Mondnachts

Here's something unusual. I won't spill too many words over it right now, but it's basically another example of found music. I'd found an unmarked mp3 of Schumann's Mondnacht on my hard drive, and I wanted to confirm that it was the same recording as a marked version in my iTunes. (They did turn out to be the same, the mp3 being something I'd created from the protected iTunes files for class purposes once upon a time.) So, I set the two playing at the same time, except they didn't quite synch up - yet there was something instantly appealing about the way the repeated notes of the accompaniment seemed to be doublestruck. Then, a bit more mischievously, I tossed a third version into the mix, running a phrase behind more or less like a canon. The result is - well, it is what it is. I wish I had time to write more about it, but at least this gives me something to follow up on in a future blog post. For now, the point is that, though I don't claim to have composed anything, I find this mashup very satisfying, in a hallucinatory way. I'm not saying it's an improvement on the unimprovably perfect Schumann, but it is dreamy.

P.S. The performers are René Köhler, tenor and Joyce Hatto, piano.

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