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Image © Audrey Barker 2005

ABC Notation:

 
X:1
T:Dance of the Frost Faeries
R:jig
M:6/8
L:1/8
K:Ddor
D2G A2c | d2c A2G | D2G A2c | A3 d3 :|!
d2f e2d | c3 A3 | G3 GFG | A3 d3 | d2f e2d | c3 A3 | G3 GFE | D6 |!
d2c d2A | d2e f2d | c2A c2f | A3 A3 | d2c d2A | d2e f2d | f2e c2e | d3 d3 |!
a2d f2a | g2e c2e | f2e f2a | g3 g3 | f2a g2f | e2d e2f | e2d c2e |d3 d3 |
D2G A2c | d2c A2G | D2G A2c | A3 d3-| d3 z3 ||

Musical Notation:

Lyrics: (AABA Format)

Alternate Lyrics: (see ABC Notation above)

MIDI and .mp3 Sample Arrangements:

• Here is a quick recording, Hans on whistle: Attach:spiritoso-hans-1.mp3
• Play a computer generated midi version: Spiritoso midi 1
• Another midi version: Spiritoso midi 2
• An "early musick" version for flute and harpsichord. spirit9 midi ~Derek

Co-creation Dialogue:

Co-Creators: Gemma, Derek, Hans, Sharon

Hi :) I chose 6/8 time because I liked the emphasis of the rhythm (on the 1st and 4th beats) as opposed to 4/4 time which traditionally places emphasis on the 1st and 3rd beats. What I did leave out was the key notation (B flat for D minor). ~Gemma

I think it is not d minor but d dorian. Not that it makes any difference if no B or Bb is used, mind you! But if one slips in I like the B much better than the Bb, in which case it becomes d dorian. ~Hans

You're right :) It is the dorian mode I haven't consciously thought of it in eons. Funny how conscious memory can forget something but the sound remains. Thanks for pointing it out. The Bb doesn't work for me either. ~Gemma

Hans~ Just curious... was there a reason you changed the last note in bars 4 and 8 from a D to an E? Gemma

oh dear, call it a typo! I think i make such mistakes because I am more used to read music for the D-whistle, and here I used the C-whistle, so playing a d is the same fingering than playing an e on the D-whistle. I did play it with a d and not an e. Although sometimes it is nice to end the first part on the second note, and the second part on the tonic. I will correct and tidy up the written scores. ~Hans

Play a computer generated midi version: Spiritoso midi

Fun to hear the computer version but it just doesn't hold a candle to whistle or piano. Too heavy and spirit of the piece is missing for me. Can't hear the frost faeries at the ceilidh :( ~Gemma

Listening to the computer version again and, without being attached to the faeries, I can now hear its merits. For me, it brings to mind a Russian folk dance kind of feeling ~ joyful and earthy. Makes me wish I could do that dance where you bend your knees and kick out one foot at a time. LOL

very true, although this program is clever and even adds a bit of swing. you just have to send me an mp3 recording of your piano version, and i will play the whistle on top. :)

That would be grand (a little piano humour) if I knew how to record it LOL Since I've been listening to your whistle and Sharon's percussion, I think the piano might weigh it down unless it was used just to underscore the rhythm or tune somehow. I think the whistle (or flute perhaps) is perfect to carry the melody. ~Gemma

I've been playing with Garageband software instruments... I know it's not nearly as rich as your real whistle music, Hans, but here's the first two lines with "shimmering flute" and some kind of shaker percussion instruments. Fun!! :) ~Sharon

Another computer generated version: Frost Fairies 3

Love the percussion, Sharon ~ I can feel the dance! The one above sounds nice and earthy! ~Gemma

Hmmm... I was trying to get away from "earthy" :-) but up an octave it may sound a bit shrill... so here it is again, back down an octave, but with the new tinkly percussion, which sounds more wintry/icy clear and crisp to me. Here are the two versions... preferences?

