Trivia that matter
Stephane Grappelli as the cat in Peter and the Wolf.
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“Just once, I’d like to meet an alien menace that wasn’t immune to bullets.”
An outstanding example of obsessiveness: a fan-made Doctor Who anime.
(Via Chizumatic.)
Update: And it’s gone, which is a pity. The video was an impressive piece of animation. The auteur’s site is here.
Update II: You can watch it here.
I got UTAU running on my ancient Mac:
This is essentially Animenz’s arrangement of “Sis Puella Magica!,” with “Camila Melodia” doing the the quasi-vocals. She just sings “na na na” because I didn’t have the lyrics at hand, and I didn’t manipulate the sound beyond changing the syllables from the default. The harp and synth were added in Logic.
So UTAU works, sorta. Making it sound like music is another matter. Not the least of the challenges is that the GUI is in Japanese, which I don’t read. Fortunately, the manual has been translated into English with numerous screen shots; unfortunately, the interface for the Mac version was significantly revised, so many of the instructions are no longer quite correct. ((There does exist a hack to convert the UTAU GUI to English, but it looks like it only works in Windows.)) The range of topics in the manual suggest that the skilled user has a great degree of control over the sound. I’ve heard some UTAUloid recordings that are much more lifelike than the above, though none are as convincing as the better Vocaloid efforts. It should be possible to make Camila sound more alive and intelligible, though that probably means tweaking multiple parameters for each and every individual syllable.
It might be less trouble to just take voice lessons and pitch-shift recordings as necessary.
I’ve been fortunate so far with Miku Hatsune and her ilk. The Vocaloid engine has not yet been ported to Macintosh, so I haven’t been tempted to spend all my evenings and weekends tinkering with vocal synthesizers. But my luck may have run out. There is now a Mac version of UTAU, the freeware/shareware counterpart of Vocaloid. If it’s possible for someone without Japanese to figure out — there is an English-language UTAU community online, so help is available — what free time I had this summer is gone.
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Apparently the Madoka soundtracks will be available only as part of the Japanese BD editions. That presents a problem for those of us who can’t spare $70, or $87.99, for a half-hour of music.
Fortunately, the sheet-music people are on the case. Here’s a nice piano arrangement of “Sis Puella Magica!”, and there are other Madoka arrangements here (third and fourth from the bottom) and here. I hope to see more soon. Update: here’s another.
Update: This is seriously creepy.
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Frëd has been watching Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, or at least the opening.
During the ’80’s, I quit listening to the radio entirely, focusing instead on building up my classical music library. This illustrates why. ((There was some great rock recorded during that decade: Steve Morse’s The Introduction, King Crimson’s Discipline, Steve Vai’s first two albums, Joe Satriani’s Surfing with the Alien, early Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, Djam Karet, Boiled in Lead, Adrian Belew, and more I’ll think of later. But most of these are primarily instrumental efforts, and it’s hard to write intelligently about music as music — too hard for Rolling Stone writers, who’d rather drivel on about politics, transgression and other nonsense than actually listen to the music they review.))
One of the 19th-century piano virtuoso’s stocks in trade was the operatic paraphrase, in which he took themes from a popular opera and assembled a fantasia with them, often highly elaborate. The practice fell out of favor in the twentieth century. However, if you substitue anime for opera, it is alive and well in otakudom. Here is a piece using themes from Yuki Kajiura’s OST for Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica:
Here’s a novel treatment of a theme from Madoka:
(Via Anime Instrumentality.)
I wonder if might be possible to make an opera out of Madoka. Perhaps not; it would take considerable ingenuity to condense the story to two or three hours and still have it make sense, and there are no significant roles for adult male singers — you could cast Kyubey as a tenor, but he would be cuter and creepier as a boy soprano. While a clever designer can probably think of a way to present the witches, the events of the last episode are another matter entirely.
Nevertheless, if it could be done, and done well, it would potentially be overwhelming. The composer would not necessarily have to be Yuki Kajiura, though I would be curious to hear if she’s capable of something as complex as an opera.
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Not anime-related, but noteworthy: an arrangement of a Lady Gaga tune that bears listening:
(Via Darwin Catholic.)
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Susumu Hirasawa, guitarist and singer of P-Model and composer of soundtracks for Satoshi Kon, has made a number of his pieces available for free download. I particularly recommend “The Girl in Byakkoya,” the ending theme of Paprika.
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What is the greatest problem with the American legal system? Perhaps it’s that judges have lousy taste in music.
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A problem with Windows computers you might not be aware of:
Which country has produced the stranger musicians, the USA or Japan? Let’s see.
Let’s see if this media player works for .ogg files:
(Via Dustbury.)
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Fortunately, I’m not a Linux user.
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And now for something perhaps a little less frightening: a friend of my brother has released a new tune. If you like loud music, give it a listen. It has more cowbell.
Fred Himebaugh, a.k.a. “The Fredösphere,” who once wrote a jazz chamber opera using Terry Bisson’s “They’re Made Out of Meat” as the libretto, has unleased his idea of a pop song upon an defenseless world. “Earth Girl” is an a capella celebration of interplanetary romance. The performers are not credited; I presume they are Fred, Fred, Fred and Fred. Frëd is some kind of genius; what kind, I hesitate to say. It’s available at Amazon.com.
