The MIDI Page
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I am including a number of MIDI files that I have created. The process of learning to master MIDI is long and complex and these are a few of the things I have come up with. This is work in progress. There will be more files here soon.
This was an attempt to recreate the sound of a Cuban comparsa band playing "el Alacran". I created the effect of the Cuban tres by mixing together pairs of steel guitars and piano and making them slightly out of tune with each other. THe interrupted trumpet fanfare and the tune are characteristic of Cuban comparsa bands.
I attempted to take the very difficult Hora Martisorului, The Hora of the First of March, the Romanian Valentine's Day, and set it like a Romanian folk ensemble.
This is a piano composition by the 19th Century Romanian composer, Carol Mikuli (1821-1897). He was a friend and comtemporary of Chopin in Paris. One can imagine that he was inspired by Chopin's settings and adaptation of Polish folklore to the "Great Tradition". This is one of three suites composed by Mikuli in the Romanian folk style. The suite is called Douze Airs Nationaux Roumains and is dated 1855. The following movements are included:
2. Doina, 3. Hora, 4. Muntenescu, 5. Cabntec lui Dari. 6.Pe o stinca'nalta. 7. Hora. 8.Andantino. 9. Dute, dute la barbatu. 10. Hora. 11. Ce tot fugi, jubita. 12.Hora.
Art Tatum was a pianist of amazing viruosity. Finding a set of his performances in notation, I decided to enter them into MIDI as carefully as possible. The result was to me, nothing short of amazing. The mathematical precision of his technique was accurately captured in the notated and later MIDIzed performance.
I found this piano solo by Horace Silver very moving so I MIDI'ed it to see how it worked. More to come. Robert Garfias
rgarfias@uci.edu |