Arnaud Delannoy is an incredible multi-instrumentalist. On 10 June 2023 he re-posted a video he posted a year previously. Fans had pointed out that they couldn’t read the font he used to label the different instruments he plays in the video, so he corrected the text on the video. It’s a good thing too. There is a lot of reading of instrument names.
In the video, Delannoy plays the opening of the riff to George Michael’s Careless Whisper on 100 instruments but not, he notes, the saxophone. Delannoy plays instruments from the Arghul & the Archlute to the Xiao & the Zurna. It is great to see and hear the array of instruments and instructive to read the names as they appear.
Under the video, Delannoy categorises the various instruments (Medieval/Renaissance instruments, Chinese instruments etc). This is also extremely useful, and also a new update for the repost. For all his virtuosity, Delannoy avoids the saxophone on his track. Is he a bit behind on his practicing? Readers who know the George Michael original will know that the lick that Delannoy repeats is from the iconic saxophone solo by Steve Gregory at the beginning of Careless Whispers.
We all know what the riff sounds like on the saxophone, so Delannoy playfully leaves it off his video. @CDNChaoZ jokes in the YouTube comments: “What, no theremin? Just kidding, this is amazing. Must take forever to learn like eight notes on 100 instruments!” Another commentator asks: “I don’t know what’s more impressive: Playing a melody on each of these instruments or owning all these instruments?” And Yes, Delannoy does own all the instruments. This is an extract of his Symphonie Lagomorphe:
Delannoy has written two Lagomorph Symphonies. He says that the second took him more than 1,000 hours to write and record the 70 instruments of the orchestra. A third composition is “Twilight for string orchestra.”
Arnaud Delannoy started playing the piano when he was four, in La Norville, France. To this day, he prefers to learn music by sitting with an instrument. He says he studies theory, but reluctantly.
After school, he studied physics and also took piano and cello lessons at the National School of Music in Cachan. While studying, He formed a comedic French song duo. Seven years ago, Delannoy started posting videos online. He calls his style post-romantic composition inspired by music from the onset of the 20th century.
Speaking of her husband’s passion for instruments, his wife Constance says: “At 25, he had 15, now at 37, he has 100”. That was a year and a half ago, so one presumes that the collection has grown.
Referring to the video for the Careless Whisper lick on 100 instruments, AVoison observes, “The video gets more fun the longer it goes on, and it’s a treat to watch all these variations.” If you would like to see more from Arnaud Delannoy, you can subscribe to his YouTube channel.