Wulfhere & St Chad Part 2

Post by **Neil B** » Thu Sep 19, 2002 2:04 am

This file has expired and is no longer available here. The owner of the topic can re-upload the file, or post a link to an off-site file. <a name="planetz-tag"></a>Genre: Tone Poem <a name="planetz-tag"></a>Uses: JV1080 01/W SG01V SY77 copyright © 1997 Neil Buxton _____________________________________ Wulfhere & St. Chad Part 2

I’ve uploaded this at the request of Chris Werner but also for a bit of help from the rest of the Planet if it's not too late for help!
Chris, this will give you an idea of the sounds used for the midi file that you’ve already received. I hope that it helps.

My problem is that this is my only copy on cassette, I’ve changed equipment and can’t recreate it as before and so I’ve simply recorded it (dry) into an audio track from tape.
The kettledrums (timpani) had just about pushed the recording level over the top on the tape and the quality of the tape has also degraded. Is there any way of improving or cleaning up some of the degradation and improving the quality of the wav/mp3 file?

For those of you brave enough to listen to the music, if not the recording quality:
This follows on from Part 1 where King Wulfhere had found out that his sons had become Christians.
He chased them down and murdered them.

In this, part 2, he is full of remorse for killing his sons. St. Chad returns and over a period of time Wulfhere is converted to Christianity. He built a wooden church as the first place of worship in the village. This remained until the first stone church was built, and indeed, a 12th century church remains on this site to this day and is very well attended. The piece has a sort of angelic, happier ending than the mellotronic, melancholic darkness of part one, so it all worked out okay in the end, unless you happened to be one of the princes!

The track is 8mins14secs, 128/44.1 16bit. and 7.7Mb in size

ChrisWerner · Post by **ChrisWerner** » Thu Sep 19, 2002 3:17 am

Thanks for your fast response Neil.This MP3 will help me to recreate this track.
Also I can try to restaurate the whole track from your audio cassette.
For example, if you listen to my Inner Voices, this is a restauration of an eight years old audiocassette ,too.
We will save this track.
CU

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Thu Sep 19, 2002 8:02 am

Sounds like an extended excercise for the IV, V and VI chords. Great work on thinking of so many variations! The chorus part (VI->IV->I->V) sounds very magnificent.

The sound is damaged at places... Didn't think it was quite that devastating... But to do the piece justice, I'd rebuild it with whatever equipment available.

A thing or two about the voicing though. I seem to get the impression (just in this specific tune) that the root tone is a bit weak, while the lower parts doing the 3rd, etc. seems to be stronger. Maybe that was on purpose to create the lightness. Just something I noticed.

Also, the VI chord that pulls through most of the middle section of the piece, seemed be maintain a pure triad form. I was thinking maybe a sustained 7th or a 5th could enrich the atmosphere?

But anyway, nevermind the details. A magnificent composition nonetheless. The tiny things don't really matter. Great job!

BTW, what's this about Chris "recreating" the track? Is he doing like a remix or something? Or is this a cover tune?

[ This Message was edited by: kensuguro on 2002-09-19 09:04 ]

Post by **Neil B** » Thu Sep 19, 2002 8:25 am

Thanks to you both (to date) for the reply and comments.
Ken - I'm really am pleased with your positive response. I'm a great admirer of your range of styles and dexterity and overall musical talent and one of the reasons that I didn't post this before was I thought that it would fall short musically of what appears in this forum. But - the idea is to gain comments from everyone and I really appreciate your tips. I still don't think that I would've uploaded it though unless Chris had asked for it!
As well as taking on board your tips it is worth explaining that this was a 12 track project designed for performance in the 12th century church outlined in my notes and there was a need to cater (musically) for an age group of 8 to 80 and leave everyone pleased with something. It also had to link to the 90 minutes of video around the historical story. To do that I created 2 themes for the tracks, intertwined in some, subte in others (such as The Plague)- one for the village and one for the prescence of God throughout, so there were times I just had to remain simple such that these themes would come back through. If you think of a bunch of pensioners having just been blasted with 10 minutes of section one of this track, complete with thumping Tangerine Dream sequencers and mellotrons, lighting rigs and a video of someone being drowned in a darkened forest, I felt that I had to lighten the mood up again, so simple had to be the way. ON top of that I don't suppose I even thought of doing what you suggested )-: )-:
I'll try what you have written in another track though - many thanks.
Regarding Chris - well, it appears that we have much in common musically. He liked part one of Wulfhere, had the .ALL Cubase file off me (all midi) and wanted part two. Part one suits his M-Tron. I think I'd like to hear his cover version if he did one.
Finally, instead of recreating old tracks I feel that it is time for me to move on (see other posts). In fact, ideas are brewing and notes are being written and seeing as how I retire in just over a week - watch this space.
Thanks again Ken - you don't realise how much I appreciate it.

ChrisWerner · Post by **ChrisWerner** » Thu Sep 19, 2002 8:27 am

Ken, it´s a shame that Neil sold most of his gear, he is unable to play the miditrack with the "old instruments". I like this track very much and I will re-animate this track, no changes,I would only add new/old sounds to it.
Till now 14 M-Trons and some other Syns are working on the "new" midi tracks.
I hope all the work will end in a succsess.