Yes, I can hear what you mean... I like #5 too. Perhaps as the song builds you may add a bit of #3. ~Gemma

written in abc-notation:

What fun! Thanks to ABC Convert-A-Matic I am able to offer: . ~Derek

Hi Derek :D So great to play with you! I tried the Convert-A-Matic but got errors. Any advice? ~Gemma

"Take your coat and grab your hat
We're going to the ceilidh"
~Derek

Well, I may not be able to play an instrument, but I can mix music with my Garageband software if you like. :-) I already imported Hans' whistle part... anyone want to add percussion? (as an .mp3 file) This is sooo much fun!!! ~ Sharon

Absolutely fun! Loved hearing Hans' whistle... would love to add the piano too but, right now, have no way of recording it to mp3. ~Gemma

Hi Gemma I hadn't even heard of abc notation until today. I don't know why it didn't work for you. Here's a hi-tech version with a drum beat and a bass part. Needs more I think. This is a MIDI file: spiritoso5 midi Oops I got a message spiritoso5.mid: 'mid' is not an allowed file extension.

I fixed this I hope, please try again! ~Hans

Ah yes it works now thanks. This is a MIDI file: spiritoso5 midi I was going more in the direction of the foot-stomping ceilidh here, like a 4/4 jig. But having listened to it again, I think the 6/8 time demands a lighter, more graceful and spritely style ~Derek.

Hi Sharon those garageband sounds are delightful. Can you read in or write out in MIDI format? I can play MP 3? but can't add to them.

Hi Derek, :) Apparently I can add midi to Garageband with a midi keyboard, which I don't have... (I've been using the onscreen keyboard with its teeny tiny keys, which I have to use the mouse to click... not good at rhythm or correct notes that way, so it takes a while... I have to manually reposition each note and make sure it's the right length and in the right place in the editing software after I get the notes in from the keyboard. It's very time consuming but gives pretty good results...) There may be a way to import midi from software, but I haven't found it yet. I don't think I can export midi, though. It's not meant to be a midi generator. I can only export to iTunes, where it can be converted to aiff, aac, mp3 or wav. If I have time today, I may be able to do the next few lines in the same style. Fun! :) ~Sharon

Below, I've added one last line to the song ~ it's actually the a repeat of the first. ~Gemma

Here’s a first draft of some lyrics which are sorely in need of some help :) They are kind of weird and goofy when you just read them, but are a bit better with the music. The Alleluia is a bit too ‘angelic’ but couldn’t think of a good faerie equivalent. Perhaps you can. ~Gemma

 
Dance of the Frost Faeries 

River’s flow is iced and stilled and yet they dance delighted 
Faeries of the frosted mist sing, ‘come and join our ceilidh’ 
Dance for joy and sorrow; spring is on the morrow 
Green will grow the meadow; Love shines in our lives 
Come along and dance for freedom, come and dance together 
Raise our voices, alleluia sing peace everlasting 
Alleluia Alleluia Peace is everlasting 
Alleluia Alleluia Peace is everlasting 
River’s flow is iced and stilled and yet we dance delighted 

I will play with your lyric ideas Gemma. Here is a more spritely version for flute, bassoon, tambourine and triangle (I think Sharon had used the triangle which sounded nice): spiritoso8 midi It is now in a standard AABA structure. ~Derek.

Hey Derek~ Version 8 is fun! A whole other feel to it. Made me laugh and smile! ~Gemma

Thank you Gemma :-) The bassoon is an intrinsically humorous instrument. Here's the next version of the lyrics to go with it. We have to make the consonant clusters singable in eighth notes. Here's my attempt: ~Derek.

