I'm busting a 'gut' right now, haw haw!

Musicians have warned that the works of Purcell, Handel, Vivaldi and Bach may never again be heard as their composers intended

Yeah... if these guys were around today they'd totally be into the newer strings.

Bathia_Mapes: MadSkillz: a bit of a threadjack but this thread will attract the people I need to ask:

I currently play guitar and electric bass. Which of the violin family (violin, viola, cello) is the most fun to play? I've been thinking of taking it up.

Secondly, which can be played at a sufficiently low volume to not annoy the shiat out of my neighbors since I live in an apartment.

Cello would be the lowest of the ones you listed, but the double bass is even lower. Violin family (new window)

I used to play the violin when I was younger and enjoyed it very much. However, it would probably be loud enough to annoy your neighbors.



Jammin' on the ELECTRIC CELLO.

Yes, it exists. Many variants, actually. Needs more "steampunk", though.

elvisaintdead: awww, bach.

MadSkillz: Secondly, which can be played at a sufficiently low volume to not annoy the shiat out of my neighbors since I live in an apartment.

Get an electric and use headphones. Added bonus, you can put effects pedals on them. I once heard a Hendrix guitar solo on an electric violin in an Irish bar in Boston.

MadSkillz: which can be played at a sufficiently low volume to not annoy the shiat out of my neighbors since I live in an apartment.



I'd say you should probably avoid the stroh violin...

Meh, just sample and funkify it.

ecmoRandomNumbers: Not crazy about music played on gut strings. Not as resonant as newer string technology. Also, if I had to tune my violin after every piece, I'd be even grumpier than I naturally am.

I am interested in hearing more on your string theroy. Where can I sign up?

This sounds like white people problems

Solution: don't eat your violin.

Also, the name is Händel.

/german nazi
//err, wait...

MadSkillz: a bit of a threadjack but this thread will attract the people I need to ask:

I currently play guitar and electric bass. Which of the violin family (violin, viola, cello) is the most fun to play? I've been thinking of taking it up.

Secondly, which can be played at a sufficiently low volume to not annoy the shiat out of my neighbors since I live in an apartment.

Viola, since you never have to worry about being in tune.

/viola joke thread?

I love classical music. And baroque, and romantic. But I'm really tired of the whole "as the composer intended" excuse. If you haven't met the composer and talked to him or you've never seen/read a quote saying 'this is how it should be played and here are my requirements for instrumentation, string composition, instrument finish, etc...' then knock it off. There's a difference between "this is what was used at the time so we think we should keep doing it that way" and "this is what they really wanted." Besides, the string is only a portion of the equation. The wood and design of the instrument is just as important to the overall sound.

Having said that, @MadSkillz, I'd totally recommend the cello. It's fun, it's very dark and warm, and it doesn't have the same sort of pressure associated with violin. Viola is a good second, I think.

Oznog: Bathia_Mapes: MadSkillz: a bit of a threadjack but this thread will attract the people I need to ask:

I currently play guitar and electric bass. Which of the violin family (violin, viola, cello) is the most fun to play? I've been thinking of taking it up.

Secondly, which can be played at a sufficiently low volume to not annoy the shiat out of my neighbors since I live in an apartment.

Cello would be the lowest of the ones you listed, but the double bass is even lower. Violin family (new window)

I used to play the violin when I was younger and enjoyed it very much. However, it would probably be loud enough to annoy your neighbors.

[electricka.com image 640x698]

Jammin' on the ELECTRIC CELLO.

Yes, it exists. Many variants, actually. Needs more "steampunk", though.

That is so metal.

ecmoRandomNumbers: Tax Boy: MadSkillz: a bit of a threadjack but this thread will attract the people I need to ask:

I currently play guitar and electric bass. Which of the violin family (violin, viola, cello) is the most fun to play? I've been thinking of taking it up.

Secondly, which can be played at a sufficiently low volume to not annoy the shiat out of my neighbors since I live in an apartment.

Viola, since you never have to worry about being in tune.

/viola joke thread?

I got a million of 'em.

How are a violist's fingers like lightning?
Neither strikes the same place twice.

What's the difference between a viola and a trampoline?
You take your shoes off to jump on a trampoline.

MadSkillz: a bit of a threadjack but this thread will attract the people I need to ask:

I currently play guitar and electric bass. Which of the violin family (violin, viola, cello) is the most fun to play? I've been thinking of taking it up.

I offer these links in support of the cello: Link (new window) and Link (new window)

I swear, the government scolds will never stop until every last vestige of sex and violins is removed from society. It's like they consider all our bass instincts something to be eliminated.

ecmoRandomNumbers: Not crazy about music played on gut strings. Not as resonant as newer string technology. Also, if I had to tune my violin after every piece, I'd be even grumpier than I naturally am.

