“The Popcorn Man” (TPM, henceforth) is an example of a project that I started and stopped multiple times —first beginning to arrange its music and draw the accompanying cartoons in July, 2019 —and, now finally posting it in Feb. 2024.
My cartoon rendition of TPM was inspired by one of the Mario Brothers. I drew it first in pencil, and then used brush-pens to fill-in the colors. I scanned that to use as a basis for redrawing it as an outline-drawing using Inkscape.
It was during my first year of piano lessons from my Mother that I encountered the “Popcorn Man” song. For reasons unknown to me, the song was really appealing and made me want to play it —over and over… I don’t remember my Mom asking me to move on from playing this song, but she probably should have. Maybe it was her voice I heard, telling me in Feb. 2024 —to move on and share what I’ve done. So be it.
It is odd that I played TPM at all. I remember only a couple of the pieces preceding or following it in the “John Thompson 1st Grade Method.”
Additionally, I wrote in a previous post that my first song was “ABC” and “ABC” is definitely is NOT the first song in the 1st John Thompson Method. Before searching to find the John Thompson First Grade Book that contains #34, “The Popcorn Man,” (TPM) I falsely remembered there being a picture of the “Popcorn Man” with the music. I see now that he was imaginary and only in my mind.
While I reacquainted myself with this song, I realized several things about it:
It was the first piece I learned that changed keys, twice in fact.
It was the first piece I learned that used a “D.C. al Coda” to create a song with ABA form.
That it is one of the few pieces in the book that does NOT have an illustrative picture on the page. This picture introduces a new hand position.
Staccato notes are used and notated without having ever previously introduced them, that I could find…
My arrangement of TPM is in 12/8 meter, is syncopated and incorporates several bass-line, melodic, harmonic and rhythmic variations — hopefully for your listenening amusement.
Harmonic variations include diatonic, chromatic and circle-of-fifth progressions. Additionally, harmonic selections include chord-qualities: diminished, augmented, altered chords of various types and quartal-harmonies.
Kurzweil synthesizers optionally feature a pitch-ribbon that can be used to inflect the pitch (pitch-bend) like a guitar does with a whammy-bar, a steel-guitar does with its pedals, or a synthesizers does with pitch-bend wheel or knob. While I was arranging and performing in preparation for recording pitchbend in certain parts, I significantly advanced my proficiency with the ribbon.
My association with this American musical masterpiece is long —more than fifty (50) years. I hope that you will enjoy the result of my project (10/2023-2/2024) to create and record an electronic orchestral version of “Rhapsody In Blue” (“RiB,” henceforth) with video accompaniment.
My Mother, Margaret Morgensen Owen played RiB, and then as my piano-teacher, taught it to me when I was about eleven (11). It is in memory of my Mother and to her musical role in my life —that I dedicate this 2024 production and recording of this orchestral version.
To put time into perspective, RiB would have been about a third (1/3) as old when my Mother learned it as Beatles music is now in 2024. And, RiB was younger when I learned it —than those Beatles songs are now.
Arranging a piano-solo version of RiB may have been the first musical arrangement of my life. During one summer family trip I had the opportunity to compete in a campground talent-contest, but for performance-time’s sake, I needed a shorter entry. During the afternoon I arranged an abridged version of RiB that I played for the evening competition. I didn’t win. Many years later, I recorded that abridged version as part of the bespoke 2009 collection: KV Picks Seven (7).
More than twenty (20) years ago, while I was still living in St. Louis before 1998, after creating my first “electronic orchestra” version of Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings,” I conceived to eventually perform and record this rendition. I ordered a copy of the orchestral score from a music store there, now apparently closed. I didn’t examine the score until returning to AL and found two pages blank in the middle of the piece. Too much time had elapsed to ask anyone for replacement. Years then passed. Maybe ten years ago, I ordered a replacement score. It was also a “miniature” score like the first, except the second one was even smaller. I eventually made it into a PDF file that I viewed on my video monitor while I recorded tracks for this project. You can see several shots of the PDF on the monitor in the video.
There has been much written about RiB and its first performance on February 4, 1924. In what follows, I will will share a few facts that were surprising or notable to me —that I learned or re-learned while working on this project.
Before discussing historical facts of interest, the first big surprise to me —was finding while comparing the written scores, that the orchestral and piano-solo versions of RiB are not the same in form and are not even the same length. Maybe this is well-known, but I had not known this previously.
