Help ID Bach Piece, Please

[J. Mark Lane]

Um, jeez, it's scary in here.

Hi. I'm a redneck bluegrass person. But my 6 month old has this thing that hangs over his crib. It's this thing:

http://tinyurl.com/4o3e6

Hope that link worked.

Anyway, it has a button on it that says "Bach" (another one says "Beethoven" and another "Mozart"). When you push that button, it plays this really nice thing. It sounds almost like an exercise or something. But it's a nice melody.

So, I thought it might be fun to learn that on the mandolin. But of course I have no idea what the piece is?

Can anyone help me?

Thanks. (And please don't laugh at me. I'm sensitive.)

Mark

[Jim Garber]

Well... hard to say, since Amazon doesn't provide sound clips. I would email the distributor: customerservice@mayagroup.com

My guess is that they use some really common pieces: Bach's Minuet in G Major from the Keyboard Book of Anna Magdalena Bach is the one I was thinking of. I have a midi of it but can't figure out how to link to it here. IU could send it to you to see if that is the one.

I bet they also use Beethoven Für Elise.

Jim

[btrott]

Mark,

I scanned the customer comments on Amazon to see if anyone mentioned the pieces of music that the machine plays. Here was one coustomer's take on the pieces:

The mobile plays three pieces of simple, classical piano music -- selections by Mozart, Beethoven and Bach. The Mozart is the opening movement from Mozart's Piano Sonata in A major; I don't know the Beethoven (but the crib toy "Sunshine Symphony" plays the same Beethoven piece), and the Bach is the prelude from Prelude & Fugue in C major from the Well-Tempered Klavier.

If you are looking for the music for this piece, you can find it at the Mutopia Project site (Mutopia Bach pages) (http://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/make-table.cgi?Composer=BachJS). Scroll dwon until you come to the listing for Das Wohltemperierte Clavier I, Praeludium I. There is a midi file so that you can confirm that this is the piece you want, and then there is a pdf of the music.

Barry

[Jim Garber]

Wow! I guessed wrong. I think that the company specializes in "genius-producing" baby hardware, so I guess that they opted for more cerebral pieces rather thatn the most recognizable and popular.

Jim

[NYClassical]

Mark-- no need to be afraid... I have tons of respect for bluegrass-- Bill Monroe is amazing. Plenty of classical guys would be lost when it comes to just getting down and playing by ear...

That said, maybe they want the baby to get used to hearing pieces in all twelve keys.... just kidding.

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Lee]

For Baby's developing aural sense; I hope the Symphony-In-Motion mobile is well tempered, not equally tempered.

[J. Mark Lane]

Barry - that's it!! Thanks! And wow, what a website.

Now...what kind of mandolin should I buy to play this on?

(See, there's always a reason to buy more instruments.)

Thanks again. This place sure is a great resource.

Mark

[Eugene]

Now...what kind of mandolin should I buy to play this on?
A harpsichord!

Really, play it on whatever mandolin you like. Playing the whole of the prelude on solo mandolin would constitute a rather ambitious arpeggio study and require some shuffling of octaves. You might want to start with a decent guitar transcription (there are a number) to put it all on a recognizable staff and have some of the condensation of range already taken care of.

[J. Mark Lane]

I'm not really sure what you mean by "condens..." ...whatever that was.

I haven't tried it yet, but I was wondering if I could import the midi file into Tabledit and somehow get a tab of the thing. I know, I know. I do read standard notation and I do think it is superior. But (a) I am immensely lazy, and (b) the standard notation for mandolin drives me nuts (when written correctly).

It doesn't sound that difficult. I haven't started trying to play it yet. Do you really think it will be challenging? (I guess I'm an "intermediate" player....).

Thanks for the help, folks.

Mark

[Jim Garber]

I'm not really sure what you mean by "condens..." ...whatever that was. #
The range of a keyboard is much lower than a mandolin. You will run out of notes. A guitar does not go as low, tho there are still notes below the G.

Jim

[J. Mark Lane]

Oh.

That seems like a bit of a problem. I was hoping not to have to rearrange the thing. Is this problem cured if you just move it up an octave? Or perhaps transpose it up a fifth? I guess I'll just have to try it.

Mark

[glauber]

Now...what kind of mandolin should I buy to play this on?
A harpsichord!

