Re: [Harp-L] Ode Challenge Revisited (was Augmented)

[Björn Sigurdsson <bjosi436@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well... and even if the bent note not is indistinguishable... will it
destroy Ode to joy or will it ad something fresh and interesting but
not "bad"? My very humble opinion for the moment is that to play it in
second pos is very hard, and that it is easier to play it with augm.
or dimi. I don't want to play this piece with perfect pitch and
identical timbre - I want to loosen it up a bit, however without
destroying it. I guess in analog to play a guitar fret less. I find
that when I play this in second pos on a richter I destroy more than I
add. With diminished the bends the timbre changes less and it sounds
okay... but still do I really add something more than that I have a
fun time? However with augm., a tuning that I without a doubt play a
lot out of tune with, I still think I add something at least when I
have my best motifs... Why? I think Buzap is right. As a listener you
really don't know if the bent or unbent notes is the norm., and maybe
you can modify the unbent note to be more like bent while playing. I
think Chaffers recordings are phenomenal and I assume that this is why
it works so well: because the bent notes is the norm. But still I
don't know if he or anyone else could play Ode to Joy and add
something without destroying more with augm.

(And yes, Of course this is a matter of your own taste.)
Regards Björn


On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 4:57 PM, Richard Hunter
<turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Joe and Cass Leone wrote:
> <When doing T.D.'s (tommy dorsey's), or Pinetop Boogies, I use all 3
> <of those bends. Piece of cake.
>
>
> Okay, can you please post a simple recording somewhere so the rest of us can
> hear how indistinguishable the bent note is from every other note in the
> line?
>
> All of us use those bends all the time.  The question is whether you can
> make the tone, timbre and pitch of that bent note absolutely consistent with
> what's going on around it.  No one in the first ode to Joy Challenge could
> do it, and the participants included some pretty heavy hitters.
>
> My guess is that it just can't be done, because you MUST change the shape of
> your resonant chamber--mouth, throat, etc.--to hit the bend, and that MUST
> change the sound of the note in some way.
>
> I'll be frank: I can't do it, and I work on it frequently. I can of course
> make the bends work in a musical context for most of what I do, but I
> wouldn't play the Ode to Joy in second position in the bottom octave of a
> standard Richter in front of a concert audience.
>
> The best any artist can do is make the change in timbre work musically,
> which of course is what we all do.  But that's not the same thing.
>
> Like I said: if you think otherwise, show us a recording.  That's the
> challenge.
>
> Regards, Richard Hunter
> latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://myspace.com/richardhunterharp
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Björn Sigurdsson
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