OnClassical
Encyclopedia
OnClassical is a small Italian
independent record label
based in Pove del Grappa
, Italy
. It features classical music
mostly for piano
or chamber ensemble.
, producer and sound engineer
, it enlists selected first-prize international contest winners and young talent
ed musician
s who do not hold exclusive contracts with managers
or traditional recording houses.
OnClassical was the first Italian label to produce, realize, distribute and sell recordings through the web and amongst the first to apply the new philosophy of Creative Commons
to MP3
and other files.
The website started as a simple collection of classical music performances of some of the most important Italian pianists such as Maurizio Baglini
, Roberto Prosseda
, Gianluca Luisi
, Alberto Nosè
, Roberto Plano, Mariangela Vacatello and many other. Only in January 2004 (second version) it evolved as an online record label and a mobile recording studio working with its own equipment. The third, of February 2005 (the 14th), and the last version, of July 2007 (the 14th), have always maintained the graphic unchanged (white blackground with yellow left border) and the main concepts tied to contents and licences.
OnClassical has no relationship with societies of rights collecting due to the facts it threats only public domain
music.
, at 44.1 kHz
× 16-bit
only. No DRM
) are present on the recordings. Compressed formats files can however be found through the online stores such as Amazon
, iTunes
, emusic
.
Each album is sold at a price based on the visitors preference. An alert informs the purchaser that artists earn 50% from profits given to downloadings of their albums.
, evaluated Alessandro Simonetto's recording made at Capri
isle, in which he reproduced a performance by the pianist Gianluca Luisi
, as excellent work .
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
independent record label
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
based in Pove del Grappa
Pove del Grappa
Pove del Grappa is a town in the province of Vicenza, Veneto, Italy. It is east of SS47.-Sources:*...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. It features classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
mostly for piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
or chamber ensemble.
History
Founded in April 2003 by Alessandro Simonetto, harpsichordistHarpsichordist
A harpsichordist is a person who plays the harpsichord.Many baroque composers played the harpsichord, including Johann Sebastian Bach, Domenico Scarlatti, George Frideric Handel, François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau...
, producer and sound engineer
Audio engineering
An audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
, it enlists selected first-prize international contest winners and young talent
Intellectual giftedness
Intellectual giftedness is an intellectual ability significantly higher than average. It is different from a skill, in that skills are learned or acquired behaviors...
ed musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
s who do not hold exclusive contracts with managers
Talent manager
A talent manager, also known as an artist manager or band manager, is an individual or company who guides the professional career of artists in the entertainment industry...
or traditional recording houses.
OnClassical was the first Italian label to produce, realize, distribute and sell recordings through the web and amongst the first to apply the new philosophy of Creative Commons
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
to MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
and other files.
The website started as a simple collection of classical music performances of some of the most important Italian pianists such as Maurizio Baglini
Maurizio Baglini
Maurizio Baglini is an Italian pianist.Prizewinner in major international piano competitions such as Concorso Busoni in Bolzano, Fryderyk Chopin Competition, he subsequently was awarded the 1998 William Kapell Competition's 3rd prize in Maryland, and 1999, aged only 24, he won the World Music...
, Roberto Prosseda
Roberto Prosseda
Roberto Prosseda is an Italian classical pianist. His name is related to his Mendelssohn's CDs recorded for Decca , dedicated to Felix Mendelssohn's unknown piano works...
, Gianluca Luisi
Gianluca Luisi
Gianluca Luisi is an Italian pianist known for his interpretations of J. S. Bach. whose complete The Well-Tempered Clavier he recorded. Luisi studied at the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro under the guidance of Franco Scala and, later, at the piano Academy in Imola with Giovanni Valentini, Boris...
, Alberto Nosè
Alberto Nosè
Alberto Nosè , is an Italian pianist.-Biography:Born in Villafranca di Verona, Italy in 1979, Alberto Nosé studied at the Verona Conservatory F. E. Dall’Abaco...
, Roberto Plano, Mariangela Vacatello and many other. Only in January 2004 (second version) it evolved as an online record label and a mobile recording studio working with its own equipment. The third, of February 2005 (the 14th), and the last version, of July 2007 (the 14th), have always maintained the graphic unchanged (white blackground with yellow left border) and the main concepts tied to contents and licences.