Really, play it on whatever mandolin you like. Playing the whole of the prelude on solo mandolin would constitute a rather ambitious arpeggio study and require some shuffling of octaves. You might want to start with a decent guitar transcription (there are a number) to put it all on a recognizable staff and have some of the condensation of range already taken care of.
There's a flute transcription. It may even be in the public domain (it's old), but i don't know about that. If you're interested, send me a personal message and i'll see how i can get you a scan or some kind of PDF.

(The lowest note in this transcription is the low C in the G string.)

[Eugene]

The problem with flute is that it really doesn't fucntion below a middle c while mandolin goes all the way to the g below that. You probably should exploit all the range you can!

[glauber]

The problem with flute is that it really doesn't fucntion below a middle c while mandolin goes all the way to the g below that. You probably should exploit all the range you can!
For this and other reasons, a violin transcription would probably be the best. There's got to be one, since this is such a famous piece. But my offer stands, if anyone is interested. It's part of a collection of 24 studies based on Bach pieces, from the cello and violin suites, and some keyboard things.

[glauber]

As a curiosity, during the golden age of the flute, 19th century, the Viennese were fond of making flutes that went all the way down to low G

http://www.oldflutes.com/im/ziegrick.jpg
(notice how long that flute is; that's Rick Wilson, by the way, one of the world's experts on historical flutes)

http://www.oldflutes.com/19C-keys.htm

The consensus seems to be these things never worked very well.

g

[Eugene]

I actually have a regular gig with flutists. #Of course, I was referring to the modern standard instrument (which is what I'm assuming the transcription you'd mentioned was intended, g, since you didn't use any quirky terms like "alto flute"). #I am, however, a great fan of old instruments. #Thanks for the nod towards them.

[Eugene]

PS: I play a decent guitar transcription with my wee group. It's in the Mel Bay book Wedding Music for Flute and Guitar. This actually features the melody that Gounod added to set the "Ave Maria" text, but ignore the soprano line above, skip the first four measures in their entirety, and you have a decent guitar transcription of Bach's prelude in C (notated in the treble clef) remaining. Some bass notes will still require octave relocation, but this is one possible start. An alternative would be to seek a ready-made violin transcription, but I don't know of such a thing off the top of my head.

[glauber]

I used to play this on flute, sometimes. It's painful, and best attempted at the end of the practice time when you're well warmed up, but when you can wing it, it's such a rush.

I had a crazy guitar teacher once who arranged this for 2 guitars (in the key of G, i think). I may still have that around; the last time i saw it was when i salvaged some of my old music things in Brazil. My brother and i played the arpeggios on the guitars, and the teacher tremoloed the "Ave Maria" melody on mandolin. Very purty.

[NYClassical]

actually i was also going to suggest you check out the bach/gonoud 'ave maria.' i agree with eugene-- playing the bach prelude on the mandolin might turn into a sort of tedious arpeggio exercise.
if you like the 'ave maria' which is just the same piece with a melody added on top of the arpeggios, you could learn the melody and play it on the mandlolin using tremolo while someone else plays the arpeggios on guitar or piano....

so, i think playing the bach prelude alone might be a cool endeavor, but it might also be a little frustrating. never know until you try, though...i could be totally wrong on this! good luck!
adam

[J. Mark Lane]

I'll think about that, Adam. I have a friend who is a classical guitarist, and we do pick together now and then.

Other than that, I had a thought (rare). I have on order a 10 string instrument, in 17 inch scale, to be tuned CGDAE. The idea was basically that I wanted a mandola, but I wanted to be able to play tunes in the same key as the mandolin etc. So, I will have an extra string there to drop down to those lower notes.

Now, dernit, I want the thing to be finished, so I can try this.

Mark

[Jim Garber]

It is funny that I have had a few instruments, sort of hybrids that have 5 courses. I once had a ten string Vega cylinder back. I have a 5 string electric (Tiny Moore model) and a viola with a high e string.

If anything I find it a little confusing to play these, disorienting to figure out where my fingers should be for the notes. I find on the electrics that I end up playing the higher strings only for melody leads and using the C string for the chordal backup. I remember Tiny Moore mentioning that he did that -- using the low strings for comping.

Perhaps it is just what I am used to. To me, the longer scale would make it much harder to play std mandolin repertoire. I think you will have toi use pretty light gauge strings on the mandolin-ranged ones. You may have to change your technique for this instrument as it is more a tenor or octave mandola than a mandolin.

Jim