![Darrel Hoffman](/img/default-banner.jpg)
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Darrel Hoffman
United States
Приєднався 30 тра 2023
In January of 2023, I began a simple, if ambitious project: to catalog, hopefully listen to, and in some cases perform - every piano concerto ever written. My catalog now has about 3800 pieces by over 1600 composers, but there's still a large body of works that either have never been recorded, or if they have, they have not been published on UA-cam or anywhere else I could find. However, many of them do have sheet music readily available. So I decided if I can't find a recording, I'll go ahead and make one. Yeah, it's MIDI, but better than nothing at all. Hopefully someone will hear these and be inspired to perform them for real.
I may entertain requests, with the following rules:
* Must be a piano or other keyboard concerto. May include other soloists (just not vocals).
* Must be public domain - published pre-1929 and composer dead for 70+ years
* Must have sheet music available legally and free (preferably full parts)
* Must not already exist on UA-cam
I may entertain requests, with the following rules:
* Must be a piano or other keyboard concerto. May include other soloists (just not vocals).
* Must be public domain - published pre-1929 and composer dead for 70+ years
* Must have sheet music available legally and free (preferably full parts)
* Must not already exist on UA-cam
Joseph Street; Piano Concerto No.2 in F min, Op.24 (1871)
Joseph Edward Street (1841-1908) was an English composer. He was born and died in Surrey, and that's about all I know. I had little luck finding biographical information about him, not least because his name keeps bringing up street addresses. (The Canadian Music Centre, a major source for orchestral scores, happens to be located on Joseph Street in Toronto, so it dominates almost any search results for his name, but there's other streets by that name all over the place as well.)
IMSLP: imslp.org/wiki/Category:Street,_Joseph
Movements:
0:00 - I. Allegro moderato poco maestoso.
11:56 - II. Adagio non troppo. - attacca:
21:12 - III. Finale. Allegro moderato.
This is somehow the first composer I've done who was located outside of mainland Europe. Germany and France seem to make up the vast majority of concertos I've found, with a small scattering in other nearby countries. The medium has diverged more geographically in recent years, but a lot of that stuff is not public domain yet. (It is also somehow the 4th concerto in a row I've done in the key of F minor - that streak ends here though.) This is the second of two concertos that I am aware of by the composer, though I've not found any sign of the first. As it was, the score on IMSLP was missing two pages in the first movement. Thanks to the kind folks at the Unsung Composers forum, the missing pages were found and the score was updated so this could be completed.
Disclaimer: Yes, it's synthesized. Obviously real musicians with real instruments would be vastly superior, but this simulated performance is better than nothing at all, which is what existed previously. My greatest wish is that these videos will inspire someone with the means to arrange a real performance and hopefully record and publish it so we can hear them in their full glory. If that someone is you, or you know of an existing recording of this, please let me know and I may add a link to this description.
IMSLP: imslp.org/wiki/Category:Street,_Joseph
Movements:
0:00 - I. Allegro moderato poco maestoso.
11:56 - II. Adagio non troppo. - attacca:
21:12 - III. Finale. Allegro moderato.
This is somehow the first composer I've done who was located outside of mainland Europe. Germany and France seem to make up the vast majority of concertos I've found, with a small scattering in other nearby countries. The medium has diverged more geographically in recent years, but a lot of that stuff is not public domain yet. (It is also somehow the 4th concerto in a row I've done in the key of F minor - that streak ends here though.) This is the second of two concertos that I am aware of by the composer, though I've not found any sign of the first. As it was, the score on IMSLP was missing two pages in the first movement. Thanks to the kind folks at the Unsung Composers forum, the missing pages were found and the score was updated so this could be completed.
Disclaimer: Yes, it's synthesized. Obviously real musicians with real instruments would be vastly superior, but this simulated performance is better than nothing at all, which is what existed previously. My greatest wish is that these videos will inspire someone with the means to arrange a real performance and hopefully record and publish it so we can hear them in their full glory. If that someone is you, or you know of an existing recording of this, please let me know and I may add a link to this description.
Переглядів: 413
Відео
Eduard Schütt; Piano Concerto No.2 in F min, Op.47 (1896)
Переглядів 652День тому
Eduard Schütt (1856-1933) was a Russian/Austrian composer. Born in St. Petersburg, he moved to Vienna, where he did most of his composition. This is the second of two piano concertos that I know of, though I have found no trace of the first. Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Schütt IMSLP: imslp.org/wiki/Category:Schütt,_Eduard Movements: 0:00 - I. Allegro risoluto 13:31 - II. Andante tran...
Théodore Thurner; Piano Concerto No.3 in F min (1880-81)
Переглядів 43514 днів тому
Théodore Thurner (1833-1907) was a French composer. I've found very little biographical info about him. I've linked an article from Gallica (in French) below, which someone found. It doesn't help that Google keeps giving me search results for media mogul Ted Turner, who I don't believe has composed any music. On top of that there is apparently another composer by the same name from 1806-1845. T...
Johann David Hermann; Piano Concerto No.4 in F min, Op.8 (1797)
Переглядів 53921 день тому
Johann David Hermann (c. 1760/64-1846/52) was a German/French composer. His nationality is a bit fuzzy, as he was born in what is now Germany (I've found conflicting dates, and no more specific location for his birth or death), but was at the time part of the Holy Roman Empire. But he spent most or all of his musical career in Paris, where he's sometimes known by his Frenchified name of Jacques...
Johann David Hermann; Piano Concerto No.3 in E, Op.5 (1788)
Переглядів 712Місяць тому
Johann David Hermann (c. 1760/64-1846/52) was a German/French composer. His nationality is a bit fuzzy, as he was born in what is now Germany (I've found conflicting dates, and no more specific location for his birth or death), but was at the time part of the Holy Roman Empire. But he spent most or all of his musical career in Paris, where he's sometimes known by his Frenchified name of Jacques...
Henryk Bobinski; Piano Concerto No.1 in E min, Op.8 (1901) [II + III]
Переглядів 479Місяць тому
Henryk Bobinski (1861-1914) was a Polish composer. He also spent time in Austria, Russia, and Ukraine. This is the first of two piano concertos, along with one in A minor, Op.12. IMSLP only has a piano solo reduction of the middle movement of this available, so I won't be able to do much with that unless I can find another source. Note this is the 2nd and 3rd movements only. The 1st has been re...
