Topic by Pianoteqenthusiast

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Topic: Blue Strider for piano by Jeffrey Harrington (here with 10 Guitars)

Blue Strider for piano by Jeffrey Harrington (here with 10 Guitars)

My orchestration of the piece and sound and video. 10 guitars and one Petrof Mistral.

Jeffrey Harrington, Big piano piece BlueStrider from 1994, as it says "Harrington's 'BlueStrider' is a pounding monster of a piece, with the drama and contrapuntal skill of Beethoven and Stravinsky married with Harrington's own New Orleans barrel-house-blues roots. Obsessive riffs weave their way through both iron-clad logic and exuberance."

Paul Hoffmann gave live performance of it at Renee Weiler Concert Hall, Greenwich Village, on May 18, 2007.
Attached link and link to score  pdf. I think it is number 34 in the list.

(I don't understand how anyone can play this on a piano, checked the score.)


But I love this comment…

…a pounding monster of a piece, with the drama and contrapuntal skill of Beethoven and Stravinsky married with Harrington's own New Orleans barrel-house-blues roots. Obsessive riffs weave their way through both iron-clad logic and exuberance.”

Well one of my experiments again, as i say, sometimes you succeed in being inventive and innovative, sometimes you fail. Maybe to experience the experiment itself is better than the result sometimes.

https://youtu.be/dsUyZZ4-YcI

link to live performance
https://youtu.be/5TE4VeCz4kM

Score

https://parnasse.com/pdf/

All the best, everyone

Stig

Last edited by Pianoteqenthusiast (06-03-2024 23:46)

Reply by kencarlino

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Re: Blue Strider for piano by Jeffrey Harrington (here with 10 Guitars)

Hi Stig, wow a lot going on here. For your arrangement, it had a more mind centric (or neural centric) vibe and the video seemed to reinforce that feeling as well. It would have been nice if the piano was able to show a bit more but it was out numbered by the guitars. Also it had a more video game sound in some parts, at least compared to the original pure piano recording. Very cool experiment and nice work keeping so many guitars from just turning into a loud buzz. I don't think I ever reached 10 guitars in a single piece.

Reply by Pianoteqenthusiast

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Re: Blue Strider for piano by Jeffrey Harrington (here with 10 Guitars)

kencarlino wrote:

Hi Stig, wow a lot going on here. For your arrangement, it had a more mind centric (or neural centric) vibe and the video seemed to reinforce that feeling as well. It would have been nice if the piano was able to show a bit more but it was out numbered by the guitars. Also it had a more video game sound in some parts, at least compared to the original pure piano recording. Very cool experiment and nice work keeping so many guitars from just turning into a loud buzz. I don't think I ever reached 10 guitars in a single piece.


Thank you so much ken, for your comment. Appreciate it. I wanted to try a more soft version with guitars. Anyway, here is a piano version where I experimentally mixed in many other pianoteq sounds, vibraphone, church bells, out of tune pianos, harpsichord etc etc……….

………because you probably were not on board when I made this one
Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/4sJlv-RTHn4

Best wishes,

Stig

Last edited by Pianoteqenthusiast (07-03-2024 15:01)

Reply by budo

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Re: Blue Strider for piano by Jeffrey Harrington (here with 10 Guitars)

very cool experiment!  i felt like the guitar orchestra added a new perspective to the piece.  i also liked the surreal polyhedral video

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Reply by kencarlino

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Re: Blue Strider for piano by Jeffrey Harrington (here with 10 Guitars)

Pianoteqenthusiast wrote:
kencarlino wrote:

Hi Stig, wow a lot going on here. For your arrangement, it had a more mind centric (or neural centric) vibe and the video seemed to reinforce that feeling as well. It would have been nice if the piano was able to show a bit more but it was out numbered by the guitars. Also it had a more video game sound in some parts, at least compared to the original pure piano recording. Very cool experiment and nice work keeping so many guitars from just turning into a loud buzz. I don't think I ever reached 10 guitars in a single piece.


Thank you so much ken, for your comment. Appreciate it. I wanted to try a more soft version with guitars. Anyway, here is a piano version where I experimentally mixed in many other pianoteq sounds, vibraphone, church bells, out of tune pianos, harpsichord etc etc……….

………because you probably were not on board when I made this one
Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/4sJlv-RTHn4

Best wishes,

Stig

Yes indeed I hadn't heard this version previously. Quite interesting, reminds me a bit of the Character Piano collections I put together, at least in terms of the mix of instruments. I can't really say which of these three version I prefer, each can stand on their own for different reasons. Thanks for sharing!

Reply by Pianoteqenthusiast

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Re: Blue Strider for piano by Jeffrey Harrington (here with 10 Guitars)

budo wrote:

very cool experiment!  i felt like the guitar orchestra added a new perspective to the piece.  i also liked the surreal polyhedral video


Thank you budo. What a great choice of words for the comment!  ."...the surreal polyhedral video"
Love it!   

Best wishes,

Stig

Reply by Pianoteqenthusiast

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Re: Blue Strider for piano by Jeffrey Harrington (here with 10 Guitars)

kencarlino wrote:
Pianoteqenthusiast wrote:
kencarlino wrote:

Hi Stig, wow a lot going on here. For your arrangement, it had a more mind centric (or neural centric) vibe and the video seemed to reinforce that feeling as well. It would have been nice if the piano was able to show a bit more but it was out numbered by the guitars. Also it had a more video game sound in some parts, at least compared to the original pure piano recording. Very cool experiment and nice work keeping so many guitars from just turning into a loud buzz. I don't think I ever reached 10 guitars in a single piece.


Thank you so much ken, for your comment. Appreciate it. I wanted to try a more soft version with guitars. Anyway, here is a piano version where I experimentally mixed in many other pianoteq sounds, vibraphone, church bells, out of tune pianos, harpsichord etc etc……….

………because you probably were not on board when I made this one
Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/4sJlv-RTHn4

Best wishes,

Stig

Yes indeed I hadn't heard this version previously. Quite interesting, reminds me a bit of the Character Piano collections I put together, at least in terms of the mix of instruments. I can't really say which of these three version I prefer, each can stand on their own for different reasons. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you ken. Just wanted to give you a bit more of pianosound as you mentioned before   

Best wishes,

Stig