Location (grandparent | parent | this page): RodMer Arts Home Page | Rod's Music | The Darkened Voice Program Notes

If you've already read the program notes immediately below, or want to skip them for now, you can click here to go immediately to:

• the computer-played MP3 and MIDI files, or
• the live-performance MP3 files

Complete Table of Contents (TOC) of these Program Notes

• The Basics
  • Parts
  • Duration
  • Composition date
  • Introduction
  • First peformance
  • Second peformance
  • Computer performers (when human ones are absent)
  
  
• Structure notes
  • Detailed structure notes
  • The words
  
  
• Computer-played MP3 and MIDI files
  
• Live-performance MP3 files
  
• Score package

The Basics

Parts

Duration

Composition date

This is a piece, written in February 2002, about the immigrant experience here.

Introduction

Of course, I have not had that experience myself and can only imagine it vicariously (and, no doubt, inaccurately) through my wife, Merike, who, born in Estonia, came as a young girl to Canada after a few years in Sweden following World War II.

I wrote it because Merike asked for a piece with a bit more of a 'Russian feel' to it. Not that she is Russian. She's Estonian and during World War II (at the age of one) she fled with her family the Russian invasion. But her father had always loved Russian singing. So I sat down with CDs by Ivan Rebroff and others and sat there a couple of hours trying to absorn the atmosphere. Of course, it has to be in a minor key (in this case E minor). But Rebroff's songs are also filled with glissandi (or portamenti) -- or you could call them whoops s singers swoop energetically between certain notes. These occur in some 11 places in this piece.

First performance

February 1, 2003 sung as a wordless soprano solo by Merike Lugus with me on piano.

Second performance

The piece was presented in Trinity United Church, Cobourg, ON on Saturday, April 24, 2004 by The Oriana Singers (sopranos and altos) under the direction of Marie Anderson -- with me at the piano. This is a wonderful group and a real treasure to have in Cobourg. And Marie Anderson is an amazing choral music director (who also leads the gold-medal-winning La Jeunesse Northumberland Youth Choirs here in Cobourg).

The mp3 file of their live performance of The Darkened Voice was extracted from The Oriana Singers' CD "Saving Grace" and is included on this website with permission.

Vocal range (on the middle C=C4 system)

Computer performers (when human ones are absent)

Like all the MIDI files here, it is in General MIDI form. The General MIDI patches are:

	Part	General MIDI patch
		name	#
	Sopranos 1&2	Choir Aahs	52
	Altos 1&2	Choir Aahs	52
	Piano	GM Grand Piano	0

How they sound will depend on your own playback software.

On my own synth I used the following patches:

	Part	Sound Module	Patch
			name	#
	Sopranos 1&2	Roland JV880	V Boys Choir from Roland Sound Library Card "Rich Sound Collection 3" (RS)	31
	Altos 1&2	Roland JV880	Choir 1 from Orchestra Expansion Board (OEB)	227
	Piano	Roland RD500	Gr Piano A1	0

These are what you hear on the "computer-played" mp3 files.

Structure notes

The words

The words [in 2nd window] are in 3 verses. Of course, the computer doesn't know how to sing the actual words yet. But in the live performance you can hear the Oriana Singers sing them.

Computer-played MP3 and MIDI files
(Click on icons below to play MIDI and/or download MP3 files)

Year	Title ... Instrumentation ...... Excerpts	Min: Sec	Complete MP3 files (better sound)** file size	MP3 file extracts (better sound)** file size	Complete MIDI file (not as good sound but quick)**
	The complete piece (computer-played):
2002	The Darkened Voice ... Song for choir of sopranos & altos, with piano accompaniment (computer-played)	3:07	2.1 MB
	How the MIDI file sounds depends, of course, on your playback mechanism. On my computer, MIDI files are played by the QuickTime PlugIn and the piano and voices are OK but a little thin. In comparison, the mp3 file (recorded from my sound-module patches) is much richer and fuller. Of course, if you have a synthesizer, you can download the MIDI file and set the parts to your own preferred patches and then rebalance the volumes -- but that's a lot more work than downloading the complete mp3 file.
	Short excerpts:
	...... Intro & start of Verse 1 (computer-played)	0:35		0.3 MB
	The mp3 excerpt of the introduction and start of Verse 1 is much richer and fuller than the embedded MIDI files -- though, of course, (being computer-played) it's still wordless.
	...... ending (computer-played)	0:23		0.2 MB
	Again this mp3 excerpt of the ending is much richer and fuller than the embedded MIDI files -- though, of course, still wordless.

** If you have a high-speed connection, forget about the MIDI files and just use the MP3 files (better). If you have a dial-up connection, consider the faster (but not as good) MIDI file only if the MP3 files seem to be taking too long to play or download.

---

Live-performance MP3 files
(Click on icons below to play and/or download MP3 files)

Year	Title ... Instrumentation ...... Excerpts	Min: Sec	Complete MP3 files (better sound) file size	MP3 file extracts (better sound) file size
	The complete piece (live performance):
2002	The Darkened Voice ... Song for choir of sopranos & altos, with piano accompaniment (live performance Apr 24/04)	2:54	3.3 MB
	Here finally you can here words and the sense of timing that conductor Marie Anderson brings to The Oriana Singers. Of course, it's simply recorded live during performance rather than in a professional sound studio, so naturally there are some surface noises from time to time.
	Short excerpts:
	...... Intro & start of Verse 1 (live)	0:29		0.6 MB
	In this mp3 excerpt of the intro and start of Verse 1 you can hear The Oriana Singers sing: "How I miss that voice!" followed by: "Lands where I came from, Lands where I've come now, How can I ever choose when all are mine?".
	...... ending (live)	0:24		0.5 MB
	In this mp3 excerpt of the ending you can hear The Oriana Singers sing: "Voices fill up one world, And all my paths cross one world, Yet how I miss that one darkened voice calling me! ah" with a final Russian-style swoop up at the end.

Score Package
(Click on icons below to download pdf and rtf files)

Year	Title ... Instrumentation	Description	No. of score pages	Score (pdf file) file size	No. of text pages	Text (rtf file) file size
2002	The Darkened Voice ... song for choir of sopranos & altos, with piano accompaniment	Complete score *	10	0.2 MB	2	0.2 MB
	* email me if you would like any part extractions

(you will need the free Stuffit Expander for decompressing the rtf.sitx files)