Fnissel and Spiro

[Harald Fink]

Hi...

I am going to be one of 3 keyboarders in a production of the musical
"chess" (andersson/ulvaeus/rice) and have about 200 pages of sheet
music to study. As there are many synth sounds used in the soundtrack,
there are small hints what it should sound like... I have no problems
with remarks like "synth brass", "ringing synth sound", "juno strings"
and so on.

But I have no idea at all what "Fnissel" and "Spiro" could mean.
Maybe, "Fnissel" has something to do with swedish but I found only 1
posting in groups.google containing this word.

Any suggestions?

(I own an XP80 and 01/W and i am conversant in sound programming)

Thanks for your help.

Harald.

[Harald Fink]

Hi...

On Tue, 2 Oct 2001, Ed Edwards wrote:

> I've heard part of this production, and know only a little about it.
>
> Just a suggestion: Have you tried to contact the composers themselves, the
> production company or anyone else who has performed the peice?

No, I haven`t yet. As I have heard from our conductor, this may be a
complicated way. Someone had a similar problem 1997 in this NG - he
may
have performed the same script..
Unfortunately he got no answer to his posting and his address is no
longer valid. I tried
to find out his new one but was unsuccessful (look for "spiro" in
rec.music.makers.synth)

> Further -
> since you have the charts, what is keeping you from recognizing the sound of
> a patch when it appears on the recording and then just trying to emulate it
> on your ax?

Hmm, yes, of course, I tried that. The problem is, that there is a
real
bunch of versions of chess. The version I have is a revision from
1993, "...i am not aware of any professional productions which have
used
this script..." (http://www.ggower.com/chess/). And the funny thing
is,
that these weird sounds do NOT occur on all other recordings
(broadway,
london concept, stockholm concert); mostly placed on endings and
intros.
Maybe, I find something if i have another close look...

Am I right in assuming these soundnames are no standard sounds? Hmm,
"spiro" may have to do something with spiral,... but it seems not to
fit
in context. fnissel? It means something like giggle in swedish...

CU Harald.

[katie.h...@gmail.com]

Hi there,
did you ever resolve this?! I am playing keys for chess atm and have the same question!

when i typed "fnissel" into search - this post came up as first result!

[thomascar...@gmail.com]

Well, 14 years later and I might have part of an answer to your query. better late than never, I suppose.

I've been working with the Broadway orchestrations to the show, recently, which are almost identical to the standard London orchestrations (the 1993 published script is a lightly revised take on the original London production, and to my knowledge uses the exact same orchestrations and arrangements), and I too have come across these strange "spiro" and "fnissel" patches.

"Fnissel" I've only found occasionally in the London score, and I've not yet found a decent description of it. As best I can tell, it's a general sort of bright synth sound, so most patches could probably suffice, even just a basic piano or string sound.

"Spiro" is much more common, showing up in nearly every number in the score. Fortunately this one is easier to identify via recording, as this is the signature patch used in "One Night in Bangkok"--a bright and brassy sort of synth. In the Broadway score, this patch name is used interchangeably with descriptors such as "Horns" and "Strings + Horns", which should give you an idea of the intended sound.

The final bit of investigating came when I was fiddling around with some DX7 MIDI patches, and found that a combination of the DX7 brass and strings patches produced a pretty close analogue to the "spiro" patch heard in "One Night in Bangkok". It's my belief that this "spiro" was initially some kind of modified DX7 patch utilizing those two sounds, and given the new name for easy identification.

So the easiest way to replicate the patch is to listen to its usage in "One Night in Bangkok" and try and find a similar sound. The key is getting the sharp hits of a brass patch with the glossy echoes of a string patch. Experimenting with different brass/string combinations should hopefully produce a desirable imitation.

I hope this information is helpful--if too late for this particular instance, hopefully it'll be of use to any future MDs and keyboardists working on the show.

Cheers,
- Thomas

[thomascar...@gmail.com]

A correction re: the "fnissel" sound: I was glancing through the London score and found that "fnissel" is described at one point as a "ringing synth sound", so that's the sort of sound you best want to emulate.

[david.ph...@gmail.com]

You, sir, are brilliant! I think you've helped out many keyboardists with this "question of the ages". Haha!

Sincerely,
Dave from 2 years in the future.

[swind...@gmail.com]

Thank you for this, very helpful