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Description
I started composing this piece in GarageBand during the final days of 2004. It had been a challenging year for me personally and a tragic one for the world. Through music, I wanted to express the emotions I felt as a result of the devastating tsunami which had just occured.
The piece immediately gravitated towards the use of Indian instruments, and also a Middle-Eastern flavor because of the ongoing war in Iraq.
Its original, working title was "End of the Year". However, as the composition evolved, the theme of a "journey", ending something and beginning something new, started to jell. The piece began to take on a flavor of a camel caravan. I would have used the title "Caravan" but someone had just posted a song on MacJams with that title!
SO....the word "hegira" came to my mind as a good title for this piece. The first definition of hegira is: n 1: the flight of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 which marked the beginning of the Muslim era; the Muslim calendar begins in that year. The second definition is: "a journey by a large group to escape from a hostile environment".
I thought this was an appropriate title for this piece. It brings to mind a camel caravan, trekking across the desert in search of more favorable circumstances.
I can't believe it's taken me nearly two months to finish this piece -- I've worked on it for many hours! I made it all-synth sounds because I was without my acoustic instruments and recording studio for the month I was in Madison, Wisconsin. It is very challenging to make synthesized software instruments sound expressive and convey emotions.
It was especially challenging to make the Fitch cello sound "natural". (This sound-font can be found here on MacJams). I learned SO much about adjusting velocities and modulation in GarageBand!
The oboe, panflute, sitar and Indian percussion soundfonts were obtained on the sf2midi.com website.
This will be my final composition using GarageBand 1.1. I am about to install iLife '05, along with the new symphonic JamPack 4.
I sincerely hope that you all enjoy this piece. If you don't, that's fine, but please do make comments telling me why. Thanks for listening!
The piece immediately gravitated towards the use of Indian instruments, and also a Middle-Eastern flavor because of the ongoing war in Iraq.
Its original, working title was "End of the Year". However, as the composition evolved, the theme of a "journey", ending something and beginning something new, started to jell. The piece began to take on a flavor of a camel caravan. I would have used the title "Caravan" but someone had just posted a song on MacJams with that title!
SO....the word "hegira" came to my mind as a good title for this piece. The first definition of hegira is: n 1: the flight of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 which marked the beginning of the Muslim era; the Muslim calendar begins in that year. The second definition is: "a journey by a large group to escape from a hostile environment".
I thought this was an appropriate title for this piece. It brings to mind a camel caravan, trekking across the desert in search of more favorable circumstances.
I can't believe it's taken me nearly two months to finish this piece -- I've worked on it for many hours! I made it all-synth sounds because I was without my acoustic instruments and recording studio for the month I was in Madison, Wisconsin. It is very challenging to make synthesized software instruments sound expressive and convey emotions.
It was especially challenging to make the Fitch cello sound "natural". (This sound-font can be found here on MacJams). I learned SO much about adjusting velocities and modulation in GarageBand!
The oboe, panflute, sitar and Indian percussion soundfonts were obtained on the sf2midi.com website.
This will be my final composition using GarageBand 1.1. I am about to install iLife '05, along with the new symphonic JamPack 4.
I sincerely hope that you all enjoy this piece. If you don't, that's fine, but please do make comments telling me why. Thanks for listening!
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Jim Bouchard
This is really wonderful, the way it is built and has a comforting internal structure. I'm not a very schooled musician, and so a lot of this is beyond me, but I do like the chord structure and melodic ideas. It didn't have a big dramatic change to provide more contrast and dynamics, but that didn't bother me too much. Really nice selection of sounds that kept me engaged all the way through.