Desktop Music Workshop presents - DIGITAL DEBUSSY Volume Two... By ROB BAXTER  Music created with SONIX (Aegis/OXXI). Sounds produced with SYNTHIA PROFESSIONAL (The Other Guys). This disk contains the two pieces I would have included in Volume One, had there been room. However, it was clear from the outset that I would have to spread the work over two disks, like I did with my Pictures at an Exhibition set. Unlike Pictures' two disks though, Vol. 1 and 2 of this collection are independant of each other and can be distributed seperately (although they are intended to be played one after the other). Although there are only two pieces on this disk, the instrument files they use fill up virtually the whole disk. The Girl with the Flaxen Hair in particular is a continuation of the chording experiments I started with in Vol. 1 (especially in Clair de Lune). This track loads some 35 chords plus several regular instruments and as a consequence takes an age to load so please be patient. Arabesque no. 1 also contains several chords but not to the same extent. In order to do at least some kind of justice to Debussy I had to expand beyond Sonix' (and ergo, the Amiga's) four voice limitation and Synthia Pro allows me to do just that. If it is to work at all, Debussy's music should be performed expressively, even if it is being performed using a computer. The problem with using a score editor like Sonix (or DMCS or Soundtracker or MED... etc, etc...) is that if you enter your music as written note for note and bar for bar the result sounds... well, computerised! In other words it sounds lifeless and mechanical. In order to recreate the correct "Rubato" feel I had to completely ignore Sonix' barlines and stretch or compress notes to fit the requirements of the music, not the software. It was a pig to do and made subsequent re-editing and correction a real nightmare but I feel that the end product justifies the extra effort. I hope you agree! The music in Digital Debussy Vols. 1 & 2 was originally written for the piano and exploits the potential for subtlety of that instrument in ways hitherto undreamt of. The piano that Debussy wrote for in the early twentieth century bore all the refinements of the modern piano, which is a far cry from the pianoforte which earlier masters like Beethoven or Mozart knew (just for interest, the original Italian name for the piano was - "Gravicembali col Pian e Forte" which essentially meant "A harpsichord which can play soft and loud depending on how hard you hit the keys!". The Germans called it "Der HammerKlavier" which literally translates as The Hammer Keyboard! - perhaps that explains Wagner!!!). But I digress... What I'm trying to say is that Debussy used the piano in much the same way as an impressionist painter would, as a palette with which to create an image out of hints and suggestions. Debussy's musical paintings simply wouldn't have worked on, say, an eighteenth century piano. They were (to put it crudely) too "clunky". Debussy arrived at precisely the right time to exploit the maturity of the piano and in so doing he redefined its musical vocabulary. CLAUDE ACHILLE DEBUSSY (1862 - 1918) a brief biography: He was born at St. Germain-en-Laye, near Paris and from the age of eight recieved piano lessons from one Mme Maute de Fleurville who was herself a pupil of Chopin. In 1873 Debussy entered the Paris Conservatoire and despite failing to win a piano prize (which caused his parents much despair) he subsequently won first prize in score reading which enabled him to enter a composition class. Thereafter he became domestic musician to Nadezhda von Meck (a former patroness of Tchaikovsky), a position which lasted for two years. In 1884 he won the Prix de Rome with a piece called L'Enfant Prodigue. Debussy's musical personality continued to develop with "Printemps" (1886), his only string quartet (1893) and the orchestral "Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un Faune" (1894 -, a work I'm considering for a future Amiga project - but don't hold your breath!). In 1899 he married a dressmaker, Rosalie (Lili) Texier but the marriage ended just five years later. In 1901 Debussy bacame music critic for the Revue Blanche. Debussy's mature compositions bore all the elusive symbolism and style of the impressionist painters and indeed in his later years, impressionism became the ruling principle of his music. Sadly, ill health dogged his final years and contemporary opinion held that this imposed a morose lack of inspiration on his final works. However, it is now accepted that his final sonatas, far from suggesting a decline in inspiration actually indicated that he had entered an important new phase in his musical career and it is doubly sad that he did not live to write the three other sonatas he was planning at the time. Claude Debussy died of cancer in 1918. ############# THE ELECTRONIC CONNECTION Although written for the piano, the works on these disks lend themselves well to an electronic interpretation, providing it is not overdone (I am thinking here of Tomita's overlush Debussy arrangements from the seventies)! The impressionist nature of the music gave me some degree of license in the choice of sounds and I even include the occasional "impressionistic" sound effect, just for the hell of it! I am particularly pleased with the lovely ringing bell-like tones I managed to cook up using FM synthesis, they work very well in this music. I have been asked why I continue to use Sonix when there are more sophisticated music editors like the various 'Trackers and MED, many of which are available on the PD circuit. Well, fine though these programs are, with many desirable features, I find that the data-string method of score editing just doesn't lend itself to the production of expressive classical music. I know that Sonix is probably a bit unfashionable these days but I couldn't imagine doing classical music any other way. It lets me think like a musician rather than like a programmer! What I would like to see would be an editor with flexible score based (i.e., real music!) note entry, combined with the 'Tracker's ability to save score data and instrument data as a single block which could then be Power Packed (or similar). That would mean that not only could I get a lot more complex scores onto a single disk, they would also load a lot quicker. That is my only real gripe about Sonix, the inordinately long time it takes to grind through even an optimised disk to load all its instruments (and I like to use a lot of instruments!). I suppose I can dream, but for now I'll continue with Sonix, thank you very much! I hope you enjoy the music. All the best ROB BAXTER The Desktop Music Workshop MANCHESTER. March 1991. Greetings to Hugh, welcome to the workshop! ...and thanks as ever to PSW  Other Classical Music disks by Rob Baxter CLASSIX1 - The original Amiga classical disk. Music by J.S.Bach CLASSIX2 - More Bach, plus Handel and Pachelbel PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION - A two-disk set comprising a complete performance of the stunning master- piece by Mussorsgsky AMIGADEUS - THE Mozart disk! and... DIGITAL DEBUSSY Vol. 1 - Companion disk to this volume.