Stars Jingling
RESTARTING O-NEW IN THE MIDDLE OF THREE SCHOOL PROJECTS WAS NOT A GOOD IDEA
But I shall persevere! Caught up to Maou (just need to pull up the posts) and hopefully I’m back in the Musical Monday mood. But for now, posts will be approximately this long, lest I spend more effort on O-New than on school!!
戸松遥 – Q&A リサイタル! (TV Size) Transcription
I’M A TRANSCRIBER, NOT A PERFORMER
The song here is Q&A Recital!, by Haruka Tomatsu; Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun’s first OP theme.
(Music sheets (.pdf) download link)
(MIDI file download link; what this cover would sound like if I weren’t so shit at playing)
(Makemusic Finale file download link; the only reason I said ‘Makemusic’ is because it starts with ‘m’, like all the other links do)
Sorry for the horrible quality and all those mistakes. They were the product of sleepless school-induced stress and mental delusion that I could transcribe something among mountains of homework. Two words: nope. nope. nope. (I was lying about it being two words. I also apologize in advance for my lack of capitalization.)
I’m also sorry about measure 13. The melody is in the right hand, but the chords obviously glossed it over. Then again, I think the bassline was actually more interesting than the melody so that could be a good thing orz
Musikalisches Bilderbuch, No. 5 Weisse Und Schwarze Tasten II
According to the German Wikipedia, István Szelényi (no, don’t ask me how to pronounce that) was a not-German and yes-Hungarian pianist and composer, born in 1904. He studied at the Budapest Academy of Music and liked performing and editing Liszt cause they’re both Hungarian and hungary for the satiater that is ~romantic music~. Except Szelényi had “the drive to write a tonal and intelligible, while contemporary music close.” Which means that he was actually an expressionist.
He composed Musikalisches Bilderbuch (Musical Picture-Book) in 1967, just 5 years before his death at 68 years old. This Reliable Source (totally not copied from German Wikipedia) suggests that Musical Picture-Book “is one of the most stimulating educational collections of piano music of the 20th century.”
So why does nobody have a numbered song list of it?!
Music of Our Time, Book 2, Twotone
(Yes, I’m digging through old RCM pieces now that it’s finally over. Do have a listen to Das Artige Kind, another simple study.)
The title of this post is somewhat misleading because Music of Our Time, Book 2 isn’t called ‘Twotone’. Twotone is one of the pieces in the book, but I don’t know which one. Imagine it as ‘Music of Our Time, Book 2, No. ???: Twotone,’ and it doesn’t seem as confusing. Of course, ‘No. ???’ looks appallingly ugly and I wouldn’t write such a travesty if my life depended on it, but…
Music of Our Time was actually a collaboration by renowned Canadian composer Jean Coulthard, and her two students David Duke and Joan Hansen. (I really don’t know how to properly Oxford comma this sentence, so I’ll just leave it as-is.) Twotone was written by Joan Hansen, an enigmatic mortgage sales representative-cum-composer.
…Yeah, that’s not the Joan Hansen we’re talking about. Probably shouldn’t go into so much detail on a composer when we have such a short little piece to talk about.
I really like the polytonality of this. (There’s… not much more to like. What can you like about 11 bars of music?) You can distinctly hear the two different hands, and the dissonances and parallel fifths actually sound alright. The key switch in the middle section seems a bit trivial, since the left hand F-major chord in bar 7 is still natural, and you don’t actually encounter any c-sharps in the right hand there. Actually, you don’t encounter any c-sharps in the entire piece…
If the dynamics aren’t contrasting enough, blame my camera: it automatically makes soft sounds louder and loud sounds softer. I think I did pretty well, though. I fessed up at bar 10 – there’s a two-beat rest, and I only rested for one. I hope nobody uses my recording to help them learn this piece… (which isn’t in the syllabus anymore, lol)
In two words, this piece is pretty cute.
