I'll never forget one day, working at Capitol Studios, when a guy came in to ask if he could work at the piano while we were mixing in the control room. "Sure!" - because it was Claus Ogerman... wow.
Rick, going through your videos, I came across this one. Claus Ogerman is one of the best arrangers, orchestrators and composers ever recorded. Besides the albums mentioned, Symbiosis with Bill Evans is a masterpiece, a jazz piano concerto of sorts. With all the music channels on UA-cam, i never see any of them discuss Claus. Great to see you bringing him to the attention of your subscribers.
Amberoot Audio took the words out of my keyboard :) thank you for an amazing channel - and yes, I have already told my friends about it (maybe that's why you're almost 200k now :)
This is great. I love that line. As a cellist, I have a couple things to mention. 1. Writing in those keys (G, D, A) will give you the rich, open sonority that we often look for in a string part. Parts will lie better on the instrument, and string players will hug you for it. 2. I've also played parts in obscenely difficult keys and wondered why they were written that way. First, they may reflect the fact that the main focus is on woodwind/brass writing. I "THINK" winds prefer more flat keys, and once you work through the transpositions of the instruments, strings get sent down the river as far as key signatures go. This is also true for Broadway show type stuff, where you're trying to get singers to sound good without making them sing too high. What happens with these keys is you get a string sound, but lose the rich sonority. I think this is often desirable so as not to overpower a singer, or to naturally temper the string sound so that it fits better in the mix.
When writing for string ensembles, or solo strings, I very much so agree with this; but a good orchestrator would be able to replicate a deep string sonority through proper voice leading, management of overtones, and texture throughout a full ensemble.
I remember picking up Cityscapes when it came out and thought this was one of the greatest recordings in my entire collection! Cool to hear someone bring the name up after all these years. I just wish there were more recordings of Claus, I can’t get enough of his music! You are a treasure to the world of music also Rick…….keep it up! Robert Szmik Canton, GA
UA-cam FOREVER. Only on YT! Just came from hearing Symphonic Dances by Ogermann (real German name). Recall his Latino influence. Played his LPs on an MOR station at an upper/downer part of my life. WOW! Thanks for the explanation. I am into harmonies and orchestration lately. Has anybody else heard the root melody to his yet! HAHAHA. It is a violin practice piece. If you are old enough to remember, Jack Benny deliberately made fun of this. So Claus is pulling our leg here using that old violin practice piece. Call it Themes and Variations.
I keep coming back to this lesson. There is so much important information, especially with regard to writing for the strengths of the instrument(s) chosen. The beauty of Claus' writing really shines through in this piece, which may be the underlying reason I come back.
🙂Beautiful! THANK YOU RICK for covering the subject of Ogerman's genius writing/arranging! I've been a fan since childhood, as my Dad would play Gate Of Dreams a lot! I especially love "Air Antique" from that amazing album...(makes my soul cry..)💙🙂 BTW/FANTASTIC job recreating Ogerman's amazing writing/arranging.. BEAUTIFUL!!! 💙🙂‼️
+Rick Beato, There is enough material on your channel for a full degree at any University, as a matter of fact, if I would have to redo my education, I would drop out of the North American dated school system AND professors, and would listen to your 200 videos.... And give you patronage for the material instead of the University of Whatever... You Dig ?? :P lol
Nice job Rick. Achingly beautiful string lines. Ogerman was certainly up there with the best. A great loss to the music world. We deserve an in depth documentary on this genius who touched our hearts.
I still have the Bill Evans Trio record (on vinyl...): it's stunningly beautiful music. But the excerpt in this video is so beautiful I need to learn it as soon as possibile! Thank you again Rick!!!
the b minor flat6 11 thingy is really an eminor ninth with b as the pedalpoint. this is the Ii prparing the V in the major mode (D) the A/c# being the second inversion of said V chord. easier to understand no?