Very cool lyrics, Derek! :-) I like the celebration of frost, with just a hint of sleeping spring... not feeling very poetic myself lately, but I wonder if there's a way to put something in about the way the frost crystals sparkle, play with light/sunbeams/moonbeams? ~Sharon

Hi Sharon, Please do go ahead and add more lyrics or change those that are already there. The difficulty is that English has so many consonants in it, and lyrics have to be pronouncable at the speed of the melody. ~Derek

And here's the "early musick" version for flute and harpsichord. This is a MIDI file: spirit9 midi ~Derek

Does anyone else have MIDI creation and editing software? If so we can work on it together. ~Derek

Hi Derek~ Earlier today, I downloaded a programme called: MagicScore Maestro recommended by users at Tucows. There's a free demo for anyone interested. :) Gemma

It looks very good Gemma. From the features list I believe it will allow you to read in a MIDI file, edit the parts, and then re-export to MIDI format. I have a cheap MIDI editing software that I got from Best Buy? for about fifty Canadian dollars (the professional ones can be hundreds and hundreds). I don't even remember the name of it now, but it allows me to do the same thing -- read in a MIDI file, edit the parts, and then re-export to MIDI format. Would you like to upload to this site one of the MIDI files you have created with Magic Score? Maestro? Or take one of the existing MIDI files from this page and change it around? It will allow us to create something collaboratively. ~Derek

Well, I've been playing with the Magic Score programme for a few hours now and here is my first attempt at an arrangement of the original tune (Oops ~ I just played the midi file that I had inserted (uploaded) here and it doesn't sound quite right.. The file sounds fine when I play it prior to uploading... I'll have to check it out.) I just worked with the 8 lines so I could figure out how the programme works. I've yet to play with the how of phrasing or musical expressions (as you can tell). The programme's pretty friendly but the instrument choices aren't as 'fresh' as Sharon's Garageband sounds. Derek, I've posted this for fun but I would rather continue to work on our collaborative effort. I'll see if I can download one of our existing midi files to play with in the programme. ~Gemma

Hi Gemma I couldn't see the file you meant so I looked to see what had been uploaded. Is this the one? Frost Faeries GG.mid ~Derek.

Yes but it is not working correctly - a lot of the music is missing and what is there is a distorted version of the midi file as it plays from my hard drive. I'll try reloading it later in the day ~Gemma

I had a look at it and the parts seemed to all have been assigned to one midi channel, with patch changes to get the different instruments. I tried to separate out what you might mean -- 4 measures only, with a percussion count-in -- it sounds like this: frostf10.mid and looks like this: ~Derek.

Hi Derek :) Interesting, eh? I delved a little deeper and found that the Magic Score programme saves with the file extension '.sfd' (sound data file). You are right re: one midi channel. When the programme saves the original work as a midi file, it condenses it to one channel using one voice (instrument) only. I had, in fact, used 6 instruments - some with both treble and bass clefs and others with only treble clef. It was neat to hear your version above working backwards from the midi file I posted (I liked the symphonic sound) however, it did not sound anything like the .sfd file harmonies or instruments. I tried uploading the .sfd file but, as I suspected, it is not an acceptable file format for our wiki. So it looks like I won't be able to swap back and forth for editing purposes with this programme. One thing though, I don't know why the midi file I created from the .sfd became distorted when I uploaded it to wiki. Any thoughts? ~Gemma

Hi, sorry I have not gone further alongwith these musical explorations! The main reason is that I am not much intersted in midi music. I prefer to play live, and i use midi only occasionally to get a first idea of a tune, for learning purposes. But mostly I use abc-notation software for that, since a lot of the folk music I love is stored and shared in that format. -But I remember downloading once a free softweare for using, creating etc multi-track midi, which looked promising. It is called Anvil Midi Studio (link). Perhaps this may suit you better Gemma.

