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Category Archives: Classical Music
Launching Project Bach Wrote What ?!
As mentioned previously in Playing Bach Cello Suite 1, I picked up cello playing seriously again, after two decades of neglect. For months now, I’ve playing with great enthusiasm the first suite of unaccompanied cello music from Bach. In the process I discovered a general lack of music written for an unaccompanied solo cellist.
There is a lack of knowledge about multi-voice-sounding music written for a single cellist to perform. I am talking about music that delivers a full-range audio experience through the use of arpeggios (broken chords), double-stops, and the like commonly found in Bach’s cello suites. Continue reading
Playing Bach Cello Suite 1
For two decades I’ve kept a year-end routine starting after Thanksgiving, lasting through Christmas, and usually ending shortly after New Year’s Eve. I would take my cello out of the closet, and dust it off. I would practice for a … Continue reading
Posted in Cello, Free Sheet Music
Tagged bach, BWV 1007, cello suites, fred sheet music, Johann Sebastian Bach, music score, PDF, sheet music, solo cello, unaccompanied solo cello
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Cello sheet music: Adagio from Bach Organ Toccata
Folks, more free Bach cello music can be found in this new article. This is part of the Clean and Free Sheet Music initiative I’ve undertaken.
I took a detour from my usual Bach cello suite transcriptions this time. A few weeks ago someone on Reddit posted a question asking for identification of music. It was a recording of Mstislav Rostropovich playing the cello for the Emperor of Japan, at the White House in 1994. The first piece at 0:37 caught my attention. I swore that I knew this music well – I could hum along ahead of Rostropovich. But I could not recall what this was. The music stuck in my head for days. The mystery drove me crazy.
I tried all sorts of “find the music” magics online, including by singing, by humming, by audio file, by playing on a on-screen keyboard, by entering notes explicitly, and by typing in the contour (shape). Nothing worked. Clearly this was a famous cello piece, but I just could not find it.
Not until I randomly searched for “Rostropovich” and various terms, that I hit the right combination of words. In hindsight, I could have found it in a few minutes, with just “Rostropovich adagio”. So, it turned out that this piece was actually Bach’s organ toccata, BWV 564. Pablo Casals transcribed it for the cello, and apparently it was one of Rostropovich’s favorite piece. Continue reading
Allemande from Bach Cello Suite 1 (BWV 1007)
This is one of the free and clean Bach cello music I am making available, as I transcribe them. See the parent article for context.
Here is a clean sheet showing only notes. You can print it out and add your own bowing and fingering marks. Click on the image to go to the PDF file. Continue reading
Prelude from Bach Cello Suite 1 (BWV 1007)
This is one of the free and clean Bach cello music I am making available, as I transcribe them. See the parent article for context. This is one of the most well-known piece, and as a result was the first I played. But it is the last one I entered into Sibelius.
Here is a clean sheet showing only notes. You can print it out and add your own bowing and fingering marks. Click on the image to go to the PDF file. Continue reading
Minuet 2 from Bach Cello Suite 1 (BWV 1007)
This is one of the free and clean Bach cello music I am making available, as I transcribe them. See the parent article for context.
Here is a clean sheet showing only notes. You can print it out and add your own bowing and fingering marks. Click on the image to go to the PDF file. Continue reading
Posted in Cello, Free Sheet Music
Tagged bach, BWV 1007, cello suites, Courante, Free Sheet Music, Johann Sebastian Bach, Menuet, Menuet 2, Minuet, music score, PDF, sheet music, solo cello, unaccompanied solo cello
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Gigue from Bach Cello Suite 1 (BWV 1007)
This is one of the free and clean Bach cello music I am making available, as I transcribe them. See the parent article for context.
Here is a clean sheet showing only notes. You can print it out and add your own bowing and fingering marks. Click on the image to go to the PDF file. Continue reading
Posted in Cello, Free Sheet Music
Tagged bach, BWV 1007, cello suites, Courante, Free Sheet Music, Gigue, Johann Sebastian Bach, music score, PDF, sheet music, solo cello, unaccompanied solo cello
Leave a comment
Music sung by Vocaloid Miriam
In 2005 I was mesmerized by Vocaloid, a singing voice synthesizer from Yamaha. I composed a three-part acapella piece, with all three voices sung by Vocaloid Miriam (also see this).
Your Fish Tank was writen in 2005. It is the first piece of music I synthesized using Vocaloid Miriam. Bruce Yates graciously allowed me to use his underwater pictures in my YouTube video showcasing this music. See lyric at the end of this article.
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Music Inspired by Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins is a great man. From the first book of his I picked up, River Out of Eden, to the last one I read, The Greatest Shown on Earth, I’ve never ceased to be amazed by how his passion of biology and his talent at articulating the grandeur of nature ooze out of every single page.
Dawkins is the person who helped me find my atheistic voices in the vocabulary of evolutionary biology. And for that I’ve dedicated many work of art to the great man. For instance, The Lost Cause was wholly inspired by the dozen of books on evolution penned by the man that I’ve read. Similarly, I have written Wikipedia articles on some of his books, such as River Out of Eden and The Ancestor’s Tale, to help guide those who are still searching for their voices.
Here, however, I collect music I have written that are inspired by Dawkins’ work.
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Vocal Music from 2006 and 2007
These are some vocal music I wrote between 2006 and 2007, while attending Conrad Cummings’ evening music composition class at Juilliard. Some of these were sight-readings in class. One was performed at a bar.
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Xinhai Dude 