It's actually pretty easy to imagine. Just picture a person sitting at a computer for about forty hours (that's a guess; I've been working on it for about a week).
You are a genius, as you well know. From the first animations to this...a huge learning curve. This is a great delight to all my senses, nearly orgasmic. And sweet in its sensitivity and exciting in it's changes. Thank you from all the chambers of my heart. What you add to the world of music is monumental.
Thank you, Andreya. When I was younger, I halfway believed people who told me I was a genius, but as I've gotten older, it's become more and more clear that I'm not. I can find the source of every idea in this project in other people's work. What distinguishes me from other people who've worked in this area is a large amount of luck. I happened to learn things that make me suited for this (music theory, composition, performance, pedagogy, notation, math, physics, cognitive neuroscience, psychoacoustics, computer programming, etc.), and because so much of what I've learned comes into play in this project, it is very engaging, and over the years I've become obsessed with it. And, I was lucky to have a drug-induced hallucination in the 1970s that showed me that musical scores could dance. One viewer of this video commented "oh god this is the most accurate representation to drugs I've seen," and many viewers have made similar comments on other videos, so I know I'm not alone in having had a glimpse through that window.
the screen no longer holds 2 dimensions for you. the depth, pushing back into the screen and then pulling down the '4th Wall' flying in the musical bits. BRAVO!! EXCELLENT!!!
Ta muzyka oddaje cały klimat grozy. Jest straszna noc ,boimy się. Potem kulminacja. A z pierwszym promieniem słońca wszystko się uspakaja. Jak w życiu. Piękne. Dla mnie prawdziwe mistrzostwo świata.
I really like the stretch effect where really only the notes that are being played are stretched. It fits nicely in the parts where you used it. Now using the same exact troll twice in a row can be a meta-troll in itself though i dont think that your typical audience would be concerned by such.
I thought about how to handle the fact that the fake-out (in the music, breaking off the pattern unexpectedly and then going in a completely different direction) happens twice. If it had only happened once, my visual analogue would have been perfect, but since it happens twice, I faced a quandary. I could do the visual fake-out the first time, the second time, or both times. I decided that doing it twice ("fool me twice, shame on me") would be best, because it rewards the people who remember the first time and are predicting the attempt to fool them twice. But I think it would also make sense only doing it the second time (with the first time showing the future honestly), so that the second time around, the first-time viewer is thinking "ah, this time, we're going to get somewhere with this," and is then doubly fooled. The downside of that is that the first time, the trick (breaking off) is revealed, so some people might be half-expecting it to break off the second time (even though the visual contradicts that). If Mussorgsky had continued the sequence the first time and only broken it off the second time, it would have been better, but ... well, Mussorgsky does everything twice, whether it merits it or not ...
Thanks for these. I think that watching the piano-roll-like version and either of the other versions explains the music to me better than any version would alone.
I like how agitated the animation is for this one, really suits the mood of the composition as a whole, really brings back those nostalgic horrors brought by Disney's Fantasia some randomly appear out of nowhere, some randomly disappear in thin air, some moves fast and untamed, some are slow but are ready to attack
I listen to this music and hear a nightmare. As an American that nightmare culminates a night ride of robed fascists 'settling' down to burn a cross. Why not? The music is violent, barbarous, and nocturnal, which describes the Klan very well. It's also a masterpiece... in the sense that the scherzo of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony is a masterpiece of terror.
Stephen, I don't get it when people comment about poor instrument quality, etc... they obviously have no idea of the process you go through to bring these to life. It's too bad that people feel it's necessary to comment negatively on just about everything because they need to be heard. So what - this was indeed a college orchestra - nothing is ever going to please 100% of people 100% of the time. Anyway, try as we may, no one usually reads the notes. I try my best in my genre to make things sound unique and always try to direct them to your channels as they enjoy the MAMMplayer visualization that you know I often use (am requested to use). In my case, I'm more focused on the music, where the video is just a means to do it. In your case, the audience should be in awe of the visual feast you create, with the music almost as its accompaniment (at least for the personal work you do here - your professional work is a mix depending upon the listener/viewer) - in my humble opinion. I always find it amusing now when I get a "thumbs down." I do this for my own pleasure knowing that not all of them are gems (with Google ads - the few cents it earns me helps to buy new software to improve my projects) and share here like you do - to entertain others and perhaps get commissioned for something. It's so easy for people to hide behind the internet than to provide valuable feedback: why they didn't like it, etc. Even if it wasn't what they were expecting or ultimately, not their cup of tea, at least appreciate the amount of work and time it takes to produce something like this without being rude. Even if the work is just being done on a DAW, there's the sequencing, corrections, sound development, effects layers and the mix downs. I'm thankful that I've received very few negative remarks but it's the world we live in. Although I don't usually comment, I am always blown away by your work and thank you for doing what you do. It has also been a pleasure communicating with you and your associate off of this site. Be well, always feel that creative drive and keep on entertaining us. Carey R. Meltz
I don't think there's one single reason that accounts for all negative comments about the recordings I use. Some viewers think I'm unaware of the quality of the recordings I'm using, and that they are doing me a favor by alerting me. Some think I'm not realizing how important the quality of the recordings is to them, and hoping that if I would just wake up and realize what I'm doing, I would change my ways. Some think they look smart by demonstrating how aware they are of the deficiencies. Some feel a responsibility to warm other viewers about the recording. With some, it's just sour grapes: if they aren't satisfied, nobody else should be. Some are only watching the video to hear the recording, and are not at all interested in what's going on in the animation. Some have a chip on their shoulder, and just want to make sure I know that they're not happy with the way I do things. Some feel free to be critical on RUclips in a way that they'd never dream of being in person (they write things that they'd never in a million years say to the performer's face after a live concert) --- not realizing that the performers often read the comments on these videos. And, of course, some people don't realize that I'm not making these videos to share the recordings, but to share my animated graphical scores (and that comments on the recordings are, from my viewpoint, pretty much irrelevant). Lately, I've taken to saying, in effect, "put your money where your mouth is," by suggesting that if they'd like me to use better recordings, they could pay the license fees that would allow me to use them.
