Post a strange, odd or unique fact about music.

[Mendocino]

Nobody in Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass was Hispanic.

[kentauros]

1. None of the instruments used

to make the soundtrack for Forbidden Planet were synthesizers, because they hadn't been invented yet.

[cemaphonic]

2. Moog-style modular synthesizers hadn't been invented yet,

but there are music synthesis machines dating back to the 30s, and earlier, if you include things like the theremin and ondes Martenot.

[kentauros]

3. But are they specifically called "synthesizers"

as defined today?

[cemaphonic]

6. I guess that would depend on who you were talking to.

In pop/rock/commercial music, the Moog (polyphonic, keyboard controlled, subtractive synthesizer) was the first widely adopted example of what most people think of as a synthesizer. But a music historian, or an electronic music composer would consider many of the earlier machines to be synthesizers, since they produce sound in much the same way that the commercial synths do (just not in a package that lends itself to live performance very well).

Also, I just discovered this instrument from the early 40s- the Hammond Novachord. It has a similar synthesis approach (subtractive, with ADSR envelopes) as the Moog, except that it uses vacuum tubes instead of transistors for the oscillators and filters. I'd say that most people today would consider it to look and sound like a synthesizer.

[kentauros]

15. Okay, thanks for the correction and history lesson

I'll have to listen to the Novachord later. I sampled a little and it's fascinating they were doing that so early. How successful was it for Hammond?

[cemaphonic]

29. According to wikipedia, a commercial failure

Not surprisingly. The thing weighed 500 pounds, and contained 163(!) vacuum tubes, and 500 capacitors, so it must have been a real bitch to keep in playable condition.

[kentauros]

32. Who needs a furnace with that many vacuum tubes?!

Still, it showed they were researching such things. I wonder if they revisited it after the invention of the transistor...

[Enthusiast]

43. Amazing. I appreciate learning about the Novachord.

[Mendocino]

4. Many people think the theremin was used in

One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest. It wasn't. The strange and eerie soundtrack came from a bowed saw and glass harps.

[kentauros]

24. However, the theremin was used in The Day the Earth Stood Still.

It was both in the soundtrack, and used for the sound of the flying saucer.

The following is an interesting session recording for the movie

[Enthusiast]

41. Thanks!

[CBGLuthier]

50. People also think the theremin was used on The Beach Boys Good Vibrations. it wasn't

It was called an electro-theremin and didn't work in any way at all like the theremin.


http://www.electrotheremin.com/etfaq.htm

[Enthusiast]

38. That movie!

[grasswire]

5. There is no bridge in "Indiana" nt

[cemaphonic]

7. Shephard's Tone

A weird audio illusion of a sound that appears to be constantly rising (or falling) in pitch, but never really gets anywhere.

[kentauros]

14. Here's a great online resource:

Shepard Madness - Binaural Shepard Tone Generator

[rug]

8. Funeral March for the Obsequies of a Deaf Man

[BlueJazz]

36. Amazing, I've never heard anything like it.

[malthaussen]

54. Then you're unfamiliar with John Cage's 4'33"? n/t

[Tom_Foolery]

9. Paul McCartney's working title for "Yesterday" was...

"Scrambled Eggs". It has been covered over 3,000 times.

[LiberalElite]

11. & the whole line was -

"Scrambled eggs - Oh my baby how I love your legs"

[Tom_Foolery]

12. Exactly...

[LiberalElite]

13. .

[Mendocino]

10. Astral Weeks

by Van Morrison was recorded in three one day sessions.

[3catwoman3]

16. This a question, not an observation.

How are the tradition Italian musical terms written in Japanese sheet music?

[Brother Buzz]

17. Nobody in Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass actually played any music on their albums

The Wrecking Crew were a group of Studio Musicians in Los Angeles in the 60s who played on hits for the Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, Sonny and Cher, Jan & Dean, The Monkees, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Mamas and Papas, Tijuana Brass, Ricky Nelson, Johnny Rivers and were Phil Spector's Wall of Sound. The amount of work that they were involved in was tremendous.

The best kept secret in the music industry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrecking_Crew_%28music%29

[Mendocino]

19. He did have a touring band,

that was non hispanic. Herb himself was Jewish, of Ukrainian and Romanian background.

The Wrecking Crew was amazing. Drummer Hal Blaine played on 40 #1 hits and over 150 top ten songs.

