Dmitri Shostakovitch wrote his Festive Overture op.96 in 1954. Not so much in his own style though, than more in the vein of Tchaikovsky's "1812". As you may notice there`s a part for military brass ,"Banda", which also makes an apperance in the Grand Overture by Tchaikovsky. But alas, no churchbells, nor cannons! :-) But its nevertheless a perfect curtainopener! My first contact with this piece was done the hard way, struggling with the 1st AltoSaxophone part in an arrangement (transcription) for Symphonic Band by Donald Hunsberger. I was dazzled by the crafty structure of the composition and by the vigorous flow of the music and also intrigued by (or should that be stunned by?) the tempo and all upbeats!:-) Some years later I heard a radio broadcast of this opus with Maxim Shostakovitch conducting the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. And that was it. I purchased the score and did...nothing(!) until I bought my Yamaha TG100 Soundmodule. Until then, my "symphony orchestra" was on the heavier side with an EPS16+ and a S-330 as the main synths. I soon realised that the TG100 was a wolf in a sheeps clothing! So I decided to put this little thing through its paces with this piece but it came out all dancing and singing (litterary speaking). But with one caveat: the Banda part will seriously exceed the 24(28)-voice limit of a GM/GS-synth! But fear not though, Shostakovitch himself marked the part as optional in the score, so optional it is! Even if you own a synth-/card with excess of 32 voices there _may_ be some voice-stealing occasionally. So its up to your soundmodule (not the music!) if it will sound good. Be warned! The sequencing was done with Logic 2.5 (thanks Emagic!) on a PC. There´s a lot of volume stuff going on but it will not harm you;-) Thats all,folks. Enjoy the music! Didrik Ganetz e-mail: didrik.ganetz@swipnet.se Some last minute info: The "x" in the Track names indicates the number of voices required. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Festive Overture by Dmitri Shostakovitch Sequenced by Didrik Ganetz (didrik.ganetz@swipnet.se) Revision History: 01: Pasted a GS-reset SysX string into the sequence. The PrgChg #48 (Orchestra percussion) is used. Now the Timpanis and Percussion will play back correct. That is, if you have a GS-module of course;-) 02: Changed the Banda track from Cha 1 to Cha 11. Now the Piccolo will play back with the correct patch. 03: From bar 131 to bar 138:2 the cello melody was mysteriosly missing. Its there in my original file! =-( Anyhow, its corrected now. :) 04: Erased a wrong piatti-hit from bar 130. 05: Reworked "the chainsaw massacre" or "machinegun attack" (take your pick) ;-) between the bars 378-389 in the parts of the timpani and tamburo militare. Should work much better now, thank you! ;-) ;Rem : Its funny, but the original module I worked with, the Yamaha TG-100, deployed such a massive ammount of voicestealing, that this part sounded correct!!(?) Anyhow, with the fabulous Yamaha DB50XG, I soon discovered that things weren´t as rosy as I had believed. :( 06: Entered song info etc. into some new tracks and the copyright part of the midifile. 07: Also prepared (at NO cost for you whatsoever):) a GM-midifile. The differences are: A GM-reset SysX-message The Banda part removed (it _IS_ marked "Optional" in the score). Timpani now plays on Cha 11 The Piatti (MIDI-note #59)transposed down to GM-Crash (#49) Summary: The GS version of Festive Overture The lame GM version This text you are reading The old infofile reworked. ;Rem : Some people would propably say; "- Hey, this DB50XG-daughter- board is a GM/XG-card , NOT GS !" Well,the fact is, in "TG300- mode" (sic!) this card act as a Sound Canvas!Even with all RPN,NRPN and SysX! I can even use a Sound Canvas Editor in this mode!But of course, this is nothing Yamaha boasts about >;-) OK,end of file and if you want to contact me the adress is: didrik.ganetz@swipnet.se Happy musicmaking! didrik