thumb|right|220px|A photograph taken by moonlight with an exposure time of ten minutes. Moonlight is the light that reaches Earth from the Moon, consisting mostly of sunlight, with some starlight and earthlight reflected from those portions of its surface which the Sun's light strikes.

Illumination

The intensity of moonlight varies greatly depending on the lunar cycle but even the full moon typically provides only about 0.2 lux illumination. When the moon is viewed at high altitude at tropical latitudes, the illuminance can reach 1 lux. The full moon is about 500,000 times fainter than the Sun.

The color of moonlight, particularly near full moon, appears bluish to the human eye compared to most artificial light sources. This is because of the Purkinje effect - the light is not actually tinted blue, and although moonlight is often referred to as "silvery" it has no inherent silvery quality. The Moon's albedo is 0.136, meaning only 13.6% of sunlight incident on the Moon is reflected. {| |- | | | |}

Folklore

In folklore, moonlight sometimes has a harmful influence. For example, sleeping in the light of a full moon on certain nights was said to transform a person into a werewolf. The light of the moon was thought to worsen the symptoms of lunatics, and to sleep in moonlight could make one blind, or mad. Nyctalopia (night blindness caused by a lack of vitamin A) was thought to be caused by sleeping in moonlight in the tropics.

Moon light in Art

See also

Daylight

Starlight

Earthlight (astronomy)

Scotobiology

Airglow

Diffuse reflection

References

External links

Phases of the Moon at USNO

Strange Moonlight at Science@NASA

Moonlight Brightness at LunarLight Photography

Category:Observing the Moon Category:Light Category:Light sources

ar:قمراء br:Loargann de:Mondlicht es:Claro de luna (astronomía) fa:مهتاب fr:Clair de lune gl:Luar ko:달빛 lv:Mēness gaisma ml:നിലാവ് nl:Maanlicht ja:月の光 ur:چاندنی vi:Ánh trăng zh:月光

Wilhelm Walter Friedrich Kempff (25 November 1895 – 23 May 1991) was a German pianist and composer. Although his repertory included Bach, Liszt, Chopin, Schumann, and Brahms, Kempff was particularly well known for his interpretations of the music of Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert, both of whose complete sonatas he also recorded. He is considered to have been one of the chief exponents of the Germanic tradition during the 20th century.

Early life

Kempff was born in Jüterbog, Brandenburg, in 1895. He grew up in nearby Potsdam where his father was a royal music director and organist at St. Nicolai Church. His grandfather was also an organist and his brother Georg became director of church music at the University of Erlangen. Kempff studied music at first at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik at the age of nine after receiving lessons from his father at a younger age. Whilst there he studied composition with Robert Kahn and piano with Karl Heinrich Barth (with whom Arthur Rubinstein also studied). In 1914 Kempff moved on to study at the Viktoria gymnasium in Potsdam before returning to Berlin to finish his training.

As a pianist

In 1917, Kempff made his first major recital, consisting of predominantly major works, including Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata and Brahms Variations on a theme of Paganini. Kempff toured very widely in Europe and much of the rest of the world. Between 1936 and 1979 he performed ten times in Japan (a small Japanese island was named ''Kenpu-san'' in his honor). Kempff made his first London appearance in 1951 and in New York in 1964. He gave his last public performance in Paris in 1981, and then retired for health reasons (Parkinson's Disease). He died in Positano, Italy at the age of 95, five years after his wife, whom he had married in 1926. They are survived by seven children.

Wilhelm Kempff recorded over a period of some sixty years. His recorded legacy includes works of Schumann, Brahms, Schubert, Mozart, Bach, Liszt, Chopin and particularly, of Beethoven.

He was among the first to record the complete sonatas of Franz Schubert, long before these works became popular. He also recorded two sets of the complete Beethoven sonatas (and one early, almost complete set on shellac 1926-1945), one in mono (1951–1956) and the other in stereo (1964–1965). He recorded the complete Beethoven piano concertos twice as well, both with the Berlin Philharmonic; the first from the early 1950s in mono with Paul van Kempen, and the later in stereo from the early 1960s with Ferdinand Leitner. Kempff also recorded chamber music with Yehudi Menuhin, Pierre Fournier, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Paul Grummer, and Henryk Szeryng, among others.

