Can Can MP3 Arrangement on Percussion

By Jacques Offenbach

Theatrical Donationware Music Free to Download

In addition to Offenbach's Can Can we present a Barcarole and a Promenade - remixesd on electronic instruments. A German in Paris of the second half of the nineteenth century - Offenbach's father changed the family name when they left the town of Offenbach. As a child Jacques was put to the violin but secretly practiced on the cello and became a concert orchestra musician. In Paris he specialised in composing for the musical theatre and the three pieces presented here are drawn from that genre. You can hear the influences of some of his more languid French contemporaries such as Faure in pieces such as the Barcarole (gondolier's song) which sets the scene in Venice for the Tales of Hoffmann but the pulsing bravura of his native land is all too evident in the Can Can by Offenbach. The arrangement of the Promenade from the introduction to Orpheus in the Underworld or 'a walk in in the dark' as we like to think of it, is unusual in that it already came with a bass and drum kit parts but we decided to go along with them.

Offenbach's works for musical theatre:

These pieces have been sympathetically remixed on new world percussion instruments and synthesizers to crisp, sparkling effect in different ways to bring out the dynamic qualities of this music. For the Barcarole the steel drums were accompanied by a harp and ocarinas, while for the Can Can a Moog synthesizer and vibraphone complemented the drums and unusually for this site in the Promenade a Mega Moog and steel drums were joined by bass and rock drum set:

Other composers

Why not compare these Offenbach MP3s with some by Chopin, Debussy, Dvorak, Faure, Gounod, Saint Saens and Strauss - the impact of this approach on music of particular composers can be quite distinctive.