Émile Prudent; Piano Concerto No.1 in G min, Op.34 (1850)
Переглядів 872Місяць тому
Émile Prudent (1817-1863) was a French composer. This is the first of two concertos, properly titled "Concerto-Symphonie". The second one only has the piano part on IMSLP, so I probably won't be doing that one unless I can find the full parts somewhere. Movements: 0:00 - I. Allegro tranquillo 12:03 - II. Andante (Religioso) 20:08 - III. Rondo. Allegro assai - Allegretto con eleganza IMSLP lists...
Daniel Steibelt; Piano Concerto No.2 in E min (1796)
Переглядів 7402 місяці тому
Daniel Gottlieb Steibelt (1765-1823) was a German composer. He was a contemporary and bitter rival of Beethoven, refusing to be in a room with him after being humiliated in a piano dual. Several of his later concertos have been recorded - here is the 4th: ua-cam.com/video/EwwbmnTOm4Q/v-deo.html (soloist is a harp in this recording, but it's written for piano) and the 6th: ua-cam.com/video/shirK...
Daniel Steibelt; Piano Concerto No.1 in C (1794)
Переглядів 1,2 тис.2 місяці тому
Daniel Gottlieb Steibelt (1765-1823) was a German composer. He was a contemporary and bitter rival of Beethoven, refusing to be in a room with him after being humiliated in a piano dual. Several of his later concertos have been recorded - here is the 4th: ua-cam.com/video/EwwbmnTOm4Q/v-deo.html (soloist is a harp in this recording, but it's written for piano) and the 6th: ua-cam.com/video/shirK...
Charles Mayer; Piano Concerto in D, Op.89 (1847)
Переглядів 7362 місяці тому
Charles Mayer (1799-1862) was a Prussian composer. IMSLP lists his nationality as Russian, German, and French. He was born in Königsberg (modern-day Kaliningrad), which is today an exclave of Russia, but at the time part of the Prussian Empire which later mostly became modern-day Germany, so that explains those two claims, not sure on the French part, other than he lived there briefly. He studi...
Johann Michael Bach III; Harpsichord Concerto in Bb
Переглядів 2172 місяці тому
Johann Michael Bach III (1745-1820) was a German composer, a lesser-known member of the Bach family, nephew of J.S. Bach, and thus first cousin to C.P.E., J.C., et al. Sometimes called the "Wuppertaler Bach", to distinguish him from his great uncle, Johann Michael Bach I, a.k.a. the "Gehrener Bach". He's so little known that the title page of this manuscript erroneously bears the name of his il...
Valentino Nicolay; Piano Concerto No.2 in G, Op.16
Переглядів 5253 місяці тому
Valentino Nicolay (fl. 1742-1802), a.k.a. Valentin Nicolai, was an Austrian (?) composer. Of the very few sources I found about him, most (including IMSLP where I found the scores) did not indicate a nationality, but I found one French source that claimed he was Austrian, so I'm going with that. One thing that no source had was information regarding the year of his birth, but one could guess th...
Valentino Nicolay; Piano Concerto No.1 in D, Op.12
Переглядів 8333 місяці тому
Valentino Nicolay (fl. 1742-1802), a.k.a. Valentin Nicolai, was an Austrian (?) composer. Of the very few sources I found about him, most (including IMSLP where I found the scores) did not indicate a nationality, but I found one French source that claimed he was Austrian, so I'm going with that. One thing that no source had was information regarding the year of his birth, but one could guess th...
Julius Zellner; Piano Concerto in Eb, Op.12 (1903)
Переглядів 4033 місяці тому
Julius Zellner (1832-1900) was an Austrian composer. Another one without a whole lot of biographical information that I could find. No Wikipedia articles in any language. This is his only concerto that I'm aware of. IMSLP: imslp.org/wiki/Category:Zellner,_Julius Movements: 0:00 - I. Allegro con brio 11:25 - II. Andante sostenuto 18:39 - III. Finale. Allegro vivace Conductor score again because ...
Oscar Raif; Piano Concerto in G minor, Op.1 (1878)
Переглядів 5403 місяці тому
Oscar (often Oskar) Raif (1847-1899) was a German/Dutch composer. This concerto is evidently one of his most well known works, along with a violin sonata, though to my knowledge it has never been recorded. He was highly regarded by Johannes Brahms, whose influence can certainly be heard in the piece. Wikipedia (German): de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Raif IMSLP: imslp.org/wiki/Category:Raif,_Oskar...
Adrien Louis Le Bugle; Piano Concerto in D, Op.5 (1786)
Переглядів 3664 місяці тому
Adrien Louis Le Bugle; Piano Concerto in D, Op.5 (1786)
August Alexander Klengel; Piano Concerto No.1 in Bb, Op.4 (1817)
Переглядів 2454 місяці тому
August Alexander Klengel; Piano Concerto No.1 in Bb, Op.4 (1817)
Christian Gottlieb Kleeberg; Piano Concerto in C, Op.9 (1809)
Переглядів 5644 місяці тому
Christian Gottlieb Kleeberg; Piano Concerto in C, Op.9 (1809)
Friedrich Fleischmann; Piano Concerto in C, Op.1 (1794)
Переглядів 3204 місяці тому
Friedrich Fleischmann; Piano Concerto in C, Op.1 (1794)
Jakab Gyula Major; Concert Symphonique in D minor, Op.12 (1894)
Переглядів 2754 місяці тому
Jakab Gyula Major; Concert Symphonique in D minor, Op.12 (1894)
Aloys Schmitt; Piano Concerto No.4 in A minor, Op.60 (1825)
Переглядів 3875 місяців тому
Aloys Schmitt; Piano Concerto No.4 in A minor, Op.60 (1825)
Hjalmar Borgstrøm; Piano Concerto in C major, Op.22 (1910) [Full Version]
Переглядів 2175 місяців тому
Hjalmar Borgstrøm; Piano Concerto in C major, Op.22 (1910) [Full Version]
Jean-François Tapray; Symphonie concertante for harpsichord, piano & violin in Eb, Op.9 (1778)
Переглядів 1585 місяців тому
Jean-François Tapray; Symphonie concertante for harpsichord, piano & violin in Eb, Op.9 (1778)
Vincenc Václav Masek; Concertino for Two Pianos in Eb
Переглядів 915 місяців тому
Vincenc Václav Masek; Concertino for Two Pianos in Eb
Julie Candeille; Piano Concerto in D, Op.2
Переглядів 2126 місяців тому
Julie Candeille; Piano Concerto in D, Op.2
Luigi Barbieri; Organ Concerto in C (1796)
Переглядів 646 місяців тому
Luigi Barbieri; Organ Concerto in C (1796)
Hjalmar Borgstrøm; Piano Concerto in C major, Op.22 (1910) [Reduction]
Переглядів 4486 місяців тому
Hjalmar Borgstrøm; Piano Concerto in C major, Op.22 (1910) [Reduction]
Ignaz Brüll; Piano Concerto No.1 in F maj, Op.10 (1861)
Переглядів 2176 місяців тому
Ignaz Brüll; Piano Concerto No.1 in F maj, Op.10 (1861)
Caspar/Carl Joseph Brambach; Piano Concerto in D min, Op.39-(1879)[3/3 Allegro non troppo ma vivace]
Переглядів 1427 місяців тому
Caspar/Carl Joseph Brambach; Piano Concerto in D min, Op.39-(1879)[3/3 Allegro non troppo ma vivace]
Caspar/Carl Joseph Brambach; Piano Concerto in D min, Op.39 - (1879) [2/3 Adagio.]
