Esipova
Moderators: MattKingUSA, khz
- Rainmak3r
- Established Member
- Posts: 892
- Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2019 12:24 pm
- Has thanked: 49 times
- Been thanked: 180 times
- Contact:
Esipova
Hi all,
I just uploaded a short atmospheric track:
https://soundcloud.com/lminiero/esipova
It's a very simple piece, that came out from an improvisation I did with my guitar, and then I slowly enriched it with more sounds. As I wrote in response to a video @psyocean shared, I started thinking about the trip I made to Saint Petersburg more than 10 years ago (almost 15, now that I think about it!), and my visit to the Tikhvin Cemetery there. If you don't know about it, it's a gorgeous cemetery where several important Russian figures are buried, including Tchaikivsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Dostojevski and many more. When there, though, one of the first things I saw was a truly beautiful statue, depicting a sad woman sitting on a grave: this video shows where the statue is, and displays it for quite some time (it's at about 25s). I fell in love with it instantly, and took note of the name of the person buried there, which was Anna Esipova. At the time I didn't know, but googling around it turned out she was a quite famous pianist in the late 19th century, respected by the Greatest as well.
All those memories contributed to shaping the piece as I eventually did. The guitar arpeggio became something the piano would join, and eventually take over. I liked the idea of using dulcimer and celesta as a way to "echo" the arpeggio in the middle, to make it sound a bit more "Russian". All the parts were played, rather than scored: I used Salamander to play the piano, Virtual Playing Orchestra for the celesta, and a free Spitfire Labs VST for the hammered dulcimer. To paint the picture of a visit back to her grave, I decided to also add some ambient sounds, which is a recording I found on FreeSound.org of another cemetery. It's a very simple piece that took me maybe only a couple of days, but apart from some MIDI timing issues I do like how it came out.
Hope you'll enjoy it!
I just uploaded a short atmospheric track:
https://soundcloud.com/lminiero/esipova
It's a very simple piece, that came out from an improvisation I did with my guitar, and then I slowly enriched it with more sounds. As I wrote in response to a video @psyocean shared, I started thinking about the trip I made to Saint Petersburg more than 10 years ago (almost 15, now that I think about it!), and my visit to the Tikhvin Cemetery there. If you don't know about it, it's a gorgeous cemetery where several important Russian figures are buried, including Tchaikivsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Dostojevski and many more. When there, though, one of the first things I saw was a truly beautiful statue, depicting a sad woman sitting on a grave: this video shows where the statue is, and displays it for quite some time (it's at about 25s). I fell in love with it instantly, and took note of the name of the person buried there, which was Anna Esipova. At the time I didn't know, but googling around it turned out she was a quite famous pianist in the late 19th century, respected by the Greatest as well.
All those memories contributed to shaping the piece as I eventually did. The guitar arpeggio became something the piano would join, and eventually take over. I liked the idea of using dulcimer and celesta as a way to "echo" the arpeggio in the middle, to make it sound a bit more "Russian". All the parts were played, rather than scored: I used Salamander to play the piano, Virtual Playing Orchestra for the celesta, and a free Spitfire Labs VST for the hammered dulcimer. To paint the picture of a visit back to her grave, I decided to also add some ambient sounds, which is a recording I found on FreeSound.org of another cemetery. It's a very simple piece that took me maybe only a couple of days, but apart from some MIDI timing issues I do like how it came out.
Hope you'll enjoy it!
-
- Established Member
- Posts: 1516
- Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2019 2:25 pm
- Location: Italy
- Has thanked: 385 times
- Been thanked: 299 times
Re: Esipova
Can't believe it's Salamander piano! and thank you for sharing your beautiful story. I think the piece describes it perfectly!
The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common. [Acts 4:32]
Please donate time (even bug reports) or money to libre software
Jam on openSUSE + GeekosDAW!
Please donate time (even bug reports) or money to libre software
Jam on openSUSE + GeekosDAW!
-
- Established Member
- Posts: 2082
- Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2015 8:06 pm
- Location: Here, of course!
- Has thanked: 227 times
- Been thanked: 400 times
- Contact:
Re: Esipova
A lovely restful piece, and great tribute.
The Yoshimi guy {apparently now an 'elderly'}
- Rainmak3r
- Established Member
- Posts: 892
- Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2019 12:24 pm
- Has thanked: 49 times
- Been thanked: 180 times
- Contact:
Re: Esipova
Can't believe it because it sounds too good or too bad? It's the SFZ I usually go to, and as a non-piano-player I found it sounds good enough!
Thanks for listening, I'm glad you liked the piece!
- Rainmak3r
- Established Member
- Posts: 892
- Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2019 12:24 pm
- Has thanked: 49 times
- Been thanked: 180 times
- Contact:
- Rainmak3r
- Established Member
- Posts: 892
- Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2019 12:24 pm
- Has thanked: 49 times
- Been thanked: 180 times
- Contact:
-
- Established Member
- Posts: 1516
- Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2019 2:25 pm
- Location: Italy
- Has thanked: 385 times
- Been thanked: 299 times
Re: Esipova
Because it sounds very good, of course
The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common. [Acts 4:32]
Please donate time (even bug reports) or money to libre software
Jam on openSUSE + GeekosDAW!
Please donate time (even bug reports) or money to libre software
Jam on openSUSE + GeekosDAW!
- Tenaba
- Established Member
- Posts: 228
- Joined: Sat Dec 22, 2018 3:33 am
- Has thanked: 32 times
- Been thanked: 79 times
Re: Esipova
Really nice choice of instrumentation. The 12-string guitar pops out well. Most of all though, I like the chord choices. I wish I knew enough music theory to be able to name them and try them out myself
I make music as Tenaba! Bandcamp
- Rainmak3r
- Established Member
- Posts: 892
- Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2019 12:24 pm
- Has thanked: 49 times
- Been thanked: 180 times
- Contact:
Re: Esipova
I have to admit I don't know enough theory or which chords I played either
It all came from improvisation, around the open E string. I wrote down a tablature for the arpeggio with Lilypond:
I'll have to study myself to understand which chords I played
- milo
- Established Member
- Posts: 1242
- Joined: Wed Sep 06, 2017 2:55 am
- Location: Southern Utah, USA
- Has thanked: 275 times
- Been thanked: 218 times
- Contact:
Re: Esipova
This is lovely! I listened several times and enjoyed it greatly. As you said, there are some minor timing issues, although I thought it was more on the guitar side than the midi (the guitar seems to come in a few ms too late, but the midi instruments seems always to come in roght when I expect them).
You have convinced me to finally try Salamander. I'm working on a project with a lot of piano right now, and I'm sick of Ardour's midi synth piano.
You have convinced me to finally try Salamander. I'm working on a project with a lot of piano right now, and I'm sick of Ardour's midi synth piano.
- Rainmak3r
- Established Member
- Posts: 892
- Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2019 12:24 pm
- Has thanked: 49 times
- Been thanked: 180 times
- Contact:
Re: Esipova
Thanks for listening, and glad you liked it! I actually recorded all guitars first, and then played the MIDI parts: I guess that, since I followed the metronome for both, I may have been sloppier with the guitar. Next time I should forget about the metronome altogether (especially in a simpler track like this) and let instruments match each other.milo wrote: ↑Sat May 29, 2021 11:05 am This is lovely! I listened several times and enjoyed it greatly. As you said, there are some minor timing issues, although I thought it was more on the guitar side than the midi (the guitar seems to come in a few ms too late, but the midi instruments seems always to come in roght when I expect them).
You have convinced me to finally try Salamander. I'm working on a project with a lot of piano right now, and I'm sick of Ardour's midi synth piano.