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M G Jacobs (mgj32)
08-13-2005, 07:24 AM
This is not a classic rag, though it seems enough like one that I'm not sure where else to put it. It was started in the beta 1.1 #1 release and last worked on in the #4 release.

Its origins lie in the time before one could purchase even a Hallicrafters 7" TV, otherwise sometimes known as Radio Days. Summers were hotter then and winters colder, and especially after the early darkness in the winter, someone my age spent hours sitting next to the radio all ears. One thing radio had in common with TV was lots of ads, and most, if not all, of these had catchy jingles set to music, and that music could start to go through your head, whether you wished it to or not. "Derring-do" represents a purgation of some of those snippets of tunes that kept going through my head long after radio became the monster it is to this day.

<center><table border=1><tr><td>http://www.notation.com/discus/icons/attachment_icon.gifDerring-do
Derring-do.mid (http://www.notation.com/discus/messages/35939/Derring-do-27275.mid) (21.1 k)</td></tr></table></center>

Mark Walsen (markwa)
08-18-2005, 04:49 AM
Hello M.G.,

I enjoyed hearing your Derring-do rag a few days ago. I'm not able to re-download it again now, for some reason. Are you able to?

I recall that this rag innovates in the area rhythmic details, using pairs or triplets of 16ths or 32nds.

Cheers
-- Mark

M G Jacobs (mgj32)
08-18-2005, 05:28 AM
Hi Mark,

I just tried clicking the link, above, Win Media Player opens and plays it. If I do save as, the file downloads. It is a bit interesting that if I open the midi download in Composer, a message says there is no auto channel available and only the right hand played until I assigned the left hand to a channel.

About the rhythmic detail, I'm not sure what you refer to. There are measures with a grace note on the first beat followed by 8th note triplets. The section with the tempo changes uses 8th note om phas, rather than the quarter notes which were the case in every rag I can remember ever playing.

Oddly enough, after days of work on an orchestral piece for coloratura, piano, flute and orchestra, I had just opened a raggish piece based on tunes from My Fair Lady to work on.

I tried downloading the file in both Opera and Firefox, and it worked both times. So I guess the link is alive.

all best,
mgj

Sherry Crann (sherry)
08-19-2005, 03:14 PM
Howdy M G,

I've been working on some old parlor tunes for a family project, and your piece above was sort of like the finale! It's a very fun piece to listen to, and my kids were dancing around and asking who wrote that http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/happy.gif

I'd like to listen to it more closely, and check out the more technical aspects of it. I've found Composer to be a wonderful tool for me in this respect, as it has helped me to learn a lot about what makes a composition "tick". Thanks for sharing yours!

ttfn,
Sherry

M G Jacobs (mgj32)
08-19-2005, 09:46 PM
Hi Sherry,

Sousa, when asked what made a good march, answered that it was music that made the toes twinkle. Glad this one had some effect on the kids' toes.

I never thought that I could have posted the .not version. That way you could have seen everything. I'll be more aware of file size next time.

all best,
mgj

M G Jacobs (mgj32)
09-13-2005, 08:10 AM
Finishing this was a bit of pure fun after spending several days with a composition that was partly an experiment. I started Reveries a year of so ago and never got back to it until now. What connection the title has with the music has completely slipped my mind, but until a new one comes along, I'll stick with it.

<center><table border=1><tr><td>http://www.notation.com/discus/icons/attachment_icon.gifReveries
Mid-summer Reveries.not (http://www.notation.com/discus/messages/35939/Mid-summer_Reveries-27437.not) (334.3 k)</td></tr></table></center>

all best,
mgj

Mark Walsen (markwa)
09-14-2005, 07:05 PM
Hello M.G.,

I'm interested in hearing about what aspect of this composition is experimental. The piece is clearly a ragtime. The harmony, however, is not traditional ragtime. The harmony is "off-balance", intentionally, I presume. I suspect that harmony is where you've experimented. What specific harmony experiments does this piece employ? I haven't been able to analyze to my intellectual satisfaction what this piece does harmonically.

Cheers
-- Mark

Sherry Crann (sherry)
09-14-2005, 07:47 PM
Howdy M G,

I don't have the intellectual music capacity to "wrap my head around" this piece, but I will tell you what it did for me http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/happy.gif

My son Aaron and our new (to us - she's almost 4) chocolate lab were frolicking in the back yard this morning. Aaron is quite "inventive" when it comes to playing with the dog, or with toys. Sonia (the dog) is much more predictable in her behavior. It was almost like re-viewing their morning romp while I was listening to this piece - Sonia was the more predictable left-hand, while Aaron was the capricious right-hand. Lots of fun twists and turns, and much interplay between the two hands/personalities taking you somewhere then making an unexpected move.