I was also wondering if this page could be restructured, so that the goodies, all that is worth showing, can be in a section at the top, followed by a section with discussion and experimentation. what do you think? Love, ~Hans

Good morning Gemma and Hans, So now we get to the point where what began as fun becomes sheer hard work! Gemma, I don't know why the SFD to MIDI conversion results in a loss of quality. Perhaps it's a limitation of the device reproducing the MIDI sounds. I know that if I play it back through the PC's sound system it all sounds very tinny, whereas if I play it through the Yamaha sythesizer hooked up to the computer, it sounds much more attractive. Perhaps the single-channel MIDI file just has too much happening too quickly. Unfortunately I wouldn't be able to play back your SFD format even if you uploaded it. One other problem I noticed but haven't fixed yet -- the flute melody is too quiet in that "taken apart" version I constructed. Hans, your free Anvil Midi Studio looks comparable to the one I payed fifty bucks for! I don't know how to decide what's worth keeping among our experiments (to go at the top) and what isn't. Yes, playing live is a different kind of activity altogether from fiddling around with midi files.

I was vaguely thinking we could get to the point where we could come up with an arrangement we're satisfied with (by exchanging MIDI files), then remove the melody, and then Hans could re-record the melody live. Hard work, hard work, hard work.

Here's a version that sounds okay if played back through the synthesizer (rather than the PC). Maybe needs some richer harmony in the high strings that accompany the repetition of the melody beginning at measure 13. Here the instruments come in just a few at a time: ~Derek.

This is a MIDI file: frostf12.mid Ooooh, I like it Derek! Hope you continue ~Gemma

(Might I suggest we use this page as a "work in progress" page...etc. :) ~Sharon)

Hi Sharon I think it's a good idea, but I don't know what we would count as finished enough to go on the goodies worth showing page. Also we have problems with using MIDI files for collaboration (Hans doesn't want to work in MIDI, Gemma's software destroyed the channel by channel instrumentation, your software won't do MIDI). So I don't know how we can work on something collaboratively. Has our ability to work together reach a limit of just throwing out ideas, but never completing anything? Is tat what we want to do? Where do we go from here? ~Derek.

I guess it depends what our intention is... what is the purpose of the exercise? If the purpose is to have fun and compose a song together, then I think we've done a great job already! :) If the purpose is to arrange the music for several instruments, then maybe we need to look at software incompatibilities etc. more closely and try to come up with something workable (I have found some freeware that translates MIDI to aiff for Garageband, but can't export to MIDI yet)... If our purpose is to perform the song electronically... well, I'm with Hans there. I think I'd rather hear real music. I also don't think that the goodies page needs to be saved for when it's "finished", but it could help us clarify things if we were to copy the most recent versions of things like the abc and music notations and lyrics from the discussion page over so we are all working on the same page as the saying goes. :) Changes can still be made on the new page, but it would be part of the "clarifying where we are" process to decide what goes there... does this make sense? ~Sharon Yes :) ~Gemma

I would prefer if the results of our creative effort stay here on this page, and the experimentation as well. But I would prefer to see any results bundled at the top. To move things onto a new page I do not find so favourable. Pour quoi? ~G - I enjoyed the process of collaborative composition, and that was for me what Dovetail Harmonies was about. (Me too! ~G.) - to work collaboratively with midi arrangements is certainly fine, but i don't enjoy it myself, so you won't get much input there from me :-(. But perhaps Gemma gets better software? ~Hans I'm not sure yet about the arrangements. I've just been having fun fooling around with the possibilities. I sorely miss 'real' sound :( ~Gemma

Well I'm glad you enjoyed it Gemma! :-) It's just your MIDI file that I tried to split apart into different instruments. I could carry on with the rest of your file. It does sound good, but only if I play it back thru the synthesizer rather than the PC sound card. Hans: Would you be willing and able to remove the melody line from the MIDI file and re-record the flute part "live"? Sharon: Are you able to read it into Garageband with your free converter kit and make an mp3 file with Garageband sounds? The version we're talking about is number 12, here: frostf12.mid

frostf15.mid with "as it now stands" version at top of page. The continuation isn't as inspired as Gemma's beginning, but there it is. One minute and five seconds! ~Derek

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