rrayner
02-28-2011, 01:24 AM
This piece is written for Soprano Recorder and Alto Recorder. Some of the pieces in this series are in keys that you might not see a lot in learning pieces. This was intentional to keep the Soprano part in the lower register. Play along with Notation Composer or print the piece for playing with your friend(s). Please feel free to change the instruments and/or keys to suit your personal needs. RRR
This duet is basically a reduction of the hit song by Simon & Garfunkel. I've enjoyed the song for years, but could never quite get into the complexity of the different verses. By entering it into Notation Composer, I've got a good handle on what these differences are. It is a fairly complex piece, with counter-melodies and counter-rhythms. I've made a few changes to suit our purposes -- most of them to keep the piece on two printed pages:
1) dropped the introduction
2) made the final 22 measures into a DC al Fine to conserve space
3) used some of the harmonies from the last 22 measures in the first 22
4) transposed the key from the original E Minor to D Minor to improve Recorder sound
5) in measure 74, changed the note on beat 2 to a D, instead of a low A, which would be below the Soprano's range (originally a B below the staff in E Minor)
6) included the lyrics as a reading cue to help in knowing when to enter
7) reduced the font size
Interestingly, the published music differs in places from the recorded music. In those places where I could pick it out from the recording, I have used that version. There's a lot of the beautiful background accompaniment that couldn't be included for two voices, but I think it plays pretty well.
If you remove the lyrics, you can increase the font size for readability.
We are having a lot of fun playing this piece. I hope you will, also.
Ralph Rayner
This duet is basically a reduction of the hit song by Simon & Garfunkel. I've enjoyed the song for years, but could never quite get into the complexity of the different verses. By entering it into Notation Composer, I've got a good handle on what these differences are. It is a fairly complex piece, with counter-melodies and counter-rhythms. I've made a few changes to suit our purposes -- most of them to keep the piece on two printed pages:
1) dropped the introduction
2) made the final 22 measures into a DC al Fine to conserve space
3) used some of the harmonies from the last 22 measures in the first 22
4) transposed the key from the original E Minor to D Minor to improve Recorder sound
5) in measure 74, changed the note on beat 2 to a D, instead of a low A, which would be below the Soprano's range (originally a B below the staff in E Minor)
6) included the lyrics as a reading cue to help in knowing when to enter
7) reduced the font size
Interestingly, the published music differs in places from the recorded music. In those places where I could pick it out from the recording, I have used that version. There's a lot of the beautiful background accompaniment that couldn't be included for two voices, but I think it plays pretty well.
If you remove the lyrics, you can increase the font size for readability.
We are having a lot of fun playing this piece. I hope you will, also.
Ralph Rayner