Music on Ari Kast

Beatles Because: Bach Not Beethoven

Wed, 26 May 2021 13:26:53 -0400

I was surprised to read that the Beatles song Because was purportedly inspired by Beethoven’s Moonlight sonata. This surprised me because not only do I hear no resemblance to that piece, I also have always assumed that George Martin lifted the opening harpsichord solo from Bach BWV 999, with which I do hear a strong resemblence.

So I think we’re being hoodwinked on the provinance of this song, and people are exhibiting confirmation bias when they claim to clearly hear the influence of Beethoven’s song in the opening harpsichord riff – if anything it’s Bach, not Beethoven.

Bach Appreciation

Wed, 19 May 2021 00:01:04 -0400

In response to the question “where do I start to get into Bach?”, I gave this answer:

Phase one

Start with simpler pieces, like 2-part inventions, the gorgeous Air on G String, the driving Cantata 29 Sinfonia, the serene Largo middle movement from BWV 1056 keyboard concerto. At this point you might think Bach sounds gorgeous and writes some fine tunes on par with Mozart.

Phase two

You are now ready for phase two, the beginning of the real journey. I now suggest listening to one of the Schubler Chorales, eg BWV 645 or BWV 650, about 10 times in a row, perhaps several days in a row. This is your gateway. Notice how the piece starts with a pleasant melody, and is humming along when at some point this slow-moving hymnal tune intrudes in the background. Notice the relationship of that slow hymn (called the cantus firmus) to the rest of the piece: they’re almost totally unrelated! Yet somehow they weirdly fit together.

Art Will Save Us

Thu, 25 Feb 2021 14:01:30 -0500

Covid has given us a preview of life with nothing to do, a future that people like Andrew Yang warn is on the near horizon for most of us anyway after the automation revolution eliminates our jobs.

So that puts us face to face with the fundamental question: what the hell do I do all day?

But this problem was solved by the bourgeoisie long ago. After all, Covid life closely resembles life in the old days, when “boring” activities like learning an instrument or writing a great Russian novel seemed like interesting ways to pass the time.

Piano Keys as Months

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 10:15:57 -0400

Noticed something at the piano today.

As a kid, I learned to map the months of the year onto my knuckles, whereby the peaks represent months with 31 days and the valleys are months with less.

It occured to me I could do the same thing at the keyboard: map the months onto the piano keys chromatically, starting at F. So:

Jan	F
Feb	F#
Mar	G
Apr	G#
May	A
Jun	A#
Jul	B
Aug	C
Sep	C#
Oct	D
Nov	D#
Dec	E

Now all the white keys have 31 days, while the black keys have less. Also makes month math super easy, given that I know my keyboard intervals pretty well. I could even remember my family’s birth months as a chord, or perhaps a melody to preserve birth ordering.