Gershwin had essentially “blown off” his promise to Paul Whiteman to compose a “serious” jazz-piano work to be performed by Whiteman’s Orchestra. The performance was planned to help lend “credibility” to the then-still-novel American “Jazz” idiom. However, not until Gershwin was reminded at Christmas 1923 by a published newspaper report of the pending concert —a spectacle in which Gershwin’s work would be featured, that he “got serious” about composing it.
The concert was planned to be extensive and to feature a number of contemporary “jazz” compositions and performers in addition to RiB, Paul Whiteman, and George Gershwin. It was considered novel and not yet chíc to present jazz-music in concert-hall settings. Whiteman commissioned his orchestra’s arranger, Ferde Grofé to score orchestral parts for the February performance. It is reported that at the moment of the concert, many or most of the piano parts were being improvised by Gershwin. It obviously turned out well, enough.
I had interest in Aeolian Hall where the performance occurred. At the time it was considered large, very elegant, and quite fine. It was host to many concerts of note in NYC for fifteen years, 1912-1927. Today, its building houses the SUNY College of Optometry —and its auditorium still exists.
Whiteman Orchestra, c. 1924.
For my tonal palate, I attempted to select instruments from my stable of instruments that were consistent with the number and type used in the Feb. 4, 1924 debut performance, which featured 24 musicians. There were only six (6) stringed instruments: violins, violas, cellos, string-bass, and banjo —not quite the lush symphonic version of full-orchestral strings that I often hear in contemporary recordings.
Choosing a particular synthesizer instrument to play each part provided a staggering number of options. Because of the huge number of nearly identically sounding results —my better judgement suggested making a/any choice and then proceeding deliberately and with vigor. I think of it being like being a painter who finds it difficult to begin painting because he has many tubes of paint —and, he can’t decide which one to use to start his new painting.
The featured piano is Synthogy’s Ivory American D (Steinway) virtual instrument. It is part of their “Ivory II” Collection. Synthogy has a new piano they call “Ivory III” that has caught my eye. We may be hearing it soon…
My number-one “go-to” instrument/synthesizer for project-strings has been “Synful Orchestra” (SO) for more than ten years. Long ago I evaluated studio-intruments’ string-sounds and their programmability. I chose SO.
For other, non-stringed orchestral instruments, and because I am most familiar with it, I began assigning instruments to my Kurzweil PC3K88 (PC3K) as they were used in the score from top to bottom: clarinets, trumpets, trombones, etc. —each of the scored instruments. Each instrument gets it’s own “channel” with separate volume and expression and separate from other instruments.
I found it amusing to see “Accordion” referenced as one the instruments used in the initial performance of RiB. There is no Accordion part in the score. I discovered that the accordion player was an accessory of Whiteman’s Orchestra —and composed his own accordion part, derived from other parts of the score.
I was also surprised to discover that “Banjo” is one of the instruments for which Grofé wrote a part. Banjos are loud, but truthfully I had never previously noticed a banjo part in any of the recordings I have heard, to date. There are several places in my recording that you may hear it. In fact, the accompanying video has a banjo reference while the banjo is playing —not the exact place in the score, but the banjo is playing, nonetheless. Maybe you will see and hear it…
The PC3K has the ability to simultaneously play sixteen (16) different solo instrument parts (channels). Early in my work, I began running out of channels and moved the French Horns from the PC3K to SO.
After recording all of the instrumental parts, I moved the 1st Alto Saxophone from the PC3K to my Yamaha Montage (Montage). The Montage and Korg Kronos (Kronos) both provide synthesizer capabilities that I could easily have used —but didn’t, this time…
I played/recorded all of the parts sitting on my height-adjustable stool in front of the Kronos. You will see this in the video. I have a remote bluetooth computer number-pad that I place on the Kronos, and that allows me to start and stop recording/playback and otherwise operate the “recorder transport” without having to reach over to the computer.
Software tools I used to produce the video:
MOTU Digital Performer to record and edit audio,
ProjectMilkSyphon and SyphonRecorder to produce and record the “psychedelic” synchronized visuals,
QuickTime to quickly trim videos and check them after initial edits,
FotoMagico to build introductory titling, credits, and ending graphics,
Blender 3D’s video-sequencer to combine and arrange photos, audio, and video-clips, install transitions, and render the final video output in various formats,
MacOS command-line terminal commands including ffmpeg to change the size and format of videos. For example, I must routinely change: .mov to .mp4 to .m4v, and produce both HD (1920×1080) and 960×540, the very useful size that I call “quarter HD.”
