Nature, the Gentlest Mother

From Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson, a song cycle for voice and piano by Aaron Copland.

I originally transcribed this in Logic years ago, for piano, by hand-entering each note from printed sheet music, no downloaded MIDIs or even keyboard involved! Then I played the melody with a guitar synth. This time I exported a MIDI for BIAB to analyze, added some new parts, and gave the lead to an Emvoice singer, saying “Give me soul”.

Nature, the gentlest mother
Impatient of no child,
The feeblest or the waywardest,—
Her admonition mild

In forest and the hill
By traveller is heard,
Restraining rampant squirrel
Or too impetuous bird.

How fair her conversation,
A summer afternoon,—
Her household, her assembly;
And when the sun goes down

Her voice among the aisles
Incites the timid prayer
Of the minutest cricket,
The most unworthy flower.

When all the children sleep
She turns as long away
As will suffice to light her lamps;
Then, bending from the sky,

With infinite affection
And infiniter care,
Her golden finger on her lip,
Wills silence everywhere.

** BIAB Song Summary **
Style is _SMOSOUL.STY
RealTrack: 1397:Bass, Electric, Soul70sSync Ev16 100
RealTrack: 1399:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm Soul70sBrightSync Ev16 100
RealTrack: 1402:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm Soul70sWarmSync Ev16 100
RealDrums: PraiseWorshipUptempo16^1-a:Snare, HiHat, Kick , b:Snare, Ride
GUEST RealTrack: 2585:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm PunkHeldPlus Ev 165

Well, that wasn't what I expected to hear when I saw Copeland originated it, but I should know better by now.

Interesting and musical. The lyrics were a bit hard to make out, though.

That's why I don't tag it with something like "(Dickinson/Copland/Hayes)" =8^)

To me the voices are as intelligible as humans would be with equivalent reverb, but I can't help but knowing what they're singing, so point noted.

Yeah, when I was working on various versions of my vocal synthesis program I thought it was pretty intelligible. Then I'd have someone listen to it, and they'd tell me they didn't have a clue what was being sung.

I assume you've seen this before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6e2c0v4sBM

It's obviously not at all like that.

And it doesn't require understanding every word to communicate the musicality of a piece!

Perhaps pan the vocals a little further away from each other.
I can cope with Copland.
This musical base is cool...the "punk" guitar sounds like it was recorded with a phaser at max...pretty fizzy too.
I quite like the piece but would enjoy it more when you, and the programmers, have nailed the vox synth stuff.

Hi Mark,

I like your creativity very much. I told you that, I think, a lot of times.
You always succeed in amazing me, make me shiver (in horror, sometimes), let me smile and make me raise my eyebrows. Except for 'dogs in the snow' I believe it was called, the one with the gentle acoustic? That was more my taste. But you are an adventurous man in this matter. Continue being that, Mark!

I would say, have a good talk with David Cuny on the artificial vocals and listen to Ray for the more punky music.
and don't listen to me, i'm afraid. Or only for fun ;-)

Have a nice day,
Hans

The music and the band are interesting.

I don't think Emily will be tearing up the Pop charts anytime soon.

fj

I admire your fearlessness and creative, experimental nature. This piece is... interesting and fun.

OK, I guess I do have to work on my panophobia. Apart from fear of everything, I have a deep-seated fear of someone listening while being closer to one stereo speaker than the other. You might call it "separation anxiety", ha ha.


To be clear, that was the crickets!


I need to get Synthesizer V for this sort of thing. Though I do find the Emvoices have their own special charm, displayed better on other songs I've presented.

Thanks for listen listen and talk talk, Mr. C

Thanks! Hey – the way a 2nd drum set comes in after "too impetuous bird" reminds me of Zappa's orchestral stuff in "200 Motels". He would call it "fraudulent drama" or something.

I think this poem has actually been covered by commercial popsters, now I'm curious. Thanks for listening.

Hans, if I can do all that amazing-sounding stuff with my tunes without you liking them, I'm happy! But having them be likeable IS a nice cherry on the postmodern experience. I'm really glad you enjoyed my dog song.


Both are active spiritual advisors, whether they know it or not.