[ About | What's New | Rod's Music | RodMer Home | Links | Help ]

Wood Thrush

A flute & guitar duet

(computer-played version)

. . . by Rod Anderson        1994

NotesProgram Notes

Location (grandparent | parent | this page): RodMer Arts Home Page | Rod's Music | Wood Thrush Program Notes


If you've already read the program notes immediately below, or want to skip them for now, you can click --> to be taken immediately to the MP3 and MIDI files.

red line

Table of Contents (TOC) of these Program Notes

NotesThe Basics

Introduction

The woods around here are filled with wood thrushes during the summer. The song of the wood thrush is an ee-oh-lay (falling in the middle and rising at the end) -- well, you'll hear it. It's hardly a novel idea to use birdsong as an impetus for music creation. This is my attempt. First there is a slow intro, which introduces a guitar figure of falling sevenths -- usually one thinks of sevenths as discords that should resolve immediately -- but parallel sevenths create quite a different effect -- or maybe just delaying the ultimate resolution. Anyway, after the slow intro, Theme 1 introduces (in part) the wood thrush song. Then Theme 1 is repeated upside down (well not exactly - perfect inversion doesn't always work because our ears have a sort of downward harmonic pull of gravity -- so one has to actually distort in order to seem the same. Then there is a slow episodic section based on a second theme, which is sort of a slow-time variation of upside-down Theme 1. And then Theme 1 returns, this time alternating between being rightside up and upside down. And in a short coda at the end, the wood thrush repeats himself a little insistently -- so you won't forget.

Instrumentation

Flute
Acoustic nylon guitar

Duration

6 minutes

Composition date

1994 -- shortly after completing the Minor Suite duets.

First performances

October 29, 1995 (and again on November 12, 1995) at concerts at our home ("SwallowHill") in Cobourg, ON, Canada
Flute: George Lee (of Cobourg)
Guitar: Jeff McFadden (of Toronto)

Second performance





February 8, 1998 at the Art Gallery of Northumberland (in Cobourg, ON, Canada)
As part of a mini-concert accompanying the walking tour of the Merike Lugus sculpture show Transient States

Flute: Fred Cory (of Cobourg)
Guitar: Ed Hoad (of Port Hope)

Third performance

A third performance was given (again with Fred Cory on flue and Ed Hoad on guitar) at the Bamboo Club in Toronto on April 14, 1998 as part of the launch of Merike Lugus's new book of poetry Ophelia After Centuries of Trying.

Computer performers (when human ones are absent)

Like all the MIDI files here, it is in General MIDI form. The General MIDI patches (on the 0-127 numbering system) are:
PartGeneral MIDI patch
name#
GuitarAcoustic Guitar (Nylon)24
FluteFlute73
How it sounds will depend on your own playback software.

On my own synth I used the following patch:
PartSound ModulePatch
name#
FluteRoland JV880Flute/Picc from Orchestral Expansion Board (OEB)90
GuitarRoland JV880Classical Guitar from OEB185
This is what you hear on the mp3 files.

Back to TOC

NotesStructure notes

This structure is also shown in the markers in the Meter Track of the MIDI file.
1Slow intro
23Fast intro
29Theme 1a
43Bridge (built on fast intro)
49Theme 1b
63Theme 2
93Bridge
99Fast intro
105Theme 1
125Coda


Back to TOC

MP3 and MIDI files

Year Title
... Instrumentation
...... Excerpts 		Min:
Sec		 Complete
MP3 files
(better sound)**
file size		 MP3 file
excerpts
(better sound)**
file size		 Complete
MIDI file
(not as good sound but quick)**
The complete piece:
1994 Wood Thrush
... a flute & guitar duet		 6:15 4.2 MB
How the MIDI file sounds depends, of course, on your playback mechanism. On my computer, MIDI files are played by the QuickTime PlugIn and the guitar sounds a little strange at the opening and the higher flute sounds don't project as well as they should. In comparison, the mp3 file (recorded from my sound-module patches) sounds better and more balanced. Of course, if you have a synthesizer, you can download the MIDI file and set the instruments to your own preferred patches -- but that's more work than downloading the complete mp3 file.
red line
Short excerpt:
...... beginning excerpt 1:11 0.7 MB
This excerpt is the latter part of the intro and the beginning part of the initial theme. It's somewhat better than the MIDI file.

** If you have a high-speed connection, forget about the MIDI files and just use the MP3 files (better). If you have a dial-up connection, consider the faster (but not as good) MIDI file only if the MP3 files seem to be taking too long to play or download.


Back to Top


Score Package
(Click on icons below to download pdf and rtf files)

Year Title
... Instrumentation 		Description No. of
score pages		 Score
(pdf file)
file size		 No. of
text pages		 Text
(rtf file)
file size
1994 Wood Thrush
... flute and guitar duet		 Complete score * 15 0.3 MB 3 4 KB
* email me if you would like any part extractions
(you will need the free Stuffit Expander for decompressing the rtf.sitx files)

Back to Top




http://www.rodmer.com/RodMusic/ProgramNotes/WoodThrushNotes.html -- Revised Jul 28, 2005
Copyright © 1997-2005 Rod Anderson
rod@rodmer.com
[ About | What's New | Rod's Music | RodMer Home | Links | Help ]