Date
for Entry: (Saturday 4th February 2023)
Actual Date of Online Entry:
(Saturday 4th February 2023)
Dear Diary,
The following section below is an
account of my attempts to create a steelpan version of the St. Mary’s College
Song.
ACQUAINTANCE
TO MELODY.
** Saturday 4th February 2023 **
This morning I woke up and as I
began to scroll through Facebook, I saw an image of a brown and ancient sheet
of paper with music notation on it. It immediately caught my attention and I
slowly realised that it was the music for a school’s song (St. Mary’s College).
It was nice to see that a school
had musical notation to their school song. I began to sign sing the melody
using ‘fixed Doh’. I thought that maybe God had sent it to me to find a sixth
school to work on a steelpan arrangement for their song. (The previous School
songs worked on were Hillview College, Vessigny Sec., St. George’s College, and
Tunapuna Sec.)
Luckily, in the comments section
of the Facebook post, someone left a link to the same song and students were singing it. That night, I began laying out the document and formatting
it on the Musescore Programme for working the next day after steelband practice
in the church.
Link(s):
- Facebook Post.
- College Song – YouTube Recording.
MUSESCORE
FILE.
**
Sunday 5th February 2023 **
**Score
Setup
After returning from church
practice this morning, I began working on re-transcribing the melody found on
Facebook. I had an image of the score saved to work on while staying at Home #1
for a while. A majority of the song was completed at home in Tunapuna. I had to
do my personal research via the internet because I did not know the song
personally as a student should.
The search for information consisted
of sourcing the name of the composer of the lyrics, melody composer, and name
of the song and finding a good image of the school’s logo.
The lyrics were composed by
Father Tom Kennedy in 1933. An existing melody entitled “Le Reve Passe” by
Charles H. Helmer and G. Krier was recycled for the melody of
this school’s song. I was able to find the school’s logo online. Some minor
adjustments were done to it before inserting it into the Musescore file.
Sadly, when I looked at the
notation I found, “The College Song” was written to the top; meaning that it
could have been left as a name for the college song. When I saw 1933 as the
year for the lyrics composition, I thought it might be impossible for the same
person to find us a name for the song. I thought that maybe the person might have
died by now.
Link(s):
EMAIL
FOR REQUEST OF INFORMATION.
** Tuesday 7th February 2023 **
On
this day at 7:10 the night, I had an email sent out to different parts of the
school. Was not sure from whom I could source more information on the college
song. Having difficulty with determining the chords for the melody, I wondered
if there was an existing piano version of the song like with Tunapuna that I
could take and determine myself.
I
was also wondering if the score contained the full song since there are indications
of a ‘verse’ and a ‘chorus’. I was also wondering if there was a name for the
song apart from “The College Song” or if in the student’s Handbook, they had “St.
Mary’s College Song”. A name was needed from me and would be needed at the end
of the arrangement’s work. I hope that someone would be able to answer the email
at some time.
CHORDS
FINALISED.
**
Sunday 12th February 2023 **
For the entire week of having the
melody written out, it was a very hard one to work with. There were not many
chords to work within the key of G major.
I did not continue work on chords
until the key was transposed to B Flat Major. I wanted to make sure that the
tenor pan was able to ‘sing’ the melody comfortably and carried easily sticking
for the steelpannist.
Somehow today as I shifted it to
B Flat Major it became easier to listen to the melody and work with it better. For
my re-transcription of this melody, I did not write it in the six-eight meter shown
in the brown image (in the first section above).
I decided that it would be better
for the notation to be done in a two-four meter. It was then changed to the four-four
meter where I got more understanding of the chord placements done previously.
Listening and inserting the final chords was even easier, thank God.
At this current time, I am not
sure if I will continue with the four-four meter or re-set back to two-four
meter. Even though I may be satisfied with what I had done, I feel the need for the opinions of more musicians before proceeding just in case.
COMPLETION
OF STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT.
**
Saturday 25 February 2023 **
On
the mentioned date above was the completion of the St. Mary’s College Song
steelpan arrangement. The dates for other progress were not recorded. Usually, on a steelpan
arrangement, I would begin working from the introduction but listening to the
song that the melody was taken, I realised that more time and hard creative work
was needed to do that.
Surprisingly, I worked on the
entire arrangement in a retrograde motion. I began working with the part label “Chorus”
(Bar 22) from the melody’s score provided on the St. Mary’s College Facebook
page. That portion was the easiest for me to complete. There was also a bridge
completing the “Verse” mentioned in the same melody score.
This was another great challenge
being able to fuse the “Verse” into the “Chorus” (Bars 17 to 22). I was glad
that both ‘sections’ had comfortably fused over the multiple trials I did during
working hours at St. George’s and evenings at home.
The next challenge was finding
something for the section labelled ‘Verse” from the melody score (Bars 7 to 33).
I tried to have the strumming pattern very similar so that students learning it
would have less work to do. Bar 9 in the Tenor section was an attempt at
decoration from the brass recording of “Le Reve Passe” found on YouTube.
Seeing that the feeling from the
song was like men marching like scouts I tried to create the strumming pattern
in that same manner. Thankfully, that helped me out a lot. However, getting
closer to where the end of the “Verse” and “chorus” had fused well, I also had to
fuse the beginning part going to the fashion already done so that they don’t clash.
This created a compromise for me
and the only way I could have solved the issue was to use rhythmic patterns
from the ‘fushion point’ at beats three and four in each measure/bar before so
that the audience would have been accustomed to that particular feeling. And,
when the ‘fusion point’ into the “Chorus” should take place, it would be smooth
thereafter.
For the introduction, a very close study of the original composition was done. I decided that it would be best for extracts of a “Le Reve Passe” arrangement by George Pollen to be used. My concern was the repeat used but maybe if the school decides to use my arrangement, I thought that maybe the gentlemen might appreciate it in some way.
In addition, to the song, a title had to be given apart from "The College Song". As with the situation with Tunapuna Secondary and St. George's, I had to make the move on giving the song itself a name. After reviewing the lyrics of the song as I did with St. George's, I had chosen the words "Fearless & Strong" to be the title of their College Song.
Link(s):
- “Le Reve Passe” – Brass.
- “Le Reve Passe” – Arrangement by George Pollen.
CREATION OF SONG BOOKLETS.
** Wednesday 29 March 2023
**
After a nice ride up to Curepe
from Miss Santana, I met Dad and we went to visit Isa. It was a very long two-hour
stay to get everything printed. He said that a printer wasn’t working today and
only the slow one was in use. I had some time to enter marks in my mark sheets
for the end of the term. I took the time to individually place all the sheets
together.
There were 6 books made for St. Mary’s
College as I have done with the other schools. One copy will be one for me. Since
the school is connected to a church I decided that the church should be gifted
with one. The other copies would go to the Library, Music Room (if any), Office
of the Principal, and the Office of the Vice Principal.
On Friday 31 March 2023, I found
the number for St. Mary’s College and was able to speak with the Acting
Principal. I hope that there would be a suitable time for a scheduled appointment
to visit them.
(MORE COMING SOON!!!)
Daryl Zion M. Ali
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