stopping by woods

Back in either middle school or high school, in music class, I wrote my very first melody with a classmate named Mathias Knutzen. The assignment was to take a text from one of our books and create a song with it. We chose Robert Frost's poem and came up with this pseudo-jazzy tune. I always liked it, so I kept the "digital chord sheet" around and played it from time to time. More than 15 years later, here now is a brand new recorded version -- complete with brushed drums and falsetto background vocals.

This track, as recorded, is more or less piano-driven (programmed), along with long notes from some kind of organ-like virtual thing. As a final touch I played in some transitions on electric guitar, and rhythmically shook a sari with probably a hundred tiny medallions on it.

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posted by edlundart (5 comments total)

this is really great. the melody and the instrumentation have just enough edge in them. that is, the melody hits blues notes rather unexpectedly and you push the lovely, pleasing mixture of sounds until it's just foggy enough to be unsettling and otherworldly. Nice and fitting for a poem about contemplating suicide that everyone is made to read in middle school. very very well done, dood.
posted by es_de_bah at 5:56 PM on January 20, 2009

Wow, what a fantastic piece! It's really moving for me. Your layering is great, the vocal is nailed down tight. Man, what else can I say? Thanks for posting this.
posted by snsranch at 5:15 PM on January 21, 2009

Thanks guys! This song's melody is pretty different from the stuff I've been writing lately. It's pretty cool -- I need to get into more of those pseudo-jazzy chords. Maybe even fully jazzy ones.
posted by edlundart at 12:57 AM on January 22, 2009

I hope you got an 'A' on that assignment. If not, here: A.
posted by AppleSeed at 2:15 PM on February 22, 2009

Well this goes into my study tunes playlist rather nicely, thanks.
posted by iamkimiam at 1:59 PM on February 17, 2010