One repetition at typical tempo takes 30 to 35 seconds and corresponds to once through the set of figures which make up a contra dance. You may decide that the sounds do not correspond to the instruments claimed. The capturing of realistic samples for some instruments, especially bowed strings (e.g. fiddle), turns out to be hard.
------------------- MP3 examples (2023...) To obtain better control of the rendition of sound samples, the MIDI project has been transfered to Csound. Examples will be posted as they become available. A translator from syntax resembling the input for VAMP has been written for Csound. Documentation pending. Comments about danceablity and suggestions for improvements are solicited. MP3's (tempo 113 bpm, 9 times thru, with potatoes) President Garfield's Hornpipe play mp3 Hull's Victory (reel) play mp3 Soldiers Joy (reel) play mp3 Kesh Jig play mp3 Irish Washerwoman (jig) play mp3 Here are three additional medleys based on a performance of Contra Dan's band of Houston. Tempo is 108 bpm. L'Oiseau Bleu + Golden Slippers (reels) play mp3 Ballydesmond Polka + Sweeney's (reels) play mp3 Jefferson and Liberty + One 100 Pipers (jigs) play mp3 MP3's downloads: President Garfield's Hornpipe download mp3 Hull's Victory download mp3 Soldier's Joy download mp3 Kesh Jig download mp3 Irish Washerwoman (jig) download mp3 L'Oiseau Bleu + Golden Slippers (reels) download mp3 Ballydesmond Polka + Sweeney's (reels) download mp3 Jefferson and Liberty + One 100 Pipers (jigs) download mp3 Notes on instrumentation and samples: Melody instruments are clarinet, tenor saxophone, fiddle, guitar, and piano. Chords are played by guitar or piano. Rhythm is also marked by tuned drums (taiko or low tom). Samples are mostly from freepats.org, with a few extracted from the soundfont FluidSynth.sf2. Fiddle is synthsized from wavetables and needs work. President Garfield's Hornpipe: No chords, rhythm by tuned drums on beats. Melody in successive repeats by fiddle, clarinet, guitar, piano, clarinet, fiddle+guitar, clarinet+piano, clarinet+guitar, fiddle+clarinet+guitar. Hull's Victory: Chords alternately by piano, guitar. Drums. Melody sequence is saxophone (twice), clarinet (twice), fiddle (twice), saxophone, saxophone +clarinet, clarinet+fiddle. Soldier's Joy: Chords alternately on piano, guitar. Taiko on beats. Melody sequence same as in Hull's Victory. Kesh Jig: Just a different tune. Instrumentation as in Hull. (I got lazy). Maggie Brown's Favorite: A jig with two different settings, the first from Ryan's Mammoth Collection (Cole's 1000 Fiddle Tunes), the second from thesession.com. Taiko on beats, guitar and piano on chords. Clarinet on melody with alternating settings (Ryan, the session). Ryan (last 3 times), piano doubles on melody for repeat 2 and does not play chords. Irish Washerwoman (a jig) from Ryan. Taiko on beats, sometimes changing octaves. Chords on guitar and piano (except on repeat 2 where the piano doubles on melody). Melody on clarinet, playing games with phrasing. Repeats 1-3 and 9 have eight beat phrases ending with a quarter note on the beat and an 1/8 note pickup into the next phrase. Repeats 4-6 are 8 beat phrases ending with a quarter not followed by two 1/16 note pickups. Repeats 7-8 are the original Ryan setting with 16 beat strains.
---------------------------- MIDI Renditions of Selected Contra Dance Tunes Examples, May 2009, (generally 4 times through): Connaughtman's Rambles (jig) midi Dundee (hornpipe) midi Durang's Hornpipe midi Kesh Jig midi Lamplighter's Hornpipe midi Maggie's Favorite (jig) midi McDonald's Reel midi Soldiers Joy (Reel) midi Irish Wash Woman (jig) midi Waves of Tory (reel) midi --------------------------- Older (2004) examples (in general, not as well done as the more recent examples): President Garfield's hornpipe (4 times through) midi President Garfield's hornpipe midi This is almost full contra dance length (10 repetitions) and has been used to call a dance for a small group. An extra phrase has been added after the tenth repetition for a long partner swing at the end of the dance. Played on clarinet (melody) and piano (backup). The variation is principally in how the chords are played and to some extent in which chords are chosen. Old Zip Coon (reel) midi A minstrel tune from the 1830's. Its modern descendant is "Turkey in the Straw". Four repetitions. Uses clarinet and fiddle for melody, piano, dulcimer, and electric bass for chords/backup. Instrument changes are used to delineate eight beat phrases. How was this MIDI file generated? Discussion Maggie Brown's Favorite (jig) midi Three times. Melody is played on different instruments for alternate phrases: fiddle on 1,3,5,7 and piano on 2,4,6,8. Nylon guitar on backup. Durang's hornpipe midi Four repetitions, played on fiddle (melody) and piano (backup), with a dulcimer playing the accented notes (every other sixteenth note: 1, 3 ,5, 7, ... played as eighth notes) in the melody during the second and third repetitions. Hull's Victory hornpipe midi Four times. Melody instrument changes from fiddle to clarinet, then fiddle doubles on the even phrases in repetition 3, both play in last time. Backup on piano with some chord changes. Shenandoah Falls midi Three repeats. Recorder on melody, guitar on backup for last two repeats (unisons only, then boomchuck). More examples: demo2, demo1. Details of the project to make these MIDI renditions: VAMP