The problem is that some of the recordings you have used are quite unbearable, so that your hard work on the animations is buried beneath them (e.g. Mozart clarinet concerto). This recording is bearable at the very least, but I wonder why your recording quality deteriorated over the years; I remember that the Beethoven symphonies are good recordings, as well as the Brahms and Beethoven chamber music, for example. It's your channel and you should run it however you want, but I _personally_ feel that using sub-par recordings does a disservice to your efforts, exactly because some recordings are just too bad for your ears to ignore and just enjoy the visuals. Lastly, I want to point out that the fact that none of us is paying you to do this does not exclude us from expressing our opinion on your work, whether that may be good or bad, as long as it is done politely - like any other decent conversation.
This is one of my favorite animations of yours - the Voroni, the context-dependent shapes, the visual tricks - it all comes together perfectly and reveals something about the actual listening experience. It's like hearing it for the first time again
This is the most sophisticated one yet. It looks just incredible. I love how you are exploring new ways of visualizing the music. Congratulations. I don't know how your graphic tools work, but here is an idea for you. Could you arrange the individual instruments like the orchestral sheet music, one lane per instrument or section, and have their pitches go up and down on the z axis, but then change the viewer perspective to something like south-west at 45 degree angle down. On some dramatic parts you could even vary the perspective and/or get closer of further away from the music.
People (including me) have experimented with 3D approaches to graphical scores (including variations on the idea you've suggested). I haven't liked the results much. See www.musanim.com/3D/
Yes, I understand what you're looking for. If you search the web, you will find them. Here's something related (but not exactly what you're hoping for): ruclips.net/video/sokKjJVTwXI/видео.html Maybe someday I'll make a page that points to other people's attempts at 3D animated graphical scores.
It's hard not to call this animation a work of art!! I wonder how much additional time it takes to combine animations like this. Because I would be more than pleased and happy to see a beethoven symphony movement animated with such artistry. If Mussorgsky's music deserves such a treatment, I assume Beethoven's fifth symphony also does! :)
great! i love the combination of different visualizations, it's very dynamic. i wonder why that section of notes disappeared at 3:03 or why they were even on the screen if they're not played... could that be an aesthetic choice, as to convey the suddenness of the transition?
You did an excellent job on this one! I love all the effects, but my favorites are how you use several layers at different speeds and the "surprise" effect of sudden silence. I was imagining you taking a new look at the Rite of Spring using all these effects, but that would require so much work! The one you have is already fantastic. By the way, there is something strange about the octaves of the harp when it appears. Care to take a look at it?
re: harp ... I tried to modify the score to match what I heard in the performance. If you think I've gotten it wrong somewhere, could you say where and in what way? Thanks.
Care to specify what exactly is strange and when? Other than that, I wholeheartedly agree with you. In addition, I like the glow effect that emphasizes the eerie athmosphere of the music. This animation is definitely one of my favourites (if not even the most favourite) among all the pieces visualized with music animation machine (or any other way, for that matter).
smalin At 9'15", for example, the harp starts a series of eight ascending arpeggios, each one a little higher than the previous. However, I see in the video that the 5th arpeggio is lower than the 4th. Could it be that in the score there is an octave higher sign? There are similar sections further to the front (or maybe before, since I was skipping to find this section).
I just took a look at this piece's score and what you wrote corresponds to it. It's this performance in particular that doesn't correspond to the score. I wonder if the conductor or the harpist had some insight about this that we don't or simply made a mistake. If it is a mistake, I think it's one made with good taste.
Don't knock Fantasia. It was a revolutionary conception in fitting animated images to classical music. You might not think of Walt Disney as a revolutionary art-for-the-sake of-art genius, but that is exactly what he was in Fantasia. He was never that again, as Fantasia was a box-office flop. The section involving Night on Bald Mountain suggests the domination of evil exploiting darkness, superstition, and the occult giving way at sunrise to benign faith as the sun rises. Disney had a stroke of genius in recognizing that Schubert's devout Ave Maria has much the same beat, and the barbarous, violent, nocturnal Night on Bald Mountain (which I thought evocative of all things, the KKK) yielding to a peaceful antithesis. I suggest that you see it. It is not perfect, but there would be nothing comparable to it for a very long time. It holds up well after nearly 80 years.
