Synthesist Rob Schwimmer shared his arrangements of 5 classical works by Russian composer Alexander Scriabin, arranged for piano and Haken Continuum.
The Haken Continuum is a synthesizer that’s designed to provide the same level of expressive control as traditional instruments, with continuous realtime polyphonic control over pitch, dynamics and timbre.
Schwimmer is one of the leading exponents of the Continuum, and also has performed internationally on piano and theremin.
Here’s what he has to say about his arrangements:
“All compositions were originally piano pieces that I love by Alexander Scriabin. I recorded all the piano tracks sans melody, so the Haken Continuum could cover the melodies, which it can do so beautifully.
I made up the subtitles except for Désir which is Scriabin’s real title. The last track is often referred to as The Mosquito, but not in the manuscript…
As a pianist and theremin player the Haken Continuum is the next step for me… Not replacing either but a revolutionary new, super-sensitive great instrument!
I loved doing this project and hope you love it too. As always when I play the Haken Continuum I have to thank Lippold Haken, Edmund Eagan and Christophe Duquesne: Without their incredible brains I wouldn’t be doing this today! I can’t thank you enough… but I’ll try!
A special thanks to Joshua Madoff for his mixes! Beautiful!”
5 PSYCHEDELIC PIECES BY ALEXANDER SCRIABIN on HAKEN CONTINUUM
0:07 Heavy Traffic (Prelude op 67 #2)
1:12 Floating on a Cloud (Feuillet d’Album op 45 #1)
2:45 The Siberian Tiger (Etude op 8 #12)
5:26 Désir (op 57 #1)
7:28 The Mosquito! (Etude op 42 #3)
via Josh Madoff
Beautiful. But at the price they insist on selling this thing, i don’t expect such videos from many other artist. They said that continumini would help to being the price down, instead they came up with even more expensive versions…Sad.
$3-10k is pretty normal for classical instruments, more like $30-50k for a good piano.
For people that can play music at a professional level, or who want to be able to play at that level, the Continuum is not especially expensive. And it’s like a violin or the theremin, if you don’t have a really good ear, you’re never going to be able to play it well.
The Osmose is going to be nice option for keyboardists, because it’s not like learning a completely new instrument. But doesn’t have the flexibility for pitch bends that the Continuum does.
Don’t hold your breath for a cheap alternative to the Continuum. They’re hand made, in small volumes, and the existing alternatives – like the Seaboard Grand, are as expensive and less accurate.
Well it is not a “classical” instrument though is it? If it was, every musical school in the world would have access to it, along with the children learning to play it. And as i said earlier it was actually Hakken’s plan to make it cheaper. By not doing so, the people that get to play, and train with it are the few one can see in their annual event. P.s a Theremin is a lot cheaper as is a brand new kawai k3 piano!!
XRX, You get what you pay for. Haken Audio are not unrealistically marking these instruments up.
Xrx-Sorry but no new instruments are accepted as a “classical” instrument right away. I doubt everybody went out and bought a violin for their kids when it was first invented. Maybe compare the price with a real Ondes Martenot, an electronic instrument invented close to 100 years ago that finally was accepted as “classical” when “classical” composers wrote for it. Or an RCA theremin. That’s more the level that the Continuum is on. Also the ContinuuMini is a cheaper option if that’s the main criteria. I didn’t have the cash when I first saw the HK so I took out a loan. Best money I ever spent!
I enjoyed your interpretations Rob. As soon as I saw the post I wondered if the Feuillet d’Album op 45 would be there and it is.
While I understand people’s frustration at the price of an instrument like this the hours of research and development, hardware and software, manufacturing etc bring modest reward for the effort involved.
What an awesome and expressive instrument this is! The performances are wonderful!
Every time a post with a Continuum comes up people always moan about the price. Normally the same people with multiple thousands invested in a Eurorack in from of them. The Continuum is worth every penny and is miles ahead of the competition, still, when it comes to expression.