Did you improvise this piece, or was it an "intentional" composition?

This is a really fun piece to listen to - thanks for sharing it!

ttfn,
Sherry

M G Jacobs (mgj32)
09-14-2005, 08:13 PM
Hello Mark,

Sorry not to have had a cerebral agenda to discuss when I started this. That "after several days with a composition that was...experimental" referred to the whole-tone piece.

Interestingly, this piece game me an occasion to listen to all of Joplin. I opened the midi file of each rag in Composer, split the hands, and watched as I listened. (I was listening because, after a year since I sketched it out, "Reveries" seemed AWFULLY familiar--as if I had heard it, the whole piece, before and had maybe let my sub-conscious employ Mozart's gift as a curse and I re-wrote a Joplin piece). But ragtime harmony seems pretty much I, IV, V, with frequent excursions into the diminished sound, though I can't pretend to have analyzed it, even in one piece. I was just after the kind of sound that I imagined. Maybe the fact that I just wanted to get the idea in mind down, and I worried about nothing else, was why it was so much fun to do????

all best,
mgj

M G Jacobs (mgj32)
09-14-2005, 08:27 PM
Hello Sherry,

Nice description, and I guess it fits. I chose the title because it was hot and sticky when I sketched it. Once that was done, the right hand seemed a sort of fickle but cool breeze and the sections with the thrumming left hand like the heat. But the title was one of those things that just happens; I didn't spend any time agonizing over the choice. If it had been winter, it would probably be called something else.

I don't have anything to improvise on. But a couple of ideas popped up in my head and before I forgot them, I sketched them out. It seemed it would work as a rag-like piece, so I made it 2/4 and added the left hand. Since it needed something else, I chipped away at ideas until I had added what seemed, later, to be the "heat" sections. So I guess it was improvised in my head and finished intentionally.

Glad it was fun.

best,
mgj

M G Jacobs (mgj32)
10-14-2005, 06:36 AM
Picky is not really a rag; just a little piano piece in 2/4 time. It is part of a suite that one day could be for orchestra.

<center><table border=1><tr><td>http://www.notation.com/discus/icons/attachment_icon.gifPicky
Picky.mid (http://www.notation.com/discus/messages/35939/Picky-27540.mid) (25.6 k)</td></tr></table></center>

M G Jacobs (mgj32)
10-15-2005, 07:03 AM
It's still just a little piano piece, but I downloaded the midi I put up yesterday to make sure it worked, then listened to it, and discovered a few things I wasn't satisfied with.

<center><table border=1><tr><td>http://www.notation.com/discus/icons/attachment_icon.gifPicky revised
Picky REV.mid (http://www.notation.com/discus/messages/35939/Picky_REV-27550.mid) (26.5 k)</td></tr></table></center>

Mark Walsen (markwa)
10-27-2005, 04:05 AM
Hello M.G.,

I listened to your first version of Picky.mid many days ago, but just now listened to Picky REV.mid.

This piece is an ear-twister. I'm not exactly sure what you're doing with the harmony, but sometimes it sounds poly-tonal-- perhaps with two harmonies a 5th or 4th apart, happening at the same time. Not like Charles Ives polytonality. Just an element of it that creates a sort of clashing, off-balance harmony. How would you describe the harmony?

The overall structure of the piece makes good sense to me. There is good contrast between the A and B themes.

The ending is very convincing, with excellent build-up, such as the chromatic progression of the LH downbeats starting at measure 205, as well as the full-measure runs of 16th notes, which really pick up the pace, to create a climax.

The final bass octave in G is a mystery. The harmony obviously begs for a D instead of G. Yet, the half-cadence-like G is consistent with the "off by a 4th or 5th" sort of poly-tonality thing I mentioned above. What's your analysis of this final note? It's not fair for you to just answer, "that's what I heard" http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/happy.gif

Cheers
-- Mark

M G Jacobs (mgj32)
10-27-2005, 07:45 AM
Hi Mark,
Hmmm, interesting questions. I didn't try to analyze Picky as I did it. There wasn't really time--the doing took only a couple of hours. I started with a general idea for the first theme, a sense that I wanted a theme that could be played with slightly different emphasis giving a somewhat different sense of the melody, a thoughtful section, and a Picky triumphant ending.