LOVE Ogerman! His album "Symbiosis" with Bill Evans is my favorite. I also think that his first assignment upon arrival to the states was Leslie Gore's "It's My Party". Another thing I dig about him was a tendency towards the lower tessitura in his orchestral writing. Love his use of alto flutes, as well. His arrangement of the intro on Freddie Hubbard's "Little Sunflower" featuring Al Jerreau and Chick Corea is a super lesson on how to write something interesting over one chord. Great topic!
I laughed when I saw the title - of course Rick did a video on Ogerman! Of course it's gonna be quality! Where else would one find such amazing content! I love Ogerman's style. Some of his lines reminds me of Morricone.
Checkout what Claus does on the interlude on Diana Krall's "Ever time We Say Goodby." It blows my mind. I must disagree with you on the site Sinatra Jobim stuff. It's one of the few times Sinatra just doesn't get it right.
I want to see a video of Rick Beato on rick beato’s taste in great fucking music.....I thank you bro! Thank you!!!! I as a musician now have hope for this generation...
Great video, and a timely one as I was very recently listening to some of his arrangements for Diana Krall. This lesson makes me understand why you see some odd key signatures from time to time, as one attempts to write to strengths--and tries to avoid writing to weaknesses. (Yet I maintain that no normal person would write in the key of F# anyway, haha!)
Rick, you should listen to Matita Perê and Urubu, by Tom Jobim; both albums with some beautiful orchestrations by Ogerman, and a quite unknown side of Jobim (that I, personally, as a brazilian musician, prefer a lot than his Bossa Nova side). Do you know these albums?
Another really great album with Claus Ogerman arrangements all over it is Freddie Hubbard's "The Love Connection", including the sample from Pepe Bradock's classic house track "Deep Burnt" ....... and for anyone who's not a fan of Antônio Carlos Jobim's singing (personally i'm not), check out his 1967 album "Wave", which has no singing on it but much brilliant arranging!
impressive breakdown, thumbs up for Rick👍I was just listening to the cityscape record the other day. Oh my, the way Ogerman arranges for strings. I really dig the lines he's written for the pizzicato string part. there's some rhythmic discplacements that go together with the higher notes in the lines, them being on the 2nd 8th note. I think it adds an very interesting contrast with the melody line...anyway, everything from Ogerman is gold🙂
This is terrific! I've had the Evans trio album for yours and wore it through the grooves. And then there "Symbiosis" is an album by Evans with orchestra arranged and conducted Ogerman recorded in 1974. BTW - Another favorite composer/arranger of mine is Gunther Schuller. I'll look over your tutorials to see if you have already done something on him. Otherwise, do you plan to do one on him sometime? Keep up the excellent work!
Thanks for all of the great content Rick! Don't know if this is something that would interest you but... I would love a deeper Analysis of some of Debussys work, his style of composing etc..! It seems like there's hardly any content on youtube that really diggs deep into the harmonic structure & techniques of his pieces and as far as a theoretical understanding goes well... if anyone you'd be the man to do it!
Yeah that would be awesome! I realize you have already covered a lot of the theory used by debussy in other videos but there's still so much harmonic intricacy to his pieces... I guess it would be great to see you pick apart a piece from front to back, not really a "lesson" but more of a harmonic analysis for anyone who wants to incorporate those impressionistic ideas into their compositions (voicings, tonal ambiguity etc...) Or maybe just pick out some interesting bars of different pieces and go from there... you get the idea :)
I'd love for you to take a listen to Richard Rodney Bennett's film score to LADY CAROLINE LAMB (Angel recording) or the original soundtrack recording (extremely rare) because Claus Ogerman and Bennett have the extraordinary gift of scintillating melodicism, harmonic transcendence, and tuneful orchestrations that get into your marrow and leave you breathless. Thank you for your expertise shared with music mavens everywhere!
And he also collaborated with Quincy Jones on Lesley Gore hits like "You Don't Own Me" and "It's My Party". Maybe that was "slumming" but he could do it all.
