ClassicalCode

I know I am stretching this backwards-alphabet-songs thing, but I am at home in Petaluma and had time to kill.

Here I sing the alphabet song with the melody backwards, the words backwards while showing solfegge hand signs and conducting.

Inspired to further acts of nerdome by the encouraging comments on my last post, I decided to learn to do something I have been thinking of doing ever since I saw Paul Kim do it at a party. Sing the alphabet song backwards. Not just sing the letters backwards, but the notes as well. So last night I sat down, figured out how it would go, and started memorizing it. This morning, to nerd it up just a little bit more, I leaned to sing it while showing the solfege using hand signs. I then took my new camcorder into Golden Gate Park and recorded myself doing it. The park has the advantage of having actual sunlight while still having some privacy and quiet. Also, it’s pretty. Here are the results:

Due to a bug in iMovieHD I was unable to reverse the video so you could here the original melody, but here is the audio reversed:

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My friend Joachim Luis came over tonight and started reading though the beginning piano book that was resting on my keyboard. Being the jock party animals that we are, we decided to try to sing a few of them as two part vocal pieces.

First we sight-read “Rondino” by Jean Philippe Rameau on movable “doo” with Joachim on bass and me on treble (this one is for my dad):

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Then out came the solfeggio. “A Farewell” by Henry Purcell with Joachim on treble and me on bass:

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And then out came the video camera. “Sarabande” by Arcangelo Corelli:

Apologies and thanks to David Xiques.