Die Anfangs-Stunden, Op. 117, No. 19 Das Artige Kind
it is late I am late today we will talk about CORNELIUS GURLITT’s marvellous étude, DAS ARTIGE KIND.
cornelius gurlitt was a classmate of the son of the leipzig conservatory head (and subsequently studied with him). he was a pretty cool guy, became a Professor of Music at the accademia nazionale di santa cecilia (which is supposedly a pretty cool thing to get). he didn’t write music to entertain, but to educate, so he wrote many studies like das artige kind
‘das artige kind’ in english is ‘the good/kind/polite child’. i think. i don’t german, i don’t want to be guilty crown
‘die anfangs-stunden’ means ‘the first lessons’, and this collection in english is ‘the first lessons: 34 short pieces for the pianoforte (opus 117)’. as you expect, das artige kind is the 19th short piece in this collection
you can read the music right here but BEWARE it may possibly be illegal somewhere i don’t know this guy’s been dead for 111 years, alright
BUT WAIT
if you scroll down you’ll see a difference; it’s played up an octave on the second part. well my OFFICIAL ROYAL CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC NEW PIANO SERIES STUDIES ALBUM 1 & 2 suggests otherwise. what i play comes from my rcm studies book, not the gurlitt collection version (the publisher’s name isn’t even listed there…)
what’s more, i don’t even know when he composed this, or even when it was first published. that’s why for composition date i just wrote ‘between 1820-1901’, since it’s doubtful he composed this before his birth or after his death
anyways that is all. see if you can spot the bulbasaur hidden among my pants
Parallel 5ths
Oh hey, another Musical Monday!
Remember last Musical Monday, when I posted about Stephen Chatman’s Ginger Snaps? Neither do I! Here’s another composition that features parallel fifths like there’s no tomorrow. What’s it called?
…Parallel 5ths.
Organ Music
I’m currently in Philadelphia, staying at my uncles’ place. They have a pipe organ. They both play it. It’s pretty damn awesome. And so, I have discovered organ music. Here. Have a Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor (probably the most famous organ piece there is).
Preludes for Piano, Book 3, No. 3 Ginger Snaps
Welcome to another (late) Musical Monday! Today’s piece of music is titled… wait, I’ll let you guys guess…
..that’s right! It’s titled Friday, featuring the beloved Rebecca Black Ginger Snaps, written by Stephen Chatman in his music collection, Preludes for Piano, Book 3 between 1999 and 2001. Yep, it’s a recent (21st-century!) composition, and as you’d expect from recent compositions, it defies conventions a little bit.
パラダイム (TV Size) Transcription
Is that what you guys see there! A KOKORO CONNECT OP piano transcription? With sheet music?!
BY MADOKA, IT IS!! Wow!!! Amazing!!!! I should really start watching the anime I’m going to blog this season now instead of transcribing random OPs! …really
Le Pianiste Virtuose en 60 Exercices, Nos. 21 – 43
It’s time for the long-awaited sequel to Charles-Louis Hanon’s Le Pianiste Virtuose en 60 Exercices!! Well, not really, because Le Pianiste Virtuose en 60 Exercices (The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises) doesn’t have a sequel. No, this is the sequel to my first post about the Virtuoso Pianist, and in this part, we’ll cover pianos, fingers, and not much else. If you’re reading this series for the first time, do read the first post’s introduction first. Really. Seriously. Honestly. Lie. Wait, no, it’s not a lie, it’s a -ly
We’ve moved past the Preparatory Exercises, so now, it’s time for harder exercises. In fact, you could even say they’re ‘Transcendent Exercises For Preparing The Fingers For The Virtuoso Exercises’. That’s what Hanon says. I mean, said, because he’s dead (hey, that rhymes), which means… woohoo, we’re still doing preparatory exercises…
Engrish Soramimi: Call Me Maybe… Later
Welcome back to another bout of bad Engrish soramimi! Why do I say ‘bad Engrish soramimi’? Because the singer’s Engrish is bad, its inherent badness is Engrish, and my soramimi isn’t actual soramimi, it’s just a bad mondegreen. Why is it a bad mondegreen? Because the singer’s Engrish is bad.
But how can the singer’s Engrish be bad? ‘Call Me Maybe’ is an English song, sung by an English singer, right?
No, we’re not talking about ‘Call Me Maybe’… we’re talking about ‘Call Me Later’, a 1970s R&B song by FOXY.