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It’s spring preview time again. As usual, little looks worthwhile. C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control is directed by Kenji Nakamura, who previously did Mononoke and Trapeze. Even if the story makes no sense, the visuals should be entertaining. I’ll probably also sample Moshidora to see if it’s possible to make management interesting. I might see how Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera compares to the original. The preview looks true to Go Nagai: too childish for adults, too pervy for kids.
There are times when I would swear that every man, woman and child in Japan is a pervert. I really didn’t need to read about Lotte no Omocha.
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Some visitors have come here looking for a “shinmoedake webcam.” There’s one here and a couple more here (the sixth and fifth seventh and sixth from the bottom in the box at right. The fourth fifth from the bottom ((The Suwanosejima camera is back (second from the bottom), though you still can’t see much.)) is Sakurajima, which is worth checking regularly). The Shinmoedake crater at Kirishima did erupt again Sunday, but it was not as catastrophic as the L.A. Times would have you believe:
If there was destruction and panic, everyone was over it in time to go to the mall the next day.
The big show was back in January.
If it’s “silly hindu stuff,” you’re looking for, I can’t help you.
(Via John Salmon.)
By this time every year, I’m thoroughly burned-out on the usual Christmas songs, and I suspect that I’m not alone. Here are a couple of offbeat seasonal tunes that might be eccentric enough to be listenable. These are from Masaki Kurihara’s second Yotsuba& album.
“Yuletide Town”
“The Day Santa Comes”
In other seasonal news, scientists are gradually understanding how Santa does his job. (Via Steven.) Meanwhile, Dr. Boli points out a reason to endure Christmas pageants.
A friend is trying to identify this tune. Thus far, everyone she has asked has drawn a blank. Do you recognize it?
I’ve been planning to call for nominations for best anime composers for my next poll, but zzeroparticle beat me to it. Go to Anime Instrumentality and list your your top ten there.
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The complete organ works of J.S. Bach are available for free and legal download here. (Via A Momentary Taste of Being.)
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Astropia was picked up by an American distributer earlier this year. My copy arrived a few days ago, and the story of a minor Icelandic celebrity who is assimilated into RPG culture was as enjoyable as I remembered. Now, would a region 1 distributer please license Faintheart, which is only available as a region 2 PAL disc?
Another recent arrival is Loituma’s Things of Beauty, which includes the “Ievan Polka.” It might sound vaguely familiar.
In lieu of a substantive post, here’s what iTunes recently thought I wanted to hear:
1. “Drug Train,” The Cramps
2. “Vingt Regards sur l’enfant Jésus: Regard du Fils sur le Fils,” Olivier Messiaen/Michel Béroff
3. “Hide and Seek,” Curved Air
4. “Piano Sonata in B minor, S.178 – Lento assai – Allegro energico – Grandioso – Recitativo,” Franz Liszt/Jorge Bolet
5. “Echo Sonata for Two Unfriendly Groups of Instruments,” P.D.Q. Bach
6. “3cm,” Yoko Kanno; Macross Plus OST
7. “Birds of Fire,” Mahavishnu Orchestra
8. “Sugar Plums,” Dometsch Ensemble/Elizabeth Poston/Felix Aprahamian/Lionel Salter/Eric Thompson/Peter Hemmings/Robert Ponsonby (Hoffnung Music Festival)
9. “A Quick One While He’s Away,” The Who
10. “Black Magic Woman (Live),” Fleetwood Mac
11. “I’ve Got a Feeling,” Pentangle
12. “Elephant Stomp,” Jennifer Batten & Tribal Rage
13. “Go Go Cactus Man,” Seatbelts (i.e., Yoko Kanno)
14. “Oh Well (Live),” Fleetwood Mac
15. “El Rayo-X,” David Lindley
16. “Sahara,” Sky
17. “St. Mary’s (12 String),” Adrian Legg
18. “Mizuumi,” Mayumi Kojima
19. “Next Stop Earth,” Steve Vai
20. “Sun Medley: Mystery Train/My Baby Left Me/That’s All Right,” Danny Gatton
21. “Concerto in A Minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 53: I. Allegro ma non troppo,” Dvorák/Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra
22. “Clarinet Polka,” Brave Combo
23. “Coal Boxes and Daisy Cutters,” Boud Deun
24. “My Monkey-no Satogaeri,” Mayumi Kojima
25. “Palladium,” Weather Report
That was fun, I guess. Let’s do it again:
1. “Taxicab,” Bunky and Jake
2. “Prelude #17 In A Flat, Op. 28/17,” Chopin/Martha Argerich
3. “Supercell Track 04,” Ryo (featuring Hatsune Miku)
4. “Yubiwa,” Yoko Kanno & Hajime Mizoguchi; Escaflowne Movie OST
5. “Is This Mexico or What?,” Stephen Bennett
6. “La Huida de Los Amantes por el Valle de los Ecos,” Leo Brouwer / Michael Chapdelaine
7. “Free Bird – Mahiru no tsuki heto,” Itou Masumi & Ueno Youko ((Not to be confused with the Lynyrd Skynyrd ode to masculine irresponsibility — this is an entirely different and much better song from an “image” album associated with Haibane Renmei.))