The recording is by a college orchestra (Skidmore College). If you'd like to help me get better recordings for use in my videos, see this: www.musanim.com/Underwriting/
Nuevos estilos en base a figura geométricas son artísticos e imaginativos pero ya no son legibles para integrarse a la interpretación y disfrutarla más; el efecto visual no se relaciona con la expectativa de sonido. como con la simulación por barra en la cual se preveía la nota, la duración, el acento incluso el instrumento y acorde ... por eso es deseable encontrar las versiones anteriores de simulación aunque también se disfrute en forma visual, pasivamente, las nuevas simulaciones. Guadalajara, Jalisco , México.
Sometimes people in countries outside the USA are restricted from seeing certain of my videos (because of copyright problems), but if that were the case with you, you'd be seeing a lot fewer than 499. So I'm puzzled.
Very nice. How about making a composition for harp plus another solo instrument (maybe plus orchestra too) where the tones of the harp make circles like on the water surface and during tone-to-tone transitions of the other solo instrument (flute, violin), the beam moves by sinusoid.
I'm still working on a second version; I've found many errors in the original, I've decided to change the coloring based on the key signature (so that it relates the harmony in a more consistent way), and I've make some changes to the layout. Probably not enough to make a big difference to anybody except me. Also, I'm probably going to do something more like my standard piano-roll style, for people who want something closer to a conventional score to study.
See it! You will know that it is Disney because of Mickey Mouse in the section "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" -- and Mickey fits in very well -- but it is a unique visual experience of its time. Disney is usually the antithesis of an art-for-art's-sake creative person, but he tried art for its own sake in Fantasia. It was a box-office flop, so he never did anything like it again. It holds up well after about 80 years.
I remember when Disney released a 50th anniversary edition of "Fantasia" in the movie theaters. I was three at the time and my mother and grandmother thought it would be a good idea to take me. I did great until "The Night at Bald Mountain" and my mother having to carry me out of the theater screaming bloody murder. Even as an adult I think this is a very powerful piece and these visuals are amazing (and much less creepy than the Disney version).
I believe we are entering a new chapter of smalin's videos; ruclips.net/video/sREi83yzn7g/видео.html, ruclips.net/video/RcXsYbkBk6g/видео.html, and now this masterpiece. I don't think it's a coincidence that these are all very different than some earlier videos. Or maybe it's just me. What do you think, Stephen?
I think that if you look at all my videos, and study the background material (www.musanim.com/renderers/, www.musanim.com/techniques/, www.musanim.com/RUclips/, www.musanim.com/scrolling/ ), you'll find that it's incremental. The only thing that's completely new in any of the videos you listed is the "disappearing" of music that you might expect but which turns out not to happen. Everything else has appeared before, and the ideas go back decades. From my perspective, what constitutes "a new chapter" is when my ideas reach a new audience. 1. Paper scrolls (my ideas came out of my head). 2. Computer animation (my ideas were animated). 3. Edward Tufte (bigger audience). 4. Classic Arts Showcase (bigger audience). 5. RUclips (humongous audience). 6. Synchronization to live performances (small audiences, but greater impact).
My toolset has been gradually improving, and at each level, there are people who say "I get this!" So, from the perspective of a particular person who's been watching my work evolve, there may be a point where they say "WOW, NOW this is really something!" But for me, it's always been like that.
You get what you pay for. If you'd like to pay more (to cover the cost of licensing a better recording), here's how that works: www.musanim.com/Underwriting/
Whether the USSR still exists as a state isn't relevant. This recording would only be in the public domain if it were put in the public domain by the USSR (assuming they owned the rights to the recording then). The recording is from 1975, so its copyright doesn't expire until at least 2045. I'm guessing that the rights are controlled by the record label (Всесоюзная Студия Грамзаписи). I don't speak Russian, so if I were going to work with a record label to get a better recording, I'd probably pick one where the language difference is not so extreme.
However I don't follow the meaning of the colours even in the former animated graphical scores. I play an instrument and compose and as for me C and B should not have a different colour ; they are in the same color and you don't really bring something meaningful coloring differently the notes of one coherent melody. The melody should has one color (calculated) or two if it changes in the middle. Colours are associated with tonalities, Cf. Messiaen's synesthesia. Turangalîlâ-symphony on smalin's channel someday with the Messiaen calculated colors? When correcting scores by his students, he said 'more blue here.... more red...' Scales are hierarchies between notes: I, V, IV... what happens when going from c major to g with the f#... => 12x2 colors ? or should color be associated to modulations or tonalities? What about Rameau's speech about music? Maybe he explaines in it how he manages to elaborate a theory of harmony.
If you say that C and B should have the same color, then you don't understand the logic of my coloring, which applies the color wheel to the circle of fifths. C and B are nearly opposite on the circle of fifths, and should therefore be nearly complementary on the color wheel (see www.musanim.com/HarmonicColoring/ if you'd like to read more about it). If you think that all notes of a melody function identically harmonically, then I think you're missing something essential about how melodies work.
Um... it's not exactly what I wanted to mean... I agree that C and B are very different harmonically but precisely something like functions of chords could be represented. ceg in blue, fgbd in green... For instance, a color for 7, another for 5... I afford to suggest this because you are almost a genius otherwise I would just said bravo and thank you. Indeed the fact C an B are opposite is not enough, at the beginning we hear an embroidery if it is an English word. The effect of b+a+b+c+b+a+ is one effect.
