Recording Wash Out

As mentioned earlier on this blog, Chicago Bronze records a few songs from each concert season. We're just one session away from finishing our second CD.

We were all set up in the church were we usually do our recordings when the rain started. The sanctuary roof is apparently quite thin, and the rain was very loud.

We worked for a while before our engineer (Bob from Advanced Audio) said he didn't think we could get a quality recording. The background noise sounded like a hiss like from an old tape recorder. If it had been a demo recording, we might have let it go, but we wanted the highest possible quality.

We checked the weather radar, and it did look like it would get better any time soon, so we called it a night and went home. Hopefully we'll find another time when everyone can get together before we start drifting away for summer travels.

Trip Summary

We're back from our trip to Kalamazoo. It was a long day, as most of us make the 3-hour drive in both directions on the same day, but fortunately the 6 hours of sitting in the car was broken up by 6 hours of standing behind the tables ringing bells.

It was great ringing with the other groups, the Capitol City Ringers and the Kalamazoo Ringers, and their respective directors, Jane C. Wright and Janet Van Valey.

We also debuted some live photos from the event here on our blog, a first for us. No photos from during the concert, though; we were too busy ringing.

If you weren't able to come to the concert, or to Friday's concert in Park Ridge, we hope you'll make on of our concerts next week.

Kalamazoo

CB at a distance

Bronze ring invitational

Here we are (front) with the Capitol City Ringers (center) and the
Kalamazoo Ringers (far side) in Kalamazoo

Our new banner!

We got our new banner... Wow, that's bright. Compared to the old
banner which was black.

Straussian Weather

We've mentioned Strauss' Thunder and Lightnight Polka before, but here's some more information about Johann Strauss, Jr, "The Waltz King," and his weather-related composition.

"In the 19th century, Viennese music (dance) was dominated by Johann Strauss Sr. and his three sons Johann Jr., Josef and Eduard. Johann Strauss Jr. in all composed over 170 waltzes" [1]of which the most famous today is the "Blue Danube," written in 1867. Thunder and Lightning was published the following year, in 1868.

"Johann Strauss, Jr. (center) was born October 25, 1825 the first of five children. A number of great composers encountered parental opposition when they decided to undertake a musical career, but none met more than Johann Jr. His father, Johann Sr., had decided that one musician in the family was enough and went to great lengths to keep his sons from following in his footsteps. Ironically, all three, Johann Jr., Josef (1827-1870) and Eduard (1835_1916) achieved success as musicians.

"It was his mother, Anna, who encouraged Johann's ambition, who bought him his first violin and saw to it that he received musical instruction. Little Johann secretly studied the violin, making his first attempt at writing a waltz at 6 years of age.

"From 1841 on, Johann Strauss Jr. was a student of the Polytechnic school. He was not very interested in accounting and was expelled for "misbehavior" two years after he joined the school. No one could help him not even a private teacher. Johann skipped the private lessons and spent all his time studying music. He still took violin
lessons from his mother, then he got a permit from the police that allowed him
to play with an orchestra of 12-15 people in public houses." [1]

"Possibly the noisiest of Strauss' dance pieces, Unter Donner und Blitz [Thunder
and Lightning] evokes the sound of thunder and lightning through incessant
timpani rolls and cymbal crashes. In the first half of section A, a loud timpani
roll occurs every four measures, while the cymbals crash on each beat of the
detached descending melody of the second half. Drum answers cymbal in the
arching woodwind tune that begins section B, moving the accent to the second
beat of the measure. A note-for-note return of section A completes the
traditional ternary form, and a rambunctious coda creates a thunderous close.
The only peculiar aspect of Unter Donner und Blitz is the percussive,
eight-measure bridge between the two parts of section A, and the absence of any
return to the first part of section A. Clearly, Strauss sought to amuse as much
as compose a successful piece of music. ~ All Music Guide " [2]

References:
1 http://www.siu.edu/~dfll/German/jstrauss.htm
2 http://www.answers.com/topic/unter-donner-und-blitz-thunder-and-lightning-polka-schnell-for-orchestra-op-324-rv-324

Rock Around the Clock

On the program this Spring is "Rock Around the Clock" by Max Freeman and Jimmy DeKnight, arranged for handbells by Carol Lynn Mizell. While perhaps not the first recording of its kind, Rock Around the Clock is considered the song that started the Rock and Roll era.



The song was written in 1952 for Bill Haley and the Comets. Haley knew he had a hit song for a new sound, but convincing the producers at his label, Essex Records, proved difficult. Not until Haley switched to Decca Records in 1954 was he able to record it, as the B-side to the "Thirteen Women (and Only One Man in Town)."



The song was widely recognized until it was heard with the opening credits to the 1955 movie "Blackboard Jungle." It is reported that producers were looking to choose music that was popular with kids. The movie's star actor, Glenn Ford, pulled the album from his then-10-year-old son's collection, and it was chosen for the film. The song's popularity soared, becoming the #1 song in America for eight straight weeks.



Haley would re-record the song many times, as did many other artists, but none have ever been as popular as the original, legendary recording. The song re-appeared on the charts in 1974 when it was used as the opening song for the first season of the television show "Happy Days."



The arrangement for handbells by Mizell incorporates an unusual handbell technique, designed to mimic a trombone "slide." Trombones can easily play a note and slowly move to another note, but each handbell have has a distinct note. The effect is achieved by playing both the first note and the second note at the same time, but changing the direction of the bell so that the audience hears the first note predominately at first, then slowly shifts so that the second note is heard louder than the first. In fact both bells are ringing the entire time. What's most disconcerting to the ringer is that you don't hear the effect if you're too close; only a listenter from a distance will hear the dominant note stand out.



Bill Haley once said "No matter how bad a show might be going some night, I know that song will pull us through. It's my little piece of gold." We hope so, too.