So Many Roads

Yesterday I stumbled across a website called The Magic Victrola.
Obviously I clicked through.

As it turns out, the site hosts an online book in eight parts by Sunnie Day. Aside from the fact that it's about a time-machine Victrola leading to a 1920s incarnation of George Clooney (what more do you really need), it's also blog-worthy thanks to the medium: because this is an online book, Day is able to insert picture slideshows of relevant images and embed youtube videos of the songs that she writes about directly into her prose.

On some level, this is becoming de rigeur for major print books about music: Alex Ross' (non-fiction) The Rest is Noise and Listen to This have a companion website featuring snippets of the music he describes; and Wesley Stace's novel Charles Jessold Considered as a Murderer refers readers to the author's website - which leads to other informational sites including the Charles Jessold homepage. Academics have also been getting in on the action: check out Marcel Cobussen's awesome interactive dissertation.

But all these last examples still store the material in two separate locations: text v. sound, print v. web. Day's novella may not be a book for the ages (whatever that means), but she does such a wonderful job using the internet medium to its fullest potential.

They Called Him Crazy / When He Started Out

1950s news footage: Mills College students play Harry Partch's instruments. You'll like it!



(via openculture)

Shocking Blue

Musical Tesla coils, Zeusaphone, Thoremin - call it what you want, it's an instrument that digitally modifies lightning sparks to produce music. Lightning. Unfortunately, it looks like the only currently-touring lightning orchestra is a corporate-event-for-hire kind of affair, and the company that used to rent out these instruments over the internet (?!) has disbanded. Good thing there's youtube:






Check out: The Tesla Orchestra; Steve Ward; Open Spark Project; build your own(?).
(via all songs considered)

Float On

Historical flutes floating in space! Next, I would like to see space tubas, please.





(via metafilter)

Is This The Real Life / Is This Just Fantasy?

Fourteen women / fourteen accordions: The Main Squeeze Orchestra.

Quote member Kelly Alba: "You put it on your chest and you wear it right next to your heart. You squeeze it, and it's like a big musical hug."



They also competed on America's Got Talent. America hated it.



[Now, if only the press (I'm looking at you, Village Voice) would stop calling this an "all-girl" orchestra, and if only America's Got Talent would take back comments like "[the (male) director is] kind of like the Hugh Heffner of the accordion world" and "for some reason I thought this was going to be sexy."
Respect and equality, wouldn't that be novel?]

No You Don't Know What Happened / And You Never Will

"When The Saints Go Marching In" turns deadly.


(via omniscientmussel)

Fight The Power

Cello fight by Christopher Stetson Wilson

Cello battle by Apocalyptica

Cello encounter by Kristin Rule / Terrence O'Brien

Cello war by Zoe Keating

And Now We Pass And Just Like Glass / I See Through You

In which: Hario Glass Corporation makes some instruments.
(More pictures on the SPGRA Design Blog. They're pretty, aren't they?)

But how do they sound? Dean Shostak owns one of the glass violins made by Hario, and he's posted a sample (right here) so you can judge for yourself.



(via notcot)

Take A Bow

"Entrada" by Stephen Scott, performed by the Bowed Piano Ensemble of Colorado College.
Ryan Raul Bañagale (one of the original performers, and co-founder of the blog Amusicology - a favorite of mine, not to mention the place I found this video) points out the pretty intense choreography that necessarily goes along with a piece like this. Not to get back on the "some-music-would-be-perceived-differently-if-you-couldn't-see-the-performance" horse again, but: well, yes. Plus: what sounds! And all of them from a grand piano.

(If I had known about this in college, you can bet I would have tried to make it happen. Or at least thought about trying to make it happen before succumbing to comps.)

Big Little Horn

The Giant Tuba is 122 pounds, 8 feet tall, and has 34 feet of tubing. Originally it served as a sort of landmark for the London Boosey & Hawkes store; now, it hangs out in the Horniman Museum.

(via oddmusic)

I Love You Baby / But Not Like I Love My Guitar

American Air Guitar Championships 2010. Romeo Dance Cheetah is the winner (the video is one of last year's performances).
Flickr pictures. News article.

I like this one.

The World Championship will be held in Finland this August.

(via nerdcore)

Here We Go Loop-De-Loo

In which: Zoe Keating compares her live-looped cello music to information architecture.



ZK has played with Rasputina / Amanda Palmer / Imogen Heap, but I like her solo stuff best. Most of her music is her own; also check out her looped Beethoven.

Honky-Tonk

The 2010 World Chamionship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest

It was held in Peoria May 28-30, 2010. Meaning: we just missed it. On the upside, that means we get to watch a trailer (soon to be made into a documentary) featuring performances from the weekend!



(via metafilter)

Rock Me Mama Like A Wagon Wheel

The Gravikord is an electric kora - and I believe it was invented by this man right here: Bob Grawi.




Variation on a theme:

X Is The Shape I Drew Through Your Face / In Permanent Marker

This is certainly one way to remember your chords...



(The arm belongs to Cedric Paul Mamuri; the original post belongs to Neatorama.)

Make It Up

I like this video because:
1. It's a new instrument! The Sxipenspiel.
2. Said instrument was created by Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer.
3. It just so happens that I was the Flohmarkt am Mauerpark yesterday.



(Metafilter contributor jennyjenny has a great post on musician Sxip Shirey. What a fantastic guy!: check it out.)

When The Power Chords Come Crashing Down

Little did Professor Leon Theremin know to what use his invention would one day be put...



Theremin Hero: The Website (brainchild of Greig Stewart)

(via metafilter)

Do You Wanna Go Big?

Markneukirchen, Germany is about to claim distinction as the home of the world's largest violin. Measurements? 4.28 meters tall, 1.45 meters wide, and over 100 kilograms.

That violin is (not surprisingly) too big for me; (more surprisingly), it is too big for you too!

(Article: here)
(thanks to tschmid!)

Shiver

Yale String Quartet Plays Lady Gaga Medley.
You Shouldn't Question People's Love (for) Gaga'd Musicians.

Dream The Impossible Dream

Matt Manos (who, as it turns out, was also the design intern for the Bravo Gustavo online/iphone game) learns how to to play a mandolin and ride a unicycle at the SAME TIME: The Mandolin & Unicycle Project.



Now THAT is a senior thesis, you know? The practical application may be a bit fuzzy, but you could say the same about musicology.

(For the more advanced team: Unicycle with Tuba and Trombone)

(via metafilter)