REGINA PERFORMS
REGINA PERFORMS
Regina Roper Prepares for a Recital
Allegro (first movement exposition, excerpts) |
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RealAudio® Type 3.0 (older version) and G2 (newer version):
Regina Performs at Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton
Regina at the keyboard of her Flemish harpsichord
Gavotte (excerpts and complete) |
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A baroque-music specialist, Regina Roper has studied harpsichord literature and performance with the world-
renowned Spanish scholar and keyboard virtuoso, the late Fernando Valenti,
who made numerous recordings of harpsichord literature for CBS/Columbia and
other major record labels, and whose performances were internationally acclaimed
as models of baroque style.
One of her most gratifying ventures was a series of yearly summer concerts, the "Music of the Spheres" programs at Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, south of San Jose, California, in its historic 19th century dome for their original great 36-inch refractor telescope. Regina played solo works on harpsichord, and also chamber pieces in collaboration with Hugh Downs' brother, the flutist J. Wallace Downs.
The concert series was conceived and established by
Regina's friend W. Shiloh Unruh, with Regina as Musical Director. For eight
years, Regina brought instruments up the narrow, winding road to the Observatory
(with its 345 hairpin turns!) to play the harpsichord and digital piano
in the rich acoustics of the wooden dome, under the gigantic telescope. Her
beautiful performances were then followed by unforgettable observations of
the planets and celestial objects, and were a remarkable contribution to the
appreciation of classical music as well as astronomical observing, deeply
acclaimed by the staff of the Observatory and the public alike. Some of
the programs were later broadcast on KKHI and KBOQ radio, in conjunction with her husband,
Stephen Waldee. A sample of a rehearsal is given below.
Regina Performs Under the Dome of the 36-Inch Refractor on
Mt. Hamilton
KRUMPHOLZ: Flute Sonata (excerpt recorded in dome of telescope before concert.) |
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We apologize for the somewhat unnatural, compressed recording, but this excerpt was taken down on a portable "boom box" by Shiloh Unruh, Regina's friend and organizer of the concert series at Mt. Hamilton's Lick Observatory. Wally Downs and Regina were literally "warming up" in the frigid dome of the 36-inch telescope, before their concert (in the cold temperature, the harpsichord's tuning had gone out, requiring readjustment before the audience arrived!)
Lick Observatory 100th Anniversary Commemorative Program
Regina fell so deeply 'in love' with the charming sound of the harpsichord that in the early 1980s she ordered a full-sized 8-foot replica of an 18th-century Flemish harpsichord from Robert Wilson. This double-manual instrument is shown in the picture with Wally Downs (see above), and is heard on these recorded samples.
The music is one of the most familiar 'snippets' of the harpsichord pieces of Johann Sebastian Bach: the Gavotte from the fifth French Suite, composed in the 1720s when the master was Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold of Anhalt- Cöthen, a fruitful period during which Bach also wrote the esteemed "Brandenburg Concertos" for orchestra. During the decline of interest in works of the pre-classical era in the late nineteeth and early twentieth centuries, this piece continued to be present in many pianists' repertoires, though -- of course -- it was always played on concert grand pianos.
Whenever possible, Regina elects to play Bach and other composers of the baroque period on an authentic instrument, such as her Wilson Flemish harpsichord.
For more photographs of Regina performing at Lick Observatory, and pictures taken at her trip to Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, click here for the article, written by Regina and her husband Steve Waldee, about viewing Mars during its closest approach to Earth in 2003.
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How To Hear These Files:
When we first put up this web page, in the mid-90's, few people were using web surfing for audio entertainment; today, however, the information below is pretty common knowledge now that modern browsers have audio applications as standard features. Nevertheless, because these files were first uploaded years ago, they were encoded for dialup users, and are not as clear and crisp sounding as some of the audio now found on the Net, optimized for broadband.
The file formats for the sounds listed on this page are (1) *.ra RealAudio® type 3.0 (for older Win 3.x/95+ versions of the RA plugin; (2) *.rm for RealAudio®-G2 (recent version after Y2000); and (3) *.mp3 Mpeg3 files for the newest plug-ins for Win 98 (and later) browsers, or for Macs. Many Linux browsers will also be able to play these sound files.
If your browser is not yet equipped with the RealAudio® audio plug-in, please try one of the free versions applicable to your system at the RealAudio® website. For those of you who would rather not be constantly 'nagged' to upgrade, you may also play these files with a freeware (open source) WindowsTM program packaged called Real Alternative.
The "sound applet" in your web browser should open when you left-click these files (in WindowsTM-based browsers), but -- depending on the file size -- your sound function may not start until the file has been totally received. The shorter files may take only a few seconds with a 28.8-33.6 kbs modems, while the very long files will require several minutes (perhaps more than 10 minutes, worst-case with dialup.) Of course, broadband users will get them much quicker. The RealAudio® files are much shorter, and will download faster.
Modern versions of the RealAudio® player do not come equipped with the 'codec' to play RA version 3 files. They will download the appropriate software if you desire, and then wait for a few moments for the automatic installation.
We have provided several encoding standards: high fidelity and stereo for the longest files, playing significant excerpts of the Beethoven sonata movement and the entirety of the Bach gavotte; lower fidelity in mono for the shorter files, if you want only to sample the playing. Some of the stereo files are of near-FM-radio quality, at the expense of large file sizes.
Troubleshooting Download/Playing Problems:If you are unable to hear these files, you should check the following items:
• Is your browser/system capable of playing RA, RM, or MP3 files? Can you open an RA (Type 3.0), RM (Type G2), or MP3 file by typing its location in the browser field? If not, then install the necessary audio player, as described above. • Sound is very soft with brower's sound applet: function opens but file is nearly inaudible; the solution is to adjust the volume control slider further to the right to increase the audio volume level. Be sure that the "Mixer" panel for your computer's main sound system is not set too low: check its MASTER volume setting, as well as the setting for the input supplied by the sound applet program in use (WAV level for a Win-OS.)
• Problem: the file never seems to download when I left-click its name: try right-clicking the filename instead, and select 'Open this link...'. Or, right-click and select 'Save This Link' or 'Save File'; use, for example, a catch-all "temp" directory, and then play the file back from that location.
• Problem: the download time is impractically long. Use the shorter RA versions of the files, not the .rm or .mp3 versions. The only real solution for the user is to obtain a faster Internet connection. You may prefer to right-click on the file (in a Windows machine with a 2-button mouse) and then SAVING the file to a specified subdirectory. Then you can play the file after it has been downloaded.
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