Переглядів 937 місяців тому
Caspar/Carl Joseph Brambach; Piano Concerto in D min, Op.39 - (1879) [2/3 Adagio.]
Thank you for this taking the time with this score! I'm very uninformed about British composers so I can't say if to what extent the music represents the styles of other British composers of his time. At any rate, very picant orchestration effects and good melodic invention for the most part. Though, it very much feels like this work was "improvised" rather than composed, doesn't it? I mean regarding the overall form and cohesion (especially with the first movement), I was often confused as to where and what I was listening to. The transcription is technically very well realized and sounds very pleasant for what the limitations are. Well done!
There is a bit of a "fantasia" quality to it in the way that it jumps around between themes in the beginning (though it's not nearly as disjointed as, say, the Thurner concerto I did a few weeks ago.) But it eventually gets to the "point" about a third of the way through the movement and mostly stays consistent after that. If you're looking for other contemporary English composers to compare to, I'd recommend William Sterndale Bennett and Charles Villers Stanford, both of whom wrote a number of concertos around the same time period. I think they've all been recorded, so you won't find them on this channel (except in my playlists - Bennett for sure is in there, Stanford will be if I ever get around to finishing the S-Z playlist). But they're easy enough to find.
@@Darrel_Hoffman -- Rare gem....barely discovered.....BRAVO from Acapulco!
I hope your great efforts will inspire concert performers and orchestras to branch out from the endless repetition of the concert repertoire and give some of these delightful works an airing. I know they struggle against audience unfamiliarity but there's no reason why they can't insert some of these works into concerts with more renowned works - after all, they do it all the time with modern works/composers, which often have MUCH less audience appeal and charm than these older works. But it takes efforts like yours to help resuscitate interest in these neglected works. Thoroughly enjoying your efforts. Thank you.
Yes, for me the ideal concert lineup would be a mix of all three - a famous piece by Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Rachmaninov, etc. to draw the crowds, something modern to give new composers exposure, and something long forgotten like the works I've been featuring. It seems that orchestras, much like radio stations, have long succumbed to the "Top 40" mentality that began with pop music, and sadly now exists with classical as well. Side note, I just noticed your name - are you by any chance related to a composer named Christoph(e) Beck? Either one - there's a modern Canadian composer Christophe Beck who is mostly known for film scores, notably several prominent Disney properties) and German composer Christoph Friedrich Beck (1758-1832) whose concerto was actually the first one I transcribed on this channel. I was trying to figure out if those two were related.
@@Darrel_Hoffman No, sadly not related to either of them. I only recently became aware of the earlier Christoph through your version of one of his piano concertos. There is a bit more available from Franz Ignaz Beck, also a classical period composer, but I haven't found much of any great excitement there, that I could see. Yes, I agree that it's nice that modern composers get some sort of airing, but, on the whole, I don't think they really care too much about what the general audience thinks - they long ago crept into their own little dilettante world - so as long as the new style works aren't too preponderant in any concert program, it's fine. Expanding the MASSIVE range of older works, which certainly DO (or COULD) have audience appeal, would be a greater service to music, I think, because I do sense some degree of boredom among concert goers where I am, and there's just too much wonderful music which is badly neglected.
I agree that a lot of modern stuff sounds like someone just recorded their cat running up and down the keyboard, but there definitely are some modern composers who write stuff that is also pleasant to listen to. Most of the really good ones seem to end up writing film scores because that's where the money is these days for that style of music. There's still a lot of good stuff being written in classical/romantic style that never makes it to the concert halls. Many of them self-publish here on UA-cam, or Bandcamp, SoundCloud and the like. Of course it's usually simulated performances like mine because it's hard to get a real orchestra interested in lesser-known composers, whether old or new, for reasons stated above.
Just absolutely delightful. Such joie de vivre. Loved every minute of it. Thanks for doing this.
I think "joie de vivre" might apply more to the 3rd concerto? I certainly enjoyed this one more, but as I've said, I always prefer the minor keys. I do wish I could find his other 4 concertos - there are keyboard solo parts on IMSLP for the first two, but nothing for #5 or #6.
As you said, having a somewhat synthetic version is VASTLY better than not having a version at all. Your version is extremely enjoyable in its own right. A lovely piece of music and a delight to hear. Thanks so much for all your work and effort.
Thanks for listening - and for reading the disclaimer and understanding the purpose of this channel. I don't get it when people complain that it's synthesized. If there were real recordings available, I wouldn't be doing these, and when I learn about them after the fact I link them prominently in the description. (Only happened once so far, on the Herz #5...)
try to update for Musescore finale version, sounds are best
Can you point me to a link for that? All I can find are references to Finale, another music entry program which is well outside my budget (which is basically 0 - I make no money from this yet. Maybe when I get enough subscribers that they start paying me it's an option. I could look into Patreon or something, but that's a whole other can of worms.) There's plenty of comparisons between MuseScore and Finale, instructions on how to import from one into the other, etc. But no "finale version" of MuseScore comes up. This link shows several other sound fonts: musescore.org/en/handbook/3/soundfonts-and-sfz-files#list But Finale is not one of them.
