Staunton Music Festival brings over 80 world-class chamber musicians to historic downtown Staunton, Virginia for 10 days of concerts each August. This channel provides concert livestreams, video and audio highlights of past Festival concerts, and the educational "Perspectives" project.
I love the maple fingerboard. I don't know why it isn't used more often in classical instruments. We use them all the time in the guitar world. I actually prefer the look and feel of them to ebony, as well.
This is performed at historical pitch (430 Hz rather than modern 440 Hz), and intonation is slightly different when performing music on historic instruments, as in this case. In addition, audio recording and playback can impact perception of tuning.
Also, could you please explain the significance of the C-holes, as opposed to the F-holes we know today from the violin family? Do the Cs contribute tonal differences, as opposed to the Fs - and why don't we see instruments with C-holes anymore?... What made the violin 🎻 and the cello such popular instruments (but not the viola)? Thanks.
5:40 there is a mention about the "flame" holes, in which she says it doesn't influence the sound. As far as I know c or f shapes don't influence the sound either.
[from Heather:] Re tuning, I think it's more likely that plucked string tunings developed first or else simultaneously. I don't really know the definitive answer, and I'm not sure anyone does. And the cello is more versatile because it's smaller and therefore easier to play, its strings are thinner and speak more readily, and its range is more compatible with the human voice, among other things.
Wow! Thank you for this tour of our ancestral bass instruments. Forty years ago there was almost no credible English language (written) research about the double bass and its history. This explanation, with instruments and literature, makes the history much more clear--and fascinating!
Stumbling onto a performance which finally plays the Unfinished in the proper tempi Schubert indicated reminds me that there are still joys to be had in life now and then. Good job, guys! I know it's only a camera footage, but the performance is electrifying. The musicians played the pants off their instruments - this must have sounded absolutely balls to the wall IRL.
I'm curious to know why you changed the fingerboard of the instrument still in white from the ebony (?) to the maple (?) on the violone that you were assessing?
Hello, you can contact the composer of the arrangement, Zachary Wadsworth, to inquire about the part. You can email him at zach@zacharywadsworth.com. Hope that helps!
I know the Tourte bow was invented in the 1750s but I am having fun trying Schubert with the shorter, more responsive, baroque type bow. I get the feeling that not everybody was using new type of bow because it needed the strong Brazilian wood, and they have been quite difficult to get hold of. besides, people already had bows, why would they get rid of them? probably soloists were the main people to be using the new style, longer, heavier, romantic bows.
Lou Harrison wrote this percussion piece after taking Henry Cowell's course in World Music in 1939. Cowell had in turn studied with the pre-eminent German ethnomusicologist Erich von Honbostel in Berlin. Hornbostel had traveled all over the world, making 78 rpm phonograph recordings of ethnic music throughout the world and collecting non-Western instruments. In this piece you can hear the influence of Hornbostel through Cowell to Harrison, who in turn inspired later composers like Barbara Benary and Christopher Rouse.
Just love the opening measure. The violins starts then, the oboe and clarinet come together in unison, low then rising; la dah, de dah dah... Gorgeous!
We think they are better heard in context, so you can hear Heather playing them in various related performance videos. Use this link to see the whole set: www.stauntonmusicfestival.org/perspectives-instruments
Oh such beauty ,everyone should listen to classical. I have always believed that all musicians borrow from classical. I even heard from rock musicians. That used and was trained in classical
Yea, Arturo Toscanini sure loved those “wooden carts,” excuse me, double basses. Especially that one particular wooden cart, and its late player, the first one, the one with no ears, no eyes... “HEEEYYYY!!!!!! Hey contrabassi, follow me! Corta noti, short notes! Short notes, short notes! You, you, you, you! The first bass, you’re always late! You have no ears, no eyes, nothing at all!” It must have been hard to be serious when Arturo was so angry, in mid conniption, that he broke out into Italglish. He’d get so mad he couldn’t think of the English words fast enough to annihilate someone with, so they got a blended serving of verbal ass whoop. 😉
Toscanini era gran director pero no tomaba en cuenta: 1. "Contrabassi" tienen cuerpo grande del instrumento, mientras cuerpo más grande, más lenta la respuesta. 2. Los sonidos graves tardan de percibirse porque generan un eco profundo en la sala, lo que significa que aunque toques a tiempo el sonido resultante va a demorar, porque lo que escuchamos es más eco que sonido propio. De la misma manera como los organistas tienen que tocar el pedal de manera anticipada para que se escuche normal (si el teclado se encuentra debajo del instrumento).
FINALLY!!! Finally, an erudite, clearly demonstrated progression of horn technique based on the development of the technology. Thank you for this wonderfully rich demonstration!
Beautiful playing and music. I had heard this performed by those famous Dutch brothers and it's interesting on an historic instrument. I didn't know the instrument had been perfected to this point in 1830. The really old piano fortes sound like children's' toys with their tinkly sound. It's enlightening to hear the piece on this piano.
