Unusual Combinations that Just Work Out

[cotten]

I confess. I have eclectic tastes, okay, weird, tastes in music. That means I enjoy everything from Bluegrass to Bartók and beyond. But even then I find myself unnecessarily hemmed in. I tend to picture only certain instruments in a string quartet, a jazz band, a recorder concert, or rock band. But sometimes unexpected instrument combinations can produce amazing music! Imagine, if you will, a Big Band Jazz ensemble playing a minor key concerto by J.S. Bach, with an accordion as the featured solo. Molto weird, I know, but listen. It works! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWD9NnI0W0k

I'd love to see other unusual instrument combinations that work.

cotten

[fatt-dad]

my buddy and I are doing the Bach 2-part Inventions on mandolin and guitar. Written for keyboard, I'm doing the right hand, he's doing the left on guitar. We also performed Telemann's Canonic Sonata in G on mandolin and hammered dulcimer. These were written as a flute duet. Next up? We are going to perform one of Bach's three part Inventions on 12-string guitars.

It's fun to re-imagine these long-hair pieces!

f-d

[cotten]

I'd love to hear these, fatt-dad, or to see you guys in action!

cotten

[fazool]

I think of Buddy Green

[buddyhu]

That is a pleasure! Thanks for sharing.

[Silly Moustache]

This reminds me of the sleeve notes of a 1967 album by John Mayall (famous British bluesman) who used a celeste on one of the tracks - "Harp Man".

Famous and much loved DJ John Peel wrote : "There is no truth to the rumours that the Bluesbreakers will be using dulcimer, sackbut and psaltery. Let's face it, guttural cries of "Let's hear your sackbut, son!" can only lead to violence."

[tbeltrans]

A lot of interesting sonic material has been done with synthesizers and samplers, where such musical combinations are readily available to the keyboard player. You might recall "Switched On Bach", which was followed in later years by similar experiments of classical music and with various combinations of "instruments".

Tony

[Herb Hunter]

How about the combination of a master guitarist and a nylon string guitar replacing an entire military band?

[fatt-dad]

Originally Posted by cotten

I'd love to hear these, fatt-dad, or to see you guys in action!

cotten

We do need to consider youtube - heck, maybe just recording one day. . .

Amateur hobbyists is about all we are. . . It is a lot of fun. We have performed though - done a wedding and such. Just never recorded our duets.

We also do a few of the Celtic tunes of O'Carolan. He was a blind harpist in the 1700s that went door to door appealing to the kindnesses of folks. In response, he'd write music for the host.

f-d

[Dru Edwards]

Unusual combinations that just work out - peanut butter and chocolate . Works for me.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by fatt-dad

...We also do a few of the Celtic tunes of O'Carolan. He was a blind harpist in the 1700s that went door to door appealing to the kindnesses of folks. In response, he'd write music for the host...

You might appreciate this - the late Tom Rowe (bass player extraordinaire, BTW) on pennywhistle, brothers Steve and Chuck Romanoff on 6- and 12-string guitars respectively:

Originally Posted by cotten

...I tend to picture only certain instruments in a string quartet, a jazz band, a recorder consort, or rock band. But sometimes unexpected instrument combinations can produce amazing music!

I'm sure that when you hear the term "archtop guitar," the first image that comes to mind is those Big Band players chunking out four-to-the-bar rhythm on an old Epiphone or Gibson; however, most contemporary players are unaware that there was an entire school of "classical archtop" guitar that flourished from about 1925-1940, and upon which Mel Bay based his method. When I was learning in the early-60's the method books bore a statement that they were in fact designed and intended to place the plectrum-style guitar "in the same class as the violin, piano, and other 'legitimate' instruments" (and if you've never hung around in certain so-called "serious" music circles it's difficult to imagine the pejorative attitude directed toward the guitar, even in its "classical" incarnation)...

FYI, in its original form the classical archtop movement drew from the earlier American school of classical guitar exemplified by the likes of William Foden, Vahdah Olcott-Bickford, et al. (rather than that of Segovia and his Spanish contemporaries, which would become the accepted concert style and instrument), as well as the parlor, "light classical," and vaudeville music of late-19th/early 20th century America. In addition to transcriptions of well-known classical repertoire (which the Spanish-school players also did), a number of guitarists of the day produced original compositions in a late-Romantic style - music which, while largely out of fashion today, still retains its technical and artistic merit eighty or more years later. Bear in mind that the original 1923 L-5 archtop guitar was in fact envisioned as a "classical" instrument both tonally and visually, intended as a part of the mandolin orchestras of the late vaudeville era and designed for hall-filling acoustic projection in the days before electronic amplification; were it not for Segovia's sensational American debut in 1928, the plectrum-style archtop guitar - with its violin-family looks and construction - may well have become the accepted "classical" guitar...

BTW there are a number of recordings of these period pieces on YouTube, either in the original (by the likes of Harry Volpe, Al Hendrickson, et al.) or re-recorded by contemporary revivalists; finally, there's an excellent collection published by Mel Bay, entitled Masters of the Plectrum Guitar, that should give you a taste of what might have been...

[fatt-dad]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

You might appreciate this - the late Tom Rowe (bass player extraordinaire, BTW) on pennywhistle, brothers Steve and Chuck Romanoff on 6- and 12-string guitars respectively:




I'm sure that when you hear the term "archtop guitar," the first image that comes to mind is those Big Band players chunking out four-to-the-bar rhythm on an old Epiphone or Gibson; however, most contemporary players are unaware that there was an entire school of "classical archtop" guitar that flourished from about 1925-1940, and upon which Mel Bay based his method. When I was learning in the early-60's the method books bore a statement that they were in fact designed and intended to place the plectrum-style guitar "in the same class as the violin, piano, and other 'legitimate' instruments" (and if you've never hung around in certain so-called "serious" music circles it's difficult to imagine the pejorative attitude directed toward the guitar, even in its "classical" incarnation)...

FYI, in its original form the classical archtop movement drew from the earlier American school of classical guitar exemplified by the likes of William Foden, Vahdah Olcott-Bickford, et al. (rather than that of Segovia and his Spanish contemporaries, which would become the accepted concert style and instrument), as well as the parlor, "light classical," and vaudeville music of late-19th/early 20th century America. In addition to transcriptions of well-known classical repertoire (which the Spanish-school players also did), a number of guitarists of the day produced original compositions in a late-Romantic style - music which, while largely out of fashion today, still retains its technical and artistic merit eighty or more years later. Bear in mind that the original 1923 L-5 archtop guitar was in fact envisioned as a "classical" instrument both tonally and visually, intended as a part of the mandolin orchestras of the late vaudeville era and designed for hall-filling acoustic projection in the days before electronic amplification; were it not for Segovia's sensational American debut in 1928, the plectrum-style archtop guitar - with its violin-family looks and construction - may well have become the accepted "classical" guitar...

BTW there are a number of recordings of these period pieces on YouTube, either in the original (by the likes of Harry Volpe, Al Hendrickson, et al.) or re-recorded by contemporary revivalists; finally, there's an excellent collection published by Mel Bay, entitled Masters of the Plectrum Guitar, that should give you a taste of what might have been...

We play that piece. Can't recall the name we give it though? Great melody!
We swap the melody lines on guitar and mandolin.

f-d

[Long Jon]

Some nice stuff there guys !

This is well worth sticking with, once past the little bit of comedy patter intro ... It gets pretty amazing !

[cotten]

Great stuff, folks! Keep 'em coming.

cotten

[blue]

Goat cheese and blackberry jam!

Ooops. Wrong thread...