Efforts in Organised Sound

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Mods to Repairs and Music

Finished Sketches - Sort-Of

I sort-of don’t really see these little efforts as real “compositions”. And although some are sort-of done, is a piece ever truly finished?

Below are links to musical sketches, in reverse chronological order, except for Sketch12, which I wrote after Sketch13. I wrote these to sort-of get an idea how instruments interact, and what they do at different points of the register. For example, a trumpet playing in a higher register is going to have a completely different effect than one playing in the lower registers.

Also, asking a trumpet player to play softly in a higher register is going to be met with some raised left eyebrows and twitching upper lips. This brings up what we can do in a DAW / music notation software versus reality: sure, you can dial down the trumpet playing a high C, but it’s not going to sound very realistic.

Sketch 13

2022.Sep.01

Some time ago I transcribed from a hand-written manuscript a Symphony by a twenty-five year old (at the time) young lady named Alice Mary Smith. Foolishly, I thought I’d try to write from the heart, as she did, which ended up as this “poeme”.

The piece sort-of runs blithely away from a career of nursing to gardening and fixing footpaths and stormdrains and other projects. Years of wearing lead (x-rays) and transfering patients had affected my back, which finally gave out (second timpani roll): the injury has provided the opportunity to re-evaluate what was most important and learned to smell the roses.

Sketch 12

2023.Jan.15

I have agonised over whether to even publish this piece, for a number of reasons. The piece does not reflect the best in solid chord progressions: likely I will post an update at some point as something more fitting - something more what I wanted to say - suggests itself. But what truly gives me pause is the realisation that what inspired the piece back in October was going to be a red flag for some. Back in October, I realised that what happened on May 24th of last year was going to create a heartache for the affected families on December 25th. True to form, the media was no longer interested. The public had “moved on”. But the heartache those families experienced was very real, to me. As a reasonable “new” grandparent, the precious existence of my children and their children brought the plight of these unfortunate families in Uvalde into sharp focus.

This is not a happy piece. Nor is it completely done. It’s one I’ve struggled with now for some time, and it’s actually not done yet. But it’s where thing are now. I pray I offend no caring souls with it and hope that I speak for the children.

Sketch 11 - ‘La Gioconda’

2022.Feb.19

In the Louvre hangs a painting most non-french people think of as Mona Lisa. The French call her La Joconde which loosely translated means “jovial”, a sentiment which I hoped to convey with this little piece. Having first and second woodwinds really did add a lot of richness to the sound: Penne Vodka - an actual real composer - has been making awesome suggestions to improve my efforts at orchestration. I am watching the OrchestrationOnline courseware on YouTube with Thomas Goss: the deeper I get into the tutorial, the more I wonder whatever in the world possessed me to think I could do this!

Sketch 10

2021.Dec.10

Just a bit of fun for the silly season. I was actually listening to a piece called “Ru Lai Cau Ho” sung by the inimitable Cam Ly - Viet music doesn’t stick to twelve tones but sort-of quavers around a fair bit - and this thing grew out of that. No relationship at all… this sounds more like an ethnic dance of some sort.

Sketch 9 - ‘A Metaphor of Chooks’

2021.Oct.20

Some time ago, we decided to do the ethically kind thing and provide a home for six “rescue hens” (measure 1 - 8, noble intentions): chickens that had passed most of their lives in small cages. I fenced in our backyard - eventually - to keep them from destroying our entire property - as chooks do - and gave them a lovely little house to live in, even equipping it with a automatic door to keep out undesirables such as foxes and goanas. When the chooks arrived, they looked a bit worse for wear. However, they quickly adapted (measures 9-17) and found their place in the home we gave them, and in our hearts (measures 18-24). They ran around, pooed everywhere, scratched every square inch of dirt for bugs, turning their domain into Dunkirk after a shelling.

Bear in mind: they were “rescue hens”. They came with co-morbidities, which manifested themselves after a while (measures 25-40) which ultimately ended up with four of them, so far, succumbing to those ailments… and those went the way of all flesh, ultimately (measures 41-48).

