DIGITAL INTERPRETATIONS - A new interpretation of the music of J.S. Bach. The innovative album from award-winning composer and musician David Frederick.

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This project started in 1999 after a lunch conversation with Bob Moog about the "good old days", ARP vs. Moog, Wendy Carlos’s Switched on Bach, and the impact it had on me as a child, etc. This inspired me to re-listen to the Switched on Bach records I had from Wendy Carlos, whom I met as a child. This of course led me back to one of my musical idols - Bach. I had played a lot of his work when I was younger and loved the intricacy, melody, nuance, counterpoint, challenge, and “vibe” of his work, particularly the two and three-part Inventions, Fugue's, Partitas’ and even some of his Organ works. The form and counterpoint in Bach’s work is truly genius and he never fails to inspire and awe me.

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After the conversation with Bob Moog and thinking back to my childhood listening to Wendy, my dad, and other synthesizer pioneers, it inspired me to create a quick down and dirty version of my own personal “Switched on Bach”, mainly for my own amusement and listening pleasure. I finished performing, programming, editing, and recording the first set of two-part inventions in one day, was generally pleased with myself, and left it at that. There they stayed in my iTunes library and on my production computer hard drive. Fast forward to 2010.

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While revisiting Mozart and studying his compositional style and work’s in detail (another one of my classical idols), I learned of Mozart’s detailed studies and admiration of Bach, and Mozart’s studies with the great Italian counterpoint masters like Martini, which ultimately led me to revisit Bach and look at the intricacies of his counterpoint, which then led me back or if you will “Bach”, to the inspiration I derive from Bach’s work. Especially as a keyboardist. Thus inspired, I “whipped up” another batch of “digital interpretations” to finish the collection I had started in 1999. This time...with the mind of sharing it with all of you!

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Why did I call this recording Digital Interpretations? Simple. They are my “digital interpretations” of the music of Bach. Also, because of the manner in which I went about the recording i.e. quickly played the interpretive parts into the sequencer - performance imperfections included. I also took a unique approach to the mix of each track in a musical piece. I mixed certain parts louder than others (not the traditional mix), particularly those from the Brandenburg and WTK pieces.

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I specifically did this to highlight the fascinating counterpoint that most times is “blended” in the mix where they don’t stand out. These mixes give a unique “interpretation” to the music and perhaps will enlighten the non-classical musician/listener to the intricacies of Bach’s music. Especially if you listen to the parts versus the whole. I am sure there will be detractors who say regardless of the instrumentation - electronic or acoustic, they should be left pure and be mixed as intended by the composer. So be it. I chose to be... impure? Indulged perhaps. Regardless, when listening to DI, you may find it interesting, as indicated above, that this project was never meant to be a virtuosic and meticulous performance of Bach’s music, but rather a “digital interpretation” focusing more on the production and music holistically, versus the music - technical. I will leave the true technical and pure interpretation/performance to people like Gould, etc. However, as the artist on this particular project, I take full advantage of the interpretive component and make no excuses.

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So how did I go about the “digital” part? I played all the parts into Cakewalk and Cuebase sequencing software. Quantized and edited the tracks to “fix-up” some of my really obvious performance mistakes and make the tracks very quantized, electronic and rigid sounding. I then assigned the tracks to various samplers. The samples came from my library of custom ARP analog synth samples. Once the sequences were finalized and mixed, I digitally recorded them into ProTools where they were prepared for production, RA encoding, and mastering by Alan Howarth.

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(C) 2010 David Frederick - df|Music Group 

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DIGITAL INTERPRETATIONS - ALBUM NOTES

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I hope in producing this recording I have not offended Bach, insulted Bob, or horrified Wendy, and ultimately created a unique, fun and interesting album that you will enjoy and perhaps inspire you to revisit Bach. You can never go wrong with Bach regardless of the interpretation!

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Thanks for listening!

Cheers, Dave

 

CUSTOM ARP SYNTHESIZER SAMPLES USED FOR THIS ALBUM

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• ARP 2500

• ARP 2600

• ARP Pro Soloist

• ARP Odyssey

• ARP Solus

• ARP Axxe

• ARP Little Brother

• ARP Omni II

• ARP Quadra

• Chroma Polaris
   

RA RA RA THIS ALBUM IS SPECIAL!

