er sich beim Rasiermesser?

Deena: (off) Huh?

Group: (they play O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden)

Stephen: Don't you feel it's a little...uh, sacrilegious to play
Bach on electric razors? I mean, some purists
disapprove of playing Bach on any modern instrument,
like the piano...

Deena: (interrupts, with mock serious paraphrase) "If Bach had
had the electric razor, he would have written for it."

http://www.musanim.com/mam/razor.htm

[Lionel Mandrake]

15. ich habe das O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden gehört.

Es war schrecklich. :puke:

[Canuckistanian]

5. All I know is

Playing "Flight of the Bumblebee" on a kazoo should be illegal.

[KitchenWitch]

7. you mean the horror movie theme Toccatta and Fugue?

Bet that sounds DANDY on the sax.

:eyes:

[Oeditpus Rex]

8. Maybe it'll sound as good as the Temple City Kazoo Orchestra

doing "Also Sprach Zarathustra" and "Whole Lotta Love."

:)

[ruiner4u]

9. On a sax?

sounds interesting.. id love to hear that if they are successful...

[Elidor]

10. This will end badly

If you want to torture him, you could slip the sheet music for Sinding's Rustle of Spring under his door.

Make sure he doesn't own any guns first. He might go over the edge.

[Blue-Jay]

11. You can't really play a fugue on a single saxophone.

Polyphony is a bitch.

EDIT: The D Minor toccata & fugue sounds crappy when transcribed for a sax quartet too. Bach's numerous string quartets work well, however.

[Lionel Mandrake]

13. Could anything sound good when transcribed for a sax quartet?

The problem is that one sax sounds just like another. The individual voices blend together and are lost.

If I recall correctly, the D Minor toccata & fugue was the opening salvo in the original Fantasia. It sounds okay to me as conducted by Leopold Stokowski. I would go so far as to say that the orchestral version is an improvement. It's easier to hear separate voices when they are played by different instruments.

[Blue-Jay]

14. That's funny.

(and by "funny" I mean "ignorant")

The thing that is great about saxophones is that there is still no consensus about how a saxophone actually should sound. (Unless you're a Sigurd Rascher fan, or as I like to call them "idiots")

It's easier to hear separate voices when they are played by different instruments.

You are aware that the soprano, alto, tenor, and bari saxes are "different instruments", aren't you?

[Lionel Mandrake]

17. Yes of course they are different,

but they aren't different enough. String quartets sound good. Brass ensembles sound good. Sax quartets do not sound good.

A single saxophone can be beautiful. Two different ones (say an alto and a tenor) often sound good together. Three or more is a mess, IMHO.

[Blue-Jay]

19. Yeah, OK.

[ChoralScholar]

20. This argument is pointless

nothing can sound more 'the same' than two keys on the same instrument. When Bach wrote these pieces for the Harpsichord and later the Clavier, the voices of the counterpoint were (obviously) played on the same instrument, and rang with identical timbre.

So, then, why would it be necessary for the voices in the counterpoint to sound different for the piece to sound good?

Given what's been said, a sax quartet would almost give the illusion of the fugue being played on one instrument (moreso than a brass quartet, anyway).

[Blue-Jay]

21. No argument is pointless!

I wanna FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!

Nice post, BTW, ya wanker.

[ChoralScholar]

22. I'M a wanker? :)

[Blue-Jay]

25. If you're not, I'd worry about you.

[ChoralScholar]

27. well.. yeah...

I just wondered if you'd been skulking outside my window a while ago....

[Lionel Mandrake]

28. Listen to the concerto for violin and oboe in C Minor, BWV 1060,

and then listen to the same piece played on two harpsichords.

I prefer the former. I predict you will, too.

[ChoralScholar]

29. Possibly so... EOM

[JVS]

31. with an organ there can be multiple voices due to the multiple keyboards and stop adjustments

[bridgit]

34. You forgot to mention what P.D.Q. Bach mentioned by way of development referred to as...

The Tootsie Roll http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mwm/pdq/disc.html

[Lionel Mandrake]

35. Yes, and a good organist will use all that variety to best effect,

but the same piece transcribed for orchestra will usually sound better (to me) than the original. You just can't beat an orchestra for the variety of sounds and the enormous dynamic range.

JS Bach's keyboard music generally remains intact when transcribed, IMHO. Others may disagree with me on this.

[EFerrari]

16. My brother is a working jazz sax.

But, when he was a kid, he was a total jock and he got this thing that made his bones grow too fast so he had to lay off ALL SPORTS for about two years.

My mom got him a sax to keep him busy.

And I'll never forget being out in the garden with Mom, weeding and cleaning up when we heard THE MOST HORRIBLE NOISE IN THE WORLD coming from the livingroom. A herd of elephants in labor!

She looked at me like, "What did I DO!"

LOL

[ChoralScholar]

18. I don't understand the point of learning polyphonic music on

a solo instrument. Bach's music has so many harmonies that are implied by the passing contrapuntal voices, I think playing it on the sax would sound... well... empty. (not to mention harmonically ambiguous)

</music nerd>

[EFerrari]

23. I thought harmonic ambiguity was a post modern statement

albeit, a community nuisance.

:rofl:

[ChoralScholar]

24. true...

although it's not a statement the elder Bach would have made, I don't believe.

Now, Schoenberg, on the other hand.....

[Manifestor_of_Light]

30. Does he know about Larry Adler?

Larry Adler was a famous harmonica player who did lots of classical stuff.

My piano & fiddle teacher once brought me a record of Larry Adler playing the Vivaldi A minor violin concerto. Weird.

[LanternWaste]

33. For your sake,

For your sake, I hope your neighbor is high school age or older (or better yet a prodigy), otherwise it's going to be a looong week for you. My condolences...

[mikeytherat]

36. How 'bout a pianist, with tiny hands, spending a weekend with Rachmaninoff?

Good times man, good times. I think we turned, "She'll never be able to stretch that/can the left hand join fast enough?" into a drinking game. Either that, or we "accompanied" her with our best Steve Vai/Todd Tukisher guitar and bass wankery. Actually, I think we did both.

mikey_the_rat

[EstimatedProphet]

39. Right up there with Beethoven's Fifth on the mouth harp.

[redqueen]

40. On a SAX?!

:rofl:

That's... umm... interesting...