Ravel, La valse

[@samuelbanstan]

12:20 That is a BRILLIANT graphical representation of what happens in the music! Incredible

[@dariusgoh5314]

Haha love the way you animated the interruption at 12:24

[@GuilhermeCarvalhoComposer]

Wow. This is probably your best use of layering so far. Masterfully done. Kinda speechless here.

[@hazyorange]

Love that prank at 12:24. Also, I love this style of visualizing the music. The notes coming out of the darkness gives off a misty feel of the instruments. The brass notes coming suddenly appearing is also a good one, as how majestic the brass is. And also, I like how the instruments now have their own colors instead of being the colored notes; that would at least make it more specific.

[@sdygks303]

It's like floating around digital world full of La Valse. Just amazing

[@vrixphillips]

honestly quite possibly the best one so far. It really captures the unexpectedness of the melodies and maintains the element of surprise, which is so hard to do with a score. You've come so far from that original Toccata and Fugue in d by Bach lol (though they're completely different beasts, I understand.) :) It's been a blast following your progress over the years.

[@nathanhol42001]

Ravel: That master of orchestration, wrote a work of stunning special effects, sweeping passion, and yearning melancholy all at once.

[@appleJUICEomg]

I just love everything about this.

[@ChrisWatch]

I am mesmerized and can't believe how well this visual representation flowered along with the melodies. Contrasting the differences, the blooming visuals represented from the heavy wide overtones sequencing into each note. The cascading flourishing colors embellishing this music rightly so with very subtle but distinctive patterns that nuances the reflective nature of the instance and progress the music ultimately pursues and even the end misleading us with our excitement and fear of an endless barrage of notes was so effective it makes me laugh to think I fell for it. All I could think of is Rimsky Kosakov and Alexander Scriabin when watching this. At the 10 minute mark the glimmering lights atop shimmering the brilliance left me dreaming old dreams. Thanks smalin for this. I've studied and succumb to the applications of synesthesia with music just as scriabin was trying to pursue for creative influences. If I ever compose any more music I'd like to get your input on it. I'm sure you might find it easier to play the music yourself and much more easier if you like the music. In any event Thanks so much for this video. I'm glad I some how found this within 3 hours of its post.

[@TimondeNood]

Immense!! Ravel's orchestration skills are just fenomenal! Thank you

[@DLCaster]

This really is just totally off the scale great. Truly outstanding animation, starting from superb music.

[@smalin]

Yeah, I was thrilled to be able to work on this piece, and I'm pretty pleased with the result.

[@migs3221]

This is my favorite of your works, smalin.

[@jaimejaramilloarias]

Stephen is an absolute Genius!

[@kylej.whitehead-music309]

What we bundle into the term "impressionism" is so wonderful. I, and I think many others, consider impressionism to have a holy trinity: Debussy, Ravel, and Lili Boulanger, and each one is so distinct from the other. With Beethoven and Mozart, there are lots of distinct similarities to be drawn, particularly in Beethoven's early works. The same is true of the impressionists but the similarities appear to be more in approach than really in style. You look at this bombastic work and and the works of Debussy and they couldn't possibly be confused. You hear Vielle Priere Bouddhique and you might ask "is that Debussy?" only if you didn't know of Lili Boulanger. Otherwise it is comparable only in the general approach to chords (although she was also fairly unique in this respect) and in that certain ambiance. Another great thing about the impressionists is that their music has inspired other great creatives in other art forms to create great things like this video. This might be one of your best, refining what you started with your Night On Bald Mountain video which until now was my favourite on the channel. And as always it's tailored beautifully to the music.

[@highroadsinstitute6157]

I’ve been watching your VM’s for years. I’m a huge fan. The chamber piece work has been so eloquent, but now your expansion of color sense makes me way to see you break out into a new instrument - out of the right to left scroll! I know it’s probably a ways off, but this is Fantasia level sensitivity to the music. And the Youth Orchestra performance is spectacular. One of the best! Bravo!

[@smalin]

You might want to watch the first thing on this page/list: www.musanim.com/KZbinHighlights/

[@wolflover8765]

This animation is AWESOME. You've truly outdone yourself!