The pianist Alfred Brendel has written that Kempff "played on impulse... it depended on whether the right breeze, as with an aeolian harp, was blowing. You then would take something home that you never heard elsewhere." (in Brendel's book, ''The Veil of Order''). He regards Kempff as the "most rhythmical" of his colleagues. Brendel helped choose the selections for Phillip's "Great Pianists of the 20th Century" issue of Kempff recordings, and wrote in the notes that Kempff "achieves things that are beyond him" in his "unsurpassable" recording of Liszt's first Legende, "St. Francis Preaching to the Birds." When pianist Artur Schnabel undertook his pioneering complete recording of the Beethoven sonatas in the 1930s, he told EMI that if he didn't complete the cycle, they should have Kempff complete the remainder - even though the two pianists took noticeably different approaches to the composer (for example, Schnabel preferred extremely fast or slow tempos, while Kempff preferred moderate ones). Later, when Kempff was in Finland, the composer Jean Sibelius asked him to play the slow movement of Beethoven's 29th Sonata, the Hammerklavier; after Kempff finished, Sibelius told him, "You did not play that as a pianist but rather as a human being."

Technique

As a performer he stressed lyricism, charm, and spontaneity in music, particularly effective in intimate pieces or passages. He always strove for a singing, lyrical quality. He avoided extreme tempos and display for its own sake. He left recordings of most of his repertory, including the complete sonatas of Beethoven and Schubert. He performed to an advanced age, often concertizing past his eightieth birthday. He appeared in 1979 with the Berlin Philharmonic, marking an association with them that spanned over sixty years.

As a teacher

From 1924 to 1929, Kempff took over the direction of the Stuttgart College of Music as a successor of Max Pauer. In 1931, he was co-founder of the summer courses at Marmorpalais Potsdam. In 1957, Kempff founded Fondazione Orfeo (today: Kempff Kulturstiftung) in the south-Italian city Positano and held his first Beethoven interpretation masterclass at Casa Orfeo, which Kempff had built especially for this reason. He continued teaching there once a year until 1982. After his death in 1991, Gerhard Oppitz taught the courses from 1992-1994 until John O'Conor continued till today. Oppitz and O’Conor had both been outstanding participants of Kempff's masterclasses and were personally closely connected with Wilhelm Kempff.

Other noted pianists to have studied with Kempff include Jörg Demus, Norman Shetler, Mitsuko Uchida, Peter Schmalfuss, Idil Biret and Carmen Piazzini.

Composition

A lesser-known activity of Kempff was composing. He composed for almost every genre and used his own cadenzas for Beethoven's Piano Concertos 1-4. His student Idil Biret has recorded a CD of his piano works. His second symphony premiered in 1929 at the Leipzig Gewandhaus by Wilhelm Furtwängler. He also prepared a number of Bach transcriptions, including the Siciliano from the Flute Sonata in E major, that have been recorded by Kempff and others.

Recordings

Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1, 12, 19, and 20 (DG LP 138 935; released 1965; recipient of Grand Prix du Disque)

Schubert: The Piano Sonatas (complete), (DG 463 766-2 (seven compact disks))recordings made in 1965, '67, '68, '70.

Autobiography

Kempff, Wilhelm. ''Unter dem Zimbelstern: Jugenderinnerungen eines Pianisten'' ["Under the Cymbal Star: The Development of a Musician" (1951)]. Laaber: Laaber Verlag, 1978.

References

External links

Obituary for Wilhelm Kempff, by B. John Zavrel

A discussion of Kempff's work, with a special emphasis on Beethoven, by Christopher Breunig, in Jeunesses Musicales

Wilhelm Kempff discography by Frank Forman

Video recordings of Kempff performances, youtube.com

Wilhelm Kempff playing the 3rd movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.

