Analog Bach – Baroque Synthesizer
Marco Rosano [21010197] · myspace.com/analogbach
This is an outstanding album of baroque compositions showing off the Chroma's capabilities in a genre that's relatively uncommon for the instrument. Thanks to Marco for providing the two sample tracks available here. Be sure to pick up the rest at the iTunes store; it is also available at Amazon.com.
| 1 |  |
J.S. Bach, Allegro from the Concerto for harpsichord no.1 in D minor | BWV 1052 | 7:58 |
| 2 | |
J.S. Bach, Air from the Suite no. 3 | BWV 1068 | 5:18 |
| 3 | |
J.S. Bach, Invention no. 1 in C major | BWV 787 | 1:09 |
| 4 | |
Tomaso Albinoni, Adagio from the Concerto Op.9 in D minor | 2:50 | |
| 5 | |
Domenico Scarlatti, Sonata in F minor | K466 | 5:30 |
| 6 | |
J.S. Bach, Bourrée from the English Suite no.2 in A minor | BWV 807 | 1:23 |
| 7 | |
Felice Anerio, Madrigal no. 3 from "Le Gioie" | 3:32 | |
| 8 | |
Marco Rosano, Fac Me Cruce, from the Stabat Mater | 3:13 | |
| 9 | |
J.S. Bach, St. Matthew Passion, "Kommt, ihr Töchter" | BWV 244 | 7:56 |
| 10 | |
Pietro Domenico Paradisi, Toccata from the Sonata in A | 1:46 | |
| 11 | |
Antonio Maria Bononcini, Stabat Mater Dolorosa, from the Stabat Mater | 3:10 | |
| 12 | |
J.S. Bach, Fugue in g minor | BWV 542 | 4:35 |
My job is to compose music, I started 15 years ago and I have done a lot of different music in various styles. See:
- Patreon page
- Stabat Mater in D Minor, Marco Rosano, composer
- Discogs: Marco Rosano
- BROtheRS (with Paolo Modugno): iTunes, MYSpace, Discog
But one of my strongest passions comes from a question I asked myself some years ago that started a series of thoughts, and I wish to share it with other Chroma owners. Is the synthesizer a musical instrument?
From its birth, the synthesizer has been used in many different ways: as a primitive simulator of existing instruments; as a generator of kitch and impressive sounds; for evocative and ambient pads; and rhythmic and evocative patterns used to underline the dancing aspect of music. We must not forget the "high profile" use that has (more or less) ennobled the synthesizer in electro-acoustic scores during the 20th Century, playing unheard-of incredible and provocatively tiresome roles.
But is it a musical instrument? I mean, is it assimilable to a "real" instrument as we usually define acoustic instruments, or does it remain a surrogate, a B-series musical instruments? Can it create musical, living, deep, moving, human, unique, rich, beautiful, interesting, pleasant sounds like a "real" musical instrument played by a talented interpreter?
If the answer is yes, it is time to start to use it as it deserves.
Almost 50 years after the work of illustrious pioneers like Wendy Carlos, are we doomed to admire these instruments from a distance, or are we ready to use them (at least) like a musical instrument "tout-court"?
A synthesizer in the hands of a talented interpreter, an orchestra of synthesizers conducted by a prominent conductor, an ensemble of synth played by good musicians; every declination of a "real" musical situation is permitted. Of course it is not necessary to simulate acoustic instruments, it is not excluded either; maybe it's about creating new instruments.
One morning, I woke up and I decided to create a new musical instrument; I started up my synthesizer and I built a musical instrument that did not exist before, with unique and unrepeatable features, with multiple human-machine interfaces, with original timbric properties, new sounds, new emotions never felt before.
It is possible, but why we do not do it?
Sure we have presets now, thousands of them, and we have become spoiled and lazy, but every classical player spends years to learn his instrument, his possibilities, his peculiarities and characteristics, his limits, his strongest and weakest points and to use all of them in the interest of music.
Why we don't do this with a synthesizer?
Musical instrument industries (with some rare exceptions) do not have a positive role in the story; look at General MIDI. And I am not sure that the interpreter must be exclusively a keyboard player, especially in this time of MIDI guitars, MIDI sax, MIDI drums, virtual gloves, and MIDI magnetic and light controllers.
In the classical and academic environment, things have not changed so much in decades since the beginning of electronic music; electronic instruments are always looked at with a certain disgust, snubbed, mocked, undervalued, misunderstood. And also the variegated non-classical people, from jazz to dance, do not ask themselves a lot of questions, suffering from a big inferiority complex towards the academic world.
Maybe in our present "virtual" world there are a lot of new ways of making music that are worthy of recognition, development, research, nobilitation.
Wendy Carlos's first four albums were an important inspiration in the birth of this CD. The idea was to play classical Baroque (and some madrigals) music using only the Chroma, for me the best synthesizer ever.
My little and humble brick in this building is Analog Bach, an album I did entirely on the Chroma synthesizer.
© Marco Rosano 