Introduction
By George Bogatko
Hello.
I'm just joining this list, and have been encouraged to write up a short bio. Some of this is on my web page: http://www.intac.com/~gbogatko
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I got My BS in music from Mannes College of music in 1974, and an MA in music from Ball State University in 1978. In those days, composers were strongly encouraged to produce music that sounded like crows with hernias. I was woefully unsuccessful trying to sell such desperately needed music to the world at large. So in 1982, after a really dull career working as a music engraver/copiest (at slave wages) I jumped ship and switched to Computer programming. Shortly thereafter, the jingle business took a nosedive when the Synclavier nuked the live players. It hasn't been the same since.
Over the years, I have had my pieces played by:
String Fever - a swing string band. Concordia Chamber Symphony - located in New York City The Colorado Symphony The Boston Pops
I've had a facination for automatic musical instruments since childhood. Over the years, I was able to amass:
2 Edison cylinder players (one for $50 and the other for $25. Guess
what year *that* was. Hint. you could
buy the cylinders, wax and amberol, for
about a dime each, and sometimes by the
barrelful)
1 Edison disk player given to me as junk
1 Victorla upright $50 at a farm auction
1 Celestina given to me as almost junk
1 pump player upright bought as junk and repaired.
Around 1984, being tired of hauling all this around, I sold almost everything and with some other cash scraped together, bought a reasonably rebuild Knabe/Ampico grand. I kept the Celestina.
While the Ampico certainly weighs more than the other things combined, it's more fun, and the music is better. It was kinda depressing hauling out the Edison, hooking up the lilly horn (it required a tripod), only to play a record that proved positively that Edison was indeed tone deaf, and a-musical. After about 2 minutes, nobody would be listening any more, including me. Most of it is so dull. It's an old story that when Rachmaninoff did his few recordings on cylinders, that Edison fired him because he didn't like his "tinkeling".
Even thou I haven't been able to find any more rolls for the Ampico (that I can afford), I still never tire playing it. (I would kill for a copy of "Turkey in the Straw". Anyone have an extra they are willing to part with?). Because of the scarcity, I've become quite adept at repairing disasters. My most recent occured when my youngest stabbed "Old Fashioned Love" (played by Henry Lang) with his He-Man sword while the roll was playing, and then walked off. The tear was 2.5 yards long, and in three seperate long pieces. I managed to put it all back together (it took half a day), with no bumps or leaks. It now plays as good as before.
Recently, I bought a MIDI board (AWE32) and a sequencer program and started trying to write "piano rolls". I'd always wondered if I could do as good a job as the old guys. The "style" of player piano rolls is unique. The arrangers of the popular rolls knew what they had, and exploited it. They didn't confine themselves to what could be played by two hands (or even four). It's a mistake to think that just trills, shakes, rolls and a honky-tonk tuning is all it takes to sound like a player piano. In fact, the bulk of the popular tunes were cut from arrangements by schooled musicians that were calculated to make the piano more "orchestral". (The story goes that Art Tatum grew up listening to them, and that his unique style was his interpretation of what he remembered.)
The results of these three attempts (so far) are on http://www.intac.com/~gbogatko.
Raggin' the Scale
Nag, Nag, Nag
Walkin' the Baby Home.
I think the indication that I have come close is when my kids (who grew up hearing the Ampico at all hours of the day and night) thought I'd scanned in a roll, and was playing it. They're still not convinced that I made these up.
Enuf. This is taking up bandwidth.
George Bogatko - gbogatko@intac.com
George Bogatko - gbogatko@nile.intac.com |
(Message sent Fri 27 Oct 1995, 10:36:53 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.) |
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