Category:1895 births Category:1991 deaths Category:German classical pianists Category:German composers Category:Litteris et Artibus recipients Category:People from the Province of Brandenburg Category:People with Parkinson's disease Category:Members of the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art

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name	Mike Oldfield
landscape	yes
background	solo_singer
birth name	Michael Gordon Oldfield
birth date	May 15, 1953
birth place	Reading, Berkshire, England
instrument	Guitar, keyboards, Percussion, vocals, bass, glockenspiel, mandolin, banjo, tubular bells, Chapman stick
genre	Progressive rock, pop, Celtic fusion, world, new age, Neoclassical, Ambient, classical, experimental, minimalist
occupation	Musician, songwriter, producer, game designer
years active	1967–present
label	Virgin (1972–1991)Warner Bros. (1992–2003)Mercury (2005–present)
associated acts	Maggie Reilly, Kevin Ayers, Robert Wyatt, David Bedford, Anita Hegerland, Pekka Pohjola
website	www.mikeoldfieldofficial.com }}

Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age, and more recently, dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature. He is best known for his hit 1973 album ''Tubular Bells'', which launched Virgin Records, and for his 1983 hit single "Moonlight Shadow". He is also well known for his hit rendition of the Christmas piece, "In Dulci Jubilo".

Biography

Oldfield's parents are Raymond Oldfield, a general practitioner, and his wife Maureen Liston, a nurse. His sister Sally and brother Terry are successful musicians in their own right and have appeared on several of his albums. Mike Oldfield was born in the Battle Hospital, Reading, Berkshire, and he attended St Joseph's Convent School, Highlands Junior School in Tilehurst, St Edward's Preparatory School, and Presentation College in Reading. When he was 13 he moved with his parents to Harold Wood in northeast London, where he attended Hornchurch Grammar School. He only stayed there long enough to take one GCE examination, in English, as he had already begun his music career.

Early career

Oldfield's career began fairly early, playing acoustic guitar in local folk clubs. At this time, he already had two fifteen-minute instrumental pieces in which he would "go through all sorts of moods", precursors to his landmark 1970s' compositions. In his early teens, Oldfield was involved in a 'beat group' playing Shadows-style music (he has often cited Hank Marvin as a major influence, and would later cover The Shadows' song "Wonderful Land"). In 1967 he and his sister Sally formed the folk duo The Sallyangie and were signed to Transatlantic Records after exposure in the local folk scene. An album, ''Children of the Sun'', was issued in 1968. After Sallyangie disbanded, he formed another duo with his brother Terry, called Barefoot, which took him back to rock music.

In 1970 he joined The Whole World – backing group to vocalist Kevin Ayers, formerly of the Soft Machine – playing bass guitar and occasionally lead guitar. The band also included keyboardist and composer David Bedford, who quickly befriended Oldfield, and encouraged him in his composition of an early version of ''Tubular Bells''. Bedford would later arrange and conduct an orchestral version of that album. Oldfield is featured on two Ayers albums, ''Whatevershebringswesing'' and ''Shooting at the Moon''.

Having recorded a number of demo pieces of music, which would later turn into ''Tubular Bells'', Oldfield attempted to persuade record labels to take the project on with no success. In September 1971 Oldfield went to the Manor Studio, owned by the young Richard Branson and run by engineers Tom Newman and Simon Heyworth, to record as bass guitarist in the Arthur Louis Band. Branson already had a number of business ventures and was about to start his own record label, Virgin Records. After Newman and Heyworth heard Oldfield's demo they took it to Branson and Simon Draper. They eventually gave Oldfield one week to record at the Manor, during which Oldfield completed "Part One" of ''Tubular Bells''. "Part Two" was then completed over a number of months.

