Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Death Waltz

Have you ever heard of the “Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz”, AKA “UN Owen Was Her?”? It’s basically a piece of music written for the piano that would be impossible for one person to perform (unless they had a lot of extra fingers). But thanks to the magic of computers, it can be played. It’s the most beautifully insane insanely beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.


Take a look at the sheet music for it, and tell me it’s not mind blowing. John Stump, who arranged it, did it as a parody. He had been in the music business since 1967 and arranged the piece sometime before his death in 2006, when his family found it.

Think about how much effort he must have put into making it sound so amazing without being able to play it. Every single note had to be played in his head and translated onto paper. Now go look at your WIP and sob a little as you wonder if you’ll ever be that good at your own craft. That’s what I did.

Well, that’s the right note to leave things on. Later, gators!

8 comments:

  1. That is a busy song. Yes on the extra fingers.

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  2. Hi Jeanne .. amazing piece - fascinating to find out about ... I couldn't dream of doing that ... so I think I rest my case as far as my non-started WIP is concerned ...

    I have to say I do like the title: Death Waltz Synesthesia ...

    Cheers Hilary

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  3. Now that's a master musician. Like writing three guitar solos for one guitar.

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  4. Yikes!

    I can't read sheet music. My dad would take one look at that sheet music and say that's not possible.

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  5. Fortunately, with writing, it's not really possible for me to imagine something that I can't get down on paper.

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  6. I think that's one of the reason they invented orchestras. Yikes, that's complicated.

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  7. LOL! I write orchestral music, and the first thing I wanted to do when listening to this was start assigning out parts to instruments. =) This could totally be played by three pianists at the same time.

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  8. GAH! That sheet music is absurd!! Geez. Yeah, thanks for the metaphor to writing, LOL. Now I feel oddly inadequate... ;)

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Please validate me.