Wait actually no that’s in English too wait that’s not right
Le Pianiste Virtuose en 60 Exercices, Nos. 1 – 20
It’s Musical Monday, and perhaps just playing Czerny all the time has gotten a little boring for you guys. But don’t sweat, because I’ve got something much more exciting prepared, just for you: Hanon exercises, instead!
Charles-Louis Hanon’s Le Pianiste Virtuose en 60 Exercices (The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercise) is an (in)famous collection of (you guessed it) 60 piano exercises, meant for developing finger and wrist strength, agility, endurance, flexbility, suppleness, you name it. Ask any piano teacher or pianist what the most useful book of exercises are for the piano, and half will probably name Hanon’s. Ask the ones that don’t what the most harmful book of exercises are for the piano, and chances are, they’ll probably all name Hanon’s.
But: you must have at least a year of keyboarding experience before starting Hanon practice. Starting it too early will a) dumb down your musical sense b) force you into amateurish hand postures and c) be impossible to play. If you’re here and want to learn how to play piano, Lypur’s ‘Learn How to Play Piano’ playlist is the perfect tutorial for you! Well, maybe it’s not perfect, and maybe it’s not for you, but do give it a shot. (Look, he’s even made a video about the Virtuoso Pianist and Erster Wiener Lehrmeister im Pianofortespiel!)
Like it or hate it, every pianist has encountered Hanon’s exercises sometime in their lifetime. Thus, in this series of posts, I’ll be venturing to play them all. Like a Pokémon master but without the Poké, without the mon, without the mast, and without the er.
Erster Wiener Lehrmeister im Pianofortespiel, Op. 599, Nos. 41 – 60
Two posts ago, I began my quest. My quest to play all 100 exercises in Carl Czerny’s book of beginner piano études, Erster Wiener Lehrmeister im Pianofortespiel. What is a piano étude? Well, my previous post explains this and much less (that is to say, it does not explain much more than this), and I strongly suggest you start from the very beginning if you are trying to learn piano.
Actually, if you are trying to learn piano, I strongly suggest you do not try Czerny’s piano exercises at all. The learning curve is too steep, and without a proper piano teacher, your form and posture will be all incorrect. I do not count as a proper piano teacher because my form and posture is already incorrect and its incorrectness is already incorrigible.
This post, we’ll talk about posture, technique, and another guy, Hanon, ‘s exercises. That’s improper grammar and punctuation, but I want to pronounce ‘Hanon’ with pauses at each end, and ‘s exercises together as one word, because English is stupid and French liaisons sound really, really good. Unlike my performances of the following exercises.
Erster Wiener Lehrmeister im Pianofortespiel, Op. 599, Nos. 21 – 40
Last post, I announced my great expedition to record all 100 exercises from Carl Czerny’s book of études, Erster Wiener Lehrmeister im Pianofortespiel (no, don’t ask me how to pronounce that).
This Musical Monday, you will learn about accidentals and key signatures, the qualities of an étude, and of the history behind this collection.
But without further ado, let us begin with post two (hey, that was a rhyming couplet!).
شيء من شيء ~ Paradigm Shift
Something can’t be made from nothing. So what’s it from?
Something’s from something.
Download Links
Sheet music, replete with broken Unicode Arabic;
Mspaint image, replete with broken pixellated Arabic;
Finale file, replete with broken Unicode Arabic.
Erster Wiener Lehrmeister im Pianofortespiel, Op. 599, Nos. 1 – 20
Alright, guys, it’s time for a new piano project!
That sentence was misleading, because it somewhat implies that I have completed older piano projects, whereas in fact, I have not completed any piano projects! Nor started any, for that matter… until now.
What is the project? The project is to play all 100 pieces in Carl Czerny’s Erster Wiener Lehrmeister im Pianofortespiel (lit. “First Viennese Masters in Piano Playing” (courtesy of Google Translate), or ‘Practical Exercises for Beginners on the Pianoforte’), Opus 599.
