Second demo CD for VAMP, an ABC to MIDI converter 
         for contra (and square) dance music

    Stan Swanson, 18 June 2004 - 23 July 2004
            contra1 at bcsdancing.org
	     http://bcscontra.org/vamp.html

Contents of the Audio part of the CD 
  (should be playable with a standard CD player or a computer)

In the 15 tracks below, various schemes for delineating phrasing
and supplying variety are illustrated.  Altering the number of
dance repetitions is a matter of a few changes to the input files.

Dominion Reel   midi   input 

  Melody without repeats ( A B not AA BB) to illustrate chord accents:
  even (no hypermeter), boomchuck with basic vamp, 8th offbeat silent
  to simulate breath pause, silent, dulcimer on even phrases, cadence.
  Six times with clarinet, piano, dulcimer.

Dominion Reel  midi   input 

  Five repeats with clarinet, piano.  Chord variations: silent,
  basic vamp, vamp with breathing pause, some half measure chords, cadence.

Miss Thompson's  (from Fiddler's Dream)  midi   input 
  Four times thru, clarinet and fiddle on melody (alternate phrases),
  piano with boomchuck, bass on unisons only.  Alternates half measure
  chords with those whose root note matches measure.

Old Favorite (Fiddler's Dream)  midi   input 

  Two repeats. Recorder on odd phrases, sax on even. Piano on backup
  with more varied chords the first time thru.

Shenandoah Falls (Fiddler's Dream)  midi   input 

  Three repeats. Recorder on melody, guitar on backup for last two
  repeats (unisons only, then boomchuck).

Lilting Banshee (Fiddler's Dream)  midi   input 

  An experiment with bagpipe drones.  Four repeats.  Melody on clarinet,
  violin, fiddle(a different sound sample), bagpipe. Measure long drones
  on bagpipe on repeats 2-4.  Backup on guitar (silent on second repeat).

Pop Goes the Weasel (jig)  midi   input 

  This familiar children's song is a jig and has a dance associated with
  it.  Two repetitions on recorder and piano.

Durang's hornpipe   midi   input 

  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.

New Bedford reel   midi   input 

  Four times through. Melody on recorder, backup on banjo.
  High notes on banjo sound "tinny", so perhaps a different choice
  needs to be made.  Chord choices change each repetition.

Fisher's hornpipe   midi   input 

  Four times.  Clarinet (melody), piano (chords), dulcimer (accented notes).

Maggie Brown's Favorite (jig)   midi   input 

  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.

Hull's Victory hornpipe   midi   input 

  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.

Lamplighter's hornpipe   midi   input 

  Two times. Clarinet and fiddle alternate phrases for melody. Piano backup.

Dundee  (hornpipe)   midi   input 

  Three times.  Melodic lead on recorder, backup on piano.  Dulcimer
  accents even phrases the first time, banjo the second time through.
  Only recorder and piano play the last time.

President Garfield's -- hornpipe   midi   input 

  This is almost of full contra dance length (10 repetitions) and
  has been used to call a dance for a small group.

  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.  An extra phrase has been added after
  the tenth repetition for a partner swing at the end of the dance.


Most the tunes appear in Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1882), and are
accessible in the Mel Bay facsimile edition (1995), edited by
Patrick Sky.  Harmonies (backup chords) have been "computed" by VAMP.

Miss Thompson's, Old Favorite, Shenandoah Falls, and Lilting Banshee
come from the Fiddler's Dream Contra Camp, Jan 2004, hosted by the
NTTDS and are believed to be traditional or public domain.

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.