I think that he talks about the ladt version of musescore
Oh, so you're thinking it's "final" rather than "finale"? (To me that'd imply there won't be any further patches, but I suspect there might be something lost in translation here.) I was thinking there might be some way to use Finale's soundfont in MuseScore or something. I am in fact using the latest version of MuseScore, but I'm just using the provided MuseSounds font with it. I could look into some others. I'm not sure how much of an improvement that'd be, but you could get into serious analysis-paralysis looking at all the different options. Someone else suggested the "Aegean Symphony Orchestra" soundfont, which I've downloaded, but haven't figured out how to install yet. (I haven't really tried yet, I imagine it's not that difficult.)
Ugh, forget Aegean Symphony Orchestra. I did figure out how to install it but it sounds terrible compared to the MuseSounds instruments. It's like a $20 Casio keyboard from the 90's. Edit: Sorry, didn't notice that was you that suggested it before. But yeah, it was not good at all. Maybe there's some hidden settings that make it sound less synthy, but out of the box it was worse than what I was getting from Mozart before I switched to MuseScore.
Anybody out there saying this composer lives up to his name, fails to get a cookie.
The joke works better with Ludvig Schytte, or maybe Alfred Schnittke. Or Aloys Schmitt I guess; I did one of his a few months ago.
One of my favorite composers. Great job!
This is definitely a favorite among the ones I've transcribed. I don't know much about his other works, but I would like to find his first concerto as well.
@@Darrel_Hoffman I recommend you to hear his carnival mignon, very good selection of pieces.
Amazing 1st Movement, reminding me of Mozart´s first piano concertos. Bravo! The synthesizer sound works surprisingly delicious.
I am relatively certain that Nicolay would've heard the works of Mozart, so it's quite likely he was influenced by them. If nothing else, they were both familiar with J.C. Bach, who wrote the sonatas on which Mozart's earliest concertos were based (the ones you have to look for - as much as Mozart's middle and later concertos are beloved, hardly anyone seems to play the first 5 all that much).
Beautiful 1st Movement. The concertos from Hermann, Le Bugle and Valentino Nicolay are long, compared with the standards for the concerto around 1788.
Most of that is due to repeats, I think. You don't see repeats much in later concertos. The same material might come up more than once, but generally with different orchestration or other alterations. I'm not sure if these are actually that long for the time. The modern form of a piano concerto was pretty well established by Mozart, who wrote most of his around this time, and they're relatively comparable in length. There were certainly concertos prior to Mozart, but the earlier ones from the likes of Haydn or the Bach family are clearly another beast, most of them being only 2 movements, with fewer instruments and much shorter run-times.
Beautiful piano part of the score.
Thanks. If I were to do this again, I might clean up some of the ornamentations. This was one of my first times using MuseScore, so I just used the built-in ornaments as written, but sometimes I think they are not interpreted correctly. In particular, the turns all seem to come in a bit early - it doesn't have support for a turn between notes instead of directly on a note. I've since learned to interpret these things explicitly instead of relying on the built-in ornaments.
You can use a soundfont as Aegean Symphony orchestra or musescore general soundfont for better performance.😊
I am in fact using MuseScore's "MuseSounds" soundfont, as I have been since the Kleeberg several months ago. I haven't looked at the Aegean or any other soundfonts. Not sure how much of a difference it makes? I could try it out if I can figure out how to install it, I'm kind of new to MuseScore.
Or you can use muse hub for the enhancement of the sound quality. Also I may wish hat someday can be a recording of the concerts of Anton Simon, Henri Ravina and Emil Smietański (this is available on te website of polish music sources)
Well, this is weird. When I search for either Anton Simon or Henri Ravina on their site, it just gives me a bunch of stuff by Chopin. While I love Chopin, I doubt there's anything of his that hasn't been recorded dozens of times. I did find the Smietański one, as you saw in the other thread, so that's added to the queue.
@@Darrel_Hoffman The Anton Simom piano concerto Op 19 Has been recorded but now isnt available.
Also The ravinas one, but i only find a very weak referrence that this concerto was recorded.
Please, make Kalkbrenner 1st concerto, oh and also Andre Mathieu no. 3, its available in Canadian Music Center page.
Kalkbrenner's 1st has been recorded: ua-cam.com/video/CclQ1tGmGws/v-deo.html His 2nd and 4th are also available. His 3rd concerto and double concerto for 2 pianos I haven't found recordings for, though I don't have orchestral parts available for them, only the soloist(s). (I understand a recording of the 3rd exists, but I didn't find it last time I looked.) Mathieu's 3rd also exists: ua-cam.com/video/-AfbEEUX5B8/v-deo.html There are also recordings of his 2nd and 4th concertos. I haven't found either recording or score of his 1st.
Also I have a very large list of concertos that I will like to hear, as Mathieu 1st.
I have my own catalog of over 3000 concertos which I have found on UA-cam (and a few elsewhere), which is how I knew about the Kalkbrenner and Mathieu concertos. I have most of those in my playlists if you want to look through those. As a general rule, I will not do transcriptions if a recording exists, as no simulation will be as good as a real performance. I have nothing on Mathieu's 1st unfortunately. And now that I look, Mathieu is also too recent to be in the public domain. The rule as I understand it is 70+ years after the death of the composer, and 95+ years after publication, so anything published after 1929 or by a composer who was still alive in 1955 is not legally available yet (in the US; the rules vary by country, but UA-cam is a US company, which is what counts for this). Mathieu lived from 1929-1968 so that would apply to his entire oeuvre until at least 2038, and possibly as late as 2063. Kalkbrenner's double concerto is fair game if anyone can find the orchestra parts. I've personally played his first 3 (privately, sans orchestra), and quite liked them. Or if you have any other specific suggestions I'm open to them, just keep the public domain and no-existing-recording rules in mind.
Yes I have a sugestion, the concerto of Emil śmietanki, a friend of Brahms. The complete Score Is available on Polish music sources website.
So I see a concerto, Op.25 here: polish.musicsources.pl/pl/lokalizacje/galeria/rekopisy/6523-concertos/1 Unfortunately they only have the piano part, so I can't do much with it unless I find the orchestra parts somewhere. There is a concert piece for piano and orchestra that has full parts: polish.musicsources.pl/pl/lokalizacje/galeria/rekopisy/6543-konzerstuck/1 as well as another concert piece: polish.musicsources.pl/pl/lokalizacje/galeria/rekopisy/6541-konzerstuck/2 Though this one is also just the piano part. I could do the first of those two, but I'd need another source with full parts to do his concerto or the second concert piece. It's possible I'm missing something, as the site is of course in Polish, which I don't read, so I'm having to translate in the browser. If you know where I can find the full parts, let me know. I've got a few queued up to go before I start another new one, so no rush.
