Brendan Finan

May 17, 2014Brendan Finan No Comments

Behind the Roar: Finding Godzilla’s Iconic Voice

I loved discovering how the original Godzilla roar was made, in this article by Dawn Chmielewski on Re/code:

“It’s one of the most famous sound effects in cinema history,” said Aadahl. “We really wanted to embrace that and use the original as our template, and pay homage to that.”

The original film’s composer, Akira Ifukube, used a double bass, a leather glove and some pine tar to produce Godzilla’s trademark call.

“They’d rub the glove against the double base to create that groan,” Aadahl said.

The imagination of sound artists in those days blows my mind.

May 10, 2014Brendan Finan No Comments

Beethoven’s grand-nephew

Neat piece from Alex Ross:

“In his late teens and early twenties, he was in the employ of King Ludwig II, recommended by none other than Wagner. He perpetrated various frauds, including an escapade in which he passed himself off as the composer’s grandson, under the name Baron von Beethoven.”

May 2, 2014Brendan Finan No Comments

Trust

Eric Whitacre, writing on his blog:

The players are making the music, not the conductor, and when the musicians are confident, prepared and focused the best thing you can do for them as a leader is get the hell out of their way and let ’em dance.

April 20, 2014Brendan Finan No Comments

Some Rachmaninoff for your Easter Sunday

Normal(ish) service will resume as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, enjoy this extraordinary performance of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Artur Rubinstein.

Two parts, alas, but the split is clean.

With most pianists, it’s worth watching their hands for the athletic performance, but keep your eyes on Rubinstein’s face here: no matter how virtuosic it gets, he looks like he’s taking it all at his leisure.