Regular visitors to my blog will remember that last week I was rather surprised after a very hot Good Friday to suddenly have the snow return to my Alpine retreat (and if you missed it the link to the article and the photos is here). Well every cloud has a silver lining because the rather inclement weather encouraged me to get to grips with my new G String – or to be more precise my new rendition of Bach‘s rather old G-string (the aria of course). In addition to describing this process I will also also share with you how I used some new technology to provide Heaven with a nice bit of re-imaging. The third story this week is about a horrific discovery made in a German sausage – razor sharp scalpel blades!

While you read the following article why not listen to my e-baroque compositions – just click on the box below:

or if techno music is more your cup of tea here are my techno/ambient compositions:

I hope you find the article below interesting…please visit chrisduggleby.com again.

Bach’s Air on a G-String – (Aria of Orchestral Suite 3 in D major – BWV 1068)

One of the challenges with trying to produce a new interpretation of such a well known and famous piece of baroque music is ‘How do you make it sound different without totally destroying what is a fantastic and much loved composition?’. As I progressed with the project I quickly became concerned that I had allowed myself to embark on an artistic suicide mission. However after trying out well over a thousand different instrument sounds I finally came up with some which when played as part of Bach’s Aria passed my personal test of acceptability (The test is simple – I have to like the new version so much that I can’t stop playing it!).

 

The original music was written for classical string instruments and my interpretation uses modern, but highly regarded, string instruments. If you would like to listen to it here it is:

I am sure that if Bach and some of his baroque contemporaries were alive today they would give the modern guitar a good run for its money. 300 years ago they didn’t quite get the chance – it was hard to write music for electric guitars when electricity as we know it had not been invented. Before I make a final version like the one in the video above I produce the music from the original score using classical baroque type instruments. This helps me to make sure I have transcribed the score correctly (which often I haven’t – invariably some bum notes creep in along the way). Listening to the piece played on classical instruments helps me to hear precisely where mistakes exist and I can then make some adjustments to ensure it sounds like the version we have come to recognise. This was quite a challenge when I produced Bach’s Toccata and Fugue – the score really was quite different to what we have become accustomed to hearing (if you are interested in that piece my article is here).

For those of you who would like to hear my initial version of Bach’s Air on a G String using the originally intended classical string instruments I have prepared this as an ‘unplugged‘ video. I also used some of this recording in the guitar version above (it comes in as an accompaniment after about 45 seconds):

Quite frankly I personally love both versions!

Giving Heaven a Make-over

One of the first pieces of music I composed after the Oil industry made me an irresistible ‘go quietly’ offer was called ‘Heaven‘. Being an instrumental piece the first video I produced had lots of nice pics – most of which you can also find in the galleries section on this website.

I have recently been trying to develop my skills in creating visual as well as audio entertainment (or inflicting torture on unsuspecting victims – depending upon your taste!). To this end I have been working with some technology to help me create moving artwork to accompany my music. As a first test of this approach I have dusted off the audio master for my tune Heaven and produced a revamped video for it. The result is below:

 

You can download the track from iTunes here.
from Amazon here.
on Google Play here.
and from Spotify here:

At other record stores search under Transformates or the EP ‘Trans 1: Evolution’

By the way the original video is still available via the link in my article here.

Just in case you don’t want to (or can’t) watch the video I have prepared below some screen shots of the artwork.

Razor Sharp Scalpel Blades Found in German Sausage

This story, which I picked up in the German press, has all the hallmarks of the worst kind of horror story. Imagine eating some succulent German sausage and swallowing something that is a bit harder then you expected. Then being faced with such an agonizing pain in your stomach that you can’t move for fear. Well in the case of one poor lady the sausage she ate contained pieces of scalpel blades. She had to be rushed to have an urgent operation in order to remove the blade from her gut and hopefully save her life.

If you want to read more about this horrific tale please take a look at my more detailed article (with photos and X-ray pics) using the link here.

Well that’s all for this week – just remember to be careful where you get your sausage from and chew it cautiously and slowly before swallowing.

Chris Duggleby