The violin doesn't always utilize open strings because the timbre of the open string can be different from a closed string. However, as far as I'm aware, having those open string notes in the key can help with overtones and playing in tune.
Violinist here. You're correct about not always using open strings because of timbre, but we still use them often when the key permits and string players greatly prefer keys that allow us to use our open strings. They do help with overtones and also they're really helpful in fast passages because they give your fingers time to prepare for the next note or make a shift easily. Also, string players always want to reduce the amount of string crossings we have to do, and having open strings makes that easier.
Rick, I'd like to hear your take on William Brohn, given that he just died a few weeks ago. Do you have any insights into his orchestration techniques?
Of course! No problem at all. You've already put so much high quality content out there. I didn't mean to sound ungrateful or anything, but I would much appreciate some tutorials on brass instruments :)
I'll never forget one day, working at Capitol Studios, when a guy came in to ask if he could work at the piano while we were mixing in the control room. "Sure!" - because it was Claus Ogerman... wow.
👍🙂Claus had such a wonderful way of reaching into your soul and ripping it out! Such immense beauty in his compositions/arrangements.
Rick, going through your videos, I came across this one. Claus Ogerman is one of the best arrangers, orchestrators and composers ever recorded. Besides the albums mentioned, Symbiosis with Bill Evans is a masterpiece, a jazz piano concerto of sorts. With all the music channels on UA-cam, i never see any of them discuss Claus. Great to see you bringing him to the attention of your subscribers.
How is it physically possible to consistently pump-out such high quality content? I wish you the best with this channel Rick, it's a gem.
I'm thinking exactly the same... and I'm seeing comments like this one since at least a couple months ago! Rick is the man
Tell all your friends to subscribe! Hitting 100k will help me get even more content out there by taking less production work. thanks!
Amberoot Audio took the words out of my keyboard :) thank you for an amazing channel - and yes, I have already told my friends about it (maybe that's why you're almost 200k now :)
This is great. I love that line.
As a cellist, I have a couple things to mention.
1. Writing in those keys (G, D, A) will give you the rich, open sonority that we often look for in a string part. Parts will lie better on the instrument, and string players will hug you for it.
2. I've also played parts in obscenely difficult keys and wondered why they were written that way. First, they may reflect the fact that the main focus is on woodwind/brass writing. I "THINK" winds prefer more flat keys, and once you work through the transpositions of the instruments, strings get sent down the river as far as key signatures go. This is also true for Broadway show type stuff, where you're trying to get singers to sound good without making them sing too high.
What happens with these keys is you get a string sound, but lose the rich sonority. I think this is often desirable so as not to overpower a singer, or to naturally temper the string sound so that it fits better in the mix.
When writing for string ensembles, or solo strings, I very much so agree with this; but a good orchestrator would be able to replicate a deep string sonority through proper voice leading, management of overtones, and texture throughout a full ensemble.
Thanks! I love cello and double bass music. There's a combo cellist and pianist I discovered on UA-cam lately. Mysteriously lovely music.
Doesn't open strings on bowed instrument have an audible timbre difference as it can be the case on guitar?
I remember picking up Cityscapes when it came out and thought this was one of the greatest recordings in my entire collection! Cool to hear someone bring the name up after all these years. I just wish there were more recordings of Claus, I can’t get enough of his music!
You are a treasure to the world of music also Rick…….keep it up!
Robert Szmik
Canton, GA
City Scape - Claus Ogerman & Michael Brecker.
Allan Holdsworth told me that this was his favourite album.
My favourite arranger..have all his records ...thank you for giving more insight into his genius...
UA-cam FOREVER. Only on YT! Just came from hearing Symphonic Dances by Ogermann (real German name). Recall his Latino influence. Played his LPs on an MOR station at an upper/downer part of my life. WOW! Thanks for the explanation. I am into harmonies and orchestration lately. Has anybody else heard the root melody to his yet! HAHAHA. It is a violin practice piece. If you are old enough to remember, Jack Benny deliberately made fun of this. So Claus is pulling our leg here using that old violin practice piece. Call it Themes and Variations.
