Barocker (German) – adjective; of or pertaining to the Baroque. Barocker is a project to explore connections between Classical, Jazz, Rock, EDM and Electronic music.
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Mozart/Barocker: Twinkle
“Twinkle” is my version of Mozart’s famous classic. Some pieces of music don’t have much of a history, but this one came out of necessity.
A couple of years ago, I started to work as a violin and viola teacher in a music school with a tradition that requires new teachers to present themselves with a concert. In 2021, a year we all remember as one of uncertainties and shenanigans, the traditional concert was optimized into a short performance at the graduation ceremony. For this occasion, I quickly arranged Mozart’s “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” to play with another new teacher, the double bassist.
For this published version I added a piano part and recorded all the parts. Instrumentation: electric viola, piano and double bass. I hope you will enjoy this rendition.
Distant Prelude
Distant Prelude. A prelude to a journey.
I’ve started something. Something exciting, maybe somewhat ambitious. This is a journey through Bach’s Das Wohltemperirte Clavier book 2. (engl.: The Well-Tempered Clavier)
Bach composed two books of 24 sets of preludes and fugues each. “Clavier” was basically any keyboard instrument of Bach’s times e.g. harpsichord, clavichord as well as organ and others.
What is Clavier that is well-tempered? Firstly, it is kind and well mannered, not like those that are bad-tempered. Secondly well-tempered clavier has been tampered with it’s tuning to make certain harmonies and chords have certain “flavor” and in the case of Das Wohltemperirte Clavier to make it certain that no flavor is terrible. There are many different temperaments that harpsichord players can choose to make certain harmonies sound sweeter, always at a risk of getting a chord or two that will sound horrible. However, if you want to perform 24 pieces of music, each in a different key, then some of those pieces are guarantied to be really sounding at certain temperaments (tunings).
Then enters Bach! To write a prelude and fugue for each and every major and minor must have been a statement: “Here! I’ve solved the temperament conundrum!” Many think that Bach must have used the “equal temperament” (the temperament that most music is performed in nowadays) But there are also researchers that believe that Bach figured out another temperament and left a clue on the cover of his manuscript in a form of squiggles, that for most people look like some doodling, however harpsichord enthusiasts believe that those are instructions on how to tune your harpsichord for performing this.
Now…. having spent 2 paragraphs or 200 words on introducing the mysteries of temperaments, I will now go ahead to disappoint anyone wanting to hear some fancy temperaments in my project. I’m using the good old boring equal temperament. Having said that – I might experiment with some temperaments at some point and if you want to see/hear me going down that rabbit hole – you can subscribe to my website Barocker.com to hear me brag about it – when I’ll have something to show.
Distant Prelude is the first in the series of works based on Das Wohltemperirte Clavier 2nd book and is inspired by the Prelude #1 in C major. It’s named Prelude as it starts off the series and Distant – because I don’t yet know where all this will lead. All that I know now is – there will be at least 24 tracks for this journey.
The name – Distant Prelude – also signifies the first letter of Das Wohltemperirte Clavier. I am sure that Bach didn’t name his tome by accident – using only 24 letters! These old guys loved mysteries, encoding tuning instructions as squiggles, playing with cryptic codes throughout.
So, I invite you to come with me on this adventure! You can sign-up on my website Barocker.com , follow me on Facebook, Instagram or other social network, follow me on Bandcamp, Spotify or drop me a line!
Wacky Weekend
Wacky Weekend. New classical crossover music for harpsichord. Bridging baroque, electro and break elements with added sprinkles of sci-fi.
About me
Hi! My name is Kaspars Vilnītis and you are visiting my project Barocker!
I have always enjoyed a wide variety of music. Being a free-lance viola player I’ve participated in music projects of probably every music genre that has ever included string instruments. Always having to click into any playing style – be it a style of early romanticism, baroque of certain location or an arrangement of an international rock classic.
My music is fueled by exploration of the concept of classical crossover. I choose to regard the term “crossover” in a musical sense as it opens a gate between the parallel dimensions of so called academic and popular music.
What music inspires me? Everyday my answer would be different, however if I had to answer this woken at 4:00AM then – Oscar Peterson, Arvo Pärt, Led Zeppelin and Stéphane Grappelli. Why these artists and composers? At 4:03AM – Peterson not just jazz but blues-jazz; Led Zeppelin – not just rock but blues-rock; Grapelli – a jazz violinist that actually produced a good violin tone and Arvo Pärt – that’s something else…..no blues here….
Bached Up – the background
As a homage to Bach this piece is centered around the B-A-C-H motif. As nicely explained wiki: “In music, the BACH motif is the motif, a succession of notes important or characteristic to a piece, B flat, A, C, B natural. In German musical nomenclature, in which the note B natural is named H and the B flat named B, it forms Johann Sebastian Bach’s family name.”
Well, one day I felt very clever – I added two notes (E and D) at the end of it and got my own motif to get all Bached up over!
J. S. Bach is deservedly revered with almost divine awe in the circles of classical music. Indeed, even today, for any given Bach composition – composers will be inspired in diverse ways; each and every performer will find a very unique way to interpret it, and each and every performance will get criticized for very different reasons. Basically, everyone has a kind of unique and personal relation to Bach’s music.
So, what was my motivation?
I personally find Bach’s music very playful, even underneath all that of serious or religious subject matter. He was a passionate and inspired musician and as such I identify with him as a respectable friend rather than a harsh music God. Besides that, he also played viola!
So here I am! All Bached up!
Menuetto 334 background
Ok, this was a lot of fun for me, plus an exciting challenge. I have to thank my son for the catalyst and motivation for this track.
Basically, we had to pop to the gardening shop which is not so exciting for kids and he decided to wait for us in the car. Thanks to the poor internet connection he started to play around with some translator apps. So, here we are: some profound lyrics, randomly created by my son:
Poopaliiioook!!!
Bumbumbumbmbumbubm Bumbumbumbmbumbubm
Bumbumbumbmbumbubm Bumbumbumbmbumbubm
Bumbumbumbmbumbubm ….
The ‘words’ had a nice sway to them, as if a ‘droid was trying to hum along to some kind of tune… This got me going!
I noticed that those robot rumblings had a rhythm that would fit a time signature of 3/4 and a pitch that would make you audiate in D major. The most popular baroque and classical type of music created in this meter would certainly be the Minuet, Menuett or Menuetto. And, one of the best known minuets in D maj would be Mozart’s 2nd Menuetto from the Divertimento in D major, K.V.344. So I used this minuet for the classical element of this track.
3/4 is seldom used in today’s popular music. Though I have tried to explore 3/4 previously, the results have never been anything to write home about. Well, this time I am actually quite happy with the beat and the feel of Menuetto 334, so much so that I’m planning to revisit 3/4 meter again. Definitely.
What would you say is a curious or under-used meter or time signature in music nowadays? Please, leave a comment or drop me a line! Thanks.