[Brother Buzz]

20. Hal Blaine also came up with that famous foot pedal bass drum beat in A Taste of Honey

In the studio, they needed a timing device to transition and get all the musicians to come in at the same time. Hal suggested the drum beat. Herb and his engineer loved it and kept it in the final mix. The rest is history; everyone instantly recognizes that drum beat, not knowing it was the hook that held the whole song together.

[Enthusiast]

45. Brother Buzz, you know a whole lot of stuff.

[Brother Buzz]

67. Read Kent Hartman's book, "The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock And Roll's Best-Kept Secret"

many people discovered their 10 favorite drummers were all Hal Blaine.

If you can't chase down a copy of Hartman's book, you would be well served viewing Denny Tedesco's film, The Wrecking Crew. I would suggest watching the film (Netflix) with the book at hand for ready reference.

[Enthusiast]

68. Thanks.

[Aristus]

18. Haydn's "Farewell" Symphony was not his final symphony, as one might surmise from its nickname.

It was his 76th, out of an astounding 104 symphonies.

It got its nickname because it was a rather unsubtle poke at Haydn's employer, Baron Esterhaczy, to let the members of his private orchestra (who were considered to be on a level with the servants, like footmen or cooks) go home after weeks of entertaining the baron's guests at the baronial 'hunting lodge' (actually a huge mansion in the woods). As servants, Haydn and the orchestra could not leave unless permitted by the baron, who was having a wonderful time every night, listening to Haydn's music after an enjoyable day of hunting with his guests.

Haydn sat down and wrote a fairly standard, unimpressive symphony, that is distinguished only by its final movement. During its first performance, at a certain point in the final movement, one of the instrumentalists stopped playing, put down his instrument, closed his score, blew out his candle, and walked away with his instrument tucked under his arm. Then another, and another, and another, until finally there was only one player left besides Haydn, who was conducting. Then, abruptly, almost in mid-note, the instrumentalist put down his instrument, closed his score, blew out his candle, and walked off, leaving just Haydn. At that point, Baron Esterhaczy said the 18th Century Hungarian equivalent of "Okay, I get it! You can go home!"

This otherwise unmemorable piece of music has since come to be called "Farewell" for this reason.

[Le Taz Hot]

33. I was a music major and the joke was that

Haydn didn't write 104 symphonies, he wrote the same symphony 104 times. Mainly because of the same formula over and over and over, starting with an Introduction then, then Sonata Allegro, and it's been too long since I've studied but the forms were identical from symphony to symphony.

[malthaussen]

56. 104 is nothing...

... at last count, Leif Segerstam had done 291, but that was as of 2015, he's doubtless done more since. Must be over 300 by now.

-- Mal

[Miles Archer]

21. Brian Wilson never heard his music in stereo.

http://www.biography.com/news/brian-wilson-beach-boys-facts

He Never Heard His Music in Stereo

As a young child, Brian Wilson lost almost all of the hearing in his right ear. The percentage of hearing left is so meager that he has lived most of his life essentially deaf in one ear. For a man whose late 60s stereo recordings from albums like Pet Sounds and Surf’s Up still inspire a certain awe among his fans, it seems incredible that he could only hear his music in mono.

There are various theories about how Brian lost his hearing, none of them completely substantiated. Brian himself attributed the loss to a blow to the head he incurred as a toddler from his frequently abusive father Murry, who both encouraged his boys to be musicians and ruled over them with an iron hand. His mother, however, variously remembered a scuffle with another toddler and what she referred to as a “nerve impingement” that may have been the result of a tonsillectomy. Whatever the cause, the loss prompted Brian to be more protective of his remaining hearing and had much to do with his decision to stop playing concerts with the Beach Boys in the mid-60s.

[panader0]

72. Brian Wilson once gave me a ten dollar tip.

I delivered an electric piano to him when he was staying in Hawaii. I was working for ManPower
making about $1.25 an hour, so ten bucks was a big deal. A nice guy.

[frogmarch]

22. Neanderthal 'bone flute' musical instruments were actually hyenas gnawing bear cubs

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/neanderthal-bone-flute-musical-instruments-were-actually-hyenas-gnawing-bear-cubs-1494428

Neanderthal "bone flutes", once thought to be the earliest examples of musical instruments, are actually the product of hyenas chewing on bear cubs, scientists have said.

