And here is a picture of the CD of my “Re-Imaginings” album:
Aere's “Re-Imaginings” Album
The first album I did on the Yamaha S90-es synthesizer, is titled “Re-Imaginings”.
The title comes from the fact that most of the pieces were originally done on a Roland D20 synthesizer, but have been converted to play on the more modern, higher quality Yamaha S90-es synthesizer.
Where the Roland D20 used sound synthesis technology, the Yamaha S90-es uses sampled sound technology, and thereby produces better-quality, more realistic instrument sounds.
The fact that the original pieces on the Roland D20 were stored as MIDI sequence files, i.e., the performance data (rather than audio), allowed me to convert these pieces.
That being said, it wasn't a straight-forward, or easy process, especially where some of the sounds used on the Roland have no nearly-similar sound on the Yamaha. Also, some of the Roland sounds morph over the length of a held note, which produced timing problems if I just used the notes and timings played on the Roland.
In addition to the re-imagined Roland D20 pieces, there is a totally new piece “Forest Breezes” (the first one), done on the Yamaha, as well as a new performance of my first composition “Etude In B-Flat Minor”, performed on the best piano I have ever played (the Yamaha).
Here is the front album-cover of my “Re-Imaginings” album:
And
here is a picture of the CD of my “Re-Imaginings” album:
As
you can see, Malcolm did an outstanding job producing the CD, as well
as the CD cover, and CD back-panel picture (which appears at the end
of this web-page).
I have reproduced the liner notes below, with links the the audio (MP3) file of each piece. The timings are slightly different because I removed silence-space at the beginning & end of each piece, to reduce disk space on the web-site.
The name (and track number) of each piece is the link you can click-on (or right-click on and download) to listen to the piece. Use your browser's back-button to return to the index (here).
You are free to use this work in any way you want to, as long as you attribute me as the author. Depending on the scope of the use, it would be nice if you could also tell me about it, at: aere@keymusician.com
So with no further comments, here is my Re-Imaginings album.
Re-Imaginings
By Aere Greenway copyright © 2010
This
work is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
I started music composition in my late high-school years, becoming something of a child-prodigy. In college, I nearly switched majors to music. But my practical side won out. Still, I have kept it in the background, as you see with this album. Perhaps soon, the music career that almost was, may yet blossom.
01 – Forest Breezes 2:42
This is my most recent piece, as of the creation of this album. It was born of an impromptu piano recording, then other instrument parts were improvised with it. Though there was considerable experimentation with each part, each part was recorded in a single 'take'. There are a lot of things going-on simultaneously in this piece – perhaps too many, but I cannot give up even one of the parts. To me, it is 2 minutes and 40 seconds of musical ecstasy, and a harbinger of many more pieces to come.
02 – Nocturne 6:53
This piece comes from my 'long night of despair' – a difficult time in my life. It was composed originally using only the "Warm Pad Fade" voice on the Roland D20 synthesizer. Recently, I improvised several other voices with it on the Yamaha S90 ES synthesizer, which have added considerably to the piece.
03 – Goodbye-Hello 3:03
This piece, like the prior track, comes from that same difficult time in my life. Yet it comes from a later time, when I was beginning to see some hope for the future. Its name comes from it being (in a simplistic description), a tearful goodbye to what was before, and a hopeful hello to what might yet be to come.
04 – Etude in B-flat Minor 4:20
This is my very first composition, much as I performed it when I was a teenager, but on the best piano I have ever played. This is the one I performed for the High School Solo & Ensemble Festival, and received a 1st Division Rating, competing against real pianists who had played piano for most of their lives. I pictured a snowstorm, seen out my window at night, against the bluish yard-light. Gaining intensity, then finally fading away to just a few snowflakes, then to a clear, cold winter night, in the high desert of rural Utah.
This is my second composition, originally a piano piece, performed as a teenager in a high school assembly. Later, I arranged it for a small ensemble of instruments on the Roland D20 synthesizer. More recently I re-worked the same piece using the superior voices of the Yamaha S90 ES.
06 – Intermezzo # 1 3:46
This is my third composition, also performed while I was in high school. I later arranged it for flute and bassoon, an the Roland D20. I later re-worked it on the Yamaha S90 ES.
07 – Fly Away 4:38
This was another early composition. All of the album, starting with track 4, is in the order they were originally composed. This was my mother's favorite of my pieces, and she wrote words to be sung with it. My son Laron has done the same. Again, it was arranged with other instruments on the Roland D20, and later re-worked for the Yamaha S90 ES. It was originally called "Un-named #1" (I am not good at naming pieces).
08 – Intermezzo # 2 3:36
This piece was also composed while I still lived in Flowell, Utah. I was a considerable fan of Brahms' music, particular liking his intermezzo's, which consisted of a statement, a counter-statement, and the return of the statement (only something has happened to it from the counter-statement). I tried to emulate this form. This piece (in the 'statement' section) brings to mind the oppressive heat of a summer day on the farm.
09 – Intermezzo # 3 4:27
This piece was composed during my first year of college at the University of Utah. Once, after playing it while another pianist was waiting to use the piano, on finishing, he commented "Ah – Brahms", which I took as a considerable complement. I consider this piano piece one of my 3 best. Like the others, it was arranged with other instruments on the Roland D20, and later, re-worked for the Yamaha S90 ES.
10 – Intermezzo # 4 5:37
This piece was composed during my first marriage, when I lived in West Jordan. I wrote a Cello part in hopes a neighbor might perform it with me, but that never materialized. On the Roland D20, I finally got to hear that Cello part. In re-working it for the Yamaha S90 ES, I liked it better as an English Horn part.
11 – Morning Winds 5:48
This piece was originally titled "Un-Named #2" (I'm not good at names). It is the last of my compositions done originally on the piano. It was performed at church once, when I lived at 737 Morton Drive. Later, I managed to re-perform the piano part (I never wrote it down), played it on the Roland D20, and improvised an oboe part and a french horn part with it. I later re-worked it for the Yamaha S90 ES.
This was my first piece composed entirely on the (Roland D20) synthesizer. I picture a clear, bright, cool day in the high Uinta's, but the music ventures into imaginary caves as well. Again, I re-worked it for the Yamaha S90 ES, which was challenging, because there was no good analog of the Roland's "Soundtrack" voice.
13 – Reverie 3:41
This piece is somewhat similar to the prior piece, as I figured I had come up with a good combination of voices. It was also originally composed on the Roland D20, and later re-worked for the Yamaha S90 ES, with the same challenges because it, too, used the Roland's "Soundtrack" voice. It is interesting in that it has a part that starts out as an oboe, gradually getting lower, to where at the end of the piece, it is a bassoon.
14 – On-Trail 7:00
This piece was composed during a time when I did a lot of hiking in the Wasatch Mountains (east of Salt Lake). Many of the music ideas were conceived-of while hiking. In my mind, it is like hiking, where as your round each bend, a new, beautiful vista greets your eyes. This was the first (and only) piece I did on the MasterTracks Pro sequence-editor on the Atari ST, connected to the Roland D20. Interestingly, the MIDI-file from the Atari was compatible with the much more modern 'Rosegarden' sequence editor on Linux, decades later. Again, I re-worked it for the Yamaha S90 ES. This was challenging again, where there was no analog for the "String Vibes" voice on the Roland D20.
- Aere
Here's back album-cover photograph (without the super-imposed text):
