Impressionism

Debussy.
Ravel.
These were the composers of the Impressionistic period; a kind of monet, manet, renoir, degas, cezanne, matisse painters using the Whole Tone Scale as their palette.

Dee

I love many genres of music so this was a giddy delight, thank you. I love this rendition of Debussy's Clair de Lune.

As I was looking for the classical guitar version of this tune by a French woman, I found this one:

I was quite impressed by her impressionistic technique and style…

and I honestly have to say that (no offense to Dee) I liked it better than the version that she offered us. I say honestly, because if you listen to them back-to-back, there is a technical difference in the rendering of the rubato of the Kun Woo Paik one compared to a more relaxed but flowing with the beat rendering of Lola Astonova one.

As a Guy (no “a” no “o” between them) I have to say that if I listened to it with the video off, I would still give a preference to Lola’s interpretation. With the video on, I’m not quite sure if I was hearing anything at the time. Is it gratuitous? Is it outside the bounds of ‘classical’ taste to render a video that way? Or was it actually a nod to our brief stay here where beauty is indeed as transient as a fading flower of which she had overflowing in abundance literally and figuratively.

[Flowers in the Underworld is the name of the Section this is posted in.]

If I looked like that (who are we kidding? I’d be ugly as a woman as well!) I wouldn’t hesitate to time-capsule the impressive impression of impressionistic impresario while being a double-threat as a smoking hot piano player as well.

If she can sing, dance and wash dishes there might be a proposal of matrimony.

Yet, I was on my way to finding the guitar versions…

Here’s an ensemble version for theremin. As I mentioned with Bach music that can be adapted to any instrument and made to sound as impactful as the instrument or instruments it was originally composed for, any composer whose work can be rendered in any form is a tribute to their skill as composers and the skill of the performers.

As I have mentioned before: INTONATION is one of my top criteria for artistic merit. In a world of singers who couldn’t hold a tune in a rusty bucket with holes in it so they rely on Auto Tune, when anyone plays in perfect pitch on any instrument where there are no fixed tones (unlike piano or guitar) it is a pleasant surprise and a gift.

Did I say: ANY instrument?

A large portion of these artists I have never heard before. I have favorites but many are not represented on Ewe Toob. So when I go shopping for my Stackarinos I’m sorting through dozens of offerings looking for specifics like the feel of the piece regardless of instrumentation. There are those who interpret Debussy as if they are drunk and just about to miss a step in-stride while pretending to be in full control of their motor skills. This is called rubato but I call it crap.

Recently I saw a geek breakdown of what Swing is. I won’t cover that here, however it was the first time that a White Dude could wrap his warped brain around something that comes naturally to the Colored Folk who invented it. In many things I feel like Steve Martin in The Jerk where I ain’t got that swang and I cain’t jump. Swing is just a flat spot on a wheel that still turns in time but has a ba-dump-ba-dump of a wheel that is turning with a slight ecentricity to it.

There is a very annoying unfulfilled pause with the drunken interpretation of rubato of classical snobs who think they are being clever vs. the harpist who you could see was moving her entire body in a time-meter but LISTENING and ALLOWING the Attack, Sustain, Decay, and Release of the music to dictate when the next phrase was to begin.

If you knew physical music; if you knew analog synthesizer circuits then you would know what I am saying but you don’t even need to know what I said or what it means - you can HEAR the difference when a musician plays WITH their instrument rather than In Spite of it.

HOLY CRAP! You combine pefect recording with excellent sounding guitar with masterful playing and you get this!

Tariq Harb, an acclaimed Jordanian-Canadian guitar virtuoso, is arguably one of the finest young guitarists to emerge on the scene these last years.

Jordanian… what more is there to say?
Oh… they meant the country… OK…
I ain’t from Canada neither…

All of this on the way to finding Roxane Elfasci’s rendition that I was familiar with before I started this music Stacking. I wanted to highlight her rendition because I’ve been going on-and-on about how some play like they are drunks missing their step but her’s is one where if you listen closely: the pause (though it might be slightly out of tempo) is in keeping with the ASDR (attack/sustain/decay/release) of her instrument which is the thing that is speaking, so Time is actually on Union Break and not rigidly held to because the PHYSICS of music have taken over and you are LISTENING to what the guitar (or harp) is saying not just hearing some background chatter in a cafe. She is PLAYING the instrument and you are listening to it being PLAYED.

We take this a step further and find that you can be a Master of Drunken Kung Fu where you are so relaxed and so in tune with the timing that it just rolls as if it were on waves in the ocean - but Le Mer (the Sea) is yet another of Debussy’s pieces that I won’t cover here.

What makes this Double Plus Good (as they say in 1984) is that I DESPISE telecaster guitars. I think they are the worst pieces of garbage ever made so, if the fellow can play this good on a piece of crap - that conveys Master Status.

Listen to how his rendition rolls as if it were an organic flowing thing just like Debussy composed it. Yes, there is the slow contemplative interpretations with rubato that dominate the way it is rendered by most other artists and some have merit. But this one FLOWS, MAN. It’s like riding a roller coaster with all of the sinusoidal ups and downs and curves and loops and after the kinetic inertia is spent then it comes to rest at the end of the line.

Do you realize that one comment on my previous Stack made me (I had no choice) post SEVEN versions of the same piece? I was engaged with each one and felt like I was listening to a new, fresh IMPRESSION each time. I hope that you had the same feeling (and had time to spend doing it).

Cheers