Sketch 8 - ‘Reflections’

Uploaded to Musescore on 18th of July, 2021

Starting off simple, I started reminiscing. About back in the Hawaii, back in France in the 70s… and this sort-of happened. The Andante Moderato was sort-of a nod to my brother, who is the real composer of the family (not me) - he would sit me down and play these lush chords that built and built and well, that was another time. Paris in the 70s… another time. Listening to the Lacrimosa (Mozart) at night and going surfing at barely sunup the next morning and hearing the Lacrimosa in your head as the waves heave and break around you: another time.

As an alternative to listen to, here is the Reaper version. The MS version is sort-of finished, although some bits are a bit less than what I like… perhaps “Amadeus’” Director Orsini-Rosenberg’s caution about having “too many notes” might apply here.

Just purchased the Spitfire Studio Strings (because, basically, I could afford this: the Symphonic Strings at $800, actually more like AUD$1278 for me, was a bit too dear) specifically to take advantage of more articulations and, come to find out, although the sound is a fair bit more to my liking, I’m not using a lot of these articulations nearly as much as I thought I would. What I did discover is that what people - those that actually play the notes to record their tracks - use… the mod wheel. This sets up information on cc 01 Mod Wheel MSB in Reaper: plain-ol’ drawing in this cc will affect expression and dynamics, which massively changes the quality of the playing. Wow, what a dummy I am! Still learning how to use Kontakt and these libraries and Reaper and Musescore… and just about when I think I’m getting it beaten into submission, they come out with a new version.

Sketch 7 - ‘Souffle des Arbres’

Uploaded to Musescore-Sketch VII on 22nd-May-2021

From instruments I’ve added to my usual list of suspects, one might be able to discern I’ve been having a long, quite admiring look at Mendelssohn’s work of late, most particularly the instrumental opening of the Elijah. Yeah, so a timpani. Actually plunked down a fair bit of change just for a really good library (for Reaper) just for this one instrument.

So, I can say “inspired by” but there the resemblance certainly ends. The tempo never changes… sort-of like wind in the trees, a bit like they’re breathing, which the title sort-of means.

Thank you for listening, commenting and having listen to the Reaper version, which I have a much better control over and which I can get to sound the way I want. The Musescore version still isn’t what I’m after, sadly, very likely due to ignorance on my part.

ETA: had to re-upload (several times) as I’d sort-of messed up the synthesizer settings. I did try the Symphonic Sounds soundfont, but am not familiar on how to optimise the settings - did change the instruments in Mixer to (I think) the correct ones - and made a royal hash of the sound, so reverted back to the Musescore_General_HQ.sf3 font. Also, thank you for spotting those issues, which I’ve corrected (and found some others: thought I’d gone over this with a fine-toothed comb).

Added 19-Nov-2021

I’ve had the extreme fortune to be able to obtain the Spitfire Studio Strings and Studio Brass libraries when they were on special and replaced the NI legacy instrument library with these superb libraries in Reaper. I’m not an audiophile but even I can hear the difference. Very, very much looking forward to Musescore 4, where I can avail myself of these libraries. Musescore 4 is so totally going to be a game-changer!

Update: 2022-Aug-24

The playback is a Reaper rendition hosted on YouTube. It features SpitFire’s Studio Woodwinds, Strings and Brass.

Sketch 6 - Serenade

Uploaded to Musescore-Sketch VI on 03th-Apr-2021

My first transcription in Musescore was Dvorak’s String Sextet (the Dumka)… a piece and a composer I have always found bewitching. This serenade is my humble scribblings attempting to emulate this great artist.

Caveat: as always, the first upload on [ 02 Mar 2021 ] was, as far as I could tell, pretty much done, but then, when I imported the MIDI files into Reaper (a DAW), certain flaws surfaced which I had to fix. Which meant that the original score wasn’t the final one: revisions happen.

Thank you for listening.

