An instrumental for communion

Hi Sherry,

The above .not file shows the notes of your aire nicely, but does not do justice to your beautiful aire if it is played only through a General MIDI sound card. Anyone looking at this should hear Sherry's GPO (Garritan Personal Orchestra) version of the aire at www.soundclick.com/beanfield_castle.

Your method of getting the notes into Composer is one that almost any Composer user with a MIDI keyboard might find useful. This method emphasizes getting the rhythm of the notes right when you record them, even if you hit the wrong notes. It is a lot easier to fix the pitches of notes if you hit the wrong keys at the right time, than it is to fix the rhythms of the notes if you hit the right keys at the wrong time.

Thanks for submitting your first piece in this Share Your Music section of the forum. I hope to see and hear many more in the future.

Cheers
-- Mark

Hi Sherry! I'm in the L&L mode today...listen and learn. My grands are at vacation Bible School, so I get to use the computer. I liked Communion Aire very much. The music is grand, magnificent, stately, majestic. Those are the words and feeling that comes to me when I listen. Nice job!

Hi Sherry,

This is where I found "Communion Aire," so perhaps this is the proper thread.

When I heard your melody, I thought how well it might work somewhere in the third symphony that I am contemplating. I am in the earliest stage of working out the themes. So far, I've worked out one, which in the first few notes refers to "Wabash Cannonball." Yours would be the second, with quite a number to go. At the same time, I'm working out the structure in my head.

Originally, it was to be for soprano and orchestra on text by Loren Eiseley, one of the great handlers of language of the 20th Century. Now I'm thinking that it will be for a vocal quartet and a chorus, each treated as an instrument, rather than as soloists.

"the flute in the first octave..." One nice thing about the flute's weakness as an ensemble player in it's lower register, however, is that if it's to be used there, it almost has to be as a solo instrument, with any other parts toned down so that the flute is prominent.

"And yes, I'm referring to tin whistle!" I am going to do a web search this week to find a replacement for the one I wore out. I agree about the fingering vis a vis the recorder. I played the alto for several years, but never got very good at it, especially in the lower register. And, yes, the whistle is pretty easy to get a decent sound from, but it's almost a different instrument when a real master plays it. I didn't realize that they were available in different keys. I thought only D.

Put all your energy into "recovery mode."

best,
mgj

Best wishes for you, Sherry. Get well.

David

Hi Sherry,

More about whistles and symphonies when you are quite normal again. The best way to get there is probably to go to bed and stay there for a week or so. Get well!!!!

best,
mgj

Hi Sherry,

Glad to hear you are feeling better. I hope that whatever burst of energy you get, you'll quit whatever you're doing when you start to tire, at least for a few more weeks.

Thank you for the whistle sites. I had done some looking with google, but I hadn't tried any of these...didn't see them, I don't think. I will go through them one by one. I've got to get something to play, unless I want to re-learn recorder fingering, or win the lottery and get a new flute.

I did a piece in the 1.1 beta. Perhaps I'll put it somewhere in the "Share" category. It's just a piano piece, but I was able to try out the beta pretty thoroughly, and am also working on something orchestral with soprano, piano and flute as soloists, which allows me to try out what I can't in a piano work. Seems to be working quite well.

Take care of yourself,
all best,
mgj

A VERY interesting and original sound yet uncomplicated.
Nice music.

Don

Howdy Mark,

I don't know if M G has noticed it, but the sporadic "blue playback cursor doesn't extend to the bottom staves" problem shows up in this piece when you scroll down to the bottom staves while playing it. Give it a try.

ttfn,
Sherry

Hi Sherry,

I'm able to reproduce the blue playback cursor doesn't extend to the bottom staves" problem here! Thanks for the report. I'll fix it.

Cheers
-- Mark

Hi Sherry,

The "blue playback cursor doesn't extend to the bottom staves" problem is now fixed for the final release of 1.1.

The circumstances of the bug were very simple: (1) The vertical height of the entire system is greater than the height of the screen (not just the window), and (2) the page is scrolled down.

Thanks again for the report!

Cheers
-- Mark

Hi Sherry and Mark,

It was one of the first things I noticed when I tried out Composer, Sherry. But I was so tickled with the way it transcribed the .mid file (of the longest individual movement I've written), played it, and started instantly when a starting point was designated, even late in the piece, that I plumb forgot about it. I think I assumed it had something to do with my screen resolution, anyhow.