I keep coming back to this lesson. There is so much important information, especially with regard to writing for the strengths of the instrument(s) chosen. The beauty of Claus' writing really shines through in this piece, which may be the underlying reason I come back.
🙂Beautiful! THANK YOU RICK for covering the subject of Ogerman's genius writing/arranging! I've been a fan since childhood, as my Dad would play Gate Of Dreams a lot! I especially love "Air Antique" from that amazing album...(makes my soul cry..)💙🙂 BTW/FANTASTIC job recreating Ogerman's amazing writing/arranging.. BEAUTIFUL!!! 💙🙂‼️
+Rick Beato, There is enough material on your channel for a full degree at any University, as a matter of fact, if I would have to redo my education, I would drop out of the North American dated school system AND professors, and would listen to your 200 videos.... And give you patronage for the material instead of the University of Whatever... You Dig ?? :P lol
Nice job Rick. Achingly beautiful string lines. Ogerman was certainly up there with the best. A great loss to the music world. We deserve an in depth documentary on this genius who touched our hearts.
I still have the Bill Evans Trio record (on vinyl...): it's stunningly beautiful music. But the excerpt in this video is so beautiful I need to learn it as soon as possibile! Thank you again Rick!!!
Mr. Martinelli, if you don’t have it already, Ogerman’s Gate Of Dreams is another blow-mindingly beautiful work, as well! 👍
There is also another Ogerman Brecker album called "Claus Ogerman featuring Michael Brecker", released in 1990.
Thank you for talking about Claus Ogerman! His music breaks my heart but fills my soul!
"Wave" and "Tide" are my treasures.... I love the subdued orchestrations, including trombone and alto flute.
The Jobim and Urubu albums feature full sides of his arranging on Jobim’s instrumental work. Phenomenal.
As someone who is just dipping my toe in the water of trying to write orchestral music, I found this analysis to be extremely helpful. Thanks so much!
the b minor flat6 11 thingy is really an eminor ninth with b as the pedalpoint. this is the Ii prparing the V in the major mode (D) the A/c# being the second inversion of said V chord. easier to understand no?
LOVE Ogerman! His album "Symbiosis" with Bill Evans is my favorite. I also think that his first assignment upon arrival to the states was Leslie Gore's "It's My Party". Another thing I dig about him was a tendency towards the lower tessitura in his orchestral writing. Love his use of alto flutes, as well. His arrangement of the intro on Freddie Hubbard's "Little Sunflower" featuring Al Jerreau and Chick Corea is a super lesson on how to write something interesting over one chord. Great topic!
Joao Gilberto Amoroso arranged by Claus Ogerman a gem voted in the Netherlands as the best record from the 20th.century great Rick !!
I laughed when I saw the title - of course Rick did a video on Ogerman! Of course it's gonna be quality! Where else would one find such amazing content!
I love Ogerman's style. Some of his lines reminds me of Morricone.
This strings arrangement sounds so much Bach to me! He truly IS the Father of Sounds...
Thanls Rick for this great video!
OMG! All your videos are great but this Claus video is truly amazing!
Thank you for this Rick Beato. City Scape is amazing.
I love Claus Ogerman. His work with Jobim and Leo Wright is the bar itself.
First time I heard of him was with Wes Montgomery.Bumpin on Sunset.1968 in Vietnam. Loved his Strings arrangements. Truly a great arranger.
What beautiful string arrangement. Im speechless
Amazing ! I love that youre covering this! Claus is an absolute Hero !!
Honestly i'm here for more sick Ogerman progressions
Very clear and wonderful lesson, I'm thankful again !
Checkout what Claus does on the interlude on Diana Krall's "Ever time We Say Goodby." It blows my mind. I must disagree with you on the site Sinatra Jobim stuff. It's one of the few times Sinatra just doesn't get it right.