[@igo.spekkyjarvonvreich]

the ending so cool

[@unoriginal422]

That was ridiculously beautiful!

[@vlvcl4759]

Magnificent! Magnificent! What a beautiful job! Congratulations and thanks! Magnífico! Magnífico! Que belíssimo trabalho! Parabéns e obrigado!

[@ImperatordeElysium]

I think this may be your best work. Stupendous.

[@thomassnider6691]

This music is perfect for what you do. Very colorful, music and visuals.

[@RalphDratman]

This is superb. Stephen, you are a wonder.

[@aenyx_]

i like what you did at 12:24

[@MIRobin22]

He kept the surprise unspoiled!

[@okandikkulak8057]

@@MIRobin22 lol u guys are awesome

[@BeeBags]

My new ALL TIME favorite! Thank you for sharing!

[@LukeKenji]

loved that you kept the surprises!

[@warpzone2878]

So many pieces I never would've expected on this channel in the past few months. I love it.

[@troyarmstrong434]

Haven't heard this either. Wonderful.

[@itamarbar9580]

smalin, you're an absolute beast for charting this. with this piece, you're proving yet again you're the chart king, with immaculate capture of ritardandos and techniques, and giving us an impressive in quality, unknown recording. truly a 10/10 video. what's worse is i'm in my national youth orchestra that featrures about the same age, and the fact that they're playing la valse just makes me wanna cry.

[@neitherbird4412]

Your animation complements the music perfectly. I feel like I'm watching an army of colorful monsters parade past my window at midnight.

[@okjhum]

Wow, amazing! Why didn't I see this for one year?

[@smalin]

I don't know ... are you subscribed? Do you have alerts turned on ... ? If you want to be sure not to miss the good stuff, bookmark this page (which I'll try to keep up to date): www.musanim.com/KZbinHighlights/

[@okjhum]

@@smalin oh, sorry, it was rather a rhetorical question chastising myself for making the wrong priorities. Subscribing to too many interesting youtubers than is physically possible to follow. 🤓😊

[@smalin]

@@okjhum In that case, I'm happy to be "part of the problem." 😊

[@Daniel-hx1yu]

This is amazing

[@Philhamm]

Masterful!

[@danield679]

I could see this in Jean Luc Picard holodeck for a new iteration of Star Trek. Just saying. I enjoyed it very much. Thank you for your time and hard work. It added a special something that I didn’t know was “missing” but there you are. Lol

[@Dylonely_9274]

Marvelous !

[@josephgarvey5400]

Thank you so much. This is Great!

[@amamaia01]

Thanks for this video

[@TheJameslehr]

Starting to fall to the hypnotic spell of this!

[@PeterLunowPL]

absolutely brilliant !!!!!!!

[@paulbrower4265]

The greatest performance of this work that I ever heard was by the Israel Philharmonic in its 70th anniversary concert. Oh, did the orchestra get the full irony of this remarkable work -- the opulent splendor with the unsettling undertones. For Ravel, who lived just short of missing the Anschluss between Austria and the demonic Third Reich, let alone World War II, the horror was World War II. I need say little about what the Israelis saw as the real horror, except that Austria was a reasonably-good place in which to be a Jew before the Anschluss.

[@bryceshinohara9270]

Damn stephen. You sly dog. That was fun to watch

[@slateflash]

12:24 Yes... hide the spoilers

[@smalin]

Don't forget 12:53

[@vine2197]

@@smalin hahaha

[@jaegonekim]

Omg my favorite piece

[@liamheigis617]

So i notice your skills (and technology?) have been advanced wildly beyond where this channel originally started. And honestly i'm just astounded at the level of technical ability, artistry, and work something like la valse must have taken. So in light of that, will some of the pieces on the original "to don't list" that were originally deemed unsuitable or difficult be possible now? This piece seems crazy hard to do, with all it's varying tempi, rhythmic complexities, etc etc, and i wouldn't think something like Scheherazade or Debussy's images is any less difficult than La valse.

