Chanson d'Octobre

After a break due to lots of stuff going on at the same time and being in well over, I managed to finish a piece that I started this summer.

Take a listen and let me know what you think.

Chanson d'Octobre

Enjoy.

i like it. i like the way it walks out. some things sound scattered, some more glued, some like coming out of nowhere, but it's all fine with me. it makes it interesting, at least. the mood, somewhere between melancholy and despair.

yeah, that autumn feeling. I really love that melancholic season. Sounded like Satie with a bit chromatism. Is there a score?

Beautiful piece of music. I'm excited to hear more of your music.

The reason i didn't post the score in the first place is because it is very messy, since i write/re-write/modify in a desperate state of mind, it's like a chase and, naturally, it doesn't make any sense to make final touches on the looks of the score until it's completely done. It is still readable to some extent, so here it is. I will try to make the time in the next few days and come up with a score more pleasant to the eye :)

Chanson d'Octobre.pdf

good stuff

wow, that score is a mess :D sorry I asked. I really hope you clean it up, because I really want to look into it; to take a close look to some interesting chords, etc...

Very pretty piece. It is a fall feel! You got that. And yes, I do hope you get a score that is cleaned up. That one is....well frankly it looks a mess! :P

A few things:

Why are you using so many double flats? There is no need for them...

The fast part (Bars 64-74) would be extremely hard to play!

Why are there places where it says !tempo5 or !tempo4 etc?

You might want to think about just using "simile" in place of the thousands of *ped *ped markings.

The chords in the right hand in some places have to be rolled, it would be impossible to hit them all at once (Not that you need to mark that. But just saying that's how it would be played in concert)

Overall tho, Andrei, it is a nice piece. Just make a clean score!

I really like this... And yes the fast part seems to be almost unplayable. Some parts seem to much for one player. BUT THE SOUND IS AMAZING. Do you use a computer program to record the piano? I like this one alot. Did you ever think of making it a duet?

Hmm, I never thought of making it a duo since it has a simple theme, some chromatic replies and an accompany figure that shouldn't be at all troublesome for a rather good pianist. If it's the fast part's speed that is picky, it can be interpreted slower in a 3/4 of the original tempo, with a stretched ralentando at the end of the passage leading into the next. It's a piece that can depict an abstract space, so a subtle tempo change wouldn't be noticed as not intended if it helps the interpret pull it off better overall. Although, I would prefer it be played as it is, worst case, the lower octave doubling in the right hand can be dropped.

I would rather have the slower tempo then the octaves dropped if I was the pianist.

Still, it's only one 1-voice arpeggio for each hand, with some chords when the arpeggios breath, I think it can be done.

As for the sound, yes, I use Sonar to record and tweak with all the interpretation variables. The sound library is Boesendorfer 290 with a dry Dark sample loaded, though originally it was a dry 8-layer long release one. I just thought it matched the atmosphere better.

Did you play this or did a computer program play this? I don't understand what you mean by using Sonar to record. Is Sonar a program that plays scores from programs like Finale, nwc, etc or is it a program that records the sound of a digital keyboard that you play?

I have been looking for a realistic playing program that will play a digital score - nwc, finale, etc. Do you have any suggestions?

Did you play this or did a computer program play this? I don't understand what you mean by using Sonar to record. Is Sonar a program that plays scores from programs like Finale, nwc, etc or is it a program that records the sound of a digital keyboard that you play?

I have been looking for a realistic playing program that will play a digital score - nwc, finale, etc. Do you have any suggestions?

This is all played by the computer. What I mean about using Sonar is that i write the whole piece in Finale because it's easier to think musically having the notes at your glance then staring at a bunch of geometric figures in a sequencer, export the complete midi file and record it in Sonar. That way, if a pp or a FF or a note is held longer than you'd like to, you have a lot more control using Sonar.

To make things clear, Sonar can record the sound of a digital keyboard that has it's own library or it can only take the midi input from the keyboard and play a VST that you loaded into Sonar. Or, eventually, it can play a .mid file or it's own projects using a sound library that you load in.

I would strongly recommend using a notation program to write the actual music over a sequencer, and a sequencer over a notation program to make the actual sound render and fine tune the interpretation.

As a side note, I will have a cleaner score in a few days, I've been busy with my final year of university and working on a new project, but I will have it done. :thumbsup:

physically measure 50 would be not possible as written by just one player. it stretches two octaves in one hand... please explain how you intended it to play this... there are some other instances but wouldn't be able to be played just by one person

Okay that is really cool because it sounded so realistic. Anyway there are so many versions of Sonar. Which should I get?

SONAR Home Studio 7, SONAR Home Studio 7 XL, SONAR 8.5 Studio Edition, SONAR 8.5 Producer Edition, and SONAR LE

Okay that is really cool because it sounded so realistic. Anyway there are so many versions of Sonar. Which should I get?

SONAR Home Studio 7, SONAR Home Studio 7 XL, SONAR 8.5 Studio Edition, SONAR 8.5 Producer Edition, and SONAR LE

Any Producer Edition 8 or above should be able to handle almost anything you can imagine. :thumbsup: I would stay away from the LE version though. You can tell that the Home Studio editions are stripped of even more functionalities.

SONAR 7 comes in two versions, Producer Edition and Studio Edition. SONAR 7 Producer Edition contains the following exclusive features.

. . .

