Last night I was reading Acts 27 and 28 and started thinking about the Island of Melita.
Which made me think of the hymn tune--one of my favorite settings.
Then my wandering mind remembered that I had once upon a time purchased an inexpensive composition software called Noteworthy Composer. I bought it a decade ago for $25, the new improved version costs $49.
It really is a powerful and inexpensive program. I highly recommend it to anyone who needs to write music but doesn't have the budget for the fancy programs.
So I started setting out the tune of Melita in it, then started writing a fugue-like variation of it, and before the night was spent, I had a draft. When you get used to the shortcuts, it's faster than writing by hand.
Unfortunately, my home organ, a Baldwin Cinema II (purchased used a decade ago for its full pedalboad) is suffering solid-state decay. But I ran across several virtual organ systems free for down load that take MIDI signals and use them to trigger actual pipe sounds rather than sounds from tone generators. I'm beginning the process of converting my old Baldwin into a MIDIfied classical organ (which is a whole 'nother story--I'm reliving my youth with soldering irons and heatsinks).
One of the virtual organ programs is called Miditzer. It is the easiest to set up, but it draws its sound from a Wurlitzer rather than a classical organ. Still, the sounds it has are pretty neat. Here is an mp3 recording of my short work derived from "Melita."
It's a draft version subject to editing when I have time, but I was surprised at the kind of sounds you can get from computers cobbled with MIDI inputs.
Which made me think of the hymn tune--one of my favorite settings.
Then my wandering mind remembered that I had once upon a time purchased an inexpensive composition software called Noteworthy Composer. I bought it a decade ago for $25, the new improved version costs $49.
It really is a powerful and inexpensive program. I highly recommend it to anyone who needs to write music but doesn't have the budget for the fancy programs.
So I started setting out the tune of Melita in it, then started writing a fugue-like variation of it, and before the night was spent, I had a draft. When you get used to the shortcuts, it's faster than writing by hand.
Unfortunately, my home organ, a Baldwin Cinema II (purchased used a decade ago for its full pedalboad) is suffering solid-state decay. But I ran across several virtual organ systems free for down load that take MIDI signals and use them to trigger actual pipe sounds rather than sounds from tone generators. I'm beginning the process of converting my old Baldwin into a MIDIfied classical organ (which is a whole 'nother story--I'm reliving my youth with soldering irons and heatsinks).
One of the virtual organ programs is called Miditzer. It is the easiest to set up, but it draws its sound from a Wurlitzer rather than a classical organ. Still, the sounds it has are pretty neat. Here is an mp3 recording of my short work derived from "Melita."
It's a draft version subject to editing when I have time, but I was surprised at the kind of sounds you can get from computers cobbled with MIDI inputs.
