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Table of Contents (TOC) of these Program Notes

• The Basics
  • Parts
  • Duration
  • Composition date
  • Ragtime Elements
  • Harmony
  • Introduction
  • The Words
  • First Performance (forthcoming)
  • Computer performers (when human ones are absent)
  
  
• The basic structure
  
• MP3 and MIDI files
  
• Score package
  

The Basics

Parts

Sopranos
Altos
Tenors
Basses

Duration

3-1/2 minutes

Composition date

1997 - 2002.

Introduction

This is intended to be a light-hearted romp. I wrote the original round in 1997 -- consisting simply of three 4-bar phrases to be sung by three groups of singers. But while such a round may be entertaining for the participants (particularly with lots to drink around a late-night camp-fire), it's rather boring to listen to -- for once all three parts are sounding simultaneously, every repetition sounds the same (merely switching the three 4-bar phrases among the groups). So in 2002, I took this round and re-shaped it for an SATB choir to perform for a listening audience. To make this work, I occasionally took liberties with the final note of a line to get a more pleasing cadence. Sometimes I had to shift some melody fragments up or down an octave to keep them in a singer's range. And finally, I had occasionally to group the men (T&B) or the women (S&A) since this was a 3-part not a 4-part round. I also inserted a contrasting Section II in the middle.

Ragtime Elements

The basic elements of ragtime are: (1) a steady underlying 4/4 beat, (2) syncopation in the melody, and (3) some characteristic (often chromatic) harmonies. The syncopation can be seen in certain accented notes where the accent comes in each case an eighth note in advance of the regular beat. As to harmonies, the chromatic one used here is the frequent Fdim-D progression (a typical ragtime sound) but the G7-D progression in measure 3 is also definitely non-'classical' and again has a sort of ragtime sound. Here (in a second window) are A Few Additional Notes on Ragtime

Harmony

For Section I (in D) the basic progression is D-Fdim-D-G7-D-Fdim-A7-D. In the contrasting Section II in the middle, the harmonic progression is: A-D7-A    D-A7-D-G    E-Cdim-D    Fdim-Cdim-E-B7    E7    A7

As noted above, the A-D7-A and the D-A7-D have again a typical ragtime feel.

The Words

The words [in 2nd window] are in 3 sections. Of course, the computer doesn't know how to sing the actual words yet.

First performance (forthcoming)

The first performance will take place on Friday Jun 9/06 7:00 pm at the summer concert of The Oriana Singers (Marie Anderson: conductor) at St. Peters Anglican Church in Cobourg.

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	Choir Aahs	52
	Altos	Choir Aahs	52
	Tenors	Choir Aahs	52
	Basses	Choir Aahs	52

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	Roland JV880	V Boys Choir from Roland Sound Library Card "Rich Sound Collection 3" (RS)	31
	Altos	Roland JV880	Choir1 from Orchestral Expansion Board (OEB)	227
	Tenors	Roland JV880	Choir2 from OEB	228
	Basses	Roland JV880	Full Choir from RS	71

These are what you hear on the mp3 files.

Structure

Overall it is structured: I-II-I

In the notes below: SAT&B = sopranos, altos, tenors, & basses
   while Ph1,2,&3 = Phrases 1,2,&3 are the original 3 lines of the round.

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:
1997-2002	A Ragtime Round ... for unaccompanied SATB choir	3:24	2.3 MB
	How the MIDI file sounds depends, of course, on your playback mechanism. In addition, one of the serious limitations of a MIDI file rendition is that the synthesizer patches are each for a hypothetically universal pitch-sensitive voice. That is, the very high notes sound like a soprano and the very low notes like a bass. But there is no way to distinguish between middle C sung by a soprano at the bottom of her range or middle C sung by a bass at the top of his. They both sound identical on the synthesizer. Thus one loses considerable clarity of the intended vocal timbre. This limitation affects both the embedded MIDI file and the mp3 files. The mp3 files are not quite as bad because I have used four different patches (one for each of the S, A, T, and B) in order to provide some timbre difference. In addition, the embedded MIDI file tends to be a little unbalanced, funny in the low bass notes, and a bit beepy in the high soprano. Of course, if you have a synthesizer, you can download the MIDI file and set the instruments to your own preferred patches -- but that's more work than downloading the complete mp3 file. In any case, the computer doesn't know how to sing the words (a limitation on both the embedded MIDI file and the mp3 files).
	Short extracts:
	...... Intro and some of 1st round	0:58		0.6 MB
	In the mp3 excerpt of the beginning intro and start of the first round the voices are better balanced and the basses definitely sound better.
	...... Section II	0:33		0.3 MB
	Again in the mp3 excerpt of Section II the voices are in better balance.
	...... ending	0:28		0.3 MB
	And again in this mp3 excerpt of the ending the voices are in better balance than in the usual playback of the embedded MIDIfile..

** 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.

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
1997-2002	A Ragtime Round ... for unaccompanied SATB choir	Complete score *	14	0.2 MB	(a) 4	0.2 MB
					(b) 1	0.1 MB
	* email me if you would like any part extractions

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