8. “The Guitar Rag,” Pat Kirtley
9. “Yoake Mae,” Yoshino Yuuji; Spice and Wolf OST
10. “Prism,” Ikeda Ayako; Dennou Coil OST
11. “Lovers Are Crazy,” Steve Vai
12. “Hunting Tigers Out in Indiah,” Bonzo Dog Band
13. “Truth Ola,” Steve Morse
14. “Hashiru,” Yoshino Yuuji; Spice and Wolf OST
15. “Searchlight Rag,” Scott Joplin/William Albright
16. “Bank On Me,” Yuki Kajiura; Madlax OST 2
17. “Piece Of Mind,” Curved Air
18. “Ab la dolchor del temps novel,” Camerata Mediterranea/Joel Cohen
19. “Kalamak Ya Habibi,” George Wassouf (from a sampler of Middle East music)
20. “Hikari Sake,” Masuda Toshio; Mushishi OST
21. “Chopin: Impromptu #4 In C Sharp Minor, Op. 66, CT 46, “Fantaisie-Impromptu”,” Murray Perahia
22. “Dancing In The Street,” The Mamas & The Papas
23. “Under The Double Eagle,” Asleep at the Wheel
24. “Idol Talk,” Yoko Kanno; Macross Plus OST 2
25. “Variations on ‘Annie Laurie’: Variation 3 (Alla gigolo),” Festival Ensemble/Gordon Jacob (Hoffnung Music Festival)
Just wondering: does anyone else remember Bunky and Jake?
Charles G. Hill notes that today is the Queen of Rockabilly‘s 73rd birthday. Here’s one of her songs from the ’50’s: “Fujiyama Mama.” Far from being offended, the Japanese apparently got a kick out of the tune. It was a #1 hit there, and it’s frequently covered by Japanese artists such as Petty Booka. Jackson herself is still belting it out.
I wasn’t able to go to Winfield this year, so I only just now discovered that the winner of the International Fingerstyle Guitar Championship last Thursday evening was Akihiro Tanaka of Kyoto. He took second place last year, and I caught his main stage performance then.
Update: The international language II
Old-time music has its followers in Japan. Some friends of mine recently discovered one of their videos on this bulletin board. (See item #104.)
Blame John Salmon and Terry Teachout for this.
The rules: Don’t take too long to think about it — choose fifteen albums you’ve heard that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. (These aren’t favorite albums, necessarily, just the fifteen that will always stick with you.)
Mahavishnu Orchestra, Birds of Fire
Chopin, Waltzes (I forget who played on the first recording I heard. It was a record I found in the University of Dallas library back in ancient times.)
Bach/Isolde Algrimm, Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, first disc (This and the next were other records in the UD library that I frequently checked out.)
Songs by Tom Lehrer
Simon and Garfunkel, Bookends
Fairport Convention, Liege and Lief
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band et al, Will the Circle Be Unbroken?
Beethoven/Claudio Arrau, The Last Four Piano Sonatas
Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks, Last Train to Hicksville
Norman Blake, Whiskey Before Breakfast
Don Ross, Bearing Straight
Pentangle, Basket of Light
Mothers of Invention, Absolutely Free
Scott Joplin/Joshua Rifkin, Piano Rags (The first disc, with the green cover.)
King Crimson, Discipline
… versus Mozart:
They plan to tour North America next year, though no dates have been announced yet on their site. It’s probably too much to hope that they’ll stop in Wichita.
Specifically, GreyDuck and Wonderduck.
1. If you’d like to play along, reply to this post and I’ll assign you a letter.
2. You then list (and upload or link to the video, if you feel like it) 5 songs that start with that letter.
3. Then, as I’m doing here, you’ll post the list to your journal with the instructions.
So here are five tunes in the key of H. I’ll skip the obvious ones — you all know “Highway Star” and “Hardware Store,” right? And “Harold the Barrel” and “Happy Jack”? These you might not have heard before.
Ghost Hound was a major disappointment. I expected so much more from the Lain veterans. But the opening did introduce me to singer Mayumi Kojima. ((Some of her recent recordings can be found at amazon.com, but they don’t show her at her best.))
Mayumi Kojima, “Himawari”
The Webb Wilder Credo: “Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard, grow big, wear glasses if you need ’em.”
Webb Wilder, “Human Cannonball”
Here are John Jorgenson, Will Ray and Jerry Donohue, and lots of guitar.
The Hellecasters, “Highlander Boogie”
To clear your ears, here is some finger-picking from a Winfield veteran.
Pete Huttlinger, “Hortensia”
Let’s finish up with a classic anatidian tune.
Raymond Scott, “Huckleberry Duck”
Here’s a more recent recording by David Bagsby and Kurt Rongey, alias “XEN.”
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Bonus H tune: What show does this come from?
Want to play? Leave a note in the comments, and I’ll give you a letter.
“Sing to the Mountains” is really not all that bad, if you imagine it being sung by the Muppets.
From the comments here.