I took part in a 2-hour song challenge – the theme was technology, so here we have a piano piece that needs a little extra-human help. Inspired obviously by Nancarrow, in a very general way, nothing like as crazy!
It’s also quite light and bright, which I wanted to go for in contrast to a lot of the “technology” ideas I first had that were more dark and brooding.
Words by Paul Gerhardt, translated by Catherine Winkworth.
To God’s all-gracious heart and mind
My heart and mind I yield;
In seeming loss my gain I find,
In death, life stands revealed.
I am His own whose glorious throne
In highest heaven is set;
Beneath His stroke or sorrow’s yoke
His heart upholds me yet.
If happy sunshine be Thy gift,
With joy I take it, Lord;
If o’er dark stormy seas I drift,
I hear Thy guiding word;
If lengthened life, with blessings rife,
Before my feet be spread,
So Thou my Guide wilt still abide,
With joy that path I tread.
But must I walk the vale of death
Through sad and sunless ways,
I pass along in quiet faith,
Thy glance my fear allays;
Through the dark land my Shepherd’s hand
Leads to an end so bright,
That I shall there with praise declare
That all God’s ways are right!
Yes I shall there with praise declare
That all God’s ways are right!
…yes, midi is standard, not a particular “sound”, but also it kinda is; we know what that means. Plus it’s a catchy title.
These ones in particular I was trying to go for a 90s game midi ‘feel’, very quickly and unabashedly.
Aerial Combat in particular though I kind of am tempted to redo with full sound, even though it also feels very native to this format at the same time, heh.
I made some fuller recordings of a couple songs:
Thousand Thousand (original version from October)
O Wouldst Thou in Thy Glory Come — this one from way back!
Sort of a Christmas song!
A tiny ‘game’ where you read a line of poetry.
Music:
New recording of one of the earlier Catherine Winkworth songs.
Kind of on a roll after Cloud Smiles … Earlier I finished up a piece that I’m not posting quite yet as it might be part of something bigger, and then I did a couple of ‘warm up’ sketches. This is one of them arranged two ways, with the FFVII soundfont again. (Yes, exactly like Aerith’s Theme and Flower Blooming in the Church.)
An honorary addition to my FFVII Remake Demakes series… This piece, ‘Cloud Smiles’, plays at the end of the Final Fantasy VII Advent Children movie from 2005. I transcribed it and put it on the original 1997 sounds.
I guess people may wonder why I would do such a thing… mainly just because I want to, but I guess 1) because I enjoy the ‘warmth’ of the old sound samples, and this is a project to make the newer tracks ‘fit’ in the old game 2) it’s practise transcribing and quite a nice way to really get to know a piece and pick up some arrangement/orchestration tips !
I’ve been realising with the Remake Demakes and also I’ve been making some sheet music of Taylor Swift songs, been doing more transcribing/arranging lately — if I think back to ten years ago how much more confident I’ve got with it..! yay!