Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2014 March 7

= March 7 =

What was the first qualfication match for the 1982 World Cup?
Meaning FIFA sanctioned matches between national teams that involve the 1982 World Cup in Spain.Ack! Ack! Pasta bomb! (talk) 09:02, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Either Cyprus vs Ireland or Israel vs Northern Ireland on 26 March 1980. Hack (talk) 09:07, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

Playing a "complicated" melody on a "simple" instrument
How to play a relatively complicated melody from a sheet music if the instrument being used lacks some notes (i.e. has the limited range) for that melody or is not fully chromatic (like many folk button accordions)? I suppose, a musician makes a preliminary transcription before playing, doesn't he? Are there some rules for that? Or does he substitute notes on the fly?--Lüboslóv Yęzýkin (talk) 12:51, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
 * You can't "substitute notes". That's why music is written for specific instruments.  If a music is not chromatic, but rather only plays certain keys; you can either transpose the piece to a key that works, or if that is not possible, then you simply cannot play the piece on that instrument.  -- Jayron  32  13:34, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Yes, I forgot the term, by "substitute" I meant "transpose". It is not so difficult, I think. But let's imagine the tune is in A major and the instrument is in C major, how to play? Has it to be played C, F, G instead of C♯, F♯, G♯?--Lüboslóv Yęzýkin (talk) 18:35, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
 * If the tune is in A major, and the instrument is C major, you transpose the melody up 3 semitones across the board. That is, every not gets raised 3 semitones (A become C, A# becomes C#, B becomes D, C becomes D#, etc)  That's how you do it.  -- Jayron  32  02:11, 8 March 2014 (UTC)
 * In A major are there A# and C? Hmm. But nevertheless the diatonic instrument in C major has neither C# nor D#.--Lüboslóv Yęzýkin (talk) 13:43, 8 March 2014 (UTC)


 * Whatever. I wasn't picking notes out of A major; I was showing how to transpose music.  You don't randomly substitute nearby notes you can't play (as you were trying to do).  You move every note in the piece into the new key by transposing it the same number of semitones.  -- Jayron  32  19:12, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

If range is the problem, you can usually transpose a passage up or down an octave. Some instruments can also play harmonics which are higher-pitched or outside the instrument's conventional range; if done well, this can be very musical (You can hear this on the last few notes of "Anesthesia" of Metallica's Kill_'Em_All, and I'm sure Google will show many others). OldTimeNESter (talk) 14:40, 7 March 2014 (UTC)


 * See also note bending.--Shantavira|feed me 16:41, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Yes, that is a very popular way to get more notes out of e.g. a diatonic harmonica, but I don't think there's any way to bend notes on the OP's example of a button accordion (which is also diatonic). There is also the notion of playing the harmonica (or the button accordion) in different "positions" -- you never get true chromatics, but the "missing" notes will fall in different places, and if the player is very skilled using the circle of fifths, then she can play in more keys than the nominal key of the instrument. SemanticMantis (talk) 19:45, 7 March 2014 (UTC)


 * As Jayron says, you can transpose to a different key; but just playing (eg) C natural instead of C# will change the melody in a way which might occasionally be acceptable but usually not. I used to play a small diatonic harp, and I recall for one particular piece in D minor tuning if in F but tuning just the highest C string on the instrument to C#, so that generally I got a flattened seventh (Dorian mode), but at one particular place in the melody I could use the sharpened seventh. --ColinFine (talk) 09:57, 8 March 2014 (UTC)
 * If only a small number of notes are out of range, they may just be lowered. Opera sopranos have been known to skip a few of the highest notes on occasion although their lack is often commented upon. 75.41.109.190 (talk) 22:48, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

I've found some well-known sheet music for violin in E major. How to play this, for example, in the diatonic instruments tuned in C major and A major?--Lüboslóv Yęzýkin (talk) 23:07, 8 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Since nobody else mentioned it, the word for reworking a preexisting piece for different instruments or other modes of performance is arrangement. This can sometimes be very straightforward if you're just exchanging similar instruments for one another, or it can be very complicated, requiring a lot of creativity on the part of the arranger. Staecker (talk) 01:45, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Simple. Count the number of semitones between the key of the source piece and the key of the instrument you want to play in.  Move every note in the piece up or down that number of semitones.  -- Jayron  32  19:14, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

death on a farm
A movie scene drifts into my mind:

A farmer's tool slips and stabs him in a femoral artery. His young son, rather than running for help, watches him bleed to death, because the father is cruel.

I think this was a French movie. Do you know it? —Tamfang (talk) 20:29, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

What is the documentary described?
I'm looking for the name of a mini series documentary, talking about legitimate imitation vs. copying (or something of that sort). Each chapter was dedicated to a different topic, e.g. Music: sampling, covers, copying etc. I think it was british made, maybe BBC, but I'm not sure. Thanks, Gil_mo (talk) 22:39, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
 * What was the style? Straightforward and educational? Entertaining? Was it primarily legal? Primarily technological? Do you remember any individual people or examples mentioned? --&mdash;  Rhododendrites talk  |  19:34, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
 * It was educational/entertaining, and the main theme was to show that even great so-called original creations were influenced by a prior work. In the music episode, some examples from Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin were given. And by the way it was probably American made, not British. Gil_mo (talk) 07:37, 10 March 2014 (UTC)