I want to see a video of Rick Beato on rick beato’s taste in great fucking music.....I thank you bro! Thank you!!!! I as a musician now have hope for this generation...
Great video, and a timely one as I was very recently listening to some of his arrangements for Diana Krall. This lesson makes me understand why you see some odd key signatures from time to time, as one attempts to write to strengths--and tries to avoid writing to weaknesses. (Yet I maintain that no normal person would write in the key of F# anyway, haha!)
Awesome tutorial Rick! I can't get enough of your channel!
The first two records you mentioned "Cityscape" and "Gate of dreams" confirm that you are a major specialist
Excellent content on your channel, Sir! Thanks!
Great Rick! Very interesting
thank you sir i just started learning Film scoring
Rick, you should listen to Matita Perê and Urubu, by Tom Jobim; both albums with some beautiful orchestrations by Ogerman, and a quite unknown side of Jobim (that I, personally, as a brazilian musician, prefer a lot than his Bossa Nova side). Do you know these albums?
Yes! He's amazing!
Hey Rick. Thanks for posting
Awesome awesome awesome your passion and commitment for teaching this way!
Another really great album with Claus Ogerman arrangements all over it is Freddie Hubbard's "The Love Connection", including the sample from Pepe Bradock's classic house track "Deep Burnt" ....... and for anyone who's not a fan of Antônio Carlos Jobim's singing (personally i'm not), check out his 1967 album "Wave", which has no singing on it but much brilliant arranging!
Brill mate, brill. Peter.
I adore his work in Kralls "Look of Love"
Excellent work Rick !
Great video as always on the greatest and most useful UA-cam channel out there. Keep up the good work!
impressive breakdown, thumbs up for Rick👍I was just listening to the cityscape record the other day. Oh my, the way Ogerman arranges for strings. I really dig the lines he's written for the pizzicato string part. there's some rhythmic discplacements that go together with the higher notes in the lines, them being on the 2nd 8th note. I think it adds an very interesting contrast with the melody line...anyway, everything from Ogerman is gold🙂
This is terrific! I've had the Evans trio album for yours and wore it through the grooves. And then there "Symbiosis" is an album by Evans with orchestra arranged and conducted Ogerman recorded in 1974. BTW - Another favorite composer/arranger of mine is Gunther Schuller. I'll look over your tutorials to see if you have already done something on him. Otherwise, do you plan to do one on him sometime? Keep up the excellent work!
Wow just checked out that Bill Evans album
thank you.thank you.thank you.come to Brazil!! we need your workshops and lessons down here!!
Thanks for all of the great content Rick! Don't know if this is something that would interest you but... I would love a deeper Analysis of some of Debussys work, his style of composing etc..!
It seems like there's hardly any content on youtube that really diggs deep into the harmonic structure & techniques of his pieces and as far as a theoretical understanding goes well... if anyone you'd be the man to do it!
Paul Schänzlin I second this!!!
Paul Schänzlin I third this..
Paul Schänzlin I perfect fourth this!
I fifth this! Wait? I have to do the work :) What would you like me to discuss specifically about Debussy? Highlight compositional techniques?
Yeah that would be awesome! I realize you have already covered a lot of the theory used by debussy in other videos but there's still so much harmonic intricacy to his pieces...
I guess it would be great to see you pick apart a piece from front to back, not really a "lesson" but more of a harmonic analysis for anyone who wants to incorporate those impressionistic ideas into their compositions (voicings, tonal ambiguity etc...) Or maybe just pick out some interesting bars of different pieces and go from there... you get the idea :)
Thanks for this and all your videos. I am learning a lot.
Man i really love your channel and your book! thanks for all the hard job!
Rick, Awesome content.. Your a BEAST !!
Thanks for the video! I have a question about notation- is there any difference between Bmib6 and Gmaj7 first inversion?
They have different bass notes :)
Man, I love that Sinatra/ Jobim (& Ogerman) album!