OnClassical has no relationship with societies of rights collecting due to the facts it threats only public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
music.
The new version
With the last version of onclassical.com substantial innovationes have been introduced, such as the only publication of self-produced recordings and a careful selection. Albums are now sold in a CD-quality uncompressed format (PCM / WAVWAV
Waveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
, at 44.1 kHz
Hertz
The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....
× 16-bit
Bit
A bit is the basic unit of information in computing and telecommunications; it is the amount of information stored by a digital device or other physical system that exists in one of two possible distinct states...
only. No DRM
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
) are present on the recordings. Compressed formats files can however be found through the online stores such as Amazon
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
, iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
, emusic
EMusic
eMusic is an online music and audiobook store that operates by subscription. It is headquartered in New York City with an office in London and owned by Dimensional Associates. As of September 2008 eMusic has over 400,000 subscribers....
.
The quality (of the new version)
OnClassical claims for each recording a high standard of professionalism. The recordings are made with particular care, capturing only natural sounds which are not successively manipulated. Renowned piano manufacturers, BösendorferBösendorfer
Bösendorfer is an Austrian piano manufacturer, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Yamaha. The brand is known for producing pianos with a uniquely rich, singing, and sustaining tone...
, evaluated Alessandro Simonetto's recording made at Capri
Capri
Capri is an Italian island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples, in the Campania region of Southern Italy...
isle, in which he reproduced a performance by the pianist Gianluca Luisi
Gianluca Luisi
Gianluca Luisi is an Italian pianist known for his interpretations of J. S. Bach. whose complete The Well-Tempered Clavier he recorded. Luisi studied at the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro under the guidance of Franco Scala and, later, at the piano Academy in Imola with Giovanni Valentini, Boris...
, as excellent work .
The Artists
- AccordionAccordionThe accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
- Massimiliano Pitocco (on 2nd v.)
- Piano
- Alessandra Maria Ammara (on 1st v.)
- Maurizio BagliniMaurizio BagliniMaurizio Baglini is an Italian pianist.Prizewinner in major international piano competitions such as Concorso Busoni in Bolzano, Fryderyk Chopin Competition, he subsequently was awarded the 1998 William Kapell Competition's 3rd prize in Maryland, and 1999, aged only 24, he won the World Music...
(on 1st/2nd v.) - Yuri Blinov (on 1st/2nd v.)
- Sandrine Erdely-SayoSandrine Erdely-SayoSandrine Erdely-Sayo, born October 11, 1968, in Perpignan, France, is a Jewish French-American pianist. She was a child prodigy who could play Bach and read music before knowing how to read a book.- Biography :...
(on 1st/2nd v.) - Pierre Feraux
- Rustem HayroudinoffRustem HayroudinoffRustem Hayroudinoff - Kazan born pianist. His father Awzal Xäyretdinov is a professor at Kazan State Conservatoire. He is a brother of Halida Hayrutdinova, also a pianist...
(on 1st v.) - Gianluca LuisiGianluca LuisiGianluca Luisi is an Italian pianist known for his interpretations of J. S. Bach. whose complete The Well-Tempered Clavier he recorded. Luisi studied at the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro under the guidance of Franco Scala and, later, at the piano Academy in Imola with Giovanni Valentini, Boris...
- Aleksandra Mikulska (on 1st/2nd v.)
- Alberto NosèAlberto NosèAlberto Nosè , is an Italian pianist.-Biography:Born in Villafranca di Verona, Italy in 1979, Alberto Nosé studied at the Verona Conservatory F. E. Dall’Abaco...
(on 2nd v.) - Antonio Palareti
- Daniele Petralia
- Roberto Poli
- Roberto ProssedaRoberto ProssedaRoberto Prosseda is an Italian classical pianist. His name is related to his Mendelssohn's CDs recorded for Decca , dedicated to Felix Mendelssohn's unknown piano works...
(on 1st v.) - Giampaolo StuaniGiampaolo StuaniGiampaolo Stuani is an Italian pianist.- Biography :He graduated in piano at the Conservatory L. Campiani of Mantua under the guidance of Nando Salardi...
