Balletto dell'Asino

[Jos Wylin]

Hi dear friends,

A couple of months ago I wrote this rather strange piece of (ballet) music, commissioned by de council of my village. It should refer clearly to the historic inhabitants of the village, called 'donkeys'. That is quite a history, but in short it's a reference to the donkeys and their carts loaded with flax to sell on the market of Courtrai (the nearby town). These animals made such a racket, so that the Courtrai people always said: "Aah, there come the donkeys...". So actually it was a reference to the animals rather than to the flax traders.

The ballet is like a classical piece, but with some modernistic hints and sounds. The local ballet school is willing to create a real ballet to it for the 900th anniversaries of my village in 2023.

Balletto dell'Asino

Have a pleasant listen!

Jos

[William]

Hi Jos, that is a really charming piece and well-done with the performance!  I can definitely see a ballet choreography going with this - I hope that is going to happen.

[FRG]

I already knew that piece from a few months ago, I would like to know how to control the tempo.

Interpretations are great.

Do you quantize, adjust the time control or you play in real time?

Excuse my English, I hope to make myself understood.

Good job.

[Jos Wylin]

Hi FRG,

Thanks for your comment.

In every DAW, there is a tempo lane in which you can draw (or record) a tempo line. Some use tempo tap, others just a curve to indicate tempo changes. This is extremely important to create a believable performance, together with the note velocities and humanization in note duration (a little bit rubato-like). I always use velocityXF next to note velocity, controlled by CC28 in VI Pro. I'm a lousy piano player, so I prefer to enter notes manually and tweak them precisely afterwards with the whole phrase in mind. No quantization.

Since it's an own composition, the interpretation was easy. The only issue was to keep it danceable.

Jos

 

 

[Jos Wylin]

Thanks William for your kind comment (once more) and for listening.

Jos

 

 

 

 

[FRG]

Thanks for the reply.

I think I confuse terms when I say quantization. I call any note that falls at the exact beat quantized, without using an automatic quantization or not.

I think you use the same working system as me.  I was wondering why adjusting the tempo line is tedious for me and it takes me a long time to achieve the desired result.

If I understood correctly, all the notes you draw fall on their exact time, then you adjust the tempo line.

It is curious that it is easier for you with your own compositions, where you have no references to look at the interpretation.

Cheers

[Jos Wylin]

Hi FRG,

In fact not all the notes fall exactly in time. Some are postponed quite a lot (e.g. the flute) to give the impression that it's breathing in longer lines (clarinet also). If you pay sharp attention, you can hear that the string chords are not always quite accurate and equal... Some sloppiness to evoke real human playing.

Jos