He has something like a four octave range. I have maybe one and a half, unless I have a head cold.
No arguments there. Vanders timing approaches preternatural, and is better than mine.
Their commitment to their artistry reminds me of myself, I have been playing with the same people for decades, and hopefully many more.
Coltrane and Ives are my biggest influences.
But here is the difference.
Coltrane: you can meditate to, “A love supreme, a love supreme, a love supreme…” Without needing to know an alien language.
Ives: you can tell immediately it is two symphonies playing different tunes at the same time. It is the same sensation as being in a car with a radio and another car with a radio pulls up. It is a common shared experience.
Orff is a little harder, but Vander absolutely drips with Teutonic, almost ubermensch strength.
But the biggest problem I have with Vander is he never gets out of his own way. There is little melding, and little of the technique ‘making the band an instrument, not you’.
He is Eddie van halen if Eddie thought his shreds were better than the song.
Not at all sure I agree. I don’t really watch videos (although Vander is quite a spectacle) - if I have a preference for visual material in videos, it would be those that show the score (mainly a composer, me, eh?). I listen instead, and I’m not hearing any lack of melding. Most of his drumming is right where it should be, in the background, in the pocket, propelling the music. The real front instrument, as far as the sound goes, is the bass - that’s been true of almost all Magma lineups.
Visually he may getting in his own way. There is a strong element of musical theatre that may or may not work. That’s fair enough: Vander’s music is something deeply eccentric that happens to be, in the main, well done.
I don’t disagree he isn’t in the pocket (are you a composer?), but holy hell he doesn’t meld.
Incredible musician, but even in his jazz work it always sounds combative in a not very nice way. Jebus, he can pull some sweet art Taylor riffs, but he is like a sauce with too much butter or a sandwich with too much cheese.
The most technically gifted player in a group isn’t the ‘voice’ of the group, if that makes sense. You build a sound that is bigger than any one person.
I think we’ll have to agree to disagree on that. The drumming can be very aggressive, yes. The style of music can be very aggressive - as you say, “absolutely drips with Teutonic, almost ubermensch strength.” The drumming suits the style. I find it all fits together quite well.
Magma is not my favourite French prog group, though: that would probably be Potemkine. I’m more conversant with Québec prog - Maneige, Sloche, etc. I came across Magma quite late. I found them to be a pleasant surprise, however.
Nothing wrong with that at all, as we all know. Want a rant? Ask me how I feel about Hayden
After writing in my teens and twenties I realized that isn’t where my talent is. Kind of a bummer, but “there it is”. Ironically I’ve always been a great improviser.
Ooh, I really like #2. The almost drone like counterpoint with mid 18th century flourishes sounds great. And I am always a sucker for a complex chord structure coming to a major end.
So, incoming really bad music. First is the fuckin’ unplayable gurdy I’d spent four weeks with. Total.
God those F#'s are flat
But mostly these days I’ve abandoned the debussey, weber, Bach and others for old unplayable music on unplayable instruments.
All the flutes have cracks, the pump organ bellows down hold pressure, the violin bows can’t be stretched, the guitars are held together by stickers, the mandolins have two inch action… And all four of us play boudrhan (sometimes at the same time).
Haydn was… peculiar. He is very much a composer’s composer. He created a harmonic language of great efficiency, wherein a melodic detail in the opening theme can set the shape of an entire movement (yeah, that’s where Beethoven got it), but did so in such a way that everything seems normal, even jocular (integrating the popular style of his time), so no one ever notices just how radical he was. I’d recommend Charles Rosen’s book for some insight, “The Classical Style - Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven.” It’s a very clear, very well-written book, so well worth acquiring.
You probably won’t change your mind, but, for instance, I found my way of handling harmony and phrasing was more similar to High Classical than Baroque or Romantic, despite the fact that I’m not that fond of that period, and that my voice leading and counterpoint is more like Baroque, so I learned something (despite myself, in some ways).
The F♯s sound fine for what you’re doing - Scottish folk isn’t at all well-tempered. Using offbeat instruments is fine. I not infrequently write for harpsichord (and I don’t expect the instrument to be well-tempered), something like this: https://soundcloud.com/p-i-ross-ross/sonata. I figure that we have all this music and these instruments from the past to reference and use, and what results will be very much of this time.
