ark@alice.UUCP (Andrew Koenig) (08/12/85)
A friend of mine has a dog who performed at Carnegie Recital Hall. A young New York composer wrote a piece for piano and three dogs and auditioned a hundred or so dogs for the concert. My friend's dog was one of the three that made it. Really! I saw the videotape!
chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) (08/22/85)
In article <543@unisoft.UUCP> pc@unisoft.UUCP (Paul Campbell) writes: >> A friend of mine has a dog who performed at Carnegie Recital Hall. > >I once attended a concert put on by a number of cars. They had been auditioned >according to their horn-pitch and a three pice work written for them (after >the composer had autitioned them). The composer stood on a pile of tires >and conducted them with a screw-driver. They got a standing ovation and >played an encore .... On a serious note (e minor above high c) if you like this stuff, find PDQ Bach (really Peter Schickele at USC) and take a listen. Other bizarre but interesting music was done by Spike Jones and his City Slickers many years ago, and the BBC had a person in the 50's (most of his pressings are unfortunately out of circulation) called Hoffnung who, among other things, arranged things for orchestra and hoover vacuum cleaner. His rendition of the Mazurka #49 in A minor (Op 68, no 2) by Chopin is truly inspiring, if only because he succeeds in taking a nice, delicate piano piece and doing in with a quartet of tuba's... -- Chuq Von Rospach nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA {decwrl,hplabs,ihnp4}!nsc!chuqui Son, you're mixing ponderables again
bch@mcnc.UUCP (Byron Howes) (08/26/85)
In article <3154@nsc.UUCP> chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) writes: >In article <543@unisoft.UUCP> pc@unisoft.UUCP (Paul Campbell) writes: >...and the BBC had a person in the 50's (most of his pressings are >unfortunately out of circulation) called Hoffnung who, among other things, >arranged things for orchestra and hoover vacuum cleaner. His rendition of >the Mazurka #49 in A minor (Op 68, no 2) by Chopin is truly inspiring, if >only because he succeeds in taking a nice, delicate piano piece and doing >in with a quartet of tuba's... Actually, the piece which included the vacuum cleaner was by Malcolm Arnold and was entitled "A Grand Grand Overture for Orchestra, Organ, Bagpipes, Rifles, Three Hoovers and an Electric Floor Polisherr," and the year of the first Hoffnung Music Festival (there were 3) was 1960. The most inspired piece on the album is the "Concerto Populare," a pastiche of all the famous piano concertos I can think of (my own favorite moment is the cadenza done a'la' the Grieg piano concerto which is in fact a variation on "Roll Out the Barrel" in A-minor, of course.) A more serious moment is provided by Dennis Brain (at the time the world's greatest French Horn player) playing a Concerto for Aplhorn by Leopold Mozard (Wolfie's father) on an "odd length" of garden hose. Shickele's P.D.Q. Bach is inspired, but is truly but a shadow of Gerard Hoffnung's genius. -- Byron C. Howes ...!{decvax,akgua}!mcnc!ecsvax!bch
bill@persci.UUCP (08/27/85)
In article <757@mcnc.mcnc.UUCP> bch@mcnc.UUCP (Byron Howes) writes: >>[...] His rendition of >>the Mazurka #49 in A minor (Op 68, no 2) by Chopin is truly inspiring, if >>only because he succeeds in taking a nice, delicate piano piece and doing >>in with a quartet of tubas... > >Actually, the piece which included the vacuum cleaner was by Malcolm Arnold >and was entitled "A Grand Grand Overture for Orchestra, Organ, Bagpipes, >Rifles, Three Hoovers and an Electric Floor Polisherr," and the year of the >first Hoffnung Music Festival (there were 3) was 1960. Ouch! Come on, guys, what've you got against Tubas and Bagpipes??!?? (Actually, there *is* a pipe band near Seattle that has a tuba in it!! That's Bizarre!!!!) -- William Swan {ihnp4,decvax,allegra,...}!uw-beaver!tikal!persci!bill "..and on the 8th day, He created Bagpipes!"