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======= An Illustrated Concert =======
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The Music and Sound
--- Music ---
The music is in Midi form. It is set to start automatically as each web page loads. You can turn it off or restart it with the controls that should be just above these words. If there are no controls, you need to download a plug-in to enable you to hear the music.
We strongly recommend QuickTime for music quality and conformance with the intended dynamic balance of this piece, since it was written using the QuickTime player.
Click here to download free QuickTime for either IE or Netscape.
Ignore the attempt to get you to buy the $29.99 Pro version unless you want to do development or other advanced work. Look down the left column near the bottom. Enter your email name and address, then click for either Windows or Mac system. Then, under that, click wide grey button marked "Download QuickTime".
A pop-up box will appear. Click on "Save File". Another pop-up box will appear, with a default location to put the file. If you accept it, remember where it is so you can get back
to it later and execute it to install QuickTime.
Better yet, create a folder (3rd square symbol showing a small folder), name it "Downloads", hit Return, then doubleclick it to get in it.
Then click Save. The file "QuickTimeInstaller.exe" will be saved. It's a small file, only about 490K, so it won't take long.
After you're through, you have to find the file (using Windows Explorer - right click on Start button in the low left corner of your Windows desktop), and doubleclick on it to install it.
Mac users probably already have QuickTime, though you might get a better sound if you update it to the latest version.
We haven't yet determined if the above procedure is the same for AOL and Compuserve users.
You may automatically have the Microsoft Windows Media Player, especially if you're using Microsoft Internet Explorer. The sound is much less ideal, especially the strange and loud percussion. However, you can still download the QuickTime plug-in and get our recommended sound balance for these pieces. Note that if you have the QuickTime plug-in as well as the Microsoft Media Player, you might get two streams of audio at once. Just turn off one with the controls above, then after one midi player is finished, click the controls above to hear the alternative ;-).
The music playing on this page is from Section 8, Escape & Flight.
The illustrations on this page, and the black and white drawings on a couple of the other pages are from the original 1949 Amazing Stories article.
Astronomical photos are by the Hubble Space Telescope or the Anglo-Australian Observatory.
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- Sound Quality -
This music was instrumented/orchestrated on an iMac using MOTU Mosaic, and Quicktime for the sound playback. Consequently, Quicktime, either in standalone or as a plug-in for Netscape or Internet Explorer, should give you excellent results if you have a reasonably good sound card.
Of course, use of tiny or internal speakers will also damage your realization of this or any music, especially for low notes.
If, in spite of a QuickTime plug-in the music sounds a lot like an electronic beeper with varying pitch, or a mouth organ, and the percussion is strange and loud, you have a low-cost low-quality sound card. You might get a faint hint that a passage is flute-like or brass-like, but only a hint. Any strings sound like harmonicas, and not very good ones.
There are PC sound cards of varying quality. Very old or very cheap ones use 8-bit. Later ones used 16-bit or 32-bit. These are still pretty bad, although an improvement. The latest, with 64-bit or 128-bit are much, much better. You will find the difference dramatic. It even makes game sound effects sound better.
There is another problem. The Midi standards are somewhat loose on exact implementation of their 127 different sounds/instruments (plus percussion). The high quality cards (even Sound Blaster) will have excellent sound, but vary in loudness and attack (Soundblaster, at least with Microsoft Media Player, favors very sharp, sudden attacks). This can alter the planned balance (relative instrument dynamics) of an orchestral piece. The current Microsoft Media Player also has these poor characteristics, as well as harmonica-like strings.
If these things bother you, and you don't want to use QuickTime for some reason, we recommend use of the Roland VSC (Virtual Sound Canvas) software, which bypasses your sound card processor. Like QuickTime, it seems to match the setup under which this music was composed.
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- The Composition -
The music is original and was first composed for piano in 1999, using the MOTU (Mark of the Unicorn) Professional Composer and Performer software on a MacIIci, played back on an 88-key Roland A90 synthesizer, chosen for its excellent piano sound. All dynamics, ritards, etc. are written in. (The MOTU software is a kind of sophisticated word processor for music notes instead of words.)
The orchestration was performed using the MOTU Mosaic (composer) software, plus the MOTU Performer for adding instrument patches, on an iMac, with QuickTime, which has very good instrument sounds.
The music was written in 1999 and orchestrated in 2000.