It's tricky. Let's say that you wanted a different color for every major and minor chord. There are 24 of them (two for each of 12 root pitches). It's nearly impossible to distinguish that many colors. Then, there's the question: when the notes being played form something other than a major or minor triad (diminished, augmented, 7th, 9th, dissonances, unconventional tonalities, etc.), what do you do? If the piece is very simple (just a few harmonies) and you're willing to ignore notes that aren't harmonic (passing notes and other dissonances), you can do it, but that's at the expense of ignoring detail, and I prefer not to do that. I've experimented with coloring by harmony, and so far I haven't found a way of doing it that I like. Here is an example: ruclips.net/video/AY-p89MnNHk/видео.html In this, I color the background according to the chord root. It does show you something, but in most cases, it's just the same as a prominent low note (being played by the cello and bass), and doesn't tell you that much. Or, at least, it doesn't tell me that much. Maybe other people would like it more.
I wonder what colors could symbolise. The listener can't really distinguish colors except if the whole show is very "analytic". Luminosity could be arithmetical with dynamic but is it necessary. indeed can one show harmony ad every note at the same time? Did you make any video with only harmony? figures and the bass or another system. with the 5th cycles? You must know the other ways to note music, contemporary ways. When I watch your works, I find that your coloration is not meaningful, the whole painting doesn't express harmony except in some passages where for instance the bass is repetitive.
Its probably the best one he could find for free without copyright. Either that, or someone from the college that performed this commissioned him to do this project.
1) No. This video is supposed to be a presentation of colors, visuals, and music. However, it fails on the third part of that, when the music is not performed very well. 2) Still not an explanation why the performance is bad. I'm sure the person making the video put A LOT of time and effort into making this video, of which shows in the quality of the visuals, but it seems strange that they didn't put as much time and effort into finding a recording to match the quality of the video.
Rhett Jaramillo It's probably expensive to find a video with good quality that's free to use. Also, if the college commissioned him to make this (which might be true, since he doesn't like Mussorgsky very much), he'd probably use the music they provided.
I love the trickery at 3:04. Well played
heh-heh
I can't imagine how hard you've worked to build something like this.You're great at what you do.Congratularions!!.
It's actually pretty easy to imagine. Just picture a person sitting at a computer for about forty hours (that's a guess; I've been working on it for about a week).
you have made the form of musical animation its own type of art
oh god this is the most accurate representation to drugs I've seen.
I love this, so multilayered. The different speeds for different layers are amazing.
You are a genius, as you well know. From the first animations to this...a huge learning curve. This is a great delight to all my senses, nearly orgasmic. And sweet in its sensitivity and exciting in it's changes. Thank you from all the chambers of my heart. What you add to the world of music is monumental.
Thank you, Andreya. When I was younger, I halfway believed people who told me I was a genius, but as I've gotten older, it's become more and more clear that I'm not. I can find the source of every idea in this project in other people's work. What distinguishes me from other people who've worked in this area is a large amount of luck. I happened to learn things that make me suited for this (music theory, composition, performance, pedagogy, notation, math, physics, cognitive neuroscience, psychoacoustics, computer programming, etc.), and because so much of what I've learned comes into play in this project, it is very engaging, and over the years I've become obsessed with it. And, I was lucky to have a drug-induced hallucination in the 1970s that showed me that musical scores could dance. One viewer of this video commented "oh god this is the most accurate representation to drugs I've seen," and many viewers have made similar comments on other videos, so I know I'm not alone in having had a glimpse through that window.
Lol, I'll never do drugs so thanks for showing me what it's like too!
the screen no longer holds 2 dimensions for you. the depth, pushing back into the screen and then pulling down the '4th Wall' flying in the musical bits. BRAVO!! EXCELLENT!!!
Ta muzyka oddaje cały klimat grozy. Jest straszna noc ,boimy się. Potem kulminacja. A z pierwszym promieniem słońca wszystko się uspakaja. Jak w życiu. Piękne. Dla mnie prawdziwe mistrzostwo świata.
I really like the stretch effect where really only the notes that are being played are stretched. It fits nicely in the parts where you used it.
Now using the same exact troll twice in a row can be a meta-troll in itself though i dont think that your typical audience would be concerned by such.
I thought about how to handle the fact that the fake-out (in the music, breaking off the pattern unexpectedly and then going in a completely different direction) happens twice. If it had only happened once, my visual analogue would have been perfect, but since it happens twice, I faced a quandary. I could do the visual fake-out the first time, the second time, or both times. I decided that doing it twice ("fool me twice, shame on me") would be best, because it rewards the people who remember the first time and are predicting the attempt to fool them twice. But I think it would also make sense only doing it the second time (with the first time showing the future honestly), so that the second time around, the first-time viewer is thinking "ah, this time, we're going to get somewhere with this," and is then doubly fooled. The downside of that is that the first time, the trick (breaking off) is revealed, so some people might be half-expecting it to break off the second time (even though the visual contradicts that). If Mussorgsky had continued the sequence the first time and only broken it off the second time, it would have been better, but ... well, Mussorgsky does everything twice, whether it merits it or not ...
If I am not mistaken, Mussorgsky's was on the list you don't want make a video of.
That's right. I've added an item to the FAQ about this.
