Name: Bach Toccata and Fugue in d Minor by Ivan Sokolnikov
Duration: 8 min 17 s
Description: After E. Power Biggs. New synth organ sound. Work in progress. V(5).

In the 50s the technology for music was the medium of the vinyl phonograph disk. The disk had grooves and spun on a platter at 33 1/3 revolutions per minute. There was a needle, diamond tipped, that was wiggled by these grooves when it was placed in these grooves. The needle with a permanent magnet on the upper part went through a coil of wire and the motion of the needle created an electrical signal that was then amplified and sent to speakers. The technology worked well and soon advanced into two channel stereo. The left-right wiggle produced one channel while the up-down motion produced the other one.

Later came the cassette tape medium. These technologies were analog in nature. This was all made obsolete with the computer and digital technology. The medium is now a digital computer file. A digital file is a sampling of the live analog sound usually at the rate of 44,100 samples per second. It works well but the sound is somewhat different from the analog technology.

The Toscanini music you hear today was all analog at the start. It has been converted (remastered, they say) into digital form.

As a teenager Ivan Sokolnikov collected many vinyl disks including all those available by Toscanini.

Another favourite was a disk by Guiomar Novaes playing the Chopin Fantasy in F Minor. Someone has uploaded this music to youtube www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYqI0GOj1HI.

Around the year 2000 Ivan Sokolnikov was inspired by the artistry of Guiomar Novaes to perform the Fantasy himself using the computer digital music technology of software programs called midi sequencers and samplers. The music was published in an album by cyberchambermusic called “Cyber Jubilee”. It can still be found on iTunes and cdbaby.com.

His performance has a similar piano sound but proceeds at a more relaxed tempo. His music length is 12:35 compared to the faster paced 11:40 of Guiomar Novaes.

What you hear here is a post production revision of the 2000 performance.

Copyright 2019 by cyberchambermusic.

Chopin Fantasy In F Minor PP 2019

After E. Power Biggs. New synth organ sound. Work in progress. V(5).

Bach Toccata and Fugue in d Minor

This work is notable for its intended dramatic effect. It is in 12/8 time which usually means an over all mood of triple time. Beethoven often changes to  sharply contrasting double time sections. However, there is more. Musicians become accustom to double time or triple time works. Sometimes even in the same work as here. But Beethoven has inserted a completely unexpected change. To five-fold time. For a few measures in the middle of the movement  (starting at 3:15) he indicates successive groups of five sixteenth length notes to be played in the same time as if there were six sixteenth notes. Both in the right hand and in the left hand. It is more than dramatic to the ears of the listener. It can be called shocking. But it is also interesting here for a reason related to the new technology. It may be awkward for the pianist to accomplish five in the time of six. Not so for the computer. The computer is simply programmed to uniformly sound five equal-length notes in the same time used to sound six. If the listener bolts upright when hearing the change, he should be counselled that what he is hearing is just what is precisely called for in the score. What is more, Cyberchambermusic has often been falsely accused of copyright infringement and we doubt that will happen with Beethoven's Sonata 23 because of the evenly sounding five in the time of six note sections heard here. These unique five in the time of six sections found here will unlikely be heard elsewhere. Cyberchambermusic is loath to alter the notes in the score of Beethoven. V(31) Logic AIFF.  Copyright 2020 by cyberchambermusic.

Bach Toccata and Fugue in d Minor

Ivan Sokolnikov

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