Gut has an earthier sound, but it's more difficult to play and a lot more problematic than steel strings.

nekom: This would be a good thread to ask about a particular Bach Fugue I'm trying to locate, if only I knew how to ask. It basically sounds like any other Bach Fugue. Oh well.

What did you hear it performed on -- pipe organ? Harpsichord or piano? Chamber orchestra?

Analog synth?

MadSkillz: a bit of a threadjack but this thread will attract the people I need to ask:

I currently play guitar and electric bass. Which of the violin family (violin, viola, cello) is the most fun to play? I've been thinking of taking it up.

Secondly, which can be played at a sufficiently low volume to not annoy the shiat out of my neighbors since I live in an apartment.

If you were a hot chick I'd say the Cello. Man, that is just so sexy!

Landis: I love classical music. And baroque, and romantic. But I'm really tired of the whole "as the composer intended" excuse. If you haven't met the composer and talked to him or you've never seen/read a quote saying 'this is how it should be played and here are my requirements for instrumentation, string composition, instrument finish, etc...' then knock it off. There's a difference between "this is what was used at the time so we think we should keep doing it that way" and "this is what they really wanted." Besides, the string is only a portion of the equation. The wood and design of the instrument is just as important to the overall sound."

Came here to say almost exactly this. It's fine if you want to perform something as it would have been performed, but to assert that this is how a composer *wanted* a piece to sound is absurd, especially since a lot of composers died before major advances were made in instruments.

Composers of the past were usually innovators, or at least living in the moment--not in the past, as we are used to thinking of classical music today. They were new music. If an instrument plays in tune better or carries its sound better, there's not much reason to revert to an older version, and we could probably assume that composers would have embraced these improvements.

You can put down those antiquated stringed instruments, we've had these for a long time now.

MadSkillz: (violin, viola, cello)

Obviously the Cello. (new window)

See, this is where I want to slaughter people for the good of the species. The only way you can use "intended" as they are doing is to define it as "since the composer only had a certain level of technology, he expected that the piece would sound a certain way, not because that particular sound was the only way he wanted to hear the piece, but because that was all he had, and he made due" - which is to say not any definition of "intended" a non-douchenozzle would recognize. If we were to time-travel one of these yahoos back to meet Vivaldi, along with me holding a new-fangled violin string, he would strangle the yahoo almost to death, revive them, strangle them again, revive, repeat 70-80 times before shoving their violin into their inner ear via their anus. It takes a special kind of anachronistic schlub to think our forefathers wouldn't jump at the chance to get their hands on better tech - heck, the only reason we have better stuff than they did is that they kept improving things themselves. Give a Roman a modern earthmover, and Europe would be knee-deep in aqueducts a mile high.

Denny Crane inconsola....huh?

LoneWolf343: Oznog: Bathia_Mapes: MadSkillz: a bit of a threadjack but this thread will attract the people I need to ask:

I currently play guitar and electric bass. Which of the violin family (violin, viola, cello) is the most fun to play? I've been thinking of taking it up.

Secondly, which can be played at a sufficiently low volume to not annoy the shiat out of my neighbors since I live in an apartment.

Cello would be the lowest of the ones you listed, but the double bass is even lower. Violin family (new window)

I used to play the violin when I was younger and enjoyed it very much. However, it would probably be loud enough to annoy your neighbors.

[electricka.com image 640x698]

Jammin' on the ELECTRIC CELLO.

Yes, it exists. Many variants, actually. Needs more "steampunk", though.

That is so metal.

A fellow explaining the range of the electric cello (new window)

Cello has PLENTY of unexploited potential to be so metal. Scan through 2Cellos (Sulic & Hauser) on Youtube (new window), which perform more often with acoustic cellos, but do some electric. Anything done on an acoustic can be done on an electric- the point it, metal renders very well on cellos. Potentially more inherently awesome than the the original electric guitar and keyboard.

Here's them doing Smells Like Teen Spirit (new window) entirely on a pair of electric cellos. That couldn't be rendered that way on acoustic cellos of course, getting the harsh distorted crunch sound like an electric guitar required an electric cello.

Plus the shredding bow gives us a visual major theatrics point. Actually, there is a problem there which is probably why the guitar is preferred- the cello cannot be played while hopping and leaping around the stage and doing splits and other absurdly animated choreographed theatrics that make metal what it is.

The electric is vastly more practical to carry around, and far less fragile. Even easier to transport than an electric guitar, actually. Its potential to sound like a great range of stringed instruments- violin, fiddle, etc- leads one to wonder why it's called an "electric cello" at all, as being a cello is an arbitrary choice at the amplifier, one of many. Really, it's the physical FORM of its length and manner of holding it which makes it a cello; it is intended to be played in the same postures and gestures recognizable as almost exclusive to the cello.