When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again

[Sherry C]

Hi Ralph,

What kind of error message are you getting when you try to upload the mp3? Perhaps that will help me to figure out what the issue is from this end.

Re. the "swallows" - I've written that up for adding to the Notes and Rests/Articulations and Expressions palette. Are there other commonly used annotations like that which brass or other wind instruments use that should be included there?

Thanks!
Sherry

[rrayner]

Hi Sherry,

I'm still getting an "Upload of file failed." message, after the upload works for a while. Perhaps it has reached a limit and terminates. That's what the behavior looks like. Can't take anymore - abort!

In regard to other markings, there are a number that would be used in a jazz band, but they would also need to have attendant sound support. The ones that come to mind are: 1) the drop - the downward glissando to nowhere after a hard attack on a note, which diminishes in volume to silence; 2) a scoop, in which the player loosens the lip and approaches the correct tone from a quarter-tone or so below; 3) a shake, which is kind of like a trill, but slower and with varying speed; and 4) a doit, pronounced doy-t, which is somewhat like a drop, however, the direction is an upward glissando to nowhere -- primarily brass, but used by reeds also. I hope this helps.

Ralph Rayner

[rrayner]

I thought I'd add a little background color to this thread. I am particularly pleased with the way Sections K through the start of Section M (measures 160-183) came out. The germ of the idea for this interlude came to me on the morning of a travel day. We had a 70-mile trip for a mid-day Doctor's appointment, to be followed with a visit to Cynthia's parents. So, I had no time to write down any of my thoughts, and I was very concerned that by the time I could write it down that the memory would have faded. My memory's not the best anymore. After pleasantries were exchanged with Cynthia's folks and the conversation had settled down, I was able to excuse myself for a short period of time and get my Laptop out and capture the basic idea, while breathing a sign of relief that the germ hadn't evaporated.

I think of this part as my "Hoorah Chorus", reminiscent of the lyrics I remember from childhood -- "When Johnny comes marching home again, Hoorah! Hoorah!" The trombones start the transition from G Minor to D Minor with a paraphrasing of the main theme. The paraphrasing motif continues with the trumpets as all the brass join in the shout ("...the men will cheer, and the boys will shout...") and the saxes add their Hoorah! Hoorah! Hoorah! Hoorah! -- jubulation! All in all, a fun piece of music to put together.

Ralph Rayner

[Sherry C]

Hi friends,

I'm posting this here for Ralph as we've had some technical snafu that I'll have to work out when I get home (I'm in Bellevue now with Mark's family).

WhenJohnnyComesMarching.mp3

Grace and peace,
Sherry

[rrayner]

Due to technical difficulties on my end, I've asked Sherry to upload the MP3 file for this song. The reason for adding the MP3 file is so folks can hear what the arrangement sounds like when using the midi choices I made for my Clavinova. I have finally come to understand that if I want you folks to hear what I hear, I should be using General Midi (GM), not changing to midi sounds I want to hear on my final target for the song.

For this score, the only two non-GM tracks are the flute, which seems to play okay on my GM sound card, and the drums, which, on my PC, sound correct except for the drum roll in the intro and closing. The flute, in my Clavinova midi selection, is much breathier.

So, the MP3 file, whereas not as full as a WAV file, produces a more true sound of what the song sounds like on my Clavinova.

Ralph Rayner

[Sherry C]

Howdy Ralph,

Due to a lot of things I've only just now been able to sit and really listen to your mp3 rendering of your piece. Wow!!! If the mp3 version is that good, I'd love to hear the wav version! Better yet, this would be an awesome live piece - I do hope someone picks it up

You did a fantastic job with the playback capabilities of Composer in getting a really good performance out of the file, as well as some (to my humble eyes anyway) excellent sheet music for it. Kudos on a piece well done!

ttfn,
Sherry

[rrayner]

Sherry has put together a very nice video of this arrangement, and posted it on You Tube. My wife Cynthia and I provided a number of the pictures and Sherry added some more pictures and put the entire piece together for online. She used the WAV file (converted to MP3) that was created on our Yamaha Clavinova (CVP-405) from the Notation Composer MIDI file as the audio. We hope you enjoy it.



Ralph Rayner