[@smalin]

Yes, my "to don't" list (like my "to do" list) is obsolete: I've gotten better, and "too hard" has mostly been replaced with "too much work." A big part of doing La valse was that the orchestra hired three people to do score entry for me. Without that help, I probably wouldn't have done it. As it was, it was a lot of work. Worth it, though --- both in terms of the result and in terms of what I learned.

[@sobymarat9727]

Wow

[@repker]

utterly maddening, man

[@iainsan]

Am I wrong in saying that there is an underlying darkness to this? It's as though the valse tune itself is trying to be 'upbeat' but the underlying orchestration is often discordant and in a minor key. Does it symbolise decadence? Or something else? I'm not sure. It's a piece I've never heard before and a great animation. Thank you!

[@sparkles7560]

*iainsan* This piece was first performed between the First and the Second World War (1920). Ravel wanted to do an homage to Strauss in the first place, but after his experience at the First World War and the loss of his mother during that period, he changed his mind and composed a piece to represent the world’s decadence, the horror of war (basically « Where is the world going ? »). It’s like a macabre dance or a waltz that drives you mad. An other piece from him that follows the same theme is his Concerto pour la main gauche (1932), which was a sort of « premonition » for the Second World War and the rise of Hitler in 1933.

[@IboOrtgies]

​@@sparkles7560 - Ravel: " [...] one should only see in it what the music expresses: an ascending progression of sonority, to which the stage comes along to add light and movement." ===== " Ravel himself, however, denied that it is a reflection of post-World War I Europe, saying: While some discover an attempt at parody, indeed caricature, others categorically see a tragic allusion in it - the end of the Second Empire, the situation in Vienna after the war, etc... This dance may seem tragic, like any other emotion... pushed to the extreme. But one should only see in it what the music expresses: an ascending progression of sonority, to which the stage comes along to add light and movement."[2] [2] Ravel, letter to Maurice Emmanuel, 14 October 1922, in Arbie Orenstein (ed.): A Ravel Reader: Correspondence, Articles, Interviews (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), 229. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_valse

[@sparkles7560]

​@@IboOrtgies ah well that's what I learnt for my music exam last year (an optional course/test - I don't know how to say it in English - that helped me graduating from high school) so I suppose they were only interpreting the piece, if what you wrote is really from Ravel's words. I have seen many different interpretations (that led to people arguing about who was telling the truth or not although proof was given in both sides) from other Ravel's pieces such as "Pavane pour une infante défunte" (whether it's for the death of a princess who existed or it's "just" a nostalgic piece that would have been danced to by a princess from an ancient time) so I guess this confusion is pretty common with this composer, haha.

[@joedellinger9437]

Ravel himself said “no”, not meant to represent WW1. However... he started composing this piece well before WW1. It was meant to be an homage to Strauss and the old Austrian imperial court of the mid 19th century. But he finished it well after WW1 so he had just witnessed the death of that world. Listening to this I cannot help but think the music reflects all that! Whether it was conscious on the composer’s part or not. Who can tell? Certainly one gets a strong impression of an ordered world spinning out of control and shattering.

[@JeffinBville]

Holy. Shit,. That was amazing.

[@smalin]

That's what I thought. And why I knew I needed to make a video of it when I heard it.

[@jonstewart464]

Exactly! I would never have listened to that had it not been the next video to pop up, but I'm so glad I did. The animation is a wonderful visual alternative to a ballet, and somewhat more accessible from my sofa. Thank you Smalin for bringing this barking mad piece of art into my eyes and ears!

[@TempodiPiano]

Les couleurs orchestrales et les sons valsaient dans l'air du soir.

[@TempodiPiano]

Les fées sont d'exquises danseuses.

[@오민규-y1c]

everyone must see this!!

[@smalin]

I hope you're showing it to everyone.

[@eliassimon666]

Awesome.

[@fraktali]

I would be very pleased if one day you make a video about drum solo! Very nice job, by the way!