The third movement theme is gorgeous. Thanks for the upload!
Fun to play as well. (Though that's the computer playing, not me. I'm good enough to impress non-musicians, but I don't think I'd put my own performance in these videos.)
An interesting and unusual piano concerto, experimental though not entirely satisfying musically in my honest opinion. Your rendition is diligently and carefully inputted without any noticeable mistakes, and it sounds very nice overall, though it was sometimes difficult to follow due to extreme volume changes between the louder and softer sections of the work. Maybe that's just the experience I had with my audio setup, though. You have succeeded very well in choosing the tempi, but as a minor regard I must say I would perhaps have preferred a faster tempo in the final 1/3:rds of the work. Kudos and thank you very much for creating this reproduction, a rare find to be sure!
Yeah, I found the sudden changes in volume to be rather surprising as well, but it's what the composer wrote. I've never seen another score with so many "fff"s and "ppp"s often in close proximity. It was even worse in my first rendition, before I chose the option to "Normalize Audio", which flattens out the really loud parts. On my first render they were so loud they were clipping on my headphones, causing a terrible staticky noise. (There might be a difference if listened to on a good speaker setup, but I've always used headphones.) One of many technical issues I ran into with this one. The tempo choices were one of the main reasons this took so long - I started it back in March. Obviously I've been working on many other pieces in the meantime but every time I looked back at this one I was just faced with a wall of indecision about how to interpret some part of it. I think I might've gone a bit fast on the opening section, but in a later section where the theme is reproduced in a different time signature (the end of section "E"), I feel like it'd drag if I slowed that whole section down to where I think the opening should be. Likewise, in the 3rd "movement", the main theme at "M" is repeated in another time signature at "R", in this case I took it slower to fit some of the ornaments in a more playable tempo, which were impossibly fast if played at the original "M" speed. Also I think there's some significance to the theme being written normally on 8th notes but in that section on quarter notes, so it's maybe justified? Hard to say.
Mozart influence?
Possibly? They are both Austrian, and Nicolay was born 14 years before Mozart, though it's possible they began composing around the same time since Mozart famously started very young. (Though Mozart's early concertos were not entirely his own - he merely orchestrated works by J.C. Bach and others. Still impressive for his age, of course.) However, Nicolay was living in Paris for much of his musical career. I'm not sure how well travelled his works were, since he's obviously much less well-known.
Synthesized or not this concerto is an absolute gem. Thank you for unearthing it for us.
Thanks for listening. I still prefer his 4th, even if it was a lot more work to extract from the poor quality manuscript. (Maybe that's just my natural preference for the minor keys) It does make me curious about the 5th and 6th, which I only know about from their mention on his French Wikipedia page. I also looked at the first two, also good, but until I can find the orchestral parts somewhere you won't hear them here, unfortunately. IMSLP only has the keyboard parts.
Bravo! good job! Thank you very much for your effort making this hidden gem uncovered
Thanks for listening - this one was more effort than usual given the number of errors I had to correct. I almost get the impression that the person who originally typeset this piece was not an actual musician. I hope there's an original manuscript by the composer out there somewhere, but given the fact that it was composed in the middle of the French Revolution, I wouldn't be surprised if some things got lost in that time...
Thank you very much. I really enjoyed it
Thanks for listening. Next week is his 4th concerto, which I prefer to this one, but I've always preferred the minor keys. It needed a lot more work though, as the score has many errors I've had to correct.
Thank you very much for rescuing this music from oblivion. A wonderful composition of elegance and beauty. Blessed be The Composer!
Thanks for listening, more to come.
Music collector here! Thank you very much for your contribution to music, reviving works by forgotten masters! Please continue with your work! Is there any way I can help you with your work? Thanks, again!
Well, I'm always open to suggestions for other composers to look at. I notice you're in Spain? That's a bit of a blind spot for me, I'm sure there's some good Spanish composers that aren't on my radar - most of the ones I know about are much more recent and generally not public domain. I seem to have done a lot of German ones, but that's just what's available to me, not a deliberate choice. (It does seem like the majority of classical music from this time period does come from there, but maybe that's just what's been preserved mostly.) I'm also looking for more sources for scores. IMSLP has been pretty good for that, but there's a lot of stuff they don't have. I know there are some libraries that lend out scores, but mostly only to orchestras, and anyhow I mostly stick with digital copies of the scores rather than paper manuscripts, so I can freely mark them up. Beyond that, just spreading the word helps. I'd like to get the attention of some orchestras if you happen to know any - the whole point of this channel is to inspire these lost works to be performed for real.
This sounds like a synth version.
That would be because it is. See disclaimer in the description. The purpose of this channel is to create simulated performances of never-recorded works, in the hopes of maybe inspiring a real orchestra to perform and record them. Obviously a real performance would be far superior, but this is better than nothing at all.
Great to hear this! Thank you for your work on making it available.
Thanks for listening. It's too bad I can't seem to find his second concerto (nicknamed "Prairie"), beyond the solo reduction on IMSLP. I've played it myself (sans orchestra of course) - it's short, only one movement, but there's some good stuff in there.
@@Darrel_Hoffman Yes it's a pity that 'La Prairie' isn't available in any of the reliable world catalogues - Paris would be the obvious place to start, but it doesn't appear in the France Union Catalogue, so is perhaps either lost or in private ownership.
Wonderful! I really enjoyed
Thanks, more to come. Not from Nicolay - these two are the only concertos he wrote that I know of. But my next few releases are from around the same time period.
@@Darrel_Hoffman Thank you. I am going to be enjoying your next works with pleasure.
What software/VST are you currently using to play the MIDI?