Quelle spectacle! Quel travail. Merci de nous partager ceci.
@3:02 m'a juste renversé.
The visuals are a fever dream
These are always fun to watch, but this one was especially great. Nice work!
"Ha tricked ya, you stupid idiot" -Mussorgsky at 3:00
Thanks for these. I think that watching the piano-roll-like version and either of the other versions explains the music to me better than any version would alone.
I like how agitated the animation is for this one, really suits the mood of the composition as a whole, really brings back those nostalgic horrors brought by Disney's Fantasia
some randomly appear out of nowhere, some randomly disappear in thin air, some moves fast and untamed, some are slow but are ready to attack
I listen to this music and hear a nightmare. As an American that nightmare culminates a night ride of robed fascists 'settling' down to burn a cross. Why not? The music is violent, barbarous, and nocturnal, which describes the Klan very well. It's also a masterpiece... in the sense that the scherzo of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony is a masterpiece of terror.
To me, this is the most entertaining animation you have ever made. Great work.
I love how the animation matches the tone of the music
You have outdone the whole Disney stable of animators.
Visual masterpiece.
Another work of genius. I love it.
I love the combination if all of your animation styles. It really fits the piece and it's constant tossing around of the melody.
IT'S BACH!!!!!!!!
Hah, maybe I am wrong, but it looks like you had fun making this one :) It was great fun to watch too!
Very intense!
I liked the surprise at 3:03 - 3:04
It's the first time I've done that.
StentorianTigerShark heh-heh
Stephen, I don't get it when people comment about poor instrument quality, etc... they obviously have no idea of the process you go through to bring these to life. It's too bad that people feel it's necessary to comment negatively on just about everything because they need to be heard. So what - this was indeed a college orchestra - nothing is ever going to please 100% of people 100% of the time. Anyway, try as we may, no one usually reads the notes.
I try my best in my genre to make things sound unique and always try to direct them to your channels as they enjoy the MAMMplayer visualization that you know I often use (am requested to use). In my case, I'm more focused on the music, where the video is just a means to do it. In your case, the audience should be in awe of the visual feast you create, with the music almost as its accompaniment (at least for the personal work you do here - your professional work is a mix depending upon the listener/viewer) - in my humble opinion.
I always find it amusing now when I get a "thumbs down." I do this for my own pleasure knowing that not all of them are gems (with Google ads - the few cents it earns me helps to buy new software to improve my projects) and share here like you do - to entertain others and perhaps get commissioned for something. It's so easy for people to hide behind the internet than to provide valuable feedback: why they didn't like it, etc. Even if it wasn't what they were expecting or ultimately, not their cup of tea, at least appreciate the amount of work and time it takes to produce something like this without being rude. Even if the work is just being done on a DAW, there's the sequencing, corrections, sound development, effects layers and the mix downs. I'm thankful that I've received very few negative remarks but it's the world we live in.
Although I don't usually comment, I am always blown away by your work and thank you for doing what you do. It has also been a pleasure communicating with you and your associate off of this site.
Be well, always feel that creative drive and keep on entertaining us.
Carey R. Meltz
I don't think there's one single reason that accounts for all negative comments about the recordings I use. Some viewers think I'm unaware of the quality of the recordings I'm using, and that they are doing me a favor by alerting me. Some think I'm not realizing how important the quality of the recordings is to them, and hoping that if I would just wake up and realize what I'm doing, I would change my ways. Some think they look smart by demonstrating how aware they are of the deficiencies. Some feel a responsibility to warm other viewers about the recording. With some, it's just sour grapes: if they aren't satisfied, nobody else should be. Some are only watching the video to hear the recording, and are not at all interested in what's going on in the animation. Some have a chip on their shoulder, and just want to make sure I know that they're not happy with the way I do things. Some feel free to be critical on RUclips in a way that they'd never dream of being in person (they write things that they'd never in a million years say to the performer's face after a live concert) --- not realizing that the performers often read the comments on these videos. And, of course, some people don't realize that I'm not making these videos to share the recordings, but to share my animated graphical scores (and that comments on the recordings are, from my viewpoint, pretty much irrelevant). Lately, I've taken to saying, in effect, "put your money where your mouth is," by suggesting that if they'd like me to use better recordings, they could pay the license fees that would allow me to use them.
Brilliantly articulated! and you've described, in part, how Social Media has ruined society.
The problem is that some of the recordings you have used are quite unbearable, so that your hard work on the animations is buried beneath them (e.g. Mozart clarinet concerto). This recording is bearable at the very least, but I wonder why your recording quality deteriorated over the years; I remember that the Beethoven symphonies are good recordings, as well as the Brahms and Beethoven chamber music, for example.
It's your channel and you should run it however you want, but I _personally_ feel that using sub-par recordings does a disservice to your efforts, exactly because some recordings are just too bad for your ears to ignore and just enjoy the visuals. Lastly, I want to point out that the fact that none of us is paying you to do this does not exclude us from expressing our opinion on your work, whether that may be good or bad, as long as it is done politely - like any other decent conversation.
You should think to do it for live visuals during live orchestra concerts.. It should be amazing!
www.musanim.com/live/
Love the 3D effect.
Love it! Please consider doing 'afternoon of a faun' (I know about the request thing, just wanted to mention this.)