[@Ivan_1791]

Thank you. :')

[@abyssssb913]

this video is amazing

[@h0verman]

ill listen to this during an apocalypse

[@subtle0savage]

omg Smalin, the complexity! Superb job, Sir. To chime in on another thread, apparently a small percentage of the population 'see' music, some the musical score, others the emotional nuances. Personally I've always visualized music since I was a child as a type of 3-dimensional bar graph with all the notes/emotions constrained with a large pool'ish shape. Dr. V. S. Ramachandran, neuroscientist, has some fascinating lectures here on KZbin regarding the connection between various parts of the brain, especially the fusiform gyrus, and seeing music as shapes/textures. Have you put your own compositions to visualizations Smalin? As an addendum, I'm also a musician and found the spiral visualization, with 12 notes to each rotation spiraling downards with each octave at the '12 o'-clock' position to be incredibly accurate and 'ah-ha!' worthy for musicians and non-musicians alike.

[@smalin]

"apparently a small percentage of the population 'see' music" a field that includes synesthesia, imagination, and photographic memory "Ramachandran ... lectures here on KZbin ... seeing music as shapes/textures." I've read his books; could you provide links to the music-related KZbin videos? "Have you put your own compositions to visualizations Smalin?" kzbin.info/aero/PL4582FF7722BB603F "found the spiral visualization ... 'ah-ha!' worthy" glad you enjoyed it

[@subtle0savage]

@@smalin kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJ2Vfaqklrp0Y80 17:50 on. The entire lecture is brilliant, of course, lol. I'll have a boo at your composition tonight. Thanks!

[@griffin__sutek4958]

Subscription well earned

[@123cityperson]

when the waltz runs out of ideas so the music gradually becomes chaotic

[@calexito9448]

haha its impresionism...

[@slateflash]

Whenever i listen to this i imagine a ballroom with posh people dancing and then the room catches fire but their burning bodies continue flail-dancing

[@vbnnbvcx1]

5:55 So beautiful

[@Rub5007]

How is that beautiful? It isn’t even close

Nice vid

[@MrPiano1994]

I AM BUZZING. STUN. (i)

[@keyofamajor]

Holy fuck

[@abyssssb913]

spoiler warning something neat 12:23

[@smalin]

spoiler

[@abyssssb913]

sorry, yeah; all the moments like that in the video are really cool

[@nandoflorestan]

Yeah, it's so cool that the "parentheses" were recognized and animated as such! Great job!

[@Burntshmallow]

Also, jesus fuck. I've only heard the piano version of this. This is so intense.

[@davidwright8432]

Danse sinistre? Danse macabre? Dance for a Time of Anxiety? Dance of Death? Once the partners have left the floor - what then? What mood will this have left them in?

[@ExxylcrothEagle]

brilliant !! wow !! Who needs Vegas ??? hahhahaah

[@cousincollectors5608]

12:04

[@tamed4171]

That's my favorite part

[@liebesleid]

What's is this?? It feels happy and joyful, but in a wrong way. As if something was off.

[@smalin]

If you’d like to understand why it sounds that way, read this ... en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_valse

[@liebesleid]

@@smalin thanks you. Thanks for making this visualization

[@canyounot4706]

Rip to any musicians who sat in front of the brass section

[@phyllisbiram5163]

Yes, but kindly explain how this graph is done.

[@smalin]

To make a graphical score, I start with a conventional score (sheet music that a musician would perform from) and a recording. I convert the score into a form a computer can read using music notation software. Then, I measure the timings of the notes in the recording and adjust the computer-readable score to match. Over the past decade, I've designed and written about a hundred computer programs that I call "renderers" that draw notes in a computer-readable score onto the computer display. This page is out of date and only includes about half of them: www.musanim.com/Renderers/ The "design" process for a particular piece of music is a matter of deciding which renderer to use for which notes in the piece (and to specify various details, like how big the note shapes are, how fast they move, what color they are, etc.). Once the design is complete, the renderers draw the notes for every frame of the movie (currently sixty frames for each second). The final step is to assemble the rendered frames and the audio recording into a movie file (and upload it to KZbin). Let me know if there are things that are unclear or that I haven't answered.

[@phyllisbiram5163]

@@smalin Thank you for this explanation.

[@Castler]

4:03 Sounds like the Rebel Fanfare

[@nandoflorestan]

No... Film music sounds like Ravel.