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MASTER WITH RA MUSIC

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RA MUSIC! Go well beyond listening to music and start actually feeling it, absorbing all music it has to offer. RA Music immerses you in a total body experience, giving music more power. You will also find that music is much easier to listen to because it matches the vibrations that naturally occur in your mind and body.

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Natural RA Standards

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RA music is built around "Nature's Standards" that has been found in the sound of dolphins, whales, birds, and other living beings. All of Mother Nature is tuned like a Grand Living Orchestra which is in perfect harmony with itself. RA's "Natural Frequency Music" ® is based on the sounds and acoustic frequencies of nature so it creates an encompassing experience - very beneficial to your brain and body. Prior to the music industry standardizing music to the current "Man Made" frequency in 1925, music was actually written and produced in the "RA Nature Standard".

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What is RA Music?

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All the music that has been played and recorded since the year 1925 has been made to a "standard tuning" that was agreed upon by the music industry. This was done in order to help everyone make music that is in tune with all other music, therefore this "Standardized tuning" was adopted.

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RA music has discovered that Mother Nature has a different "Standard Frequency". When whales, dolphins and birds sing they are on a "Natural Standard" We found that all of nature is in tune with itself. The living world, separate from what humans have chosen as music, is all in harmony with nature already. The "A" note in RA music has a frequency centered on "A"=424 cycles per second, this turns out to be correct all over the world.

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The reason that we want to have music made to the "Natural Standard" is because we are also part of mother nature, and when we make music this way, we hear the RA converted music as part of the "great living orchestra" of mother nature.

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Most music is made with frequencies that are not sympathetic, or harmoniously compatible with the human brain centers that naturally generate brain wave frequencies that are related to emotional feelings and thought. RA music was designed to resonate with the listener's brain wave generating centers in a sympathetic manner thus, giving them a natural stimulation and an unprecedented spiritual and mental awakening. In RA Math, what is known as Fibonacci numbers, ratios, and logarithmic spiral are found in the shape of plants, animals and humans. This number, 1.618 or RA 1.62 is found throughout nature and is also known as phi.

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The most divine number in existence is known as Pi or 3.14 which is linked to higher levels of human perception. Wes Bateman and Alan Howarth incorporated these elements in the making of RA music. By creating a keyboard that coincides with these special mathematic and spiritual codes, they were able to make music that harmonizes with these elements. It is a music created entirely in tune with RA mathematics, ELF waves, and frequencies that correspond to higher levels of perception. RA music literally resonates with your body using frequencies that occur in nature.

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RA Music & Frequencies

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Let's think of the term "frequency" in another way. Think of the way the gears work. One gear connects to another with "teeth". The teeth of one gear have to be exactly the same as the next one in order to work right. If the teeth of one of the gears is a different size, the gears will not mesh or work right. Now think of the gear's teeth as they look from the side, they go up and down, up and down. This picture of the gear's teeth are just like the waves of musical notes. How many teeth there are all way around the gear one time represents how many teeth there are in one turn of the gear.

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Now picture the same thing in waves of sound, only this time the up and down pattern is on a straight line instead of in a circle and we are counting the amount of up and down waves on a line 1 second long. This is how we visualize number of up and down waves in 1 second and we use the term cycles per second as a measurement.

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So when we say the note "A"=440 cycles per second, we mean that the total number of up and down waves in the length of one second. Is 440 The RA note "A"=424 has 424 up and down waved in I second.

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In order for the waves of the sound mesh with the waves of your body, they have to be the same family of "cycles per second".

RA music is designed to match up the music to you and nature built you on a standard of 424 waves per second. This way the music matches the sound waves already built into your own body by nature.

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There is an understanding in science called the "Law of Sympathetic Vibration" The part that is important to what we are talking about is that if the vibration of one sound matches the resonance of another body, the 2nd body will begin to vibrate with the same sound. This is how RA music, as sound, begins to vibrate your body and mind because we are tuned to the same vibrations.

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