Update: 03rd-Mar-2021

I made several suggested changes and have engaged in study of strings fingering. Many, many thanks to Penne Vodka!

Update: 16th-Oct-2022

The playback is as produced by my DAW: Reaper. It features SpitFire’s Studio Woodwinds and Studio Strings. However, I replaced an oboe section with an English Horn, for which I don’t have the sample library in Studio Woodwinds, so I went with the Library that comes with Kontakt 6. For now. I do intend to upgrade to Studio Woodwinds Professional… specials are coming in November / December!

Sketch 5

Uploaded to Musescore-Sketch V on 13th-Feb-2021

One of the influential composers in my experience was Alan Hovhaness: perhaps the listener can pick up his minimalist approach to harmony. Oh yeah, a bit of French cinema ambiance here, too. French films have this sound, right? Something I find irresistible.

I so wish that there was a place for WIPs. I’ll be polishing this over the next weeks. Don’t even know if that’s cool.

ETA: there will likely be more tweaks, but overall I’m at a point to call it sort-of done.

ETA #2: sped it up a bit, remembering the wise counsel of Penne Vodka… and he’s right, it DOES sound better. Also, astute listeners - if there are any… this little piece has seen a grand total of 6 pairs of eyeballs - may notice a bit of disparity between the MS score and the Reaper “performance” and may be wondering why I don’t reconcile the score to match. Actually, that exercise sort-of doesn’t work, because to do so will ultimately make the MS version sound, well, at best meh, at worst, much worse. Until the MS software starts supporting more elaborate sound libraries, the Reaper flavour will always see significant modifications.

Sketch 4

Uploaded to Musescore-Sketch IV on 3rd-Jan-2021

I had been watching a fair bit of ZeFrank1’s “Today we learn about…” botany lessons on YouTube which featured Telemann music in the background, and so, that sort-of got me going. I haven’t even a skerrick of Telemann’s magic in this little sketch… let’s just say it was inspired by. The title originally had a sort-of footnote: “Still in B minor”. Can’t seem to get away from B minor, for some reason. Is it an organic thing? do our cells sort-of resonate in a certain key signatures at some point in our lives? Imponderable-ponderables.

BTW, these are all “sketches” for a reason… I’m not pretending or supposing or having any delusion of grandeur that these are compositions. Nope. Just sketches. Like: what happens when you double an oboe with a recorder (sort-of). Or, can a recorder-player actually do this sort of jumping-flea dance? (flute, yeah, but recorder?) So, no, not a composer by any stretch of the imagination.

Maybe, someday.

ETA: I’ve got real concerns about the range of the recorder. Since the only instrument I ever played reasonably well was the french horn, I’ve had to learn about other instruments by trial and error. In Musescore, the range for the recorder is probably a bit more liberal than in a DAW: bringing this piece into Reaper left a lot of notes playing silence, so I had to sort-of replace the recorder with the piccolo flute for the time being. Oh, and sped it up again… always playing stuff too slowly.

Sketch 3

Uploaded to Musescore-Sketch III on 21st-Nov-2020

Nothing serious, just a bit of fun.

Initially, I was thinking “String Quartet” - however, that didn’t seem to work… too strident, in the upper strings. However, the sound is a bit more likeable played by the mandolin. Apologies for changing midstream… the characteristics of the melody simply isn’t string quartet material.

Sketch 2

Uploaded to Musescore-Sketch II on 30th-Oct-2020

This piece is a bit of “Scott Joplin kid brother hanging with Bach’s much brighter sister” - well, brighter than Scott Joplin’s kid brother, anyway. Not going into more than that. You might hear her influence in the middle bit. Perhaps.

I have found the piano an incredibly versatile instrument - I can readily see why real composers are quite fond of it. This little ditty just tinkles merrily along… something that would be cool to hear being played at those old pianos sitting in airport lobbies.

Hope you enjoy.

Sketch 1

Uploaded to Musescore-Sketch I on 6th-Sep-2020

This “piece”, such as it is, sort-of organically grew out of a chord progression I was playing with, which then turned into an exploration of doubling or pairing of instruments… some of which definitely don’t work. I don’t know that it will ever be a finished piece, but oh well… I’m still learning.