I kept extensive, likely excessive project notes for the duration of this project. I exported these notes as a PDF file and have included a link to, below. The earliest note is dated Oct. 30, 2023. The notes in the PDF are raw and mostly unedited. Much is included —links to some of the historical information mentioned in the text above, also included are items like the step-by-step procedure I used to record and monitor each track and then record the next one. There is a bunch of other material: Unchecked checklist-items, references to additional material about RiB, fonts I was considering for use with some of the graphics, and more…
It had been a mere 35 years since the end of the Civil War (1865) and of slavery in the United States when James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938), then 29 years old in 1900, wrote the words to “Lift Every Voice And Sing.” Two years later, his brother John Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954) composed the music of the Hymn.
I don’t remember hearing “Lift Every Voice And Sing” even once until my adulthood. Since then, I have become aware of this Hymn’s important message and promise of hope. I understand why the song has been increasingly embraced by many Folk as our unofficial National Hymn (not, Anthem). Several years ago, I first conceived to arrange this hymn for electronic instruments. While reviewing and researching other arrangements, I encountered Roland Carter’s arrangement for Choir and Piano and a performance of it, with him conducting the Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) Choir. I am rarely as emotionally moved by a piece of music, its arrangement or performance as I was by this one.
I thought, “How can I create anything as powerful as THAT?” and avoided arranging the piece, periodically revisiting WSSU Choir’s performance. In 2020, I contacted Dr. Carter to tell him how moving his arrangement and choir’s performance had been to me. I also shared that I previously intended to arrange the piece — when I found his magnificent arrangement and performance. He most graciously accepted my compliment and encouraged me to arrange the hymn. Still, I balked at the notion that I would contribute anything more meaningful.
Meanwhile, I continue to dream of accompanying a real choir, and performing this work. Will travel…
Sheet Music for “Lift Every Voice And Sing” ordered from its Marvel Publisher.
This project was born from that desire — to create an accompaniment for this hymn. Without an actual choir to record, I experimented with synthesizer vocoders to potentially create choir sounds with speech, but I judged the result as robotic and inappropriate. I decided to display the hymn’s words in synchronization with its performance and ordered sheet-music of the Carter arrangement for future reference.
Last year, because of having had success with recordings in the past, combining synthesized orchestra and vocal “programs” for previous years’ selection(s) from “The Messiah,” I began a project to orchestrate the Carter arrangement. I proposed to complete my arrangement in commemoration of Juneteenth, 2022.
Instead of “playing” each part, I entered notes into the “recording” in a manner that might be accomplished by a person with significant physical disabilities. Obviously, I was not accustomed to this workflow and it was tedious, taking much more time than if I initially played each part to record it. I could see that I would not finish by my deadline, having barely made a dent in the project by June 19, and so I put the project away again.
This year, prior to Juneteenth, I resumed work on it in earnest. I separated soprano, alto, tenor, and bass vocal parts and treated each voice distinctly, with respect to variations in timbre, pitch, and panning. Additionally, I treated the choral parts separately from the orchestral parts, even though they double the same notes. Each have their own volumes, articulations and expression. The choral portions of the composite sound are panned right (R) in stereo. Whereas, the orchestral violins, violas, cellos, and basses are left (L) in the stereo field. Finally, the piano sits towards the left (L) and is a little forward in my spatial imaging.
Yamaha Montage custom Program designed for use in “Lift Every Voice And Sing.”
I customized individual programming/settings of each instrument and recorded Synthogy Ivory American Steinway for piano, Yamaha Montage for choral synthesizer sounds, and Synful Orchestra for stringed-instrument sounds. The accompanying video production is another in which I use the macOS-only FotoMagico app, that has provided me with a useful tool for the particular video workflows (with, or without music) that I have been producing.
I exported these notes as a PDF file and have included a link to, below. The earliest note is dated Oct. 30, 2023. The notes in the PDF are raw and mostly unedited. Much is included —links to some of the historical information mentioned in the text above, also included are items like the step-by-step procedure I used to record and monitor each track and then record the next one. There is a bunch of other material: Unchecked checklist-items, references to additional material about RiB, fonts I was considering for use with some of the graphics, and more…
Recent Comments