I guess you haven't watched all my videos ... ruclips.net/video/S0A48ZXk6ww/видео.html
A whole new world has just opened haha
Una maravillosa e hipnotizante "Noche en la árida montaña". Es hermoso poder "ver" la música.
I never thought I'd see the day that smalin does a Mussorgsky piece
This is one of my favorite animations of yours - the Voroni, the context-dependent shapes, the visual tricks - it all comes together perfectly and reveals something about the actual listening experience. It's like hearing it for the first time again
(see the FAQ)
This is my homework assignment.i made up a story as I listened to this
You've been doing so many pieces by unknown artists that I thought you'd become hipster. Now I see you simply have a wide taste.
Mithra well I think a lot his taste here is dictated by finding copyright free music
First time i ever heard this was in the ending piece of the Fantasia videotape. It was very impressive for someone as young as i was back then.
This is the most sophisticated one yet. It looks just incredible. I love how you are exploring new ways of visualizing the music. Congratulations.
I don't know how your graphic tools work, but here is an idea for you. Could you arrange the individual instruments like the orchestral sheet music, one lane per instrument or section, and have their pitches go up and down on the z axis, but then change the viewer perspective to something like south-west at 45 degree angle down. On some dramatic parts you could even vary the perspective and/or get closer of further away from the music.
People (including me) have experimented with 3D approaches to graphical scores (including variations on the idea you've suggested). I haven't liked the results much. See www.musanim.com/3D/
Yes, I understand what you're looking for. If you search the web, you will find them. Here's something related (but not exactly what you're hoping for): ruclips.net/video/sokKjJVTwXI/видео.html Maybe someday I'll make a page that points to other people's attempts at 3D animated graphical scores.
It's hard not to call this animation a work of art!!
I wonder how much additional time it takes to combine animations like this. Because I would be more than pleased and happy to see a beethoven symphony movement animated with such artistry. If Mussorgsky's music deserves such a treatment, I assume Beethoven's fifth symphony also does! :)
Beautiful!
Genius Pure Genius!
great! i love the combination of different visualizations, it's very dynamic. i wonder why that section of notes disappeared at 3:03 or why they were even on the screen if they're not played... could that be an aesthetic choice, as to convey the suddenness of the transition?
It was a trick he put on us
Badass music!
You did an excellent job on this one! I love all the effects, but my favorites are how you use several layers at different speeds and the "surprise" effect of sudden silence. I was imagining you taking a new look at the Rite of Spring using all these effects, but that would require so much work! The one you have is already fantastic. By the way, there is something strange about the octaves of the harp when it appears. Care to take a look at it?
re: harp ... I tried to modify the score to match what I heard in the performance. If you think I've gotten it wrong somewhere, could you say where and in what way? Thanks.
Care to specify what exactly is strange and when?
Other than that, I wholeheartedly agree with you. In addition, I like the glow effect that emphasizes the eerie athmosphere of the music. This animation is definitely one of my favourites (if not even the most favourite) among all the pieces visualized with music animation machine (or any other way, for that matter).
smalin At 9'15", for example, the harp starts a series of eight ascending arpeggios, each one a little higher than the previous. However, I see in the video that the 5th arpeggio is lower than the 4th. Could it be that in the score there is an octave higher sign? There are similar sections further to the front (or maybe before, since I was skipping to find this section).
And by the way, this is also mor a "love" than a "like" video.
I just took a look at this piece's score and what you wrote corresponds to it. It's this performance in particular that doesn't correspond to the score. I wonder if the conductor or the harpist had some insight about this that we don't or simply made a mistake. If it is a mistake, I think it's one made with good taste.
this is quite unsettling but the animation is so beautiful i can't stop watching.
That's from FANTASIA Mussorgsky night on bare mountain but I think next is Franz Peter Schubert's World Famous Ave Maria.
How much fun did you have in making this one?
I watched from start to finish and it was beautiful
Do you mean that with most of my videos, you get bored and stop in the middle?
Brings back sweet memories of playing Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin.
Ooooooo ❤ i wonder if musician would be disgusted that I learned of this intense piece from fantasia
As far as I can tell, only snooty people are bothered by that.
As a musician, and snooty person, I would be disgusted if you DIDN'T learn it from Fantasia.
I just found it whilst on YT
Don't knock Fantasia. It was a revolutionary conception in fitting animated images to classical music. You might not think of Walt Disney as a revolutionary art-for-the-sake of-art genius, but that is exactly what he was in Fantasia. He was never that again, as Fantasia was a box-office flop.
The section involving Night on Bald Mountain suggests the domination of evil exploiting darkness, superstition, and the occult giving way at sunrise to benign faith as the sun rises. Disney had a stroke of genius in recognizing that Schubert's devout Ave Maria has much the same beat, and the barbarous, violent, nocturnal Night on Bald Mountain (which I thought evocative of all things, the KKK) yielding to a peaceful antithesis.
I suggest that you see it. It is not perfect, but there would be nothing comparable to it for a very long time. It holds up well after nearly 80 years.
Remarkable analysis. I haven’t seen the movie since junior high school (late 1970s), but now you’ve got me curious.
I love these animations, but this sounds like it was recorded in somebody's living room!!!