Virgin years (1973–1991)

''Tubular Bells'' became Oldfield's most famous work. The instrumental composition was recorded in 1972 and launched on 25 May 1973 as the inaugural album of Richard Branson's Virgin Records label. The album was groundbreaking, as Oldfield played more than twenty different instruments in the multi-layered recording made in Branson's Manor Studio, and its style moved through many diverse musical genres. Its 2,630,000 UK sales put it at No.34 on the list of the best selling albums in the UK. In the US, it received attention with the opening theme appearing in the soundtrack to ''The Exorcist''. The title track subsequently became a Top 10 hit single in the US as well and is today considered to be a forerunner of the New Age movement. In 1974, Oldfield played guitar on the critically acclaimed album ''Rock Bottom'' by Robert Wyatt. In the autumn of 1974, the follow-up LP, ''Hergest Ridge'', was No.1 in the UK for three weeks before being dethroned by ''Tubular Bells''. Although ''Hergest Ridge'' was released over a year after ''Tubular Bells'', it reached No.1 first. ''Tubular Bells'' spent 11 weeks (10 of them consecutive) at No.2 before its one week at the top. In 1979, Oldfield's music was used as the musical score for ''The Space Movie'', a Virgin movie that celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission.

Like ''Tubular Bells'', ''Hergest Ridge'' is a two-movement instrumental piece, this time evoking scenes from Oldfield's Herefordshire country retreat. It was followed in 1975 by the pioneering world music piece ''Ommadawn'', and 1978's ''Incantations'' which introduced more diverse choral performances from Sally Oldfield, Maddy Prior, and the Queen's College Girls Choir. In 1975 Oldfield recorded a version of the Christmas piece "In Dulci Jubilo" which charted at number four in the UK. Oldfield's 1976 rendition of "Portsmouth" remains his highest charting single on the UK Singles Chart, reaching number three.

In 1976 Oldfield and his sister Sally joined his friend and band member Pekka Pohjola to play on his album ''Mathematician's Air Display'', which was released in 1977. The album was recorded and edited at Oldfield's Througham Slad Manor in Gloucestershire by Oldfield and Paul Lindsay.

Around the time of ''Incantations'', Oldfield underwent a controversial self-assertiveness therapy course known as Exegesis. Possibly as a result, the formerly reclusive musician staged a major European tour to promote the album, chronicled in his live album ''Exposed'', much of which was recorded at the National Exhibition Centre near Birmingham.

In 1975, Oldfield received a Grammy award for Best Instrumental Composition in "Tubular Bells – Theme from ''The Exorcist''". In 1979, he recorded a version of the signature tune of the popular British Children's Television programme, ''Blue Peter'', which was used by the show for 10 years.

The early 1980s saw Oldfield make a transition to mainstream pop music, beginning with the inclusion of shorter instrumental tracks and contemporary cover versions on ''Platinum'' and ''QE2'' (the latter named after the ocean liner). Soon afterwards he turned to songwriting, with a string of collaborations featuring various lead vocalists alongside his characteristic searing guitar solos. The best known of these is "Moonlight Shadow", his 1983 hit with Maggie Reilly. The most successful Oldfield composition on the US pop charts during this period was actually a cover version — Hall & Oates's remake of Oldfield's "Family Man" for their 1982 album ''H₂O''. Released as the album's third single, it hit the Top 10 during the spring of 1983 and was a hugely popular MTV music video.

Oldfield later turned to film and video, writing the score for Roland Joffé's acclaimed film ''The Killing Fields'' and producing substantial video footage for his album ''Islands''. ''Islands'' continued what Oldfield had been doing on the past couple of albums, with an instrumental piece on one side and rock/pop singles on the other. Of these, "Islands", sung by Bonnie Tyler and "Magic Touch", with vocals by Max Bacon (in the U.S. version) and Glasgow vocalist Southside Jimmy (in other versions), were the major hits. In the U.S., the Virgin America airline promoted the song "Magic Touch" to a large extent, making it a success, reaching the top 10 on the Billboard album rock charts. During the 1980s, Oldfield's then-wife, Norwegian singer Anita Hegerland, contributed vocals to many songs including "Pictures in the Dark".