STAR KINGS is based on a "space opera" by Edmond Hamilton that appeared in Amazing Stories in 1947-1949 (not sure).
To see web sites covering Edmond Hamilton--
Edmond Hamilton and his writings
More on Edmond Hamilton
Bibliography
Captain Future Info
By no means does the music strictly follow the story, but motifs for characters and events are extensively used.
Some of the motifs or themes include:
Space
John Gordon
Zarth Arn
Violence
Court
Lianna
Murn
Hal Burrel / Corbulo
Shorr Kan
Disruptor
Disruptor Firing
Fate
Earth / New York
Click here to hear these themes separately
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- Characters -
John Gordon - NY insurance company employee
Zarth Arn - prince
Arn Abbas - Father/King
Shorr Kan - Cloud enemy
Jhal Arn - Brother
Lianna - Star princess
Hull Burrel - Captain
Chan Corbulo - Fleet commander
Murn - Secret wife of Zarth Arn
Thern Eldred - Captain/spy/traitor
Holl Vorin - Cloud captain
Val Quen - Old scientist assistant
Piano and orchestral scores
are available on request, though costs may be significant, since the piano score for
Star Kings is 90 pages and Jurassic 73 pages for piano versions, and orchestral scores are
about 5 times that. However, any fee will be waived if a public performance is credibly
planned. Score costs for just one or two individual pieces will be much less, if anything.
For the merely curious, however, the best alternative is to simply pick the .mid file from
your browser cache and import it into one of the many music notation programs now
available. However, note that most such programs do not display dynamics.
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- Music Sections -
1 First Contact - 6.2 min
2 Flight to Throon - 1.8 min
3 Court, Parade, Festival of the Moons - 6.7 min
4 Lianna & Gordon - 8.2 min
5 Romance - 5.2 min
6 Intrigue & Capture - 4.6 min
7 Shorr Kan - 4.8 min
8 Escape & Flight - 4.2 min
9 The Disruptor - 5.5 min
10 Preparations for War - 4.2 min
11 War - 7.8 min
12 Separation/Conversations 8.2 min
13 Earth - 4.2 min
The composer has also written an orchestrated work, "Jurassic", on the world of dinosaurs, also well illustrated,
Click here for the Jurassic website.
and one based on a scifi story on psi talent in children that saved the earth,
"Recoil"
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- Chapters of the Original Story -
01 "Call from Beyond" - sleep call
02 "Future Universe" - transported & briefing
03 "Mystery Raiders" - raiders, resistance, rescue
04 "Magic Planet - flight to Canopus
05 "Wierd Masquerade" - court & Throon city
06 "The Feast of Moons " - feast, Lianna, dance, garden, love
07 "Star-Princess" - Murn & Lianna
08 "The Spy from The Cloud" - & marriage planned
09 "In the Palace Prison" - prison & escape
10 "Flight into the Void" - flight, betrayal by captain
11 "Galactic Plot" - flight to The Cloud
12 "In the Cosmic Cloud" - in The Cloud
13 "Master of the Cloud" - Shorr Kan, torture
14 "Dark-World Menace" - discovery of identity
15 "Mystery of the Galaxy" - double-double-cross
16 "Sabotage in Space" - flight of Dendra
17 "Wrecked in the Nebula" - Empire "rescue", crash
18 "Monster Men" - planet of blobs
19 "World of Horror" - rescue by Clouders
20 "Doom off the Pleides" - flight, Corbulo, Burrel, talk
21 "Mutiny in the Void" - fight, Corbulo killed
22 "Galactic Crisis" - to Throon, fast talk / confrontation
23 "The Secret of the Empire" - cleared, Orth Bodner betrayal, Jhal hurt
24 "Storm Over Throon" - Jhal turns over power
25 "The Star Kings Decide" - Shorr broadcast, getting Disruptor
26 "Battle Between the Stars" - Ethne with Disruptor to war, transporter war
27 "The Disruptor" - use Disruptor, Kan dies, trip back Earth, contact
28 "Star-Rover's Return" - back on Earth, hospital, 2 wks, Ruth Allen from hospital coma (Lianna)
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... START ...
To send me mail
1 First Contact
2 Flight to Throon
3 Court, Parade, Festival of the Moons
4 Lianna & Gordon
5 Romance
6 Intrigue & Capture
7 Shorr Kan
8 Escape & Flight
9 The Disruptor
10 Preparations for War
11 War
12 Separation/Conversations
13 Earth
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