Sometime in October 2020 my friend Lefty and I decided “on the side” that we could write a Christmas carol. It should sound beautifully melodic and festive. We found out that it is not that easy, because you automatically slip into familiar melodies. At some point this melody came into my mind and then one thing led to another. What is special about this recording is that no click or metronome was used, but “just go ahead” was recorded in order to preserve a natural dynamic. Enjoy listening.

When my wife and I stayed with the family in southern Germany shortly before Christmas, I took the opportunity to visit the toy museum in the old Wettsteinhaus in Riehen, a town near Basel. While strolling through the exhibitions and looking at the beautiful and lovingly designed old toys, I saw in my “inner eye” how the children were playing. So I came up with the idea for this piece, which is based on the style of the late 19th century. The piece was realized with the VST plugin by Miroslav Philharmonik 2 CE (what else :-))

“Passage” was my first “creation” after all the equipment was operational. First I wanted to hit the keys really hard and that was the intro. In order to then test the functionality of the VST plug-in Miroslav Philarmonik 2 CE, the melody with the flute came to my mind. Little by little, more traces came together and this is how this little classic piece came about. Mixing was a challenge due to the great dynamics. But I think it turned out well.

When I went on a “voyage of discovery” with the Miroslav Philharmonic Plugin, I noticed a beautiful and wistful violin. Somehow I suddenly had this melody in my head and brought it into shape. In order to achieve an improvement in the piece, I added the choirs slightly offset. At largo it took me a long time to set the correct volume ratio. The violin was not allowed to stand above everything, but should not starve to death in the loud passages. But at some point you press the button and render it for publication 🙂

The idea for this somewhat gloomy end-time topic came to me when I became aware of text-to-speech technology in the course of another project. A text entered is converted into an audio file in a speech synthesizer. I then reduced the speed of this MP3 file by 75% and put some reverb on the track. This is how this “asexual” voice came about. So that the musical environment is right, an emulated Juno serves as a drone and a prophet as a string. Add a gently played concert guitar from the Miroslav Philarmonik 2 CE repertoire and the work is done.

The thought came to me of the North Sea when I was looking at the sailing ships.