Schumann: Ein Choral (From Album für die Jugend, Op. 68)

 

I've been recording a series of chorales by Carl Nielsen by multi-tracking my Moog, and initially, I thought of doing the same with the chorale from Schumann's Album für die Jugend, but I ended up learning it on my keyboard without having to use multi-tracking.  (It's probably better this way, anyway.)  There's an-other piece from the Album für die Jugend (Kleine Studie, No. 14) on the Hohner Pianet demonstration record, so I felt I had to do this one.  I also used a tremolo effect, which was available on some of the Pianet models (notably the N, which is the basis for Nord's Pianet sample).

I don't know if this is anything more than coincidence, but the intervals of the melody (not so much the rhythm) are very similar to the hymn tune "Freu dich sehr," probably best known as the tune to which "Comfort, Comfort Ye My People" is sung.

Notation from IMSLP

Haydn: O Let Me in This Ae Night, Hob. XXXIa:61

 

This is a Scottish folk song that Haydn wrote an arrangement for.  I used the Pianet N sound for the keyboard part and the brighter of Nord's two Hohner String Melody II samples for the violin part.

Notation from IMSLP

Haydn: Divertimento in C major, Hob. XIV:3: II. Menuetto and Trio

 

This is written for clavier, two violins, and cello.  I played the clavier part with the Hohner Pianet N sound and all of the string parts with the mellower of Nord's two Hohner String Melody II samples.  I changed the dynamics in the Pianet part just by how hard I hit the keys (although the instrument doesn't have a large dynamic range), but for the strings, I used a volume pedal.

I shot video of the Pianet part but not the string parts.  They would have made editing the video more difficult, and I thought they wouldn't be very interesting to watch anyway.

Notation from IMSLP

Telemann: 168 Keyboard Pieces, TWV 36:64: Menuet: Die Blumen deiner schönen Wangen

 

Earlier this month, I was reviewing what pieces I'd done from Telemann's 168 Keyboard Pieces, TWV 36, and I discovered that I'd misunderstood something in the notation of No. 64, which resulted in my unknowingly playing a wrong note.  I'd thought that one note was a D flat because it looks like a D flat, but I know now from having gone through a number of movements from Telemann's ouvertures that he uses a flat sign to cancel out a sharp, so - if my understanding is correct - the flat sign in front of this particular D indicates that it should be played not as a D sharp, like the note in the previous measure, but as a D natural instead.  Since accidentals are reset in every measure in modern notation, it's really a superfluous marking.

Anyway, I felt I had to re-do the piece and play the correct note.

Here's my revised, modernized notation:

Chicago Live at Tanglewood (Lenox, MA), 21 July 1970

A number of years ago, I watched this concert by Chicago and noticed that Robert Lamm plays a Pianet N.  Earlier this week, it was the fifty-fourth anniversary of the concert, and I watched it again so I could post it here.

Below is the set list from the video description (although it fails to identify the first song).  Lamm plays Pianet in every song but "I'm a Man," which is the encore.

• [unidentified song]
• "In the Country"
• "Free Form Piano"
• "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?"
• "25 or 6 to 4"
• "Poem for the People"
• "I Don't Want Your Money"
• "Mother"
• "It Better End Soon"
• "Beginnings"
• "Make Me Smile" / "So Much To Say, So Much To Give"
• "Colour My World" / "Make Me Smile"
• "I'm a Man"

Fleetwood Mac's "Station Man"

Recently, the Reelin' in the Years Archive uploaded a video of Fleetwood Mac performing "Station Man" in 1975 to its YouTube channel:

I hadn't heard any version of this song before, but I noticed that in this live performance at least, Christine McVie plays Hohner Pianet throughout.  I'm pretty sure it's a model N.

Bass 3

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Pianet N

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Electra-Piano

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Telemann: 168 Keyboard Pieces, TWV 36:106: Menuet

 

I played what's written as an F# in Telemann's notation as an E (in my modernized notation, it's the first note in the right hand in the fourth measure of the sixth line).  I think the F# is a mistake.  If it's an E, there's a sort of parallelism between the phrases in the sixth line (A D D D F# E F# | B E E E G F# G).

This is the last tune I plan on doing from the 168 Keyboard Pieces.  I'm skipping quite a lot of pieces near the end, but they're just beyond my skill level.  I'm also going to take a break from doing Pianet videos.  I don't know when or if I'll do any more.

I also played this on Hammond organ, although I recorded it just on my phone.

Telemann: 168 Keyboard Pieces, TWV 36:97: Menuet

 

Telemann: 168 Keyboard Pieces, TWV 36:91: Menuet