''Earth Moving'' was released in July 1989, and was a moderate success. The album was the first to exclusively feature rock/pop songs, several of which were released: "Innocent" and "Holy" in Europe, and "Hostage" in the USA for album rock stations. This was, however, a time of much friction with his record label. Virgin Records reportedly insisted that any future instrumental album should be billed as ''Tubular Bells 2''. Oldfield's rebellious response was ''Amarok'', an hour-long work featuring rapidly changing themes (supposedly devised to make cutting a single from the album impossible), unpredictable bursts of noise, and a very cleverly hidden Morse code insult directed at Richard Branson. Although regarded by many fans as his greatest work, it was not a commercial success. His parting shot from the Virgin label was ''Heaven's Open'', which continued the veiled attacks on Branson but was notable for being the first time Oldfield had contributed all the lead vocals himself. It was the only album he released under the name 'Michael Oldfield'.

Warner years (1992–2003)

The very first thing Oldfield did when arriving at his new label, Warner Bros., was to write and release ''Tubular Bells II'', the sequel to his first record on Virgin, as his final insult to his former label. It was premiered at a live concert at Edinburgh Castle. He then continued to embrace new musical styles, with ''The Songs of Distant Earth'' (based on Arthur C. Clarke's novel of the same name) exhibiting a softer "New Age" sound. In 1994 he also had an asteroid named after him, 5656 Oldfield.

In 1995 Oldfield further continued to embrace new musical styles by producing a Celtic-themed album, ''Voyager''. In 1992 Oldfield met Luar na Lubre, a Galician Celtic-folk band (from A Coruña, Spain). The band's popularity grew after Oldfield covered their song "O son do ar" ("The sound of the air") on his ''Voyager'' album.

In 1998 he produced the third ''Tubular Bells'' album (also premiered at a concert, this time in Horse Guards Parade, London), drawing from the dance music scene at his then new home on the island of Ibiza. This album was still inspired by themes from ''Tubular Bells'', but differed in lacking a clear two-part layout.

During 1999 Oldfield released two albums. The first, ''Guitars'', used guitars as the source for all the sounds on the album, including percussion. The second, ''The Millennium Bell'', consisted of pastiches of a number of styles of music that represented various historical periods over the past millennium. The work was performed live in Berlin for the city's millennium celebrations in 1999–2000.

He added to his repertoire the MusicVR project, combining his music with a virtual reality-based computer game. His first work on this project is ''Tr3s Lunas'' launched in 2002, a virtual game where the player can interact with a world full of new music. This project appeared as a double CD, one with the music, and the other with the game.

In 2003 he released ''Tubular Bells 2003'', a re-recording of the original ''Tubular Bells'', on CD, and DVD-Audio. This was done to "fix" many "imperfections" in the original due to the recording technologies of the early 1970s and limitations in time that he could spend in the recording studio. It celebrated the 30th anniversary of ''Tubular Bells'', Oldfield's 50th birthday and his marriage to Fanny in the same year. At around the same time Virgin released an SACD version containing both the original stereo album and the 1975 quadraphonic mix by Phil Newell. In the 2003 version, the original voice of the 'Master of Ceremonies' (Viv Stanshall) was replaced by the voice of John Cleese, Stanshall having died in the interim.

Mercury years (since 2004)

On 12 April 2004 Oldfield launched his next virtual reality project, ''Maestro'', which contains music from the ''Tubular Bells 2003'' album and also some new chillout melodies. The games have since been made available free of charge on Tubular.net. A double album, ''Light + Shade'', was released on Mercury Records in 2005, with whom Mike had recently signed a three-album deal. The two discs contain music of contrasting moods, one relaxed (''Light'') and the other more edgy and moody (''Shade''). Oldfield headlined the German Night of the Proms tour, consisting of 18 concerts in December 2006.

His autobiography ''Changeling'' was published in May 2007 by Virgin Books. In March 2008 Oldfield released his first classical album, ''Music of the Spheres''; Karl Jenkins assisted with the orchestration. In the first week of release the album topped the UK Classical chart and reached number 9 on the main UK Album Chart. A single, "Spheres", featuring a demo version of pieces from the album was released digitally. The album was nominated for a Classical Brit Award, the NS&I; Best Album of 2009.

