videotape.

The new song on repeat + repeat + repeat. I have had this record for well over a year and never really listened to it. Until now.

No matter what happens now
I won't be afraid because I know today has been the most perfect day I've ever seen

middle c.

A continued study of imperfection and perfection ....

So admittedly I have been researching piano sample sets online. Perhaps out of some morbid fascination I am not sure. Or an innate desire to always have a better sound than I have at my current disposal (the library of samples that came packaged with Logic and my half-tuned in-need-of-restoration Bechstein). Regardless of reason, however, I know full-well that a sampled piano will not be able to physically replicate the sound of a true acoustic piano (and not even taking into account the difference in touch with even the highest end, hammer-weighted actions found on high-end controller keyboards – they simply will not compare to a Renner or Erard action found on a grand piano). The reason, perhaps oddly this time, is actually perfection.

Take for example this scenario: an über-high-end piano sample (meaning made with, say, twelve velocities per note, from pppp to ffff with sustain on and off) can be comprised of more than two thousand samples (88 x 12 x 2 = 2112), at least 80GB of data and require at minimum 4GB of RAM even when using various morphing technologies that allow offloading of processing power based on samples actually used – not entirely unlike MPEG compression albeit slightly different in theory) but – and this is key – it falls apart reproducing what an acoustic piano does naturally – overtones. The necessary processing power to replicate even the simplest set of overtones is at least to-date challenging (and yes, I realize a new Mac Pro for instance can be stuffed with 16GB of RAM – but I want to say there is actually a degradation in performance when using too much RAM? – but the aforementioned 4GB of RAM is simply to reproduce the given samples on their own, not taking into account the overtones of multiple sampled notes, which is why I chose the word "challenging").

But just pluck a string (of fixed length) and you get overtones. No RAM required. Perfection. Mathematical anyway, as they are integer multiples of the fundamental frequency.

Take Middle C (actually, we'll use the C an octave below as our fundamental – known as C3 on the piano – thus placing Middle C as the second harmonic of the fundamental which is always an octave above or 2x the fundamental frequency). This string, when the piano is tuned to concert pitch, vibrates at 131 cycles per second (actually, 130.81Hz but I will round up for simplicity). The second fundamental – as stated – is 2x that frequency, or 262Hz (Middle C/C4). The third harmonic is 3x the fundamental, or 393Hz (the G above Middle C, or a 5th above C4 – same thing). The fourth harmonic is 524Hz, or C5 – two octaves above the fundamental or a fourth above the third harmonic). The fifth is 655Hz, or E5 (a third above C5). The sixth – 786Hz, or a 5th above C5 (notice how the 4th, 5th and 6th harmonics form a C major chord two octaves above the fundamental C?). The seventh overtone is tricky – it produces an unwanted note due to physics and harmony. But in our unfound wisdom we have devised a cunning scheme to avoid it on the piano by placing the hammers near the 7th node of the speaking length of the strings (a node is a point along a string where it does not vibrate – so by dividing the length of the strings by 7 and placing the hammers at a distance of 1/7th the length of the string – approximately – this overtone is avoided – mostly, and since it is an overtone and reduced by this placement it is basically not heard). Brilliant. And I'll avoid the elaboration of why this is to be avoided, but basically it is a very flat minor seventh (hence, the division by 7 of the string length) of the fundamental and does not sound harmonious.

OK, I realize I could continue that ad infinitum but in any regards – the overtones are mathematical and thus perfect. However, they create dissonance (in other words, an imperfection). The key is that there is good dissonance (a diminished chord, for example) and there is bad dissonance (a flat minor-seventh), so-to-speak. In the case of harmonics, dissonance is absolutely necessary. For it is in this very dissonance that what is known as timbre is created (subtle, but yet another example where imperfection is necessary). And timbre is loosely-defined as "the quality of a musical note or sound that distinguishes it from another." It is what allows us to tell the difference between a guitar and a harp. Or a trombone and a tuba. Or a Bechstein and a Bösendorfer. And as hard as engineers have tried, the dissonance and thus imperfection resulting from the near-perfect mathematical equations going on with a struck string, let alone ten or twelve or twenty all vibrating at once, is not possible with digital samples.

