psalms 23 set to chinese folk tune

Cool!

 

When I play it in the C-maj scale, 1=C, 2=D, etc. it sounds very melodic. Did I get it right? If it were played on the white keys only, what note is number one?

I also noticed there's not a set metre. Is that governed by the Chinese wording of the original folk song?

 

Quite different... and neat!

 

I know absolutely nothing about music...that's why I play a guitar

Can anyone make a midi of it or something?

BTW, I just noticed you hit the 4000 posts club Ben, well done mate

 

I've made a midi file of it.

Okay. If it's four-four time, that means the minim is a quarter rest. (I was reading it as a half rest. )

 

Yep, that's why I thought it might be in a different mode.

the rest of the harmony is very interesting too. it's differs from typical western chord choices.

Send it on!

Here's a suggestion on how:

5/5346/5>53^1/^1456/(2>2).5/
1/1111/1>113/4111/(7>7).7/
Lead on, O King Eternal, The day of march is come. Hence -

5346/5>533/276#4/(5>5).
1111/1>111/7211/(7>7).
forth in fields of conquest thy tents shall be our home.

Using your code to build on, there are the soprano and alto voices of the first two lines of Lead On, O King Eternal. I inserted the words to help decipher it. Each syllable of a word corresponds to each note. No embellishments, so it should be easy to follow.

Single space between the voices (you could have as many voices as you need), and doublespace between the lines. You'll have to limit the length so our computers don't wrap the lines when we're reading them.

If you have chords here and there instead of with every note of the melody, you can use rests in the counts between the chords.

For instance, here's the first line with a third voice added, but it only shows the melody line and chords at the first count of each measure.

5/5346/5>53^1/^1456/(2>2).
-/3---/3>3--/4---/(5>5).
-/1---/1>1--/ô6---/ô(5>5).
Lead on, O King Eternal, The day of march is come.


I used > to tie two notes of the same degree together to combine their counts. 1>1 is a half note. 1>1>1>1 would be a whole note.

ô (alt + 0244) means an octave lower. (You might think of a better symbol.)

I used the dot (.) as it's used in Modern notation. The paretheses work as they do in math, to treat a group as a unit.

(1>1). is a dotted half note. 3 counts.
1. would be a dotted quarter note.
1>1. would be 2 1/8 counts.
1. would be a dotted eighth note.

# means sharp. You could use b to mean flat.

Anyway, we look forward to seeing the chords! And, congratualtions on inventing UBB musical notation!

 

Thanks Pete!