- Marco TezzaMarco TezzaMarco Tezza is an Italian pianist.- Biography :After a degree with honors in piano , Tezza studied with Carlo Mazzoli, Jörg Demus, György Sándor, Bruno Canino and with Aquiles Delle Vigne at the Ecole Normale "Alfred Cortot" in Paris...
- HarpsichordHarpsichordA harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
- Stefano Demicheli (OnClassical compilation)
- Simone Stella
- GuitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
- Kevin KastningKevin KastningKevin Kastning is an American guitarist, composer and musical instrument inventor. He plays the twelve-string guitar, six-string guitar, fretless guitar, extended baritone guitar, twelve-string extended baritone guitar, alto guitar, the fourteen-string contraguitar, mandolin, piano and bass.-...
- Pablo Lentini Riva
- Sándor Szabó
- Kevin Kastning
- ViolinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
- Luca FanfoniLuca Fanfoni- Biography and Awards :He began the study of the violin in his native town at an early age with Giuseppe Alessandri and continued at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan with Gigino Maestri...
- Gigino Maestri (on 2nd v.)
- Antonio Aiello
- Luca Fanfoni
- Percussion
- Saverio Tasca
- Double-bass
- Daniele Roccato (OnClassical compilation)
- (Chamber) EnsemblesChamber musicChamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
- Duo Fanfoni-SavinaLuca Fanfoni- Biography and Awards :He began the study of the violin in his native town at an early age with Giuseppe Alessandri and continued at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan with Gigino Maestri...
- Sandro Materassi ensemble
- Sonatori Fiorentini
- TrisTangoMarco TezzaMarco Tezza is an Italian pianist.- Biography :After a degree with honors in piano , Tezza studied with Carlo Mazzoli, Jörg Demus, György Sándor, Bruno Canino and with Aquiles Delle Vigne at the Ecole Normale "Alfred Cortot" in Paris...
- Duo Fanfoni-Savina
- OrchestraOrchestraAn orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
s- Stravinskij Chamber OrchestraMarco TezzaMarco Tezza is an Italian pianist.- Biography :After a degree with honors in piano , Tezza studied with Carlo Mazzoli, Jörg Demus, György Sándor, Bruno Canino and with Aquiles Delle Vigne at the Ecole Normale "Alfred Cortot" in Paris...
- Stravinskij Chamber Orchestra
- ChoirChoirA choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
s- Don Kosaken Chor Wanja Hlibka (male soloists)
- Elysium (female vocal quartet)
Curiosities
- The name OnClassical means On[Line]Classical[Music] or On[about] Classical[ Music]). The motto of the label is A new Way to Think about Music.
- OnClassical company furnishes the largest quantity of the classical music for JamendoJamendoJamendo is a music website and a community of music authors. It bills itself as "the world's #1 platform for free and legal music downloads under Creative Commons licenses."...
pro: the commercial program for music licensingMusic licensingMusic licensing is the licensed use of copyrighted music. Music licensing is intended to ensure that the creators of musical works get paid for their work. A purchaser of recorded music owns the media on which the music is stored, not the music itself...
at jamendo.com.
- Mr. Simonetto is also the founder of kunstderfuge.com, a large and free resource of classical music in MIDI files.
Other references
- Interview of Alessandro Simonetto by Enzo Fantin, IX/2005
- Interview by creativecommons.org, XI/2007
- Citation on Creative Commons – Italy, VI/2006
See also
- CopyleftCopyleftCopyleft is a play on the word copyright to describe the practice of using copyright law to offer the right to distribute copies and modified versions of a work and requiring that the same rights be preserved in modified versions of the work...
- Creative CommonsCreative CommonsCreative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
- List of record labels
- Open source record labelOpen source record labelOpen source record labels are a reaction against what some musicians see as corporate control of music via means of copyright. They believe that creativity requires that musicians reappropriate and reinterpret music and sounds to enable them to create truly innovative music.Open source record...
External links
General and useful links
- OnClassical at the Archive (free files in MP3MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
or OggOggOgg is a free, open container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The creators of the Ogg format state that it is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high quality digital multimedia.The Ogg container format can multiplex...
formats) - OnClassical relaunches at the Creative Commons' blog