A Day Late – Antonio Vivaldi

29 Replies

Yesterday, March 4, was Antonio Vivaldi’s birthday. Vivaldi was a great violin virtuoso and composer. He wrote over 500 concertos! His four interconnected violin concertos, known as The Four Seasons, is one of the most popular pieces of classical music of all times. People love it. And for good reason – it is wonderful!

OK, major shift of focus here!!

So I have a YouTube channel. For the most part, people ignore it. When I post a new video, I will get a flurry of hits for that video. After that, it quickly dies down. There maybe some sporadic hits, but not much.

Even though I haven’t posted a new video since early December, I have received far more than the usual of views over the last 30 days. This extended flurry came from nowhere; it was overnight. 90% of this new traffic are views of three videos.

Two of those three are Vivaldi!

The one that is hit most frequently (more than twice as much as the other Vivaldi video) is the version of winter I did on my synthesizer. I posted about it before (here). The other was performed using a “virtual orchestra”, which can be played like a synthesizer, yet is created, using digital recordings, to closely mimic acoustic instruments. The synthesizer one is using an “old school” synth, where I had to create every sound using patch cords and nobs! I controlled it with keyboard, foot pedals and other controllers. OK, to be 100% truthful, I recorded note and performance information live, tweaked it, and then used the performance info to send the info back to the synth to record. In other words, although this was a performance, what you hear on this recording was not really played live – I could play the solo part when I recorded it, but not quite as good as it sounds here!

Here is the version using using the analog modular synthesizer:

(Click here if you don’t see the video below)

I hope you enjoyed!

Happy (belated) birthday, Antonio Vivaldi!

29 thoughts on “A Day Late – Antonio Vivaldi”

    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Thanks! That is one thing that is good – sometimes, if you know what things are supposed to do, you don’t turn those nobs just to see what will happen, but that is often where the magic occurs ;)

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      For the most part, I am not for trying to “replace” an acoustic instrument, but it is a great challenge! When trying to get close to those sounds, I prefer Tomita to W. Carlos, though he occasionally goes too far into the novelty/kitsch – I like Wendy’s more pure electronic sounds better. But then, I think some rock and jazz keyboardists do a much better job at making a synth a true expressive instruments than either of them.
      Thanks! Glad you enjoyed.

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  5. Pingback: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo [1696-1770] – Marina Kanavaki

    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Thanks, Robbie. It does take a lot of work to keep it up. Also, although I do have a backlog of music from years ago i could post, I try to post new recordings, and it is a huge amount of work to make a good one! As with writing, or, I’m sure, the cooking art you do, the more time you spend on it, the better the outcome. I just haven’t been able to put the proper time in….

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  10. Ruth

    Oooh, that’s a bit different, what fun! I think I still have a music cassette tape from the late 1980s (yes I know, they went out with the ark!) of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons played by violinist Nigel Kennedy – I think his probably has to be my favourite version ever. Sadly I no longer own a cassette player to play it on, so I have no idea why I still hang on to it… sentimental reasons, probably :-)

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Thanks, it was a lot of fun creating it! I have read that the Nigel Kennedy version is the most popular out there. I do have an old tape player (or two) in storage, but all of my old tapes are gathering dust!

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I think you are usually the one I get reminders of famous composers’ birthdays, you or the Oannes website.

      Thanks! it was a lot of fun making the recording!

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      1. marina kanavaki

        I enjoyed it very much!
        I remembered that Oannes did a few bday tribute posts last year. So much happening, I had also forgotten the…talentless Michelangelo bday, today!!!! 😱🤣

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        1. trentpmcd Post author

          Thanks!
          I think there should be a holiday for the bdays of all of the biggest composers and artists. We’d be celebrating almost every day ;) But great art -needs- to be celebrated! I didn’t know it was Michelangelo birthday today.

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Thanks! Yes, the photo with all of the wires in there is the sound I used for this! It is very complicated because I had a huge amount of control over all aspects of the sound.

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