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As a conclusive demonstration that I have no shame whatever, this is a page
devoted to samples of my own music recorded in MIDI format.
I have now got myself a reasonable sound card, and after a very long time I have finally got round to improving these MIDI samples. It's taken me a while to get to grips with the format. One problem is that now, with the advent of sound fonts, there is literally no way of telling how your sample will sound on someone else's card. One thing I have discovered is that on most cards, the Voice Oohs or Synth Voice will be completely dominated by the piano accompaniment, even if you whack up the volume as high as you can. So in the first of these improved samples, I have substituted the bass voice with the trombone, which means that it will be heard on most people's systems. I have also discovered that piano pedalling tends to sound different on different soundcards. A good card will treat the sustain as it happens in real life, i.e. with a natural decay. Other cards will switch a sound on when they receive a sustain command and leave it switched on until they are told to switch it off again. This can cause interesting effects! The pedalling on these pieces should sound fairly subtle, and if it doesn't - I can do nothing but apologise. All I have done so far is the Apollinaire Songs and the oboe piece, but I will eventually be making my way down the list, so please keep coming back. As far as the music goes, I am an amateur composer, but have written some fairly large-scale and ambitious works, most of which have been performed. Although my musical tastes veer towards the atonal, most of my music is, for some reason, written in a very conservative (not to use the word outdated!) style. |
| Piece for Oboe and Piano (1m 45s) |
This is a very early piece, and is the last of a set of three. The other two aren't worth including here, but this one has a wistful tune which I still like. So here it is!
| An Inscription (2m 28s) |
| The Skirt (5m 27s) |
| The Circus People (1m 51s) |
Three Apollinaire Songs
An early set of three songs for bass and piano.
The Inscription obviously comes from a tomb. The protagonist is in a state
of serenity, all-knowing, content to die.
The Skirt is a fantasy upon the skirt of his mistress. It has masochistic and
fetishistic overtones. He sees her skirt as a bell and, presumably lying in
her bed, has a disturbing vision of her hanging skirts as hanging men.
The Circus People is a description of a circus parade, described first at a distance,
then in middle distance and finally in close-up.
| Rondo in D (3m 18s) |
| Gabriel, Fram Heven-King (12m 08s) |
| 2. One Man Shall Shear My Wethers (2m 02s) |
| 3. A Sprig of Thyme (3m 14s) |
| 4. Jig - The Blooming Meadows (3m 14s) |
is a setting of
Mervyn Peake's one hundred and twenty-five stanza ballad, which describes a
conversation between a sailor and a new-born baby in the middle of an air-raid
on London. The setting lasts an hour, is very difficult and taxing for
the performers,
and has received only one public performance, at South Hill Park in Bracknell.
The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb
The setting is for soprano, bass-baritone, narrator and piano. Any
apparently inspirational lacunae in these extracts might be due to the
fact that of necessity the
narrator's part is missing.
| We'd be far better off ... (2.56) |
See! See! Ha! Ha! How the dazzling streets
Are empty from end to end
With only a cat with a splinter through its heart
And an arm where the railings bend.
| Shall I worship you now?(6.18) |
For sailor, there's nothing that is not true
If it's true to your heart and mine
From a unicorn to a flying bomb,
From a wound to a glass of wine.
| I am frightened, little fish (2.20) |
It snatches away the burning breath
And it snatches at the useless clay,
But what can it do to halt the square-rigged soul
As it steers away?
| My body is what has laughed for me (1.16) |
| A hundred thousand fire-green crows (1.05) |
How glorious it is to sway
Upon the waves of war!
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