Les Gymnopédies
I TOLD YOU GUYS I WOULD GIVE YOU MUSIC VIDEOS
SO HERE YOU GO
VIDEOS OF MUSIC. THREE OF THEM. SCROLL DOWN.
O-REW 9: Loli Salad
Were you expecting a post? Hahaha, THERE IS NONE. There would be, if I had more than 2 minutes to write something today, but I don’t because I’m going away for the rest of today to do suspicious secretive things that Mushyrulez would do. There also would be, if you applied to write for O-New, in which case, your post would be here, and not this post which IS NOT A POST because it has no content.
ts;dr: Loli Salad is about salads. Of lolis. EXCEPT IT DOESN’T. I started reading Loli Salad expecting to find SALADS of LOLICONS, because I’m secretly an FBI agent (like all anibloggers on the Internet) who wants to arrest as many lolicons as possible. Instead, I get a blog… about MUSIC. Who even LIKES music, anyways?! C’mon, music?!
2012 Winter Anime First Impressions Part One
Oh, hey. Welcome to February. Note that the first anime of this season aired nearly a month ago (Natsume, on January 3rd). Back in my day, they called me the lATEM@STER. Because I write posts. That are late. Hahaha. That’s not even a pun what am I typing
Here, read my season previews. They’re decent. And by decent I mean they’re not horrible. That is to say, they’re merely bad and/or mediocre. Just read those god-damned posts and come back here and read this god-damned post and like, just, damn yourself, god
Before anyone accuses me of espousing anime as an entertaining, interesting, and fun medium of communication, let me disclaim myself with a disclaimer that I believe fully fits the mood of this post.
[Disclaimer: ANIME SUCKS]
Persona 4 OP: Dreamin’
Hey guys, Katawa Shoujo update. So, uh, [SPOILER ALERT] here’s a whole user-made flowchart about every possible route in the game. He’s done it so you don’t have to play! …The number of choices actually seems quite small, but I don’t play visual novels, so I wouldn’t know! =3=
Unlike THE LYRICS GOD ONLY KNOWS CHALLENGE, I actually know the lyrics of this OP, so it was harder to make it not make sense.
tl;dr: here are the lyrics to the persona 4 opening. it’s about what i dream when i sleep
Königliche März ~ And Then the Sun Came Out
I was going to put this into yesterday’s post since it happened yesterday, but Horizon did not fit the mood. This piece does, somewhat, because it sounds hopeful, which is better than sounding silly. See, my grandma is dying, and my dad has flown back to be with her until she dies, which will be in less than a month. Königliche März means ‘Royal March’ – while it’s not a funeral march, if I were to die, I’d rather die with this music than with morbid, requiem-esque sounds.
“’twas a downcast day
our troops’ morale was suff’ring
then, behold! yonder,
the sun came out, and our path
illuminated”
O-New 
Black★Rock Shooter (TV) 2
Then MAKE IT DOUBLE, cause it’s time for MORE SORAMIMI! The funny thing is, these lyrics (thanks, Atashi!) AREN’T MISHEARD, because they’re IN JAPANESE! Thankfully, we’ve provided a timely (read: late) English translation for all you Australians out there seeking to drink a sip of a pint of beer or cheer or fuck this let’s go
BURAKKU★ROKKU SHUUTAA (TV) EPISOODO NI DA, DOKO E ITTA NO? KIKOEMASU KA?
(TL Note: ‘BURAKKU★ROKKU SHUUTAA (TV) EPISOODO NI DA, DOKO E ITTA NO? KIKOEMASU KA?’ means ‘I didn’t finish writing this Black★Rock Shooter (TV) Episode Two post… yet’ in English.)
(Post-Post Edit: Now I realize why this post was late. The episode wasn’t subbed when I published it. I hope you’ll forgive me. Without further ado, I present to you: this post.)
I boast of posts»
2012/02/09 | Categories: Animanga | Tags: Animanga, Anime, Anime 2012 Winter, Anime Post, Arts, Black★Rock Shooter (TV), Commentary, Engrish, Images, Links, Lyrics, Mushz, Music, Soramimi, This Post is Not Actually About What the Title Says It's About, Videos, Vocaloid, zoom zoom zoom | 6 Comments