I’m going to have to admit: my rendition in MS is suboptimal. To be honest, what I do in Musescore is truly “sketch it out”… what happens in Reaper is a lot closer to what I’m after, even though it’s certainly still quite rough, a lot of it. So, if the listener detects a disparity between what they see in Musescore vs what they hear in Reaper, my apologies in advance… Reaper reflects more what I was trying to do, and to go back to Musescore to reconcile the score with the piece seems like I’m reverse-engineering.

Sac A Dos - (Backpack)

“Sometimes, the magic works, sometimes it doesn’t.”

Chief Dan George, from the film ‘Little Big Man’.

WIPs - Works is a Big Word

For those who might be slightly interested, here’s how things like this progress. Taking Alice Mary Smith and her Symphony in C, first movement as my inspiration:

(who, in turn, was inspired by Felix Mendelssohn, another of my absolute favourite composers, ever) this might be a ‘Tone Poem’ when finished. Or something. Chronicled by date rendered in Reaper:

WIP-2022-07-27

WIP-2022-07-29

WIP-2022-07-31

WIP-2022-08-02

WIP-2022-08-06

WIP-2022-08-08

WIP-2022-08-12

Current for that above date, here is a link to the score.

WIP-2022-08-15

Also on offer are the -ca- score and the Musescore file, such as it is. Whilst I seem to have a sort of ending to the thing, finally, I’m not at all thrilled with a lot of it. Unfortunately, in my current - extremely tedious - workflow, I actually have to export to MIDI and import into Reaper to sort-of hear it properly. Apparently MS 4 will support VST3/VSTis BUT here’s the thing: no articulations as yet. That’ll be 4.1 or so. So, I don’t see this workflow changing much for the rest of the year.

Whether this is really a ‘tone poem’: can’t really say. It sort-of smells more like sonata-allegro form, maybe. I might just be hiding behind the “Tone Poem” moniker because, in my very limited experience, that term appears to apply to pieces you can’t designate another description.

WIP-2022-08-19

Voila, the -cb- (portrait) score, the -cb- (landscape) score and the MS3 -cb- file.

So, these notes are more me talking to myself than really sharing information with others: just a bit of a caveat.

Some aspects I’m happier with than before: the bit towards the end where the flutes sort-of go a bit ethereal… but this is more getting Reaper to perform what I’d intended in Musescore. Otherwise, there’s still a lot of issues.

There’s stuff that, as Mozart would have winced at as he tried Salieri’s piece on the clavichord - “..this doesn’t really work, does it?” Starting in measure 10, that first bang of the timpani: excess to requirement.

But it gets worse.

A real quandary lies in measures 15 through 19… this is the 4th attempt at a reasonable - but questionable - segway into what follows. So, re-thinking this. It’s just doesn’t flow right. It actually sounds better in MS3 than Reaper. Reaper is the acid test as to whether this works, though.

I actually feel bad for the timpani player: wanted to give him a bit more to do, but those are the only spots that seem indicated.

And I feel bad for the brass section.

In this sort of piece - using Alice Mary Smith’s First Movement of her C-minor symphony as an example, she explores a few melodic ideas with her horns - I have transcribed her first movement into Musescore and hope to post it soon - but it seems a lot of what she does is have them sort-of provide harmonic overtones, which I tried to do in measures 26 through 31 (and the repeat). And I’m not keen on the result: the poor french horn player has to play fairly softly - never an easy thing for the french horn in the higher registers - and so it doesn’t sound at all realistic. But what I find more unacceptable is what he actually plays… it’s just: meh. So, do I take it out or try something a bit cleverer… same with the tuba. I’m asking these players to fill a supporting role, but they tend to stand out a bit more than I’d like.

By the way, I can’t seem to get MS to include the full score in Landscape mode into a PDF. That’s a fail. Maybe I need to selet a larger paper format, perhaps? Tried ledger-sized paper: seems to work.

