In my opinion, anything played on a celesta not only sounds "heavenly" but also mysteriously magical. Great video JPS. One thing you always do in your videos is give joy when you perform.
I've been captivated with this instrument since I was a child. I've wondered what it looked like inside, how it worked. Now I know, thank you very much. Harpsichord pieces sound very nice on it. Another unusual keyboard exposed on RU-vid was the Melotron that uses magnetic tapes that samples each note. Below, the Fender Rhodes was mentioned, um off to discover what makes that tick next. Your demo was superb, enjoyed mucho. Don
If you like music, you might want to check out my second channel "Milan Recording Studios". Feel free to subscribe and hit the bell icon if you want to! ru-vid.com/show-UCu1LrpmWwK1ztTvIayRar9w
D.S. I have only run across these marvelous instruments twice, both in very noisy locations so the audio is less than perfect, but the instrument shines through in spite of all of the noise.
I always love your videos as you make musical education and the history of the instruments just fascinating, uplifting, and very enjoyable. Thank you for your love of the instruments you obviously have, (and you play exceptionally well too)!!
Dude, that was awesome. I love the grin at the end of the sugar plum fairy dance bit. I know that feeling. When you know you nailed it. AWESOME instrument, and great video, thanks.
I have in the past been concerned about making the videos so long, but if this is something most people would like I could do more of this. I wanted to in this case as it is so rare to get to play a celesta, never mind a Schiedmayer Celesta, so I just went for it. If I am able to get a celesta for my studio you will be hearing a lot from one.
I've been using the celesta a lot in my orchestral music but never give it solos . Thanks for the information about Scheidmayer , and how the instrument works and the history with Maezel and Tchaikovsky and making me realize its uniqueness !
I would agree with Matthew Smith that the Fender Rhodes is very similar (especially when in 'full tines' configuration) and both have an unforgettable sound. And you did an excellent demonstration of both. Thank you.
Very nice explanation of this rarely seen instrument. Loved your performance on it. Feted Grofe also wrote a solo for the Celesta in his “Grand Canyon Suite”. Thanks
I wish you would have played scales on it. It is a beautiful sound and will allow one to hear a complete instrument. I will probably never get closer than what you have allowed me to get on my life. You are the link between people like me, and the beauty and depth of your world. Thank you so much for sharing.
Great vlog, man - unique instrument! Magical, mysterious and crystal glass clear, music-box-like-dream-land quality. Loved your explanation of the inner workings of the Celesta. Tchaikovsky and Bach pieces were wicked - great choices for this lovely sparkling gem.
Bernard Fitzpatrick, everytime I play a piece on one of these fine instruments, I am amazed at the range they have the ability to make such beautiful music.
thanks! this is one of the instruments i've always loved the most for its mysterious "heavenly" sound but never knew these details about how it works and its history ...
I have always loved this instrument as well, and non more than the Schiedmayer version. I may have some great news soon on this exact celesta, stay tuned.
@@ThePianoforever great! i always follow your truly fine videos ... you are what i wanted to be at your age but never made it so far and so good in music, especially at playing the keyboards! :-) btw, as a pro photographer / cameraman, here's my 2.5 bicoins worth of friendly suggestions: you could have a better camera work to go with the really good content your provide! just a small inexpensive camera stabilizer add-on could do wonders! if you're using things like the GoPro camera, some of its models do also have an electronic stabilizer built-in ... if you're using a smartphone, just some very cheap selfie sticks, although not ideal, could add a reasonable amount of camera stabilization too!) :-)
Those extra high notes on the celesta plus the extra low notes on the imperial style piano that you showed in another video reminded me. It occurred to me that such instruments as the piano are used as the standard for teaching and writing music (middle C two bars away from both the treble and the bass staff and halfway in-between). The piano represents the full range of audible tones within a reasonable limit (most instruments you have to combine in order to play a full range, even within each of the four chambers of a symphony orchestra), and the keyboard style helps to visualize where notes belong in an octave and which ones are natural vs. accidental. This gave me the idea of the Piano Extreme where too many keys are intentionally added to both the treble end and the bass end. The next octave beyond both ends of the piano keyboard would represent the Yellow Zone where we can still [sort of] discern some of the audible tones, and all the octaves afterwards represent the Red Zone where the lower frequencies start sounding like a metronome instead of a musical instrument while the upper frequencies become too high-pitched for human ears to distinguish as notes. Where notes are too high for piano strings, celesta or Japanese energy bars could take their place.
Hello James, I love your videos. Your desire and follow through on the studio makes me want to start my own studio (different goal, RU-vid live stream production, but musical instruments will play a part eventually as I generalize).
Fun! The instrument is arranged much like a pipe organ, with different sections for treble and bass, and having natural and sharp sides, where notes played on a chromatic scale jump from one side to another. When tuning one side of a rank of pipes, you play C D E F# G# A#, and then the other side plays C# D# F G A B. You would tune one side all the way up the keyboard, and then you would switch to the other side, otherwise you would have to jump from side to side to tune the pipes.
In different areas people do pronounce things differently. I have found no matter how I pronounce something some will correct me, it's one of the largest number of comments I get.
In french, as France is the original motherland of the celesta, it is effectively pronounced with the 's' of sax; but for example, in Italy your previous habit would be accurate, so don't be worry!
First lessons in Bach (widely available). It's not really celesta music as Bach was one hundred years before the celesta was invented, but the celesta has a wide range of music possibilities.
Some day I am going to play one of these in a quite environment, preferably in my studio where I can have the time to fully explore all of the possibilities of what could be done. I think one could add this instrument to all kinds of classical, and contemporary music with a series of other instruments that would truly be astonishing.
I remember that Lawrence Welk said he used a celesta for many pieces including "Yellow Bird" but the one he used sounded like a harpsichord, not like what you just demonstrated.
There are some types of electric piano which sound more like a celeste than a piano! I noticed when you played the Tchaikovsky that at times the resonance was quite reminiscent of a Rhodes 'piano' which if the celeste was better known (or older) would be called an electric celeste, not an electric piano.