From A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, music by Marty Fernandi, performed by John Fernandi and Carolyn Cucinotta.

Hard-Hearted Adamant

In November 1984, I did an arrangement, for the Bubs, of “The Hallelujah Chorus.” It was performed only once, on December 8, 1984: forty years ago today.

It's really only a transposition (Handel’s is in D; we did it in Ab)—not an "arrangement" per se—though there *are* some differences. For instance, Handel’s “The kingdom of this world” is in four-part harmony; ours (at 1:00) is in unison. And *that* idea came, as did the whole idea of doing this song, from the Roches, who opened their 1982 album KEEP ON DOING with it.

Thank you to Jay Lifton, whose “Save the tAAapes” project is the reason this recording has come to light (I lost my recording of it about 35 years ago), and to John Saxe, who handed over what turned out to be my long-lost tape to Jay. (John didn’t abscond with it; I left it at his place by accident.)

The Hallelujah Chorus

For Beethoven’s birthday, here’s something I discovered on an old audio cassette that I just had digitized. Happening upon it was a delightful surprise, as I didn’t know it still existed.

Recorded in the summer of ’82 (in ATO at Tufts, where I was living), this is me singing “Moonlight Sonata” a cappella, in four-part harmony with myself, using two cassette players/recorders; one to play the previously-recorded part(s), the other to record myself singing along, a process that’s repeated until all four parts are being sung and recorded.

Note: this was an *exercise*. It’s *far* from “studio quality,” in terms of the sound, and even, at times, of my intonation. But the dicey patches, pitch-wise, are brief, and it soon goes back to sounding rather pretty, if you can get past the *overall* roughness.

Also, I accidentally taped over the first 22 measures (not long after I recorded it), so, this is just the last three minutes (which is fine; three minutes of this is just about right).

Something For You

mfernandi

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