I do my note-entry in a program called Mozart, which I've found is the fastest and easiest for that of all the programs I've tried. I used to use Mozart exclusively, but (starting from the Kleeberg Concerto) I now export MIDI from that and import it into MuseScore, which gives much better sound quality. I do all the polish now in MuseScore (articulation, ornaments, dynamics), but Mozart is still way faster for the basic note-entry since it can be done entirely from the keyboard, while MuseScore (and most other programs I've seen) require constant switching between mouse and keyboard, or sometimes using both at once, which really slows you down. I know a lot of people use Sibelius, Encore, Finale, Dorico, and a few others, but those are all a bit expensive, while MuseScore is free. (Mozart isn't free either, but I've had it for years - granted I'm a few versions older than their current one.) To be slightly pedantic, the output from MuseScore is not technically MIDI but a newer format called SoundFonts. I think it's still MIDI under the hood, but with some enhancements. MIDI has been around a lot longer, but it has some major limitations - First, you're limited to 16 channels at a time, which these concertos definitely push against. You can share channels and play multiple notes at once, provided they're the same instrument, but if 2 instruments on the same channel need to play the same note but with different lengths, you just can't. This also applies to instruments which can be played in more than one way - e.g. pizzicato vs. arco on strings need to be separate instruments, so you either need to use more channels, or do lots of voice-changes every time it switches. Also it's not possible in MIDI to change the volume mid-note. Not a problem for the piano as real pianos can't do that either, but most of the other instruments can, so that's harder to deal with.
Thanks for letting us hear mvts. II & III. The fyrexianoff video of mvt. I gives the performers: Eugene Logvinovsky/SO of the Kiev Music Institute named after R.Gliere/Vitaly Protasov.
Pardon for my ignorance, what does fyrexianoff means?
oh nvm it's a youtube channel! i remember watching some piece uploaded by someone with that name lol
Yes, it's actually the 3rd-largest of my sources for piano concertos on UA-cam, after Remus Platen and Corentin Boissier's collection of channels. And unlike those two, they're mostly score videos as well. Fyrexianoff is the reason I was inspired to do scores instead of just audio-only.
NOTE: This is the 2nd and 3rd movements only. The 1st has been recorded, and if you haven't already done so, I strongly suggest that you listen to that first. Links in the description.
Wonderful! More to come. Please
Good to know there's an audience even for these older works. My main focus is on Romantic period concertos, but there's only so many of those that haven't been recorded, while there's lots of forgotten stuff from this time period. These are also generally a lot less work - except when I need to write cadenzas - I probably spent more time on the two cadenzas than I did on the whole concerto and I'm still not satisfied with them. Ah well. More are definitely coming, so thanks for listening.
If you'd like to hear a better rendition of part of this, Martin Walsh has done an excerpt of the third movement here: ua-cam.com/video/JazSKSYZ0QY/v-deo.html It's not the complete piece, but I'll admit that it definitely sounds better than my version.
For whomever interested: in the YT channel Martin Walsh (also doing MIDIs of unheard music) you'll find Zellner's Symphony #1. A string trio is available on CD or Spotify. Nothing else that I'm aware of, despite he wrote several chamber and piano works, another Symphony and lieder.
Might as well provide a link: ua-cam.com/video/yMC_l1mEii0/v-deo.html I took a look at his channel - he's mostly doing symphonies, while I'm focused on piano concertos, so there's not much overlap. Besides Zellner, he's done one movement of the Gyula Major concerto, which I'll admit sounds better than my rendition. He also did a work by Carl Joseph Brambach, whose concerto remains one of my favorite that I've transcribed, possibly due for a re-mastering since I've improved my sound quality since then by using MuseScore.
@@Darrel_Hoffman yep you guys make me both happy with different stuff. A few people also do solo piano works on MIDI but solo piano literature is immense (however studies are welcome especially because there's no imperative need of expression; well not completely true but .... Ok). MIDI doesn't work well for chamber music that could also be a great source of unheard masterworks. It doesn't work at all for vocal music unfortunately hence God knows how many great cantatas, oratorios, masses, motets, etc. we'll never enjoy. Sore for off topics.
Do you have xml file for the synthesized midi?
I have the MuseScore files I created for this, and that can export to XML, but I've never done that before, so I'm not sure how the fidelity is. They are also optimized for audio over visual, so I did some things that are maybe not pretty in the interests of making it sound better. (e.g. spelling out ornaments explicitly rather than just using the symbols, doubling up on the string parts for a fuller sound, etc.) If you just want the sheet music, the original PDF's are free on IMSLP, which is where I found them. Link is in the description. There's one file for the piano (which was also used for the visuals in this video) and another for the orchestra parts.
You found a Baroque addicted, dude!
Thanks, I wasn't sure if there was much of an audience for this sort of thing, given how relatively few people watched my other Baroque or early Classical pieces - It might be the Bach name that helped here - almost nobody's heard of Barbieri or Masek or Tapray, but Bach is a household name. Granted not many people know about THIS Bach, but the name could still be a draw. I might do more of these if people are interested, as there's a much larger pool of them to choose from. (The more recent stuff is far more likely to have existing recordings.) And they do tend to be a lot less work, as they're usually shorter and with fewer parts. I do prefer Romantic period stuff personally, but that well is running a bit dry, and they take a lot more time to do. I may space them out to give them the time they need and do these simpler ones in between.
@@Darrel_Hoffman thanks much 🙂
Thanks a lot for this concerto and the subsequent number 2. It's unbelievable how a very good composer like Steibelt is criminally underrated and mostly forgotten. Whatever I happen to encounter it's as a minimum good music, often great music. He's unfortunately solely remembered for the infamous defeat in an improvisation's challenge in Vienna against Beethoven. As much as Beethoven is the greatest (or amongst the greatest) of all times, Steibelt would certainly deserve a much better destiny and more executions of his works. Coming to his 7 piano concertos you have fille out the gap but you made me curious about his 8th ...... God knpows if there's any score...... It's still desirable that Shelley would opt one day to complete Steibelt recording and perhaps even catch up with piano sonatas, also not entirely available. However your choice is very much appreciated: at least we can guess how the music would be and, my firs reaction, concertos number 1 & 2 are as good as Ferdinand Ries jobs.
Yes, the 8th would be very interesting to hear as it's apparently one of the first piano concerti to include a chorus. (Beethoven once again beat him to the punch with the Choral Fantasy, but that's not quite a concerto.) Another unrecorded piano concerto including a chorus is the Henri Herz #6, which is the only one of his 8 that Shelley did not record. From what I hear the orchestral parts have been lost, so I've been working on a reconstruction based on the cues in the piano solo part. I can't synthesize the voices, however, so that one is going to be questionable.