In 2008 Oldfield contributed an exclusive song ("Song for Survival") to a charity album called ''Songs for Survival'', in support of the Survival International. Oldfield's daughter, Molly, played a large part in the project.

In 2008 when Oldfield's original 35-year deal with Virgin Records ended, the rights to ''Tubular Bells'' and his other Virgin releases were returned to him, and then they were transferred to Mercury Records. Mercury issued a press release on 15 April 2009, noting that Oldfield's Virgin albums would be re-released, starting 8 June 2009. These releases include special features from the archives. On 6 June 2009, an International Bell Ringing day took place, to promote the reissue of his first album, ''Tubular Bells''. The next two albums were reissued in June 2010 along with the launch of a new official web site. ''Incantations'' was reissued in July 2011.

In March 2010 ''Music Week'' reported that publishing company Stage Three Music (now a part of BMG) had acquired a 50% stake in the songs of Oldfield's entire recorded output in a seven-figure deal.

In 2010 lyricist Don Black said in an interview with ''Music Week'' that he had been working with Oldfield. According to German producer Torsten Stenzel, he was in a studio with Oldfield collaborating on a chill-out track for a forthcoming album by Stenzel's York project. In 2012 Oldfield was featured on Terry Oldfield's ''Journey into Space'' album.

Personal life

Oldfield and his siblings were raised Roman Catholic, the faith of their Irish mother. In the late 1970s, Oldfield briefly married Diana D'Aubigny (the sister of the Exegesis group leader), but this lasted just a few weeks.

Mike Oldfield has seven children. In the early 1980s, he had three children with Sally Cooper (Molly, Dougal and Luke). In the late 1980s, he had two children (Greta and Noah) with Norwegian singer Anita Hegerland. In the 2000s, he married Fanny Vandekerckhove (born 1977), whom he met during his time in Ibiza; they have two sons together (Jake and Eugene).

Oldfield is a motorcycle fan and has five bikes. These include a BMW R1200GS, a Suzuki GSX-R750, a Suzuki GSX-R1000, and a Yamaha R1. He also says that some of his inspiration for composing comes from riding them. Throughout his life Oldfield has also had a passion for aircraft and building model aircraft. Since 1980 he has also been a licensed pilot and has flown fixed wing aircraft, the first of which was a Beechcraft Sierra and helicopters including the Agusta Bell 47G which featured on the sleeve of his cover version of the ABBA song "Arrival" as a parody of their album artwork. He is also interested in cars and has owned a Ferrari and a Bentley which was a gift from Richard Branson as an incentive for him to give his first live performance of ''Tubular Bells''. He has endorsed the Mercedes-Benz S-Class in the Mercedes UK magazine. Oldfield also considers himself to be a Trekkie (fan of the popular science fiction television series ''Star Trek''). He also noted in an interview in 2008 that he had two boats.

In November 2006, musician Noel Gallagher won a Spanish court case against Oldfield. Gallagher had bought an Ibiza villa for £2.5 million from Oldfield in 1999, but quickly discovered that part of the cliff-top property was falling into the sea. According to ''The Sun'', the resulting court case awarded Gallagher a six-figure sum in compensation. Suspicion abounds in the music industry that the law-suit was initiated because of embarrassment that Gallagher brought on himself by not having a proper survey done on the property before buying it. This included making an immediate and noisy complaint about someone's yacht tied up at the villa's jetty before it was pointed out that the yacht came with the villa and was, in fact, his.

In 2007 Oldfield caused a minor stir in the British press by criticizing Britain for being too controlling and protective, specifically concentrating on the smoking ban which England and Wales had introduced that year. Oldfield then moved from his Gloucestershire home to Palma de Mallorca, Spain. He has lived outside the UK in the past, including living in Los Angeles and Ibiza in the 1990s, and Switzerland in the mid-1980s, for tax reasons. He also currently has a home in Monaco. In 2009 he decided to move to the Bahamas, and put his home in Mallorca up for sale; the asking price was around €3.5 million, but has since been lowered, and as of April 2012 is still listed as available for sale by a major international real estate agency.