[@Castler]

​@@nandoflorestan You're right. I wonder if it is a coincidence or Williams got his idea from this.

[@nandoflorestan]

Castler, you just need to listen to more music with brass. People who only know orchestral music from movies commonly say what you said. The similarity you hear is just timbre and some pitch. The melodic content is totally different.

[@Castler]

@@nandoflorestan My friend, I listen to classical music daily, I don't listen only to film music. I referred to quick passage from this piece, which is undeniable similar to what Williams does in Star Wars. I did not refer to the melodic content as a whole.

[@nandoflorestan]

Yeah, you're right. Ravel invented the usage of all the brass instruments together.

[@c-pas-vrai]

Cher M. Malinowski, J'apprécie beaucoup votre travail. Mais dans le cas de la Valse de Ravel, je trouve que cela ne fonctionne pas. Peut-être cette œuvre extraordinaire n'existe pas dans un univers graphique? Elle se joue "ailleurs"...

[@keyofamajor]

It's oddly befitting for harps to use heptagons... feels more "right" than the open circles you used in prélude à l'après-midi. Not sure if I totally understand why the timpani changed; it's not unreasonable by any means but the color doesn't totally make sense to me.

[@smalin]

Harps have seven pedals. How's that for numerology.

[@YonatanSetbon]

brain exploding

[@augusto7681]

Why this record is so low in volume? Some parts are hard to hear in cellphone speaker. Anyway i like very much the graphics. You make it better after every video.

[@smalin]

If it were louder, it would be distorted (unless the dynamic range were compressed, which would make it less expressive). The lowest notes are too low in frequency for a cell phone speaker (and the ones at the beginning are very quiet). Listen with headphones, and you'll hear it the way it was intended.

[@augusto7681]

smalin a little of compression could be a good thing. The expressive dynamic is good to hear at live, but dosent translate well in digital recording. I listened it in headphones and i had to put the volume at maximum. I will try to listen in my computer speaker.

[@smalin]

I'll let you argue with the people who think that compression is evil.

[@augusto7681]

smalin lol

[@Johnluthecomposer]

巴赫死后近120年后才被挖掘，拉威尔的时代显然还没有到来。当它到来时，人们为之震撼，追随，效仿他的严重程度会超过当代人对契诃夫和李白的狂热度总和。

[@davidwright8432]

This has got to be a Waltz for 1914. A very strange work.

[@JulioRomero]

david wright La historia de Titanic.

[@nandoflorestan]

They say La Valse was composed 1919 to 1920.

[@accipiterignitus5123]

Too much information here lol. Can't understand it rapidly.

[@smalin]

Please report on how that changes after you've watched it a few times.

[@accipiterignitus5123]

smalin After I've played it on a more serious music player device and paid more attention to this piece I can now differentiate instruments are in there and which colors/shapes are they corresponded to in your animation. I'm always been with baroque music so it's yet difficult for me to digest Ravel's music. Thanks a lot for your work, I find it educational for music students like me.

[@smalin]

Keep watching! It should get easier and easier to apprehend.

[@RichardLightburn]

I like your other pieces more. Perhaps La Valse is too complicated, or too something (ironic?, narrative?) for your technique to be effective. [But it isn't "complicated" or "narrative" that's the issue: I like what you did with Sacre, and that's plenty complicated and narrative.]

[@smalin]

I'm still learning ...

[@AristAristA]

@@smalin You're very modest : after more than 10 years and 600 videos, you still see yourself as learning. I like that ! :)

[@smalin]

@@AristAristA Actually, I've been working on this project for more than forty years. The more I learn, the more I see how little I know.

[@nathanhol42001]

UGHGHGHGHG THIS IS ACTUALLY ONE OF MY FAVORITES

[@kelvinluk27]

Admit it: you only like it when it's less inventive and more conventional. hint: this one's recent and rite was far earlier.

[@j.p.freire6140]

It should be named ''Death Waltz''

[@Burntshmallow]

Your vids have gotten so playful, lol.

[@SomeSunshineOutside]

Wow

[@huailiulin]

10:21

[@beckettwhitworth8210]

Wow