presents...

The Memorial at CLAW

A memorial service originally posted at the CLAW Theater in honor of Clyde.

A note from CHU

I have submitted three MIDI compositions for this memorial service.

The first composition is based on "Mille Regretz" (A Thousand Sorrows), was written by the great 15th century French composer, Josquin des Prés.

It was originally composed as a chanson and was written in non-measured polyphony. It is usually performed by a consort (or family) of recorders (a type of flute). However, MIDI patches do not achieve the tonal blending that a recorder consort can achieve, even when "flute" patches are used, because of the intensity of the sonic waveform that synthesizers produce.Therefore, I took wide instrumental liberties in the MIDI arrangement, while attempting to imitate the sounds of the instruments in use during Josquin's time, to maintain musical interest while upholding the spirit of the original composition.

Mille Regretz can often be found on CD and cassette recordings of early and Renaissance music.

---------------- Time Travel Clyde Extra! --------------------

Of peculiar interest is a remanent found in the residual time rings from the great adventure game, Time Travel Clyde. It explains how Josquin's music came to be found in ClydeSight2.0!

The second piece is based on "Pie Jesu" (Gentle Jesus), from the Requiem by 19th century French composer, Gabriel Fauré.

The Requiem was originally written in 1887, was first performed in 1893 and was modified and enlarged in 1900. Written in the rich french romantic style, this gentle and sweet composition does not lend itself well to MIDI. It was intended to be performed by solo soprano accompanied by strings, harp and organ. However, the rich sonorities of this instrumentation are almost impossible to achieve in Internet MIDI, where instrument sounds do not blend well.

I have therefore modified the instrumental arrangement to maintain the spirit of the music, given the limitations of computer synthesizers. The proper performance of this music relies heavily on a flexible and emotional interpretation of the notes and their time values. It requires a sensitive and human touch to come off well. MIDI sequencers are rather strict and limited, especially when arranged for the limitations of Internet plug-ins, so this performance falls short of the original composition in many ways.

There are many fine real-time performances of the Fauré Requiem on CD and cassette, and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves classical music.

The last piece, "Lullaby Clyde" (Lullabye Clyde), was composed by Clyde Big Paws in early 1997, shortly before his death.

It lends itself perfectly to MIDI because is was intended for MIDI performance on the Internet. The instrumentation is exactly as he specified it, and the performance is identical to that heard both in the Concert at CLAW and in the game, Time Travel Clyde (ClydeSight2.0!).

None of the problems that occur when translating an orchestral or acoustical instrumental composition into MIDI affect this work. Clyde used the limitations of MIDI performance to his advantage to create a piece of mewsic, rather than music.

Clyde took advantage of the non-blending nature of MIDI patches to bring out the details in his mewsical lines, and used the peculiar distortions and effects that combinations of various MIDI patches have on computer synthesizers to accent the tonal range of the composition and reflect the atmosphere of the story behind the music.

According to the story, it was arranged for a four-part chorus accompanied by scientific, rather than musical instruments. The difference, both in style and effect, of this composition from the first two should be apparent to almost any listener. It should be obvious that this piece was composed by a cat.

Lullaby Clyde can ONLY be heard on the Internet.