Update A

It’s now almost two in the arvo, been up since 4am. A few things occur to me: I used to write to the sound produced in Musescore. Writing to Reaper seems similar, although the generated piece has a fair bit more life to it… dynamics, and all that.

Still more to do to the end of the thing. Sort-of just ends… legitimately, but almost, a non-event.

Update B

It’s now quarter-past nine in the evening. I think I’ve reached a stopping point.

And files:

It’s not done. Closer, though. At least, it doesn’t sort-of just end.

Update C

Saturday afternoon. Found the missing solution, perhaps, to some of the lines in this piece that “simply don’t really work”… that is: it will be worth my while to study a bit of counterpoint.

I’ve actually subscribed to Ryan Leach’s YouTube channel - reckon it would be worth it to sign up for his course as well. It would go a long way to clearing up some of the muddiness I create - involuntarily - and explain why sometimes the magic works, whilse often it doesn’t.

Programme Notes

Transcribing from manuscript Alice Mary Smith’s bold Symphony in C (bold for even an accomplished musician and composer as she was given the world she lived in and her age) has been a stimulus to write again, sort-of following my instincts - never a particularly wise thing to do - and write from the heart. I’ve hit 70, finally retired from 40-odd years of nursing with a bad back to show for it. This gave me time to write this “poeme”.

In broad strokes, the piece sort-of follows me out tthe door of post-op recovery to the garden beds, going from full-time caring for post-op patients to frenetic hard ‘yakka’ about and around the house, which brought into focus that my health was not optimal. Steps we took included removing processed foods from the diet (particularly anything with sugar) and “light exercise”. However, I did let my twenty-five year-old brain dictate utter nonsense to my 70-y-o body and my back finally gave out. You’ll appreciate the point that the injury took place (second timpani roll), subsequently followed by reflection upon ones own mortality. The grandchildren are the fun run-around bit right before the end.

I’m sort-of doing this back-to-front: two non-music-related tutorials to finish - one being the Harvard Computer Science Online course (CS50 2021) - and then, a deep-dive into Ryan Leach’s composition tutorials! Perhaps that will pick up my game a bit.

Hope you enjoy.

Update: 2022-Aug-24

The playback is now the Reaper version on my Musescore site, thanks to YouTube. It features SpitFire Studio Woodwinds and Studio Strings - the least expensive versions for now, as I really am only beginning to get my head around Reaper and sound libraries and articulations and instrument ranges and composition in general. The sound: well, significantly more what I wanted it to be.

I recently purchased the Spitfire Studio Brass library (for Reaper) and wow, what a lot of fun.

Update: 2022-Sep-01

Have only just barely started Ryan’s course - got stuck into Marc Sabatella’s course on Musescore, the whole enchillada (learned a lot, too!) - but also watched a quick video he did on pieces that failed to make the cut in his composition, and why. Which made me re-examine some of the weak spots in “Poeme”…. there are several. Also, spiffed up the score itself… reloading onto the site.

Update: 2023-01-08

Currently trying to get a “Chorale” right - also struggling with harmonies - that is far less light-hearted. Not sure I’d ever put it on Musescore.com: it’s fraught with unhappy messages that might invoke controversy.

Update: 2023-02-27

The .reabanks for Spitfire Studio Woodwinds had flaws: they have been fixed and the updates uploaded to the Reaper forum and the Reaticulate github page. The Spitfire Studio Brass (Standard and Professional) are also done and uploaded to both sites.

And I’ve made a start on the Strings: the Base, Core Techniques and Legato patches for Standard are done and work.

Practising my violin: this is definitely uphill work. The bow wants to chatter and involve more than on string at a time: typical “gremmy” stuff. Good job I got the mute for it!

My Violin Adventure

I have a section - Fix Violin(s) - on the All Repairs page that sort-of covers more of the nitty-gritty of costs, progress in terms of fixing up the violins, etc: so I won’t rehash that here. I’ll jst say that of the first of February, 2023, I now own three (3) violings, all student-grade, in various states of (dis)repair.

