Blog

Open Goldberg Variations and MuseScore to appear at Classical:NEXT

Open Goldberg Variations director Robert Douglass, pianist Kimiko Ishizaka, and music notation company MuseScore have been invited to demonstrate a unique score-following technology at the Classical:NEXT conference in Munich at the end of May. In addition, Robert Douglass will be speaking on a panel discussing crowdfunding music projects.

This score-following technology, developed by MuseScore, recognises the music as it is being performed and follows the score accordingly, allowing the audience to see every note being played.

Recording the Goldberg Variations at the Teldex Studio

After a year of preparation and hard work, we've reached a significant milestone with the Open Goldberg Variations project: Kimiko Ishizaka has recorded the piece. The recording sessions went from January 9 to January 13, 2012, in the Teldex Studio in Berlin.

17 microphones and 6 pairs of ears

Kimiko was joined in the studio by Anne-Marie Sylvestre, the Producer of the recording, who flew in from Montreal just for these sessions, Tobias Lehmann, Recording Engineer and a partner at Teldex, Bernhard Farenholtz, master piano builder and technician who cared for the instrument, Robert Douglass,

Embedding musical scores into web pages

MuseScore.com is introducing powerful new technologies to the music business, finally hurtling the industry into the 21st century. It is now possible to embed MuseScore.com scores in other websites (like YouTube videos), meaning music scores are now about to go viral. Check out Variation I of the Goldberg Variations, as rendered by MIDI. Later, when Kimiko Ishizaka has completed the recording of the Open Goldberg Variations, we'll be able to link this score to her recording, and embed that into this very website. It will be fun to see what people do with this. Great work, MuseScore!

Teldex Studio, Berlin

We can't thank our backers enough; because we exceeded our funding goal, and because Anne-Marie Sylvestre is volunteering her time, we are able to go with the luxury option for the recording studio. We've just signed a contract with the Teldex studio in Berlin, one of the most famous classical recording studios in the world.

When you make it to its large, white recording space, through 5000 m2 of private garden in a green park in Berlin, you can start to appreciate why Teldex is the most prestigious classical recording studio of Germany, the country with the largest classical musical heritage

MuseScore Makes the Open Goldberg Variations Available for Public Review

As part of the Open Goldberg Variations Project, MuseScore has created a new edition of Bach's Goldberg Variations. The score was created with the open source MuseScore notation software and is intended to be distributed electronically, for free, with no usage restrictions.

The public review period, which will last for at least three months, is intended to help the MuseScore team identify any problems with the score, and to give music enthusiasts and scholars around the world the chance to validate the score before it reaches its final form.

MuseScore has provided special web based tools for

Bösendorfer Sponsors the Open Goldberg Project, Providing Concert Grand with CEUS Recording Technology

Bösendorfer, one of the world's oldest and most prestigious piano manufacturers, will sponsor the Open Goldberg Project, which is creating a new score and recording of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations. Both the score and the recording will be released as public domain works, guaranteeing that they will be free for everyone, forever. The variations will be performed in a top German sound studio by award-winning pianist Kimiko Ishizaka, to produce a definitive contemporary recording of the highest professional standard.

Welcome Anne-Marie Sylvestre, Executive Producer for the recording

The Open Goldberg Variations Project just got an enormous boost! Anne-Marie Sylvestre, a seasoned record producer, pianist, and Bach fan, wrote us with this message:

This is a great idea - many people will benefit of that initiative, and I hope it will lead to other recordings of the same kind. This music is universal and has to be shared. If ever you need a producer for this recording, I've got the experience for that, and I'd be happy to do it for free.

She believes in the project so much that she's volunteering her time. This, in addition to the recent sponsorship from Bösendorfer in the

Open Goldberg Variations Raises $16,000 in 20 Days for "Open Source Bach"

Strong support signals a new era in funding for classical music projects

(Vocus/PRWEB) March 25, 2011

Just a few days after J.S. Bach's 326th birthday on 21 March, the Open Goldberg Variations project has achieved its first fundraising milestone, raising more than $16,000 in just 20 days on Kickstarter.com. The project's aim is to create a new score and studio recording of J.S. Bach's masterpiece, the Goldberg Variations, and donate them to the public domain. http://kck.st/opengoldberg

Bach's Goldberg Variations were written over 270 years ago, but since that time top quality public domain

Planning a Kickstarter.com project - how high to set the goal?

By the end of February, the Open Goldberg Variations project should be raising funds on Kickstarter.com. Setting up a project to be successful on Kickstarter.com isn't necessarily easy, though. Two factors are very important to consider when planning the project, and screwing up on either one could result in a failed project.

The first challenge is setting the target goal for fund raising. Kickstarter requires you to set a goal which represents the total amount of money you need to raise in order to have a successful project.

Getting the most out of Kickstarter.com - pledge levels

Kickstarter.com has revolutionized the way that musicians and artists raise money for their projects. The Open Goldberg Project plans on raising money with Kickstarter.com to finance the creation of a public domain score and recording of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations. In preparing for this effort, I wanted to see what pledge levels were the most successful. After all, every product manager will tell you that pricing of a product is an essential ingredient to its success.

To get an idea of what works and what doesn't I analyzed the last 60 successful Kickstarter.com projects in the music