Instruments

Oldfield is a multi-instrumentalist; however he considers himself to be predominantly a guitarist.

Guitars

Over the years Oldfield has used a various selection of guitars, some of the most noted being:

A 1963 (also quoted as 1961 and 1962) salmon pink (fiesta red) Fender Stratocaster serial no.L08044 – used by Oldfield from 1984 (''Discovery'' album) until 2006 (Night of the Proms, rehearsals in Antwerp) – Sold for £30,000 at Chandler Guitars.

A 1989 amber PRS Artist Custom 24 – used by Oldfield from the late 1980s to the present day.

A 1966 blonde Fender Telecaster serial no. 180728 – the only electric guitar used on ''Tubular Bells'' and also previously owned by Marc Bolan. Oldfield has since sold the guitar and donated the money to the SANE charity. This guitar had been put up for auction a number of times by Bonhams in 2007, 2008 and 2009 with estimates of £25,000 – 35,000, £10,000 – 15,000 and £8,000 – 12,000 respectively.

Various Gibson Les Paul and SGs – used by Oldfield extensively in the 1970s and 80s.

Oldfield used a modified Roland GP8 effects processor in conjunction with his PRS Artist to get many of his heavily overdriven guitar sounds from the ''Earth Moving'' album onwards. Oldfield has also been using Guitar synthesizers since the mid-1980s, using a 1980s Roland GR-300/G-808 type system, then a 1990s Roland GK2 equipped red PRS Custom 24 (sold in 2006) with a Roland VG8, and most recently a Line 6 Variax.

Oldfield has an unusual playing style, using both fingers and fingernails and several ways of creating vibrato: a "very fast side-to-side vibrato" or "violinist's vibrato". Oldfield has also stated that his playing style originates from his musical roots playing folk music and the bass guitar.

Recording

Oldfield has self-recorded and produced many of his albums, and played the majority of the instruments that feature on them, largely at his home studios. In the 1990s and 2000s he has been mainly using DAWs such as Apple Logic, Avid Pro Tools and Steinberg Nuendo as recording suites. For composing classical music Oldfield has been quoted as using the software notation program, Sibelius, combined with Apple Macintoshes. He also used the FL Studio DAW on his 2005 double album ''Light + Shade''. Among the mixing consoles Oldfield has owned are an AMS Neve Capricorn 33238, a Harrison Series X, and a Euphonix System 5-MC.

Keyboards

Over the years Oldfield has owned and used a vast number of synthesizers and other keyboard instruments. In the 1980s he composed the score for the film ''The Killing Fields'' on a Fairlight CMI. Some examples of keyboard and synthesized instruments which Oldfield has made use of includes Sequential Circuits Prophets (notably on ''Platinum''), Roland JV-1080/JV-2080 units (in the 1990s), a Korg M1 (as seen in the "Innocent" video), a Clavia Nord Lead, and Steinway pianos among an almost endless list of others. In recent years Oldfield has also made use of software synthesis, such as Native Instruments products, notably on his ''Light + Shade'' album.

Discography

Oldfield has had more than 30 charting albums and 25 charting singles on the British charts, and many more around the world.

Main albums

{| style="width:100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" |- valign="top" |style="width:50%"|

''Tubular Bells'' (1973)

''Hergest Ridge'' (1974)

''The Orchestral Tubular Bells'' (1975)

''Ommadawn'' (1975)

''Incantations'' (1978)

''Exposed'' (1979)

''Platinum'' (1979)

''QE2'' (1980)

''Five Miles Out'' (1982)

''Crises'' (1983)

''Discovery'' (1984)

''The Killing Fields'' (1984)

''Islands'' (1987)

|style="width:50%"|

''Earth Moving'' (1989)

''Amarok'' (1990)

''Heaven's Open'' (1991)

''Tubular Bells II'' (1992)

''The Songs of Distant Earth'' (1994)