In a study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, Cajus Diedrich, from Paleo-Logic Independent Institute of Geosciences, said these punctured cave bear femora have long been misidentified in south-eastern Europe as the "oldest Neanderthal instruments".

But this is not the case. Instead, he said they are the products of hyenas. Analysis of their teeth marks show the bone flutes are simply the result of the cub bone not breaking when the hyenas gnawed on them.

Darn.

[Mendocino]

23. Piano Concerto in A Minor

by Edvard Grieg was the only concerto he wrote. Quality, not quantity.

[kentauros]

25. Radio-astronomy physicist Dr. Fiorella terenzi

turned stellar radio emissions into abstract music:

[Brother Buzz]

26. Leo Fender made one of the first guitars to hold up in a bar fight.

"My hero as I became older was the great Leo Fender because he made one of the first guitars to hold up in a bar fight." - Charlie Deal

http://www.dealguitars.com/memory.html

[Mendocino]

27. Jackson Browne had the best roadies.

When I was going to college in the later 70's, I worked concerts helping to set up and take down. One of my roomies was in charge of the on site labor. During the actual show, we didn't have to do much. Some bands roadies were ok, some treated us like crap. Jackson Browne's crew gave us beer and stuff, they were extremely nice. During his show, I was backstage tossing a ball back and forth to his son who was around 5 at the time. His son is now about 42.

[Enthusiast]

39. Cool story! Love Jackson Browne.

[Mendocino]

61. He was very pleasant and laid back.

Karla Bonoff opened the show, such a great voice. Very pretty!

[ghostsinthemachine]

28. The first recording by the Grateful Dead was

a Gordon Lightfoot song, Early Morning Rain.

[mak3cats]

30. It hath charms to soothe the savage breast...

...except, perhaps, in General Discussion: Politics.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

31. Some classical composers (mostly the French ones, it seems) died in unusual ways.

Jean-Baptiste Lully died in 1687 after he stabbed himself in the foot while conducting with a long staff (that's how they did it in those days) and the injury became infected. He refused to have his foot amputated because he wanted to be able to dance.

Charles-Valentin Alkan, a 19th-century composer and pianist, was said to have been squashed when a bookcase fell on him.

Louis Vierne, known mostly for his organ compositions, died of a heart attack in 1937 while playing the organ at the Notre Dame Cathedral. He fell off the bench as his foot hit the low E pedal, and died as the single note echoed throughout the church.

Henry Purcell came home late from the pub one night in 1695 to find that his wife had locked him out. He caught a chill and soon died.

Mozart probably was not murdered by Salieri.

[Le Taz Hot]

34. Lully . . .

I was just going to write that. There was a prelude to that story. He somehow talked the King of France into naming Lully as the only composer to be allowed to write music in all of France. Another composer (don't remember the name) came to France, Lully found out about it and shortly after the composer died in a freak "carriage accident." Lully ended up dying of gangrene, a VERY painful way to die. Karma, baby!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

35. Lully's lifestyle was, shall we say, over the top

but his music is fabulous.

[malthaussen]

57. Lully and Charpentier had a great feud going on.

Since Lully was able to ingratiate himself with le Roi, Marc-Antoine ended up spending most of his time in the provinces.

-- Mal

[BlueJazz]

37. The harmonica player on Millie Small's "My boy Lollipop" was Rod Stewart.

[Enthusiast]

40. No it wasn't.

[BlueJazz]

42. How do you know that? I'm not doubting your word. I mean, it's not that big a deal. I was told that

..years ago and took the persons word or it.

[Enthusiast]

44. I was just teasing. I thought you provided us with an incredible factoid.

I had no idea that Rod Stewart even played a harmonica.

[BlueJazz]

46. Ah, you got me! I DID know that Rod played the harmonica...actually quite well and he did...

....several studio sessions before he became famous so it made sense.

[Enthusiast]

47. This is an excellent thread!

[cemaphonic]

71. As long as we're talking harmonica

Huey Lewis spent a while making a living busking harmonica on the old hippie Morocco-Nepal highway in the 70s

[A HERETIC I AM]

48. Steely Dan didn't tour for 19 years...

From 1974 to 1993.

I was at their first concert of that 93 tour at The Palace of Auburn Hills, Mi

When tickets went on sale, it was the second fastest sellout in Ticketmaster history.

They came back to the Detroit area the next year and played at Pine Knob amphitheater and I saw them again.