My go-to place for things violin is SimplyForStrings in Red Hill, QLD. On 31/01/2023, Michael actually examined that second violin - the one made in Czechoslovakia - to see if the pegs needed urgently changing: they are worn, but he reckons they’re okay for now. He kindly showed me how to replace a string correctly. I hope to be taking their ‘Violin Maintenance” class when they next hold it.

My First Real Violin

14th of March, 2023

I went to Red Hill to Simply for Strings today to have a sticky-beak. The ad on their site suggested that the Gliga Vasile Professional had the sound I was after: rich and nicely textured, more of a second violin / orchestral support instrument, which was indeed what I was after.

Rhys selected three of the Gliga… at different price-points and of course, quality of wood, etc. The first was the Gliga III ($790). Nice, especially when in the hands of Rhys: wow! I’m glad I didn’t have to expose my feeble efforts at bow-bouncing and sawing at the e-string.

Then, he played the the Gliga II ($970). Beautiful, rich, just what I wanted to ultimately be playing. And finally, the one I came to see: the Gliga Vasile Professional. All three are considered either intermediate or advanced student violins. So, we’re past the sub-$500 stuff now: definitely real violins.

Interestingly, it was the Gliga II that appealed to me the most, and it was the one I ended up purchasing.

I Can Dream, Right?

16th of March, 2023

Multiple sources all assert the same: violin-playing is hard. The key to learning is persistence. Having a new, lovely instrument is making the learning process so much more appealing, but there’s no doubt that it’s going to be slow going. I have yet to place fingers on the strings: all open-string exercises, so far. And yet, the dreams of playing Bach Sonatas and Inventions remain alive and vibrant in my imagination.

Practise currently consists of short, 10 - 15 minute sessions. I’m trying to focus on a relaxed bow-balance (vs. bow-hold) and a clear sound, more than accurate playing, for the time being. And it is very slowly improving, but very, very slowly. With setbacks. I really need an instructor.

In the meantime, I dream … and dream some more.

GitHub Note:

  • Update Music: My First Real Violin

  • Redland Bay, Queensland, Australia

Instrument Repair/Restoring YouTubes

Kimon, violin-maker YouTube

Kevin Lee, luthier Youtube

Julia’s Violin Lessons on YouTube

Other Music Notes

On Keven Lee’s YouTube, I posted this, which oddly enough didn’t save:

Thank you for these brilliant videos!
I just purchased a violin for AUD$80.00. Before you laugh, it does have an inscription that reads:
Antonius Stradivarius. Cremonensis
Faciebot Anno 1713
Made in Czechoslovakia
So, there's that.
All fun aside, I had purchased this violin *after* having watched this video with the express purpose of "getting my fingers dirty" restoring a fine piece of art: a violin. I did look for the Joha varnish cleaner: all we have here in Australia is Hill's: https://www.simplyforstrings.com.au/products/hills-cleaning-preparation - hoping this is a reasonable alternative. I'm trying to be careful with the rubbing, but the varnish appears to be quite fragile: it seems to want to rub off more quickly than the rosin... as quickly as this became apparent, I stopped rubbing. I never used any fluid, although I did breathe on it, hoping the moisture in my breath might prove effective in getting at the spots a bit. I did check my cloth frequently as suggested in the video, and the rosin never appeared to come off dark, always more a lighter colour, which I'm worried might be partly the varnish.
As this is not, per my completely novice assessment, an expensive instrument, I feel this is a good starting point: however, I am *treating* it as though it were such, exercising as much caution as I would something significantly more valuable.

ETA: the mob at SimplyForStrings suggested this: https://www.simplyforstrings.com.au/products/old-wood-ag-italian-cream-small-50ml-1
Will be interested to see how this goes. Will be approaching this with all the deference and caution I can muster. I'll be posting the results on my little projects page: https://robinboncoeur.github.io/Projects/RSTs/Music.html