* NEW— LP-64 EQ™ linear phase mastering EQ

* NEW— LP-64 Multiband™ linear phase mastering compressor/limiter

* NEW— Z3TA+™ waveshaping synthesizer

* NEW— VC-64 Vintage Channel™ with sidechaining capabilities

* NEW— Roland V-Vocal™ 1.5 with Pitch to MIDI conversion

* AudioSnap™ multitrack audio quantize

* Surround mixing in over 30 formats

* SurroundBridge™ technology to use stereo FX in surround

* Sonitus Surround Compressor

* POW-r dithering

* PSYN™ II subtractive synthesizer

* Pentagon™ I Analog Modeling Synth

* RXP™ groove instrument with REX file support

* Perfect Space™ Convolution Reverb

* Lexicon

wow, that score is a mess :D sorry I asked. I really hope you clean it up, because I really want to look into it; to take a close look to some interesting chords, etc...

Chanson d'Octobre

The cleaned up score :thumbsup:

Beautiful piece of music. I'm excited to hear more of your music.

You could try and give a listen to Rhapsody in A-flat Major. Let me know what you think. :) It has simpler harmonic language, :blush: but you might still find it enjoyable...

P.S. Apologies for the double post, but they conveyed different subjects.

Wow, this is the kind of music I like. And you get a nice sound, considering it's computer-generated!

Congrats.

-Katrina

Hey! I just got my hands on Sonar! HAHAHA so excited. Just a quick question. When you edit the Finale MIDI in Sonar, do you keep the MIDI as simple as possible - without dynamics, articulation etc - and add dynamics and articulation in Sonar itself, or do you edit the MIDI in Sonar that already has dynamics and articulation inputs from Finale?

P.S. My goal is of course to achieve as realistic a rendition as I can.

Hey the cleaned up score doesn't look that much different to me. For example: measure 9 the little squiggle line for the arpeggios should be in front of the notes, not on top.

Any Producer Edition 8 or above should be able to handle almost anything you can imagine. :thumbsup: I would stay away from the LE version though. You can tell that the Home Studio editions are stripped of even more functionalities.

For measure 50 I would play the low A# with the left hand and swiftly jump to the C-E minor third tuplet, ( it's not barely a difficult jump if you consider that you play the A with your 5th finger and the C-E with the 4-2 fingers, it would have been if the last third of the 1st tuplet would be E-G, but since it returns to C-E you don't have to use the 5-3 fingers for the first third ;)) while the the right hand would play the descending sixths. You would have a delay between the A and the C-E naturally, but the rest of the tuplets should fit in the tempo. If that is impossible, I guess I should follow the good suggestion of writing it for 2 pianos. But then again, the piece is not intended for 2 pianos, leading into boredom of one of the pianists during the performance. Though in the end, it's all about the audience, so he should make a sacrifice and not get utterly bored.

you could do that in measure 50 but i would suggest writing something to indicate it. Like having a bracket or something, on the bottom a and the notes to played by the left hand in the treble staff.

Hey! I just got my hands on Sonar! HAHAHA so excited. Just a quick question. When you edit the Finale MIDI in Sonar, do you keep the MIDI as simple as possible - without dynamics, articulation etc - and add dynamics and articulation in Sonar itself, or do you edit the MIDI in Sonar that already has dynamics and articulation inputs from Finale?

P.S. My goal is of course to achieve as realistic a rendition as I can.

As you can see from my score, the dynamics and articulations are there, it would be too much time consuming to move every note of an arpeggiated chord a few milliseconds to the right to achieve the effect in a sequencer (here Sonar). The best way to work and have a realistic output is to have the Human Playback set up to custom in Finale and have mostly every option fit your preference of the respective piece's interpretation.

Also, don't forget to apply the human before exporting the file to a midi.

Here is an example of a midi imported after having no Human Playback applied prior to being converted to a midi file.

No HP trill.mid

And the one that had HP applied before the export to MIDI.

HP trill.mid

There is a clear difference in the actual notes that are written, though they were all just a whole note with a trill expression assigned to it.

The conclusion is that the HP data alters the MIDI output, so the best way to achieve realism is have all the articulations and expressions interpreted by the HP (do not use default HP presets, they are rather dull and sometimes have over-emphasized rhythmic accents at the start of each measure) Of course, the midi with the HP trill still isn't as good as it should be. Here is where Sonar comes into play. What we achieved though is save some time and have the notes be more realistically arranged already, so that in Sonar you have to change less.

What you should do in Sonar, for the sake of the example, is emphasize the density of the notes related to time, even more than the HP can handle. Since HP is customizable but only intuitively, Sonar allows for full control, letting you control in fractions of seconds when each note will be played with how much velocity, thus making a trill almost as real as it gets.

I hope this insight helps you achieve the realism you seek. :thumbsup:

Hey the cleaned up score doesn't look that much different to me. For example: measure 9 the little squiggle line for the arpeggios should be in front of the notes, not on top.

Fixed. :thumbsup:

you could do that in measure 50 but i would suggest writing something to indicate it. Like having a bracket or something, on the bottom a and the notes to played by the left hand in the treble staff.

You're right, I should have notated the times when the left hand plays the treble staff. That will take some consideration, thus time, so it won't be so easy to fix as the arpeggiated chords. I will though do that later today and post an updated score.

Hey Andrei,

this is my MUS file as requested. Thank you very much indeed.

E-Flat Minor Direction.MUS