The album "Alive in America" encompassed that tour and songs from both concerts made the album, so I am in the crowd noise twice on that album.

10,000 35 to 45 year olds singing "My old School" together!

[Enthusiast]

63. Great story. I love Steely Dan.

Lyrics included in case everyone wants to sing along.

I remember the thirty-five sweet goodbyes
When you put me on the Wolverine
Up to Annandale
It was still September
When your daddy was quite surprised
To find you with the working girls
In the county jail
I was smoking with the boys upstairs
When I heard about the whole affair
I said oh no
William and Mary won't do

[Chorus:]
Well I did not think the girl
Could be so cruel
And I'm never going back
To my old school

Oleanders growing outside her door
Soon they're gonna be in bloom
Up in Annandale
I can't stand her
Doing what she did before
Living like a gypsy queen
In a fairy tale
Well I hear the whistle but I can't go
I'm gonna take her down to Mexico
She said oh no
Guadalajara won't do

[Chorus]

California tumbles into the sea
That'll be the day I go
Back to Annandale
Tried to warn you
About Chino and Daddy Gee
But I can't seem to get to you
Through the U.S. Mail
Well I hear the whistle but I can't go
I'm gonna take her down to Mexico
She said oh no
Guadalajara won't do

[Chorus]

[Glorfindel]

49. "Oben am jungen Rhein" - Liechtenstein's National Anthem

Has exactly the same tune as "God Save the Queen."

[malthaussen]

58. Muzio Clementi's Symphony #3...

... the "Great National," features variations on "God Save the Queen." Best known as the preeminent technical piano virtuoso of his time, he wrote a ton of piano pieces, was one of the most popular and influential of teachers (also built his own pianofortes), and has faded into obscurity now.

-- Mal

[taterguy]

51. A band fronted by Mitch EASTER once opened for Echo and the BUNNYmen

[jpak]

53. Seen them both - met Mitch backstage with REM in 1983

n/t

[Tikki]

52. In the days of Troubadors, a mother would often tie her daughter's skirt to....

her skirt when they went to town to keep the daughter from running away with the traveling musician.




Tikki

[malthaussen]

55. As for the Tijuana Brass...

... there was nobody in it at first but Herb Alpert, who played all the instruments and then multi-tracked the whole piece. But when he became unexpectedly popular, he had to recruit a band to take the show on the road.

-- Mal

[malthaussen]

59. "Deutschland Uber Alles" was originally a birthday hymn for the Holy Roman Emperor...

... penned by no less a composer than Franz Josef Haydn. Actually, it is entitled "The Deutschlandleid," but the opening lyric (Heinrich Hoffmann's version) became so notorious that the song has been known by that title for years. After the HRE was broken up, the song became the national anthem of the Austrian Empire in 1806 (not Germany, which did not exist at the time). After the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, the Weimar Germans adopted the anthem for Germany. These days, nobody uses the first stanza, it is the third that constitutes the national anthem of the Federal Republic.

-- Mal

[Enrique]

60. Stevie Wonder has no sense of smell

he lost it in a car crash, the crash that inspired "Higher Ground".

[Mendocino]

62. If I remember correctly

he was in a coma and spent two weeks in intensive care.

[Trailrider1951]

64. The person who played piano on Cat Stevens' original recording of "Morning Has Broken"

was Rick Wakeman. He also backed other artists, including David Bowie.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Wakeman

[a la izquierda]

65. Spain's national anthem...

Has no lyrics (though I heard that will soon change).

[Mendocino]

66. Easy Rider

The characters in the movie, Wyatt and Billy played by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper were supposedly based on Roger McGuinn and David Crosby of the Byrds.

[Enthusiast]

70. I had no idea!

[greendog]

69. Charlie Daniels was a member of Leonard Cohen's Band.

[eppur_se_muova]

73. As many as 15% of classical musicians suffer from permanent tinnitis, according to one study.

http://www.hear-it.org/classical-musicians-at-extreme-risk-for-hearing-loss

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Depression/tinnitus-suicide/story?id=15003057

Large numbers of rock musicians have some form of tinnitis. Tinnitis is a neurological condition, and while it is often caused by loud sounds, it can also result from head injury. I've had temporary tinnitis, including one time when tightening my jaw muscle on the left side caused the sound to increase in volume. I'd sure hate to have to deal with it on a permanent basis.