''Voyager'' (1996)

''Tubular Bells III'' (1998)

''Guitars'' (1999)

''The Millennium Bell'' (1999)

''Tr3s Lunas'' (2002)

''Tubular Bells 2003'' (2003)

''Light + Shade'' (2005)

''Music of the Spheres'' (2008)

|}

Quotation

''NME'' – April 1979

See also

Sally Oldfield

Terry Oldfield

Kevin Ayers

Maggie Reilly

Rick Fenn

Maddy Prior

Anita Hegerland

New Age music

Electronic music

Virgin Records

Bibliography

References

External links

; Official sites MikeOldfieldOfficial.com – The official Mike Oldfield website

* Mike Oldfield official Universal store

MikeOldfield.org – The official Mike Oldfield information service

; Fan-based sites

Tubular.net – The largest and most well-established Mike Oldfield website, for news and information.

; Other sites

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name	Valentina Lisitsa
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
birth name	Valentina Lisitsa
born	1973
origin	Kiev, Ukraine, USSR
instrument	Piano
genre	Classical
occupation	Classical Pianist
website	Official Website }}

Valentina Lisitsa ( ) is a Ukrainian-born classical pianist. Lisitsa resides in North Carolina in the USA. Her husband, Alexei Kuznetsoff, is also a pianist and her partner in a number of piano duets.

Biography

Lisitsa was born in Kiev, Ukraine, in 1973. She started playing the piano at the age of three, performing her first solo recital at the age of four. Despite her early disposition to music, her dream at that point was to become a professional chess player. Lisitsa attended the Lysenko music school for Gifted Children and, later, Kiev Conservatory, where she and her future husband, Alexei Kuznetsoff, studied under Dr. Ludmilla Tsvierko. It was when Lisitsa met Kuznetsoff that she began to take music more seriously. In 1991 they won the first prize in The Murray Dranoff Two Piano Competition. In the same year, they moved to the United States to further their careers as concert pianists. Their New York debut was at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center in 1995.

Lisitsa has performed in various venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and the Musikverein. Recently, she has been the pianist in recital engagements collaborating with violinist Hilary Hahn. Her recording of the 4 sonatas for violin and piano by composer Charles Ives, made with Hahn, was released in October, 2011. Many of Lisitsa's performances, including Frédéric Chopin's Op. 10 and Op. 25 Etudes and Beethoven's ''Appassionata Sonata'', can be viewed on YouTube.

Lisitsa has recorded 6 CDs for Audiofon Records, including two solo CDs, the other two being duets with Alexei Kuznetsoff, a Gold CD for CiscoMusic label with cellist DeRosa, a duet recital on VAI label with violinist Ida Haendel, DVDs of Frédéric Chopin's 24 Etudes, Schubert-Liszt Schwanengesang, and her most recent DVD titled ''Black and Pink''.

Lisitsa was featured on the HORSE the band song "Rape Escape" from their 2009 album ''Desperate Living''.

Lisitsa has recorded composer-specific album "projects" in the last three years, from Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Chopin, and Beethoven. Her Rachmaninoff and Liszt projects are still undergoing final mixing and distribution.

References

External links

Valentina Lisitsa's website

Valentina Lisitsa's videos on YouTube

Review of Valentina Lisitsa's September 30, 2010 recital at George Fox University

Category:1973 births Category:Living people Category:Ukrainian classical pianists Category:People from Kiev Category:American musicians of Ukrainian descent Category:Kiev Conservatory alumni

bn:ভালেন্তিনা লিসিৎসা bg:Валентина Лисица cs:Valentyna Lysyca de:Valentina Lisitsa es:Valentina Lisitsa fr:Valentina Lisitsa it:Valentina Lisitsa he:ולנטינה ליסיצה nl:Valentina Lisitsa ja:ヴァレンティーナ・リシッツァ pl:Valentina Lisitsa pt:Valentina Lisitsa ru:Лисица, Валентина fi:Valentina Lisitsa sv:Valentina Lisitsa uk:Валентина Лисиця