McFerrin/Bach/Gounod

Pearls Before Breakfast

Joshua Bell is one of the world's greatest violinists. His instrument of choice is a multimillion-dollar Stradivarius. If he played it for spare change, incognito, outside a bustling Metro stop in Washington, would anyone notice? Click here to find out.

How NOT To Release A Piano Album

Masterpieces Or Fakes? The Joyce Hatto Scandal - Gramophone article

Click here for audio examples & digital audio analysis -
Joyce Hatto: The Ultimate Recording Hoax - http://www.pristineclassical.com/HattoHoax.html

Rachmaninoff's Big Hands

Rachmaninoff's Big Hands - http://www.igudesmanandjoo.com/video/igujoo_rachmaninov.htm
(forwarded by Alan Steinberger)

Ouch, and True

Forwarded by violinist Marcy Vaj:

Dave runs into Bob on the street in Manhattan. "Bob! I haven't seen you in years! What have you been up to?"

Bob says, "Well, when we last worked together, I was playing tenor and soprano."
Dave says, "Yeah I remember that."
Bob says, "Well, I started writing for that band."
Dave says, "Really? I never heard about that."
Bob says, "Yeah, and then I published a bunch of the charts for student bands."
Dave says, "Really? I never heard about that."
Bob says, "Yeah, and it worked out pretty well, and I started getting commissions."
Dave says, "Really? I never heard about that."
Bob says, "Yeah, and then I started writing for the Kenton and Herman bands."
Dave says, "Really? I never heard about that."
Bob says, "Yeah, it worked out pretty well. Then I got in touch with some Hollywood guys, and I started writing for pop records."
Dave says, "Really? I never heard about that."
Bob says, "That went pretty well, and I actually got nominated for a Grammy for writing."
Dave says, "Really? I never heard about that."
Bob says, "That went pretty well, and I started writing for movie soundtracks."
Dave says, "Really? I never heard about that."
Bob says, "Yeah, and I got nominated for an Oscar for my writing on a feature film."
Dave says, "Really? I never heard about that."
Bob says, "Yeah, it was pretty cool. Once I got nominated, the writing work really started pouring in."
Dave says, "Really? I never heard about that."
Bob says, "Yeah - amazing. Pop groups, studio sessions, commercials, new bands, diva singers, everything."
Dave says, "Really? That's amazing. I never heard about that."
Bob says, "Well, but the problem was, I really let my sax chops slide."
Dave says, "Really?"
Bob says, "In fact, I'm in town to receive another writing award, and I just sat in this morning at a jam session down in the Village."
Dave says, "Really?"
Bob says, "Yeah, and it didn't go too well - I've been away from the horn for quite a while."
Dave says, "Really."
Bob says, "So, I took a couple of solos, and they weren't very good."
Dave says, "Yeah, I heard about that."

Most Horrible Sound in the World

Most Horrible Sound in the World


http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/01/24/most-disgusting-sound-in-the-world/

Listen to Old Piano Rolls on your computer

Also from Howard Levitsky:

http://www.trachtman.org/rollscans

A good friend of mine has posted on his website MIDI files of player piano rolls he has optically scanned and converted, using software he developed. It's an enormous project, also involving recutting rolls that would otherwise be lost to age and damage. He's got close to 2000 titles so far, carefully indexed and sortable in many ways. (Only the titles in public domain are publically downloadable.) I've attached 4 of them: Gershwin playing "Swanee", Zez Confrey playing his "Kitten on the Keys" and two other songs played by the famous 2-piano team Arden and Ohman. They'll play on Quicktime or any other MIDI-playing application.

My friend, BTW, is an MIT-trained engineer... And one of the Good Guys. This project is a hobby and he's made the results available to all.