The recording is by a college orchestra (Skidmore College). If you'd like to help me get better recordings for use in my videos, see this: www.musanim.com/Underwriting/
Yeah it does.
This needs to be loud, bassy and echoee.
Was that nessary at 3:04
It kinda confused me at first
Mussorgsky was pulling a fast one on you, and I was helping him.
I thought it was clever :)
Magnifico
0:18 Mario lava level
notes come flying in like a swarm of bumblebees
These visuals remind me of that one part from fantasia
This song reminds me of Earthworm Jim.
Nuevos estilos en base a figura geométricas son artísticos e imaginativos pero ya no son legibles para integrarse a la interpretación y disfrutarla más; el efecto visual no se relaciona con la expectativa de sonido. como con la simulación por barra en la cual se preveía la nota, la duración, el acento incluso el instrumento y acorde ... por eso es deseable encontrar las versiones anteriores de simulación aunque también se disfrute en forma visual, pasivamente, las nuevas simulaciones.
Guadalajara, Jalisco , México.
Yes, I've considered that. Did you see this: ruclips.net/video/aZQIfEJ7gOk/видео.html
A smalin's score into Disney's Fantasia 2025 maybe.
smalin you've made 499 videos. Is there going to be a 500th video special or anything like that? It is a pretty big milestone
According to the numbers RUclips shows me, this is #500. I wonder why you only see 499 ... hmm ...
Sometimes people in countries outside the USA are restricted from seeing certain of my videos (because of copyright problems), but if that were the case with you, you'd be seeing a lot fewer than 499. So I'm puzzled.
Anyway, in answer to your question: this video was the 500th video celebration. Here, we celebrated with champagne.
well then congrats!
:-)
can you tell what the shapes mean
I've added something to the FAQ about this.
Not sure if I like this recording but I understand the issue with licenses and whatnot
Very nice. How about making a composition for harp plus another solo instrument (maybe plus orchestra too) where the tones of the harp make circles like on the water surface and during tone-to-tone transitions of the other solo instrument (flute, violin), the beam moves by sinusoid.
Janáček Vítězslav I imagined Ravels Introduction and Allegro for Harp while reading this.
That's nice piece, a little bit like epic dream about a garden beings.
Love your work, but note shapes getting streched too much is kind of confusing actually
I agree.
One of the greatest animations you´ve ever done. Just out of curiosity, how long did it take you to make it?
I've been working on it for more than a week; I'm not done yet.
oh! so are you uploading an update on the piece?
I'm still working on a second version; I've found many errors in the original, I've decided to change the coloring based on the key signature (so that it relates the harmony in a more consistent way), and I've make some changes to the layout. Probably not enough to make a big difference to anybody except me. Also, I'm probably going to do something more like my standard piano-roll style, for people who want something closer to a conventional score to study.
Can't wait for it. Thank you!
Can I request the Bernstein arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue? good stuff btw
See "Could you please ..." in the FAQ.
Can you post one of Bjorks latest, which you made for her live shows!
No, I'm afraid I'm not allowed to.
mood
Liszt about Beethoven: "the teenager, the man, the god". You are in your second period Stephen Malinowski now!
Have you ever watched Fantasia?
Never heard of it.
smalin
Cuz' it had this!
See it! You will know that it is Disney because of Mickey Mouse in the section "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" -- and Mickey fits in very well -- but it is a unique visual experience of its time. Disney is usually the antithesis of an art-for-art's-sake creative person, but he tried art for its own sake in Fantasia. It was a box-office flop, so he never did anything like it again. It holds up well after about 80 years.
Esta musica ha sido inspirada por las esferas mas alta del espiritu. Dios bendiga con todos los dones del espiritu a su creador.
I remember when Disney released a 50th anniversary edition of "Fantasia" in the movie theaters. I was three at the time and my mother and grandmother thought it would be a good idea to take me. I did great until "The Night at Bald Mountain" and my mother having to carry me out of the theater screaming bloody murder.
Even as an adult I think this is a very powerful piece and these visuals are amazing (and much less creepy than the Disney version).
I believe we are entering a new chapter of smalin's videos; ruclips.net/video/sREi83yzn7g/видео.html, ruclips.net/video/RcXsYbkBk6g/видео.html, and now this masterpiece. I don't think it's a coincidence that these are all very different than some earlier videos. Or maybe it's just me. What do you think, Stephen?
I think that if you look at all my videos, and study the background material (www.musanim.com/renderers/, www.musanim.com/techniques/, www.musanim.com/RUclips/, www.musanim.com/scrolling/ ), you'll find that it's incremental. The only thing that's completely new in any of the videos you listed is the "disappearing" of music that you might expect but which turns out not to happen. Everything else has appeared before, and the ideas go back decades. From my perspective, what constitutes "a new chapter" is when my ideas reach a new audience. 1. Paper scrolls (my ideas came out of my head). 2. Computer animation (my ideas were animated). 3. Edward Tufte (bigger audience). 4. Classic Arts Showcase (bigger audience). 5. RUclips (humongous audience). 6. Synchronization to live performances (small audiences, but greater impact).
My toolset has been gradually improving, and at each level, there are people who say "I get this!" So, from the perspective of a particular person who's been watching my work evolve, there may be a point where they say "WOW, NOW this is really something!" But for me, it's always been like that.
