George Martin's influence is unmistakeable. The Beatles would never have musically progressed beyond Rubber Soul without Sir George.

You're stating that the Dominican Republic and Cuba weren't Spanish influenced? How about Puerto Rico? They all speak French too? On which Earth? Earth 2 of the DC comic Universe?

Beethoven is tired of rolling in his grave. Have pity on him and wrap it up folks! This is sounding like the Tower of Babel anyway and the bandwidth surely can be put to better use.

What on earth does Dominica have to do with the Dominican Republic or Cuba?

Steven

That's a really good point. Probably another factor was the "bigger than Jesus" scandal which forced them to become a studio band.

Actually it's been productive. I found out about and ordered a book analyzing Joplin's late works as a result of the conversation that I probably would not have found otherwise. So it isn't a waste of time really.

Definitely not a waste of time. I learned what makes alot of board members tick in this thread! Where all the sweet spots are, so to speak.

I'm still wondering how anyone who knows the Caribbean so very well would confuse Dominica with the Dominican Republic.

Steven

I think you credit Martin more than he, himself would. Of course if you can call Yellow Submarine progress, I suppose you would be right. At any rate, my Beatles comment was meant as a joke about the length of this thread.

eweiss said: "Personally, I see art simply - either you like it or you don't."

Hrodulf said: "I would hope we can all agree on this, it's what I've been trying to get across here."

Hrodulf later says: "Sgt peppers is pretty profound. They generally did a great job with their lyrics and writing very strong material. I'd put them on a very high level of musical achievement."

That's all I've been trying to get across. There is a level of musical achievement ("level" implying judgement on a scale). Note that you also used the word "musical," encompassing all music and didn't say specifically popular music achievement.

And that has been my point.

I never said that everyone had the same level of musical achievement, only that you cannot stereotype the quality of an individual work within a genre just because of what genre it is. Recognizing the special talent of the beatles is not inconsistent with this idea, as is recognizing the special talent of, say, Oscar Peterson or Ravi Schenkar. Which of the three is better is a matter of preference, not objective fact.

You can't objectively say one kind of music is the best because the composers worked in different forms and had different goals. You can't judge a football game by baseball rules.

Also search "bone doctor" and "sweet georgia brown" on youtube.com .

BJones says:
Definitely not a waste of time. I learned what makes alot of board members tick in this thread! Where all the sweet spots are, so to speak.

Shouldn't you be improvising on another Chopin Etude? or perhaps the Diabelli BJones variations? I see the same one minute pieces in your signature since you registered up...I am sure your teacher would not approve of the prolonged idleness.:( Clearly your participation in this forum is not making you tick!.

Don't fret over my being idle. I improvise on all the Chopin Etudes. And the beauty about the way I play them is that they're different every time, no two alike. Where most jazz musicians improvise on chord patterns from standards alone, I cull most of my improvisatory material from classical through 21st century cmpositions. I've recorded thousands of them too. I always keep a cassette tape running when I sit to play. Some, like my short Chopin example, are so good, that I've written them out. I have thousands of transcriptions of my own improvs., what I felt were better ones, worthy of writing out. I have one of improvs based on Liszt's Campanella that's about 7 minutes long that even the best virtuosos would give their eye teeth to be able to play.
I have others, like three 5 minute plus improvs based on Sorabji's Carmen Pastiche, that every pianist who has seen the music swears can't possibly be played, until they hear my actual improvisations!
Sadly, I haven't bothered copywriting all my music, yet, so of course, I'm reluctant to post my music on a message board, beyond three short examples of piano improvisations out of thousands of much longer ones committed to tape and paper.
I appreciate your deep concers for me, BTW.

You are welcome.
Give it up and let us hear it though. If you improvised thousands, surely you can afford to spare more than 3 minutes' worth. It is all about the love of music after all.
And it sounds like you are safe with the Sorabji; since nobody can play it, they are less likely to be able to transcribe it.
And I hope you have got enough pennies saved up for that video camera. I, for one, would really like to watch you play. Seriously, now.

Your work is great, I'm very impressed.

By the way, have you seen this:

Hamelin - Triple Etude d'Apres Chopin

See these also:

Cziffra's crazy improv with Chopin Etude

Circus Galop - Marc-Andre Hamelin

I guess BJones isn't going to explain where Spanish is spoken in the Commonwealth of Dominica. I hope someone with such an interest in Caribbean culture that he urges others to do some research into it can make some time for that himself.

Steven

It's not. I meant to write Dominican Republic, becasue I was citing one island with a Spanish influence, and I wrote Dominica instead.

