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Posted by Aissen 5 days ago

8-bit Boléro(linusakesson.net)
340 points | 46 comments
thomassmith65 4 days ago|

  According to a possibly apocryphal story from the premiere performance, a woman was heard shouting that Ravel was mad. When told about this, Ravel is said to have remarked that she had understood the piece.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bol%C3%A9ro
mlsu 4 days ago|
And, Ravel did eventually go mad. There's a lot of discussion about whether the recurring patterns in the song had something to do with his neurological condition.

https://bigthink.com/high-culture/bolero-ravel-dementia-2/

xxr 4 days ago|||
“Initially, Ravel was to create a variation on the music of Isaac Albéniz, but copyright laws prevented him from doing so.” [your article]

“[Koji Kondo] had planned to use Maurice Ravel's Boléro as the title theme as it perfectly matched its speed, seeing as under Japanese copyright law, music is released into the public domain 50 years after the composer's death. However, Kondo was forced to change it in November 1985, late in the game's development, after learning that it had only been 47 years and 11 months after Ravel's death.”[1]

Funny how things rhyme.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda_(video_gam...

ericio 3 days ago|||
RadioLab did an excellent episode [1] about Bolero, where it asks the question if it was a leading indicator of Ravel’s madness.

1. https://radiolab.org/podcast/unraveling-bolero

fodmap 5 days ago||
That Commodore C64 accordion made me laugh.

Ah it's called The Commodordion https://linusakesson.net/commodordion/index.php

pavel_lishin 4 days ago||
It's kind of incredible!

A direct youtube link for the lazy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6z5__6rP58

opello 4 days ago|||
Wow, there are multiple things like that!

Qweremin: C64 Theremin: https://linusakesson.net/hardware/theremin/index.php

Qwertar: C64 Keytar: https://linusakesson.net/music/glyptodont-live/index.php

Very neat!

sivers 4 days ago||
And don't miss the Qweremin:

https://linusakesson.net/qweremin/

Brilliant.

layer8 4 days ago||
It’s probably not a coincidence that the climax starts at 13:37.
Centigonal 4 days ago|
0% chance that's a coincidence coming from lft
consumer451 4 days ago||
Ha! I almost posted this here but I thought maybe I was posting too many music videos on HN.

I am part of the LOAD "*", 8, 1 generation, and this is really freaking cool.

One of the funniest things in the video is the variety of neck tie configurations, one for each part.

jachee 4 days ago|

    LOADING. . .
    READY
    > RUN
abetusk 4 days ago||
For anyone wanting to know, the keyboard layout is that of a chromatic button accordian [0] [1].

I guess there's a C64 "executable" that he's made available but no source so I don't know what the exact keymapping is. I did find a few different resources that show the layout in action [2] [3].

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwsZ41pA_Vo&t=58s

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatic_button_accordion

[2] https://okathira-dev.github.io/client-web-api-sandbox/button...

[3] https://www.rmwinslow.com/tones/

B1FF_PSUVM 4 days ago||
Why do I get reminded of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells?

(Yes, I've heard the Ravel before, I mean the presentation style, e.g. Oldfield: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdMtqKZ6GrY )

guenthert 4 days ago|
I too was waiting for the 'grand together' announcement.
kkkqkqkqkqlqlql 4 days ago||
> 0 regrets

That's the most important number in stores like this one.

emptybits 4 days ago||
Yes! Linus must really burn himself up, conceiving and executing masterworks like this! But saying "0 regrets" hopefully means he hasn't lost motivation for his next crazy project!
lll-o-lll 4 days ago||
Had to check the article because I read that as “greater than zero regrets”.

<= 0 regrets

drivers99 4 days ago||
Listened to this exact video this morning when it was among the newest videos in my YouTube subscriptions. I've had it stuck in my head since then.
Eupolemos 4 days ago|
Did you hear his "A mind is born"? It is amazing outright, IMHO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWblpsLZ-O8

drivers99 3 days ago||
I forgot he was the same person who did that! I was somewhat obsessed with it earlier this year. I had found a version you can type into BASIC that pokes it into a block of memory and jumps to it, since I have access to a C64 at a hackerspace that doesn't have a floppy drive, so I've run it at least once on real hardware. (I have a new C64 Ultimate on the way as well.)
tantalor 4 days ago||
Several mentions of "the automaton" but no idea what that is. It's a bit vague.

The photo of "the automaton" appears to be a melamine white particleboard panel.

https://www.linusakesson.net/music/bolero/boxes-large.jpg

Sharlin 4 days ago|
It's the "percussion section" https://linusakesson.net/music/bolero/automaton-large.jpg
arthurdenture 4 days ago|
This is way more pleasant than the kazoo version by famous children's author Sandra Boynton. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U14IBek-wNU
themadturk 3 days ago|
Though when things really break out into harmony after the 12 minute mark, it's almost pretty.

(Sandra Boynton is amazing, no matter what she does.)

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