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Hi ShiroKuro, Thank you for checking with Shazam, I appreciate it! This one is tricky. Anyone else have any ideas or approaches I might take to discover what piece this is?
It's possible that the old "Dictionary of Musical Themes" book -- rarely seen any more -- would have it. I have a copy but I'm not at home where I have it. If nobody else gives the answer meanwhile, I'll check. (Not highly optimistic it's in there.)
This is a neat piece. It reminds me of this thing by Horowitz, which I once played (in a different life).
No, it's not in Dictionary of Musical Themes. (I have both the original and the opera/song companion volume.)
I thought there was something familiar about that Horowitz piece. I blew some dust off of a row of my CD collection and found it on a disc called "Pianists as Composers"...Donald Manildi, piano. Haven't listened to it in years....it has several other interesting works on it. Nice job playing it. You take the same tempo as Manildi and the track timing comes out precisely the same!
....Nice job playing it. You take the same tempo as Manildi and the track timing comes out precisely the same!
Thank you, and interesting that his timing is the same. But, I have to confess, I prefer it a little quicker, and in fact was purposely taking what I considered a compromised tempo for the sake of accuracy. This video was for a formal purpose, and I didn't feel like I could afford much risk on accuracy. If it were just a regular performance (even if it were also being videoed -- the thing is, for this thing, the video was the purpose) -- for a regular performance I'd have taken a faster tempo, like maybe 5%.
BTW, cool that you have those books, not even just the first one but also that other one. I don't remember coming across anyone else who has it at all.
It was when I was in music theory class (decades ago) that the prof mentioned Dictionary of Musical Themes...so when I happened to see a copy in the bookstore, I snatched it right up. My copy is marked-up quite a bit, due to my efforts (also long ago) to put much of it into a computer database of my own design, along with a melody search algorithm tied into a MIDI keyboard.
I have both books - picked them up at a second-hand book/music sale some years ago. My high school library had them (many years ago) and I used to love browsing through them there.
I have both books - picked them up at a second-hand book/music sale some years ago. My high school library had them (many years ago) and I used to love browsing through them there.
(Hello!)
Yes, they can be great fun, and not just for finding something. I've enjoyed just browsing through some of those 'codes' in the back and trying to guess what pieces they are, and I've enjoyed seeing which different things unexpectedly have similar or even identical codes, meaning that their notes deceptively are extremely similar -- like, for example (my favorite!) -- did you (or anyone here) ever realize that the opening 'melodies' of the first and last movements of the Moonlight Sonata have exactly the same notes, for a fair while??
That totally floored me. I mean, look, how many many times I've heard (and played) those movements, yet never had any inkling of that.
And also, it's interesting to see what's included and what isn't. In that respect, the original book is, I'd have to say, very much a period piece. There's quite a lot of stuff that was 'in vogue' at that time which I doubt would be included in such a reference book now.
Plus: It's interesting (some might say I'm being generous in saying "interesting" rather than some other kind of adjective) how unless we get the notes 10000% right on something we're looking up, we usually won't find it, even if it's in there. And there are some kinds of things, like if a melody begins with some kind of ornament, where it's hard to know how to 'code' those notes, so we just sort of toss a coin in our minds.
Shazam does work with classical. But it works the same with classical as with pop music -- i.e., it's comparing digital "fingerprints" from a database of commercially-released CD tracks (songs/pieces/whatever); it's not identifying melodies per se. So you can't expect it to ID some live performance that was never released on a commercial CD.
The first time I ever heard of Shazam, I was on vacation visiting family, in a nice restaurant that was playing some classical music over the PA, and one of my sisters asked me what the piece was. I said that it was on the tip of my tongue but I couldn't quite recall it. So my other sis pulls out her smartphone and uses Shazam, which to my astonishment correctly ID'd the piece -- as well as the performing ensemble.
I haven't used it a lot, but for fun, I just gave it a challenge, playing it some pretty obscure stuff. It correctly ID'd Hamelin playing a Kapustin etude off of a Hyperion CD. Then it correctly ID'd an Ignaz Friedman piano transcription played by Joseph Banowetz on the Grand Piano label. It even correctly iD'd Viktor Valkov playing a Dimitar Nenov etude. Not bad!
And also, it's interesting to see what's included and what isn't. In that respect, the original book is, I'd have to say, very much a period piece. There's quite a lot of stuff that was 'in vogue' at that time which I doubt would be included in such a reference book now.
That has been a big issue I've noticed with the book too. For example, I went to a solo cello recital, and all the drive home I was humming this wonderful melody from an encore played by the cellist. I looked it up in the book, and it wasn't there. I posted a facsimile of the melody online and a cellist ID'd it as from a Bach cello suite. I ended up buying the complete Bach cello suites (played by that same cellist), and that one played in the concert remains my favorite.
Originally Posted by Mark_C
Plus: It's interesting (some might say I'm being generous in saying "interesting" rather than some other kind of adjective) how unless we get the notes 10000% right on something we're looking up, we usually won't find it, even if it's in there. And there are some kinds of things, like if a melody begins with some kind of ornament, where it's hard to know how to 'code' those notes, so we just sort of toss a coin in our minds.
That's one of the issues I addressed with my computer program. If it couldn't find an exact match, then it would go back and look for similar ones.
Thank you Mark C for sharing your performance! There really are some similarities between the pieces. Thank you everyone for taking the time to look ( the Dictionary of Musical Themes sounds amazing). If anyone has any other ideas of where I might look I would be ever grateful!
About the similarity of the pieces: That really made me wish my tempo had been quicker!! The piece you posted is very effective at that speed. After hearing that, mine felt unusually sluggish by contrast.
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