@@Darrel_Hoffman yes thanks I very much regret Shelley did not record HH #6. But would be interesting to hear your reconstruction. It's sad how much music have been lost due to war, fire, careless attitude, self or posthumous destruction, etc. (my favorite rediscover would be the cello romances of Schumann destroyed by Clara: if only one additional manuscript existed, hidden somewhere by Joachim who salvaged violin concerto by miracle ..... Also Sibelius whole eight symphony would not be bad ..... )
It'll be posted here eventually, but obviously a reconstruction takes much more work than mere transcriptions, so this will take a bit longer. Part of the problem is that while the piano reduction does tell you vaguely what instruments are doing what during the Tutti sections, you get no such clues at all during the piano parts, so my arrangement may end up being a bit sparse for that, but it's better than nothing.
@@Darrel_Hoffman God bless your pioneering job. Very much appreciated!
Hermoso
God bless you for this one. Mayer piano music is wonderful and so underrated that no one would dare more to execute his concertante. At least we have a midi..... One day someone would make it humanly. With thanks again
There's actually a fair number of Mayer's works on IMSLP, including another earlier concerto (sadly lacking the orchestral parts, so I can't transcribe it unless I find another source). There's a bit of confusion in that there are two Charles Mayers (I believe father and son? But that's only a guess as one is occasionally referred to as "Jr.") And there's apparently some doubt as to who wrote what.
@@Darrel_Hoffman interesting.... Didn't know about father and son. Who's the author of op 200, the wonderful studies, father or son?
I am by no means an expert - this concerto is the only work of his that I am familiar with, and only because of my work for this video, though it's enough to make me interested in taking a deeper look. I'm going by comments on the IMSLP and Wikipedia pages (linked in the description). I would suspect that most of them are by the elder, but there's a couple works that have publication dates after his death in 1862 that are more likely the work of the younger (died in 1904), though posthumous publication is not unusual. (And I'm only guessing that the two are related based on the "Jr." sometimes seen in the name. It could be just a coincidence.)
Very worthwhile, rare discovery. Thank you so much for your dedication to this!
Thanks for listening, this was a fun one, especially the third movement - even if it took me twice as long as usual. So many notes. Fun to play as well, though I'm not nearly at the level where I could play this in public with an orchestra or anything.
Reminds me of Mozart #25
It does, doesn't it? The opening bars are close enough to be near-plagiarism. I had to check the dates - Mozart's #25 was 1786, and Kleeberg's was 1809, so it's almost certain he was familiar with Mozart's works. The Mozart is generally played a bit slower, but then maybe I went too fast? For scores from this time period, they rarely put the actual BPM intended, so there's room for interpretation.
@@Darrel_Hoffman Pastiching can be fun… especially when trying to synthesize multiple sources. My D Minor concerto (on my channel) tries to do that with three different concertos at once, the Mozart and Beethoven C Minors, and (in the third movement) the Chopin E Minor. I have several other concertos if you’d like to listen.
Nice, have a subscription. I'm always looking to expand my catalog, part of the motivation behind starting this channel. I've been (very slowly) working on a concerto of my own, but nothing in a state I want to publish yet. I will eventually premiere it here, but it's a lot of work. I've also done some arrangements of other works - I have a concerto orchestration of Beethoven's 2nd piano sonata that's basically complete, but needs some polish. I'm also working on reconstructing Henri Herz's 6th Concerto after my moderate success transcribing the 5th (the orchestra parts are apparently lost, which may be why it was never recorded while the other 7 have.) Only problem with that is it involves a chorus in the 3rd movement, and that's going to be impossible to simulate well, so it'll just be oohs and ahhs - better than nothing, I guess? We'll see, it's going to be a little bit before I put any of that up.
Excelente
Félicitations. Ce doit être une grande joie de raviver l'oeuvre d'un compositeur oublié. Bonne continuation
Merci, c'est la mission de cette chaîne. Si par hasard vous êtes à Paris, je serais curieux de savoir s'il existe une dédicace à ce compositeur à l'adresse où il habitait lorsqu'il l'a écrit et qui figure sur la première page de son deuxième concerto. Je ne sais cependant pas s'il était suffisamment connu pour de tels honneurs.
Concerto muito bonito, pena que a orquestra é fake.
Obrigado por ouvir. O objetivo deste canal é divulgar obras esquecidas que não foram gravadas por uma orquestra real. Espero que alguém com acesso a uma orquestra se inspire para gravá-la de verdade.
Well, this seems to be more about how MIDI can spoil a “Romantic” concerto …. :( By the way, have you ever considered giving a simulated performance of Henryk Bobiński's first piano concerto (whose full score is available on IMSLP)? I found the live performance of its first movement (ua-cam.com/video/dxF_Pxkol_0/v-deo.html) to be quite attractive, yet the remaining two movements (as well as his second piano concerto) appear to have remained unrecorded.
Since I did this one, I've switched over to MuseScore for the audio, which might sound a bit better, but yeah, a simulated performance will never be as good as a real one. I might consider at "re-mastering" some of the ones I did earlier like this one by putting them into MuseScore, though I already have 2 versions of this one, so maybe not right away. I've also heard a performance of the first movement of the Bobinski #1: ua-cam.com/video/ito4gxnvo18/v-deo.html - Might be the same one? Only that's a score video. I could take a look at doing the other 2 movements, though I'm not sure I could do the 1st movement justice when there's a real performance available...
I have just released my rendition of the 2nd and 3rd movements: ua-cam.com/video/dqOtpmX2QuQ/v-deo.html The 2nd concerto I could only find a piano solo reduction of the middle movement, so I can't do much with that.
“I saw at one time on UA-cam a discussion about piano concertos that open with just the soloist ….” May you post the URL? (Also, I suspect that there has been some discussion of violin concertos that start with just the soloist, but I cannot find such a one. Although I have heard recordings of such concertos before, I am sure that there exist many more such concertos that have not yet been recorded.)
I would have if I remembered where it was. I spent most of a year prior to starting this project doing nothing but listening to and cataloging piano concertos, so there's literally thousands of them it could've been. Kind of wish I'd taken more detailed notes on stuff like that but I didn't know I was going to be starting this channel at the time. It's probably somewhere in my catalog playlists, but there's over a month solid of music in there if you listened to it non-stop.
bro the music software vibes hit me like a truck
Please read the disclaimer in the description. I'm well aware that this is no substitute for a real recording. The purpose of this channel is to bring attention to long forgotten pieces that have never been recorded, in the hopes that someone will be inspired to perform them for real.