As to the harmony, there are some clashes, as in measures 18 and 19. I would describe these as incidental, mostly because it's easier than saying that the RH is in Eb (the section starting with a IV chord, like the first) and the LH plays a Caug chord against it. The idea here (this section I viewed as a kind of variation on the first theme, which appears only the once) is that I am moving from a section pretty solidly in G to one in Eb through a C aug chord so the transition is not blatently chromatic. I'm not sure it works as well as I wanted, but I tried flatting the Es in the LH, and think the "clash" is better.

There were some mistakes, for example the B4 in the LH should have been and is now Bb. So now the harmony in measures 9-15 could be seen as I I Vmin7 V I Idim V Vmin7 IV Idim Vmin Vmaj7 I6 IV6. Basically, I IV V, but intentionally partial harmony. Anyway, I think that's probably similar to what I had in mind, at least the back of, when I did it.

Also changes in 104,5--moving the C# down to C in the LH. I wanted this section to sound pretty traditional, and even had a hard time convincing myself that some of the passing tones ought to be left.

The final section is pretty traditional, with I, IV and V chords, with a II thrown in a couple of times. 137 starts an ascending whole tone oriented few measures, with a chromatic downward tug on the second beat. This is Picky jumping--he could go up, straight up, and touch a broom held at shoulder height. These few measures are the only part I really thought out as I did the piece. I wanted a kind of triple build up to the end. This was to be the first of them, and the whole tone, switching between the black and white note systems, seemed the natural choice.

The mysterious final G is intentional to the point that I deleted several measures, including another whole tone build up ending with D,C, F# (basically a D7) leading to a D to a G--it was a pretty strong V I cadence. You could still get that sense, even in the truncated version, I think, by moving the A3 starting measure 153 to a D3/D4
octave.

But Picky was cut off in his prime. He was nearly 20 when he dislocated his jaw and couldn't eat; otherwise he looked and acted as he did when he was 5 or 6. That G is, if one wanted to see it that way, a comment on a universe that could be a lot more perfect than it is. It could be, also, a sense that Picky somewhere is at the momemt the piece ends, merely between jumps.

It could also be, and partly is, I'm sure, a taste I've developed for ending on a II or a IV, and trying to find a way to get the listener to accept it as the end. (I do this in the second movement of a symphony I'll post some time before Christmas, as it uses Christmas music as it's thematic material.) You might want to move that octave up to a C and see how that sounds. Originally, that's what I had, which resulted in a V, I, IV cadence, but a very hanging one since the E of the C triad was left implied....

It gets too complicated. Anyhow, I settled on the G. So, I've not said that's the way I heard it. I just had the idea that it should be final (long held) and somehow anticipatory of more, and the G was the choice, after trying several alternatives.

I think there may still be some corrections needed. But for now--

<center><table border=1><tr><td>http://www.notation.com/discus/icons/attachment_icon.gifPicky again
Picky REV Oct 27.not (http://www.notation.com/discus/messages/35939/Picky_REV_Oct_27-27596.not) (183.5 k)</td></tr></table></center>

best,
mgj

Sherry Crann (sherry)
10-27-2005, 03:00 PM
Howdy guys,

Fascinating discussion about a neat piece. In reading over the "Composer's Datebook" for today, I found a phrase that I think describes this piece nicely: "mercurial continuity."

ttfn,
Sherry

ps If you want to see the entire "Datebook" for today, email me off list and I can forward it to you. It's about composer Steven Mackey.

Mark Walsen (markwa)
10-27-2005, 03:52 PM
Hello M.G.,

Great job on the annotations in your most recent REV Oct 27 of Picky. Doesn't it feel good to do that? You know what mean. It's so easy to put off, forever and ever, adding the annotations, because _you_ know how the performer is supposed to play it http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/happy.gif

Thanks for your very satisfying explanation of the ending G note, which you have clearly calculated its effect. Per your suggestion, I substituted C for G, and it has a similar effect.

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

...the doing took only a couple of hours...<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>Did you improvise this with recording turned on?

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

I am moving from a section pretty solidly in G to one in Eb through a C aug chord so the transition is not blatently chromatic<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>Ah, that tells a lot about how you think, musically. You're not into Wagner? http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/happy.gif

You've got me hooked. I'm waiting for more, looking forward to hearing your sympony with Christmas themes.

Cheers
-- Mark

M G Jacobs (mgj32)
10-28-2005, 07:46 AM
Hi mark,

Quote: Did you improvise this with recording turned on?

No, I clicked the enlarge button three or four times and used the track ball mouse, changing note duration with the numbers at the top of the keyboard, as usual.

Quote: You're not into Wagner?

There is much about Wagner that is a bore, from his apparent inability to condense a story to get at its dramatic essence to his obsession with myth. His music, however, perhaps makes him the fourth "B."

best,
mgj