Still, Lisa, any of these versions should provide a really good sense of the piece. And I don’t consider the use of virtual instruments to be a ”taboo.“ For starters, why should a MIDI-based realization using high-quality samples be less valid than the electronics used in, say, an Ussachevsky or Babbitt piece that mimic a piano? And there’s also the reality that many of us new music types just don’t have performers knocking down our doors to play our music. Not because it sucks, but because that’s just the nature of the new music world. Always has been. I’d rather be able to have a lot of people hear my music, even if not performed by the Kronos Quartet or another ensemble, than not to hear it at all. And with the quality of most samples these days, the virtual performances are even better than before, although admittedly strings and voice are more difficult to realize electronically. A pianist I know actually mistook my synthesized audio file of an old 12-tone piano work of mine (ineffabilities) for the real deal. He even made some laudatory comments about the pianist, since the work is pretty hard to play.

However, the version I did for winds, strings, mallet instruments, piano and synths in Reason 4.0 is better, and you’re certainly welcome to go to my music page and download it. Let me know what you thnk of it. Think of it as a different performance from Steve’s great interpretation. There are some differences between the two versions (steve’s and mine), but these are minor.

So what you’re saying, Lisa, is that you feel the music is crying out for a live performance, no?

To give everyone a chance to preview my “NiwoSound Ensemble” performance that’s on this CD, I’ve made a 4’30″ excerpt from the center of the piece that you can freely listen to:

http://www.niwo.com/music/toub_darfur_excerpt.mp3

(We’re at the end of one of the vibraphone’s “arias”, heading into the second statement of a driving motoric section for full ensemble, rounded off by one of the “chorales” that punctuate the piece.)

James

Just so people realize what Steve did, he took a MIDI file I posted on my music site and on his own, did a really nice realization of my piece. There are one or two minor additions/changes near the end, which I am delighted with, since it indicates to me that Steve liked the music enough to put his own stamp on it. It’s different from the original (and slightly flawed, thanks to Finale’s erratic playback in the beginning) version I did for strings, and also different from the later version in Reason 4. The great thing about open instrumentation is that every performance will necessarily be different, and whomever arranges the piece will find something unique in it.