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Bernhard Watzer
Interview
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July 19, 2013
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Myriad : Hello, Mr Watzer,
thanks for answering some questions. You won the First Prize
of the 27th Tune Friendly Contest with your piece "7-teen
for Fairground Organ" and we wish first to know who you
are.
Could you please introduce yourself
?
Thank you very much! It is my pleasure to answer your
questions.
My name is Bernhard Watzer. I was born in Heidelberg. Since about
25 years I live with my family in Marburg. Both cities, Heidelberg
and Marburg, are beautiful old university towns of Germany.
I'm working in a scientific laboratory at the Philipps University
of Marburg. Mass spectrometry is my job-related field of activity.
And music is one of my favourite private activities!
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Myriad: On what kind of hardware are you working ?
BW: My hardware is not very special. I use a M-Audio MIDI
keystation, a Roland Sound Module SC33, M-AUDIO BX5A studio monitor
speakers, and a Pentium 4, 2.8 GHz, 1GB RAM PC. In former times I
used an Atari with the NOTATOR software. Since many years I use the
software from MYRIAD. First the MA, and later on the HA. About a
year ago, the VS was added. And it would be wonderful if I could
still use my Miroslav Philharmonik with the Harmony Assistant.
Myriad: What has been your music itinerary
?
BW:At age 12, I started to make music. Only as a hobby.
This was later extended with ensemble playing and followed by some
interpretation and conducting courses. After numerous arrangements
for various ensembles there followed some minor compositions. After
all these years it is still a very, very nice hobby.
Myriad: Do you play an instrument (or several) ?
BW:Midi-Keyboard, Accordion and Bass-Accordion (ensemble)
Myriad: What are your tastes in matter of music ? You can quote
artists
or music genres if you want.
BW:This is a difficult question. My music taste is extremely
diversified. No style is left out. In music, there are no borders.
Music from North to South and East to West. I hear baroque to
classic, country and pop, folk, rock, film music and musicals. From
string to brass, from traditional to modern, from solo to
orchestra, and so on.
Myriad: More precisely, what are you currently listening to
?
BW:That's a really long, long list. :-) :-) :-)
The following are some exemplary current pieces of various genres
and origin.
From Great Britain:
"Capital Children's Choir" with "Chinese: Choral Tribute to Lily
Allen"
A piece of music that really gives goosebumps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZjcfZ2pWtM
"Harry Potter V" End Credits Soundtrack
In my opinion the best final track of all HP movies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN1hBYEo0_Q
From Russia:
Shan-shan Sun (Chinese) plays Nikolai Kapustin's "Toccatina"
from Concert Etudes op.40.
An insane piece of piano literature. Absolutely brilliantly
executed!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1VbN3Nlrxk
And something completely different....
Music from the Russian television series "Masha and the Bear" with
Alina Kukushkina
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVZs2WQAN-4
and the same short part out of the computer animated film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FivSFtyYkqs
and more nice songs "Hiccup" and "Pro Jam"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgM153yl7uU&NR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e2_VcV3UFU
From Russia in 'cooperation' with Korea and Latvia:
Igudesman & Joo + Gidon Kremer & Kremerata "We
Will Survive"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI-PloJWbSk
From Austria:
Mnozil Brass with "Moldavia"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWfAUY9gjoQ
From China:
"Butterfly Lovers Concerto"
Since many years one of my favourite violin concertos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZREMYH0_pnw
"Hakka Pictures" Concerto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRYB_7lSIoM
and from the same orchestra a fantastic piece of music:
"Windy City Overture"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf_9SjW5iaM
and a beautiful choral work from Taiwan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I29xuhjfmYg
And a pop song of the nice actor and singer Leslie Cheung
(1956-2003)
"Chin Chin Kyut Go"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdkM1a14PaI
From USA:
William Grand Still "Afro-American symphony III"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEeaLvX82Lw
Artie Shaw "Clarinete Concerto" Banda Sinfónica da
GNR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYD1tdJM--0
From Venezuela (orchestra and conductor) / Mexico (composer):
Arturo Márquez "Danzón No. 2" with Gustavo Dudamel
as gorgeous conductor of this brilliant youth orchestra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkeIcuSC4A0
From India:
Soundtrack song from "Om Shanti Om" with Shahrukh Khan
With this impressive song the contents of a planned film is told. A
dramatic love story with a fatal outcome. The real culprit is
present and so directly impeached.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymuNkKuToao
And finally from Germany:
Herrn Stumpfes Zieh & Zupf Kapelle ["Mr. Blunt's pull &
pluck band"]
Music with vocals. Usually sung with Swabian dialect.
