I really enjoyed John Cage in class the other day so I decided to find some more of his music! Enjoy!
I also enjoyed the 12 Girls Band and decided to find some more by them! I came across Clocks and absolutely fell in love with song all over again!
The Sheng really intrigued me today! I decided to explore! Here ya go!
I really loved the cover of Clocks. I shared your reaction of falling in love with the song all over again. The 12 Girls Band is pretty awesome. I considered putting them in my cool stuff entry, but had other things that I wanted to explore.
ReplyDeleteI didn't share your enjoyment of John Cage in class the other day, so the first video was not my favorite, although I didn't dislike it as much as I thought I was going to.
Nicely done. I found this video of a women playing the Erhu with an orchestra. It was incredible and I have to admit, I had never seen it done before. Interesting Chinese boy...sounds like it has scottish influence. I guess you could call that instrument the Bagpipes of China? Or an accordion?? Hmmmmm...
ReplyDeleteJohn Cage's prepared piano sounds really cool. It sounded similar to electronica music. The only thing is that it isn't really electronic. The instrumental version of "clocks", that the 12 Girl Band plays, sounded different and more interesting because of all the different instruments that were being used. It is so neat how this talented group of musicians formed a band. They even play internationally and get to travel. The persistence of the Sheng player is really amazing. He must have really strong arms to be able to hold and play the Sheng for that long with no rest.
ReplyDeleteIt amazes me that John Cage was able to fix the piano so that it makes those sounds! I would have never guessed that those sounds were coming from a piano! The 12 Girls Band is really amazing! Of course, I like Clocks too, so that was a plus. I thought that the boy playing the Sheng was really nice, but I sort of felt bad for him, because he had to stand outside playing that piece.
ReplyDeleteI would really love nothing more than to tamper with a piano and learn the John Cage piece. Unfortunately, I don't have one at my disposal!
ReplyDeleteI like Coldplay, and the remake of their song by the Twelve Girls Band was very interesting. I liked how the instruments took on the verses as solos, highlighting a variety of instruments. This is a true example of the "East Meets West" concept by taking fairly popular Western pop/rock music and combining it with Eastern instruments.
The Sheng, for some reason, brought the bassoon to my mind (though the timbre is not even remotely similar...in fact nothing about it seems really similar!). This struck me in class the other day by the way the instrument comes to the mouth much like a bocal on a bassoon. Just a thought. :)
I can't believe all those amazing sounds come out of a prepared piano! I love it, especially now that we learned that he was influenced by other cultures' music. It's cool when composers expose a whole new audience to new musical concepts. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm amazed at how many of you folks posted the same 12 Girls Band video--must be a popular song! And I almost showed that same video of the sheng player in class--always tricky trying to pick what NOT to show...
ReplyDeleteFollow up on John Cage--he has some really interesting stuff out there. In fact, check out the score of his "Aria" in the library--you might be a bit surprised...