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The texture is very sparse, and for background music that usually works, but if you added more of a harmonic fortification (ie other background instruments) it would sound fuller and possibly add to the atmosphere. But as a first midi I'd say it's excellent. My first midi was probably way worse than this.

I voted twice...

So there is a good version of Monkey Island out there,  spud, with CD music and great old-school 256 colored graphics.

I have that one too, it came on CD with MK2 (called Monkey Madness). It's barely an improvement from the regular version. The music just sounds like a recording of a midi thru an MT-32.

I'm a big Ravel fan
but I'm probably theonly one  

I love Ravel! Le Tombeau de Couperin is probably one of his finest works. And I absolutely love La Valse. As for the Bolero, I too get kind of sick of it, but some of his orchestration is just amazing. Who else would combine french horn, piccolo, and celesta at three different partial levels?

I'm almost positive I have the original game box and floppies, and it seems to have both VGA and EGA, for people with older systems that didn't support VGA I guess. Gilbert, try installing MK1 in dos, and in the command prompt when you type "monkey1" or whatever it is, type:
monkey1 e

That should bring up EGA graphics if you want to see it.

On the contrary, I find Rachmaninov extremely overrated, especially his piano concertos. If you want to listen to the true art of concerto writing then listen to Mozart. Pianists rave about Rachmaninov because it's just something they can show off with, much like Liszt. And I would imagine it would be harder to play a classical concerto rather than a romantic one because of the lack of freedom. Mozart has to be clean and precise to be played well. But with Rachmaninov, the style tends to be a bit sloppy.
    Although I do find Rachmaninov's orchestral works to be of better quality than the concertos.

I think Modest Mussorgsky is also underrated. He's written some very nice orchestral works, and opera and ballet music that often gets ignored. I suppose the reason was his lack of orchestrational skills, but I think Ravel and Rimsky-Korsakov covered that pretty well

Migs:

the general light-heartedness of classical piano music

Listen to some Beethoven.

Also, if you're looking for a notation editor, where you can enter in notes manually on a staff, you could try Noteworthy Composer (www.noteworthysoftware.com). They have a free evaluation version. Also Finale notepad is freeware and does pretty much the same thing(www.finalemusic.com).

- Choose to download the small midi-music-version, or download the huge cd-quality-soundtrack version

The Soundtrack will include Swansea, but other classical Music too, like Smetanas Moldau and others.

How are you planning on doing that? Will the "CD-quality soundtrack" be recordings of midis or (illegal) classical recordings?

Anyway, I'm interested to see where this goes.

Was it really necessary to dig this up?

It's ok. Very formulaic and short. What's this for? Background? It would get really annoying if this kept repeating over and over, so you should add some more to it, like a second phrase. That's all I can think of at the moment.

Here's my entry:
http://cygnes.homestead.com/files/spanishconversation.mid


I believe this painting is titled: 'Conversation with a Spanish Woman'.

I think this is a great idea also, but that point system sounds kind of complicated, although it's a good idea. Who would run it?

EDIT: never mind. I had to save it to get it to work though.
I can't get the download to work. It keeps saying 'cannot find server'.

The piano WILL sound the E, F and Bb. But, as I said, it's so soft you don't really notice.

Those partials are always sounding, but they're actually part of the composite tone.

The trumpet will work with ANY classical piece of of music, because it is designed as a harmonic accompaniment (originally) to the piano.

Er, I believe the trumpet preceeds the piano by hundreds of years. And I think someone mentioned clarino playing, where trumpet plays highly florid melodic passages (which I guess was only in baroque though. I don't know a lot about the history of the trumpet before that, but you're probably right about the early trumpets being used mainly for harmony. But it's been centuries since those primitive stages of the trumpet, and it's more than ok to use them for melodic purposes).

That is why the trumpet works so well with classical: it complements the piano, even when played in 3rds, or 6ths, because the piano is still sounding fourths no matter what you play.

I don't think I understand. The piano is always sounding 4ths? Wouldn't it be sounding every note of the harmonic series?

Trap:

If you make a midi file, none of it is real instruments anyway

I'm kind of taking this out of context, but whether it's synthesized or not, it's still sound with wavelengths and all that, so the same principles apply to the harmonics. I know that's not really what you were talking about, just wanted to say it.

I don't think Damien said we couldn't use midi. He said if you use tracking software (which I assume is .mod .xm and stuff like that), and can't save it as a midi, it's ok to make it an mp3.

Damn, I just got back today. This would have been a cool one to do.

Ok, I've had some time to review the entries. All are very nice, good job everyone.

The winner is: Petteri!

Congratulations! It had a nice atmosphere that fit well with the background. It actually kind of reminded me of the SimIsle music.

Good job everyone, and Happy Holidays!

Ok, all entries are in. I'll announce the winner soon.

Your first name of Nicholas has given you a clever, deep mind and the talent to excel in highly inspirational lines of endeavour as a dramatist, musician, writer, or artist. You can be lifted by beauty in all forms and you are at the most creative when inspired. Your expressive, affectionate nature responds very quickly through your feelings, but you must guard against being possessive and jealous. You feel and sense much that you do not fully understand and cannot express. Your delight in mystery could draw you into occult studies or religions.


All I have to say is holy crap.

Ok, here's an idea I think was mentioned a while ago, but I don't think anyone used it. Write music for this scene:



Can be any instruments, any length, midi or mp3. (limit 1 MB)

Have fun!