Then pray for my hands to one day be healthy and stay healthy so I can resume a performing career that I was forced to abandon while still a teen. Then you can buy a ticket and be amazed. For the purpose of a short example of my style, the 4 minutes of music I have posted in my sig line is a good enough example.
But since you ask, here's one I posted in the composer's section. A completely, real-time improvised 4 voice fugue based on the the theme of "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man", played on a Korg synth with the Chamber string patch:

http://www.mediafire.com/?tbvzxmzelma

BTW, I thought this thread was about Joplin? But you keep wanting to discuss me, not that I can blame you for that!

Ivo Pogorelich Plays Ravel Scarbo (Gaspard de la Nuit) lo-fi

Thank you for posting. I listened to it, twice. I don't want to hurt your feelings but I did not think it was that good, even within the realm of its specific genre. One does get an appreciation for the improvisational aspect and the attempt at multiple voicing, but the outcome is quite fuzzy and has a relentless quality. Perhaps that Chamber string patch was ill-chosen.
About wanting to discuss you, well I was trying to be open-minded since you seemed despondent about our less than hospitable welcome on this mostly "classical" forum. But do not be discouraged. You obviously are not lacking in self-confidence, you just need to support it by the evidence.
I was also hoping that hrodulf, whose rags are quite simple if enjoyable, would have had time to prepare his closing comments on this -Joplin-thread.

Oh, I know. And my execution on the Chopin Etude Improv isn't even 1st grade level, right? Any child with 1 month of piano under his bely could play it better, even though it's technically flawless, and not a pianist alive couldn't play it at quintuple the tempo I did, you ridiculous dude.
I didn't think you would feel it's good, after all, improvising 4 voice fugues is child's play for you. But it's a good thing that I don't give a good flying fart what you think whatsoever because apparently, record company executives and A&R men are extremely satisfied with the results when they put me on a project, which is how I make a living.
Do you have any improvised 4 or more voiced fugues to post, BTW?

Bjones
I don't do bathroom language.

That was strong to the finich. Can you do it in the style of Joplin?

I liked the fugue personally, I improvise a little bit but couldn't improvise something as complex as a fugue. Then again I never tried, so who knows.

I think improvising helps inspire the compositional process which is pretty much why I do it.

Actually I've had several closing remarks and people kept arguing anyway so the lack of a satisfactory ending is not my fault. As for whether my style is simple that is a matter of debate. No Name Key rag is sort of complicated from a harmonic perspective, Red Light Rag is as well, Sostenuto Rag is fairly complicated at parts; I've had complaints about these rags as being too much of a mess in terms of too much harmonic movement and someone telling me "Ragtime should just have two or three chords, that's it" which I personally find ridiculous, anyway, really I think I am in a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation in this regard. Recently I have been trying to write in a more traditional style. I think you should define what you mean by simple just so I understand what you're talking about.

And you can't improvise fugues, can you? Do you even have enough rudimentary knowledge of fugues, their form and their structure to analyze my fugue improvisation, to point out to everyone here any flaws in the technical execution of my instant composition? Are the theme and counter themes faithfully treated? Even when the diatonic properties of the thematic material modulate to quartal tonality in the extensive modularity phase during the recap after 2:40? You didn't even mention that it starts out as a 2-part invention, purposely delaying the introduction of the 3rd voice so the two themes can be developed into more thematic material that will all be recapped soon after the 4th voice enters. Structurally, it's acutally two overlapped pieces in one, an invention and a fugue!
Why don't you ask Hrodolf, an excellent composer, how difficult it must be to control that amount of perfectly maintained material within a perfect structure for over 3 minutes. He'll have a far better idea than you about what type of abilities are necessary for that type of control, on the fly might I add. Ask him. He's right here.
Have you studied Bach and Bartok's fugues extensively?
Can you cite the differences and similarities structurally? Do you even understand any of this? I'd bet a million dollars against 100 of yours that if you drove over to Queens and I put a piece of staff paper and a pencil in front of you, that you couldn't even write a convincing three-voice fugue within the structure of what's generally taught as "in the mode of JS Bach" let alone improvise a technically flawless 4-voice fugue.
Prove me wrong, if you can, useless.

Yep. Of course becasue of the long-note values, IMO, the opening motif of the Popeye theme, the 8 bar introduction would be a better candidate for syncopation with a stride/rag left hand.

Chopin wrote a two-voice fugue, though it's not generally considered one of his best compositions.

Robert Altman filmed Popeye, though it's not usually regarded as his best either. Harry Nilsson composed the score; a four-part fugue on the "Sailor Man" theme might have been a nice addition, but it would be hard to top "Everything Is Food"!

Tangents, anyone?

Steven

lol how many posts before this thread turns into /b/

the world may never know