+smalin Oh. Well, thanks for giving me your opinion!
I love this video by the way. Great job.
Music : 1 axis. Painting : ?
You should do ava maria next.
www.musanim.com/requests
Do you know a lot of analytic shows?
lots of colour banding, the youtube compression did a bad job
Hm ... I wonder if it's your player ... it looks fine here ... are you sure you're viewing it at the highest resolution (720p@60fpx)?
Mee to is my hw
Is it me, or this piece sounds like computer-generated?
It's you.
Well it's a registration from college orchestra, there's less stereo than a professional registration
They played it so slow it sounds better at 1.25 =\
What's up with the brass in this recording? It sounds like it's a high school brass band…
You get what you pay for. If you'd like to pay more (to cover the cost of licensing a better recording), here's how that works: www.musanim.com/Underwriting/
Whether the USSR still exists as a state isn't relevant. This recording would only be in the public domain if it were put in the public domain by the USSR (assuming they owned the rights to the recording then). The recording is from 1975, so its copyright doesn't expire until at least 2045. I'm guessing that the rights are controlled by the record label (Всесоюзная Студия Грамзаписи). I don't speak Russian, so if I were going to work with a record label to get a better recording, I'd probably pick one where the language difference is not so extreme.
I normally like your experiments with notation, but the circles flying across the screen is just distracting.
Agree.
Was easier and more enjoyable to follow before.
WTF IS THIS MARDI GRASSSSSSSSS
However I don't follow the meaning of the colours even in the former animated graphical scores. I play an instrument and compose and as for me C and B should not have a different colour ; they are in the same color and you don't really bring something meaningful coloring differently the notes of one coherent melody. The melody should has one color (calculated) or two if it changes in the middle. Colours are associated with tonalities, Cf. Messiaen's synesthesia. Turangalîlâ-symphony on smalin's channel someday with the Messiaen calculated colors?
When correcting scores by his students, he said 'more blue here.... more red...'
Scales are hierarchies between notes: I, V, IV... what happens when going from c major to g with the f#... => 12x2 colors ? or should color be associated to modulations or tonalities?
What about Rameau's speech about music? Maybe he explaines in it how he manages to elaborate a theory of harmony.
If you say that C and B should have the same color, then you don't understand the logic of my coloring, which applies the color wheel to the circle of fifths. C and B are nearly opposite on the circle of fifths, and should therefore be nearly complementary on the color wheel (see www.musanim.com/HarmonicColoring/ if you'd like to read more about it). If you think that all notes of a melody function identically harmonically, then I think you're missing something essential about how melodies work.
Um... it's not exactly what I wanted to mean... I agree that C and B are very different harmonically but precisely something like functions of chords could be represented. ceg in blue, fgbd in green... For instance, a color for 7, another for 5... I afford to suggest this because you are almost a genius otherwise I would just said bravo and thank you. Indeed the fact C an B are opposite is not enough, at the beginning we hear an embroidery if it is an English word. The effect of b+a+b+c+b+a+ is one effect.
It's tricky. Let's say that you wanted a different color for every major and minor chord. There are 24 of them (two for each of 12 root pitches). It's nearly impossible to distinguish that many colors. Then, there's the question: when the notes being played form something other than a major or minor triad (diminished, augmented, 7th, 9th, dissonances, unconventional tonalities, etc.), what do you do?
If the piece is very simple (just a few harmonies) and you're willing to ignore notes that aren't harmonic (passing notes and other dissonances), you can do it, but that's at the expense of ignoring detail, and I prefer not to do that.
I've experimented with coloring by harmony, and so far I haven't found a way of doing it that I like. Here is an example: ruclips.net/video/AY-p89MnNHk/видео.html In this, I color the background according to the chord root. It does show you something, but in most cases, it's just the same as a prominent low note (being played by the cello and bass), and doesn't tell you that much. Or, at least, it doesn't tell me that much. Maybe other people would like it more.
I wonder what colors could symbolise. The listener can't really distinguish colors except if the whole show is very "analytic".
Luminosity could be arithmetical with dynamic but is it necessary.
indeed can one show harmony ad every note at the same time?
Did you make any video with only harmony? figures and the bass or another system. with the 5th cycles?
You must know the other ways to note music, contemporary ways.
When I watch your works, I find that your coloration is not meaningful, the whole painting doesn't express harmony except in some passages where for instance the bass is repetitive.
i'm not as big a fan with polygons
I'm sorry but this recording is awful...
Its probably the best one he could find for free without copyright. Either that, or someone from the college that performed this commissioned him to do this project.
Can you not just appreciate this for the visual presentation and see how the music comes to life in shapes and colour?
The video notes say that it is a college orchestra performance.
1) No. This video is supposed to be a presentation of colors, visuals, and music. However, it fails on the third part of that, when the music is not performed very well.
2) Still not an explanation why the performance is bad. I'm sure the person making the video put A LOT of time and effort into making this video, of which shows in the quality of the visuals, but it seems strange that they didn't put as much time and effort into finding a recording to match the quality of the video.
Rhett Jaramillo It's probably expensive to find a video with good quality that's free to use. Also, if the college commissioned him to make this (which might be true, since he doesn't like Mussorgsky very much), he'd probably use the music they provided.
I hear Mario.