I'd love for you to take a listen to Richard Rodney Bennett's film score to LADY CAROLINE LAMB (Angel recording)
or the original soundtrack recording (extremely rare) because Claus Ogerman and Bennett have the extraordinary gift of scintillating melodicism, harmonic transcendence, and tuneful orchestrations that get into your marrow and leave you breathless.
Thank you for your expertise shared with music mavens everywhere!
There is a lot of Bach in the string line. The WTK1 D major prelude is not far away from the concepts Ogermann uses here. Though, great video, Rick.
Great great great content man, love this videos, thank you for sharing this great info. Greetings from Mexico
Gate of dreams is my top 10 album of all time// thank you
14:45 Good, now I know what keys to write in, if I were to audition a violin player and want to really test them.
Beautiful
And he also collaborated with Quincy Jones on Lesley Gore hits like "You Don't Own Me" and "It's My Party". Maybe that was "slumming" but he could do it all.
Congratulations !!!
Eu adoro Tom Jobim, canto suas músicas nos bares e mesmo sendo mais complexas as pessoas sempre se emocionam, Jobim é foda!
Abraços do Brasil!
un video que empieza "como escribir" pero primero te dice en que esta afinado un violin. es para lelos
this is gold! much appreciated Rick! have you planned ever doing a video covering negative harmony?
Very useful! Thanks!
Hey Rick this was awesome! could you do a profile of Paul Buckmaster too? He was the awesome arranger for Elton John
The violin doesn't always utilize open strings because the timbre of the open string can be different from a closed string. However, as far as I'm aware, having those open string notes in the key can help with overtones and playing in tune.
They had no choice with the open G's :)
Rick Beato Haha! Very true for that one
Violinist here. You're correct about not always using open strings because of timbre, but we still use them often when the key permits and string players greatly prefer keys that allow us to use our open strings. They do help with overtones and also they're really helpful in fast passages because they give your fingers time to prepare for the next note or make a shift easily. Also, string players always want to reduce the amount of string crossings we have to do, and having open strings makes that easier.
Yeah, I wore out Cityscape!
Yor channel is great, love your videos, keep them comming
Amazing ogerman
Those melodic lines are really piano like especially from the classical Alberti bass like patterns...
Great video! Keep it up
How about Gil Evans Sketches or Spain writing style?
Great idea!
Great Rick! Would be awesome if you analyse some Miguel Bernal Jimenez "Mester de Juglares"!
Rick i would love that you can give us an analysis of the musico Sakamoto and Hisaishi.
Rick, I'd like to hear your take on William Brohn, given that he just died a few weeks ago. Do you have any insights into his orchestration techniques?
How about a video about pentachords or major and minor 6 chords? :)
thx for sharing
Rick, have you considered covering Claus’ collaboration with Bill Evans on Symbiosis?
Hello Rick, big fan of yours ,would you like to make a video about the style of Alexandra Scriabin?
hi rick, great work. just curious as to why you dont notate the first measure as Bmin7(b6) as well. since the violin line includes the b6.
A Certain Mr. Jobim:
open.spotify.com/album/3qiVW5S3384Xq2sad7Wg2E
Do you have a video on the ranges and sweet spots of different instruments?
I like it
Motions and Emotions:
open.spotify.com/album/67NDcaTQFovmzUscG92ELV
Nice one! Not sure though what you mean with Bmin11b5?
Cityscape:
open.spotify.com/album/2NSuqJgxs9mnzGNn5tM278
I subscribe Rick !Thank you for your nice videos !
Sinatra/ Jobim:
open.spotify.com/album/0LYpJGx3fHoTmKOtKuMWtQ
Not to mention Barbara Streisand
Would you please make a video about writing for brass instruments?
I'm getting there. It takes time to do these things :)
Of course! No problem at all. You've already put so much high quality content out there. I didn't mean to sound ungrateful or anything, but I would much appreciate some tutorials on brass instruments :)
wait was that a vinyl? i have never seen one covered in their covers before, sorry for my ignorance...
yeah man
4/18/2023 ... came back again...