Monday, January 11, 2010

PA Arts Monday - Day Before School Starts Edition

I just finished the first draft of the MIDI version of Women's Ghazal, the second movement of Hindu Kush, my new orchestral work, to be premiered in Anchorage on May 15th. I started it the day after Christmas. It is 333 measures long.

I've managed to get a lot done over the Holiday break.


Here's a screenshot of the computer screen of the score at my favorite part:I've been using a software program for musical notation, called Finale, for 20 years. The newer versions contain a plug-in called the Garritan Personal Orchestra. For the first 20 years of Finale, I used sampled MIDI sounds that are in modules outside of the computer. The modules I've used were called Proteuses (Proteii?), and were very state-of-the-art 22 years ago when they first came out.

To run all the sampled sounds of an orchestra simultaneously in a computer, you need a lot of RAM. My new
iMAC has 5 gigabytes of RAM, and that helps. A lot.

Here's
Women's Ghazal, in its first draft. Click here to listen.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Beautiful, truly. Thank you for sharing. We look forward to May 15.

AKPetMom said...

Nice piece! A little turmoil followed by a hopeful feeling (at least that's what I was getting)

At any rate, I have "musical envy" when I listen to your music and read about your passion. I have been meaning to pick my flute back up and after a year and a half of promising myself I've yet to make the jump; perhaps soon.....

Thanks for sharing.

Alicia

Philip Munger said...

Alicia,

Open up the case your flute has been resting in. Look at it. Ask it if it wants to stay where it has been. If it tell s you, "yes," put it back in the case.

If it tells you "no," or just stares back at you, try playing it. See what happens.