Glad to hear it's fixed, one. And, two, that this aging Dell wasn't at fault.

Hi Sherry,

Thank you for your kind words.

I think maybe I have finally got some terminology fixed in my head. You said "just with the soundfont sounds." Each instrument, then, in the selection list (such as 0 acoustic grand piano, 49 string ensemble 1, etc.) is a soundfont?

A "bank" would be all the choices that appear in the list of these soundfonts?

If the answer is yes to both, then I have something (first grade level as it may be) fixed in my mind.

I'm pretty bad when organization is involved, too I was aiming to put the piece on the "Religion" branch of the tree, but missed that spot a bit, In the words of the song, I didn't have the "gift to come down where we [I] ought to be..."

I'm excited by the idea of hearing this in GPO. Anything you need to ask, I will answer directly. One question you implied had to do with the soprano part. I have tried any number of instruments to represent her as well as the four "voice" soundfonts I have available. Of 86 lead 6 (voice), 53 choir aahs, 54 voice oohs, and 55 synth voice, 53 is the best I've found, perhaps because it is closest to the timbre of Bonnie Jo Hunt's voice (the soprano I wrote the original small ensemble version for), or perhaps it is because it seems to be able to stand out more against an orchestra.

There are three staves with instrument changes, as I recall. The double basses switch between bowed and pizzicato frequently, and the cellos play pizzicato, once, for several measures. The other is the oboes/Eng Horn staff, where I have done an instrument change for the brief oboe solos. I think I might put the Eng Horn on its own staff before I'm finished, so the cellos and basses would be the only staves with instrument changes.

Speaking of articulation, in a few minutes I am going to start adding slurs to the score--a boring task since I already know where they go. I haven't done this in Composer yet, so first I'll need to read the HELP file. I am wondering if GPO will be able to make wind instruments, especially the flute, play groups on notes on a single breath, without tonguing each. Exciting, if it can, as one demo on the GPO web site leads me to believe it might. My main complaint about midi, other than how limited it is by 16 channels, is the sound of woodwinds.

The .not file of Simple Gifts (which I think I may call a Fantasy on "Simple Gifts") is currently 2.5MB. I don't think what I have yet to do will grow it much, but it's still a pretty long e-mail download, so I'll ask when a convenient time to send it would be...when it's finished...a couple of weeks, I'd guess.

Thanks again.

all best.
mgj

Hi Sherry,

You should teach this stuff--you are very good at creating examples. I think what I need to do to get everything fixed is to actually use setup in Composer, but that will take a new computer or soundcard, alas. The audio HQ, of whatever it's called, got lost in a Windows crash, and I haven't been able to get it back. The soundcard is made by Creative and supplied to Dell by Microsoft, and none of these has the proper software any more. I suppose I could pick up Sound Blaster 7.1 at Walmart for under $30 and have more than I've got.

But for now, I've at least been able to figure out how to use SB A and SB B (and MS wavetable is ok for some percussion sounds) to increase the number of instruments I can use, at least for playing in Composer and recording .wav or .mp3 files.

It would be interesting to hear what the voice sounds you have are like. I suppose the ideal thing would be to find a nearby soprano who could put on a head set, get comfortable, with the score in hand, and sing the part as it played, minus her part, in acoustica. I think that could be done, but I'm not going to get excited about it since there are no sopranos locally with the necessary range and Bonnie Jo, for whom the piece was written is a couple of thousand miles away.

The English horn has only two solos, and otherwise does not play. During its solos, the oboes are silent. But it will have to have its own staff in the conductor's score, so I'll add it before sending you the .not file.

Back to work . . .

best,
mgj

Hi Sherry,

It looks, now at least, like the Fantasy on Simple Gifts will be finished later this week--Friday or Saturday. If you're still game, I'll go ahead and send the .not file.

I've been doing a lot of adjusting of volume and tempo. I've also been trying to find a better tambourine. The bells are fine, but the purcussive sound is elusive and for some reason, whichever drum I choose sounds as if it is coming from a different place. I've also been trying to decide on what to use for the voice. It just may not be possible to find anything that sounds like a soprano voice, rather than just another instrument, at all times. One of the synthetic voices pretty well distinguishes itself, but sounds nothing like a real voice. The choir ahs, while there is at least a syllable that makes it seem vocal, in the higher range sounds like some kind of flute or clarinet. I may do a couple of program changes and use both in different places as a compromise.

Anyhow, it does look like the point I need to stop working on it is close.

all best,
mgj