Location (grandparent | parent | this page): RodMer Arts Home Page | Rod's Music | Still Winter Moon Program Notes

If you've already read the program notes immediately below, or want to skip them for now, you can click --> to be taken immediately to the MP3 and MIDI files.

Table of Contents (TOC) of these Program Notes

• The Basics
  • Instrumentation
  • Duration
  • Composition date
  • First performance
  • Computer performers (when human ones are absent)
  
  
• Structure notes
  • The basic structure
  • The words
  
  
• MP3 and MIDI files
  
• Score package
  

The Basics

Instrumentation

Oboe
Piano
Violin
Soprano

Duration

Composition date

1996 -- This piece was written for Gregory Ward (an accomplished novelist and a good friend), who also plays oboe in the Northumberland Orchestra in Cobourg and, at that time, also in a small amateur group: the Clarington Consort.

First performance

The first performance was given on September 22/96 at The Word is Out '96 at the Pickering Museum Village (a festival of "The Writers' Circle of Durham Region") performed by the Clarington Consort:

• Gregory Ward -- oboe
• Laurie Mitchell -- violin
• Gillian Barfoot -- piano
• Anna Luckai -- soprano

Computer performers (when human ones are absent)

Like all the MIDI files here, it is in General MIDI form. The General MIDI patches (on the 0-127 numbering system) are:

	Part	General MIDI patch
		name	#
	Oboe	Oboe	68
	Violin	Violin	40
	Soprano	Choir Aahs	52
	Piano	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	#
	Oboe	Roland XV5080	Oboe 6 from Bank 10	2
	Violin	Roland XV5080	Solo Violin 1 from bank 9	40
	Soprano	Roland JV880	Choir 1 from Orchestral Expansion Board (OEB)	227
	Piano	Roland RD500	Gr Piano A1	0

These are what you hear on the mp3 files.

Structure notes

Overall it is structured: I - II - I - II - I - Coda

The piece is a sort of manic-depressive song. Basically the Sections I are the depressive phase and the Sections II the manic phase. But the manic underlay is intended to be foreshadowed from the start by the energy of the violin.

The basic harmonic idea is playing with major sevenths -- particularly Gma7. For example, the harmonic sequence for the 10 measures of the a section are:

Gma7-D7m9-Gma7-D7.13-D#dim.ma7-Em-F7-Em-D7.13

I seem to be going through a period of intoxication with sevenths. Probably one gets over it.

The words

The words [in 2nd window] are divided into 6 verses, a refrain, and an 'episode'. Of course, the computer doesn't know how to sing the actual words yet.

MP3 and MIDI 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:
1996	Still Winter Moon ... quartet for oboe, violin, piano, soprano	5:46	3.9 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 violin sound can be rather tinny, the soprano (wordless) sound quite unvoicelike, and the oboe quite unoboelike. In comparison, the mp3 file (recorded from my sound-module patches) sounds much better (even though the computer still can't sing the words). Of course, if you have a synthesizer, you can download the MIDI file, set the instruments to your own preferred patches, and do your own volume balancing -- but that's a lot more work than downloading the complete mp3 file.
	Short extracts:
	...... opening excerpt from Still Winter Moon	0:59		0.6 MB
	This mp3 excerpt of the opening is somewhat better (mellower piano, better violin) than its embedded MIDI counterpart. But of course, it's still constrained by the limitations inherent in the original MIDI voice patches from which it was recorded (not to mention the wordless singing).
	...... closing excerpt from Still Winter Moon	0:47		0.5 MB
	Again, this mp3 excerpt of the ending is somewhat better (mellower piano) than its embedded MIDI counterpart. But of course, it's still constrained by the limitations inherent in the original MIDI voice patches from which it was recorded.

** 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.

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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
1996	Still Winter Moon ... quartet for oboe, violin, piano, soprano	Complete score *	23	0.3 MB	4	36 KB
	* email me if you would like any part extractions

(you will need the free Stuffit Expander for decompressing the rtf.sitx files)
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http://www.rodmer.com/RodMusic/ProgramNotes/SWMoonNotes.html -- Revised Jul 28, 2005
Copyright © 1996 - 2005 Rod Anderson
rod@rodmer.com

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