Minor Swing (instrumental)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOLKzsYuT8Y
J'aime les filles (in French)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiME-UXbPhU
Bodo Wartke - "Liebeslied" (in allen Sprachen) [Lovesong (in
all languages)]
In this example, Bodo asks the audience to call three languages
in which he should sing the song. The audience
selected Serbian, Latin and Turkish.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2UBXB4IhZM
Karat - "Albatros"
German rock, here with classic support.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIhXA6iwapE
Myriad: And what kind of music don't you listen to
anymore?
BW:An even more difficult question. Perhaps purely atonal
music.
But if there are rhythmic phrases... it could be different.
Myriad: If you had to chose a piece to be put into a capsule to
be sent to the inhabitants of Alpha Centauri, what would be your
choice?
BW:It could be Mozart's g-minor symphony.
Myriad: If you had to be out of the world during a whole year,
what are the two albums you would take away with you ?
BW:I think I would take a jam-packed mp3-player with me. Otherwise,
I would not go! :-)
Myriad: About the piece which won the contest, what has been the
source of your inspiration ?
BW:The source of inspiration has been, as so often: women.
First, I needed a gift for my daughters 17th birthday. And second,
after addition of a drum set, a friend of mine told me: 'Now this
sounds like circus-music'.
And from circus-music to a fairground organ it was not far off.
Myriad : What have been the progress of your composition
(technical details will be of interest for the readers) ?
BW:The first version was created for piano. A bit later I arranged
it for small brass ensemble.
A drum set was added. When I read about the competition, it was
clear that this current work would be suitable for a new
instrumentation which should sound like a mechanical fairground
organ. After selection of organ and organ-like instruments, I had
to add some typical percussion instruments: xylophone, vibraphone
and glockenspiel. That's it.
Myriad: Do you have an anecdote to recount ? Not necessarily
related to your piece, but related to music in general.
BW:Orchestra competition. Tense silence. The conductor raises his
arms.
At this special moment, a sheet of music flies from the music stand
of the timpanist and disappears exact vertically into an extreme
narrow slot of the stage construction.
My brother, the timpanist, got a very red face and it took several
minutes to bring the sheet back.
Myriad : What are your goals or your project in relation with
music?
BW:Continue to use music for relaxation and as compensation for the
professional activity.
Myriad : Do you have a personal Web site ?
BW:Yes, I have one: http://www.watzer.de/
Myriad : Do you want to pass an advice or a message to the
readers of this interview ?
BW:Maybe this: Use the Myriad software and make it more
popular!
Myriad : What other questions would you have wanted to be asked
? What would have been your answers then ? What would be your
wishes for improvements to the software?
BW:My answer would be:
Harmony Assistant is a very great software! For years I have been
working almost daily with the HA, and in my opinion there are
little things that would make work a bit easier:
[1] Personalised windows should be moved just by clicking on the
title bar. With this small modification an accidental click next a
button does not move the entire window.
[2] When trying to use the mouse to select a note you often gets
the setting of stem length. The lengths of the stems are usually
absolutely fine. So it would be quite reasonable only in
combination with a button (e.g. s = stem) to select the stems.
[3] Perhaps a new combined tool: Insert a note & transfer of
properties in one tool. Clicking on an empty space, a corresponding
note will be inserted. Clicking on a note/pause a selected property
will be transferred.
[4] If a software crash would occur it would be useful if the list
of recently used files would be saved. Otherwise older versions
will be reloaded.
Note: After work I usually set the computer into hibernation (XP
options: shut down / standby / hibernation). This saves a lot of
time at boot and all programs are as you left them.
[5] Since I always work simultaneously with many open files, it
would be very helpful, if each file would remember in which folder
it was stored. Currently is hard to keep the drive in order.
And maybe a new button/option to save the files with an
automatically incrementing version number. That would be cool.
:-)
[6] The display of the numerical values should be above the
sliders, so that the mouse cursor would not cover numerical values
of sliders (e.g. note delay).
Furthermore, it would be helpful to show (and select easily) simple
basic values. E.g. for the note delay: No delay (0). And
finally an extra button or key combination to activate the display
of the note delay would be just fine.
Myriad : Thank you for having answered these questions.
BW:Thank you for the interview.
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