At least not yet. Perhaps someday, but that really is beside the point. I still am refusing to drag myself into an analog vs. digital debate. To each their own. But as I listen to high-end sample after high-end sample of some of the finest pianos in the world meticulously recorded in elaborate studios and then go back to hammering away on my Bechstein, the coloration of the sound (hence, the timbre of all the overtones) is much more intense than what can currently be achieved with sampled instruments.

And with that I digress ....

bechstein.

Somehow I missed this, but apparently in the fall of 2006 Bechstein "came" to America (and now have a website that does not require on-the-fly translation from German in order to view) when they reacquired the shares then-owned by the Korean manufacturer Samick and selected for their North America flagship showroom a facility within blocks of Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. This is huge, as prior to this distribution in the US was sparse to non-existent and these most incredible of instruments were difficult if not impossible to come by.

I have fired off an email in excitement inquiring as to the possibility and expense of having my Bechstein A reconditioned either in Berlin at the factory or who knows – perhaps now in New York by Bechstein craftsmen? A reply is guaranteed by my "Bechstein America Team" – and I wait in eagerness. I cannot hardly imagine the sound this piano sitting next to me will make when fully restored. Overwhelming.

Of course, since the day I got it I have pined for an even larger piano (the Model A is 6'1" in length) – a Model C 7'7" would be most spectacular and would no doubt simply overpower my living room but that is not the point. It is all about volume because I must always play louder louder LOUDER .... (of course larger pianos also have longer keysets so subtle playing is easier had on these instruments).

the human potential.

This thought occurred to me just now after having seen a newscast last week where the Bush daughters had left a letter for the Obama girls – a sort of 'things to remember about your Dad during the time you grow up under such incredible circumstances' sort of letter. The Bush girls were talking about their father and how to them he was only their father – not the President or the man the rest of us saw – and during the voiceover the broadcast was flashing pictures of the Bush family. The one that caught my attention was the one of George W. holding one of his newborn daughters for the first time. And in an instant I had forgotten what atrocities that man had obliged during his term in office, the apparent loss of morals and ethics he showed with which all human beings are naturally born.

And it occurred to me that in that photograph – and any photograph of a parent holding their child for the first time – that in that moment, that instant, lies the entire human potential. Because in that moment we all are identical, regardless of any circumstance. We are selfless. We are small. We are worried. We are frightened. We are brave. We are strong. We are excited. We are wise. We are hopeful.

i fall away in c# minor.

For now just a crude recording in Logic before I leave for a few days to come back to and work with. An old idea that I never really developed trying now not to make it too wholly tragic but tragic enough. Not sure where it will go but I like the chord progression quite a bit all of a sudden out of nowhere walking around house then rushing to piano quick before it escaped me a faster tempo than I recorded for sure. I love late night (preferably middle of the night) recording sessions cos the best stuff seems to happen late late at night though not sure why. I am in love with the idea that I can record anything I want whenever I want. What is terribly difficult actually is coming back to these ideas now because I have moved on with writing but I know I really cannot until this earlier stuff is totally developed and so somehow must figure a way to make sure it still works writing it now without making it sound like what I am writing now. The rising chords are fantastic.  The bass notes on the piano are heavy and enormous. The change to A major is incredible. It starts out with just this deep piano sound chords huge with lots of reverb at a slower tempo and possibly a different time signature then after an intro of I don't know forty or fifty bars the guitar comes in very very noisy with the drums and bass and furious arpeggios on the piano then the song really begins. Of course I see a photograph with this as well that I cannot capture at the moment so a lame screenshot and crude lyrics will have to do while I listen to the fifty-some bars I recorded cycling over and over and over.

your face your gaze your eyes have come to pass the time away

and I compare my stand my Fate with what I find in those I've known

my time has gone and I fall away I reach for you and empty sand and fall away

glenn gould 31/32.

Leaving.

"As the eyes are framed for astronomy so the ears are framed for the movements of harmony."

~ Plato, from the Republic

No single composer in the history of music portrayed a sense of harmony more so than Johann Sebastian Bach. And no pianist has ever performed Bach more perfectly than Glenn Gould.

glenn gould 30/32.

Voyager.