The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #53293   Message #831695
Posted By: Genie
21-Nov-02 - 11:40 AM
Thread Name: Winter Solstice Carol from CapriUni
Subject: RE: Winter Solstice Carol from CapriUni
Ann, the MIDI in the Mudcat MIDI section sounds good, but it has one mistake. To fit the rhythm of the song the words "...fill the..." in the last line of each verse need to be eighth notes (and they are in Barry's MIDI and in the sheet music that Jeri posted).  In the Mudcat MIDI they are played as quarter notes, and it throws the rhythm off.  Maybe M. Mario can fix that.

Jeri ("...this is where I go into nit-picking mode - the B's in the 2nd track sound a bit odd when they come up against the C's in the 3rd. You've got to sneak some 'illegal' stuff in and most times the ear will be fooled into not hearing the naughty notes. It may just be me that's hearing it.")
I know that some chords sound dissonant-- especially on a piano--, but they are often used in choral music.  It's not at all unusual in our church choir to have a B and a C sung together at some point in the piece.
Interestingly, one song I wrote and recorded in 3-part harmony sounds really harmonious when I play the standard guitar chords (C, F, G, Am) and sing the three countermelodies together.  But when I plug those same countermelodies into the computer and they're played back with a simulated (sampled?) piano, some "chords" sound dissonant in an unpleasant way.
(If you get the Strawberry CD you can see what I mean.  The only sour note in the song is one place where I went flat on a harmony part while recording because I couldn't hear myself.  If anything, the harmonies themselves are almost too "sweet," to use Amos's term.  The countermelodies work well when sung together, though some of the harmony notes are "out of the chord.")

Is this an unusual phenomenon?
 

Ann,  ( is there a way to save Finale files as midis, the way you can with Noteworthy?)  Not with the freebie Notepad, but NotePad Plus ($25) and it lets you save a file as sheet music and/or MIDI, as well as play back MIDIs.

Genie