Viewing entries tagged
Niccolò Paganini

Wendi at 40 - 22 minutes 52 seconds

2 themes, piano and strings written for Wendi with thanks to Beethoven .[audio:wendi40strings2.5.mp3 |titles=Wendi at 40 |artists=music2work2]

One of my favorite records growing up was Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Variations – his take on Paganini’s Caprice No. 24 in A minor. Originally written for violin, Lloyd Webber created this variation for his brother Julian, a cellist and also a member of a rock band.

The music was cool but the album cover was cooler; it was the electric cable coming out of the cello, the flying V in the background and the 18th century musicians playing 20th century instruments that got me.

I loved the idea that you could go and develop an existing work, that you could build on an idea, take something established and change it radically and yet keep it real; change the lead instrument, change the tempo, change the instrumentation.

A lot of this piece is a development of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata which was the original inspiration behind one of Wendi’s themes (and yes that’s plural – she’s the wife so she has a few.) You’ll hear the original Beethoven theme around 7 minutes or so before it segues out into Wendi’s G Minor theme.

Coming in around 14:30 is Wendi’s other theme – this one was written in our first year together and gave me the courage to continue on with music2work2.

Both themes have yet to be developed to where they are ready for release but they are getting there - hopefully I'll finish them before she hits 50!

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Steven Belong

Steve Belong, one of our MySpace friends, is a guitarist, songwriter and singer from Canada. He says that he is mostly self-taught, but his guitar playing is amazing. My favorite of the songs on his MySpace page is Ode to Paganini but the others are also great. I am always fascinated to watch people play instruments; I would love to be able to see him play the guitar. Can you imagine the dexterity and skill for his fingers to move that quickly?

He is another of our friends that I would definitely recommend checking out.

Unusual combinations

Andrew had a brilliant idea a while back to seach for MySpace friends based on the musicians/bands that are influences on music2work2. The first search was for people who also liked Michael Nyman and Pink Floyd. Would you believe the search resulted in over 900 matches? This second round is an even more unusual combination - Paganini and Keith Richards. Less than 50 matches there.

This is a very interesting way of finding people who might like our music. And, apparently his idea was right on!