It's always wonderful to come across and hear a completely new piano concerto! While the string section tones are still very rough, I think you've succeeded very well with this reproduction. To the composer's credit, the music is very fine and well written. Though one could have hoped for a more substantial final movement, as it is, a slightly unbalanced work on the whole. Thank you for the huge effort you've made with this!
Thanks. Yes, I agree that the third movement was somewhat lacking, and like the second, far too short. The first movement is well over half of the piece. As always, I would love to hear this played on real instruments. The strings are the always hardest to reproduce well on the computer, and given how much prominence is given to the cello part, that hurt this one a bit.
This concert is dedicated to the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna (1786-1859), the daughter of Russian tsar Pavel (Paul) I (1754-1801; ruled the country in 1796-1801) and later the wife of Karl Friedrich (Charles Frederick; 1783-1853), the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Probably there is some information related to Kleeberg (in old manner is the writing Cleeberg possible, too) in Russian and German archives. In Wikipedia, I've found nothing about him.
Thanks for that. Some of that (the dedication) is on the title page, though between the font choice and poor scan quality it's a bit hard to read (and that's after I boosted the contrast on it too - the original from IMSLP is even worse). I assumed there would be more info from German sources, but didn't consider Russian. There's probably some French sources as well, given that's where this edition was apparently published. But if these sources exist, they seem to not be online, so it might require more digging into actual libraries rather than just the internet. Searching under the alternate spelling of Cleeberg didn't yield any additional results (Google apparently already corrects for that by offering close phonetic matches.)
Thanks again for letting us hear this work. According to the New Grove Dictionary, there are three Fleischmann concertos, Op. 1 (1794), Op. 3 (1796), and Op. 4 (1797).
Okay, that's good to know, a surprising amount of work for such a short career. I might try doing the others if I can find them, though I'm not sure how I'd go about tracking them down. The Fleisher collection I was pointed to only has one work of his, a symphony, Op.5. (And even if they had the concertos, I'm still not sure if they'd loan things out to anyone but orchestras.) I'd ask in the UC forums, but this is well before the romantic period, so it's probably off-topic there. Don't suppose you know of any similar forums that cover baroque and/or early classical? (I think this is kind of borderline, since it could also be played on harpsichord according to the cover page.)
Grateful as I am for this, I do believe that a more sophisticated computer realisation would result in a better listening experience.
Yeah, as I've stated before, the medium does have a great deal of technical limitations. The goal is not to be the definitive recording but rather to promote awareness of the piece and inspire those with the means to arrange a real performance.
@@Darrel_Hoffman If you are using Musescore to input the music, then you should look into using Musesounds: from what I've heard (though I don't use Musescore myself), it's free and rather straightforward to install and operate. Much like the Noteperformer soundfonts are for Dorico and Sibelius programs: but unlike Musesounds, there is a one-time price tag on Noteperformer, though.
@@Darrel_Hoffman I quite understand, but listening to this is extremely trying and needs to be improved in order to attract attention from possible performers.
@@Darrel_Hoffman I think the sound reproduction needs to be a lot better in order to attract possible performers to the music.
I'm using a program called "Mozart", though my sounds are coming from an "GeneralUser GS" by S. Christian Collins, connected through CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth (the default sounds in Mozart are much, much worse, trust me.) It works reasonably well, though there are some problems with individual instruments that bother me - most notably, the viola does not sound good without the violin parts on top of it. Strings in general are harder to do in MIDI just due to the variety of ways in which they can be played. MIDI is limited to 16 instruments playing at once. I can change which instruments those are, but never have more than 16 at a time, so I have to do tricks to make those 16 channels sounds like more instruments than they actually are. Individual string instruments do not sound like a real string section, so in the louder parts, I will layer them over with Ensemble Strings or Tremolo Strings to give it more body. But this takes more channels. To fully realize strings can take as many as 7 channels - violin (shared by I & II), viola, cello, bass, pizzicato, tremolo, and ensemble, but that leaves only 9 for the rest, which usually isn't enough, so I end up dropping some of the special effects. The other problem that's particular to MIDI is that it is impossible to change the volume of a note mid-note. So when you want something to start of quiet and get louder over time while just playing one note (or vice versa), you simply can't - MIDI just doesn't do that. You have to stop playing the note and then start again at the new volume. The compromise is to stagger volume changes between the various instruments so those start/stop bits are not so obvious. That was more of a problem with this piece than most of my earlier transcriptions. I think it might take something more advanced than MIDI to truly capture some of these pieces well, but that is something I don't know how to do currently. My next few pieces are going to be simpler ones I think, until I find a way around these limitations.
Thanks again Darrel. A wonderful discovery! This certainly whets the appetite to hear the work with the full orchestration of 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (B♭), 2 bassoons + 4 horns, 2 trumpets (C), 3 trombones + timpani + strings.
Yes, I expected it would have the usual standard set of instruments, and that looks about right. But I'd be completely guessing on what plays where, and at best it'd be my own original arrangement unless I could find the actual parts. (I have done some arranging - one thing I plan to post at some point is my own orchestration of a Beethoven sonata into concerto form, but I'll save that for later. I may even post some completely original stuff - all this study of the form has given me some ideas for my own composition, but that's obviously a lot more work.)
The full score and parts have been digitized by the National Library of Norway. You can view them on that website as well as Borgstróm’s piano concerto in d minor. Tuomas Palojärvi has now uploaded on UA-cam the first few pages of the Concerto, Op. 22 using the full score and including the first cadenza left out in the present realization. It would be great to hear the entire work with the original orchestration.
Took a bit of searching (their search tool only seems to work if you type in Norwegian), but I found it. Unfortunately it does suffer from some of the same readability issues as the reduction score I worked from, but I should be able to work with it still. Expect it to appear in the future - but not right away, this will take some time and I've got others that will be going up first.
Glad you found it. I tried three times to include the URLs for the full score and parts in my comment, but UA-cam wouldn’t allow it to post. All I could do is mention where the mss are.
Could you link the Palojarvi recording? YT is generally okay about posting other YT links, and I'm curious how he handled that cadenza - I started putting it in there and it still sounds really out of place in that location to me - just really interrupts the flow of that rising run in the strings...