Performance of my song by professional soprano
 

[COLOR=#]I wrote a song to meet the challenge of setting the words for a poem by walt whitman called "facing west".

FACING west, from California’s shores, Inquiring, tireless, seeking what is yet unfound,
I, a child, very old, over waves, towards the house of maternity, the land of migrations, look afar,
Look off the shores of my Western Sea—the circle almost circled;
For, starting westward from Hindustan, from the vales of Kashmere, From Asia—from the north
—from the God, the sage, and the hero,
From the south—from the flowery peninsulas, and the spice islands;
Long having wander’d since—round the earth having wander’d,
Now I face home again—very pleas’d and joyous;
(But where is what I started for, so long ago? And why is it yet unfound?)



After scoring the piece for piano and voice on Cubase- PDF here. Some sketches done in Notation Composer then exported to Sibelius for tidying up.

http://www.box.net/shared/83zpjejyte

I made a mock-up using the Gypsy violin to give an idea of the melody line and the sort of rubato and expression I was looking for.

http://www.box.net/shared/ob7l0zuc17

I was pleased that the professional soprano Jacqueline Pischorn plus a fine pianist performed the work last week.

http://www.box.net/shared/q89hgmr4y5gt22jk0fh8


Unfortunately I couldn't make the concert, so the recording was done by a friend just using just an an i-phone. Does anybody know if the recording could be improved by any sort of mastering etc, or is it not worth even bothering?

Please also comment on the piece, the performance or anything else you want to.

thanks

Re: Performance of my song by professional soprano
 

Hi Adrian:

Bravo! It's a real treat to have your music performed by others, at any level, and for a professional to perform it doubly so.

I like the piece a lot. A very nice blend of an accessible melody and an "art" piece. A very tasteful arrangement, vocally and pianistically.

And what a voice!

You may be able to import the mp3 into Audacity and use EQ to add some bottom and top to it. MP3s tend to be mostly middle, as those are the frequencies that ear-buds reproduce. Some low end tweaking and a bit of high end would fill it out.

Congrats.

David

Re: Performance of my song by professional soprano
 

Thanks David

I may try adding a bit of top and bottom to it in audacity - that's a good idea.

I wish I could get the song recorded properly, so I'm going to keep plugging it.
It's a bit of hybrid art song/ musical, so it's not too easy fining a niche and somebody who might include it on a CD, but you never know

cheers

adrian

Re: Performance of my song by professional soprano
 

Kudos, Adrian. Very nicely done. I particularly enjoyed being able to follow the soprano and the pianist on the PDF score.

There was some very nice tonal shift throughout. Happy to hear another piece from you.

Ralph