Songbook of Musical Fragments
Compositions from a Reticent Youthhood (1976-95)
Music lovers and musicians…
This is a chronological collection of original musical compositions, composed over a twenty-year period, beginning from when the composer was a teenager and ending nearly thirty years ago.
Compelled to revisit the music from his past, Sherman O'Brien is now sharing this collection of musical fragments with the world.
His theory of art as a form of communication is the basis that allowed the music to express some underlying ideas or emotions.
Perhaps musically inclined people will enjoy playing or listening to these undeveloped fragments.
Professionals will want to purchase the spiral-bound edition, which is beautifully printed and lays flat on the piano stand, while strictly budget-conscious collectors have the option to buy the two-volume paperback edition, which should be purchased as a set.
(Excerpts: see the Songbook's introduction, dedication, and acknowledgment.)
> Index of downloadable renditions (.WAV and/or MusicXML and/or MIDI files and/or PDF sheet music) of each fragment
Also: Rendered .mp3 versions (.MP3 files) of a few fragments
And: Some public performances may be royalty-free.
Recommended software used in creating the sheet music for this songbook includes…
Audio cassette tapes originally digitized into WAV files and then edited using Audacity (legacy versions 2.0 and 3.0.5) [free]
All WAV files manually transcribed into MusicXML format using MakeMusic's Finale notation software (version 27) [$]
All MusicXML files edited, normalized, and printed as PDFs using Presonus' Notion (version 6) [$]
Some WAV files converted into MIDI files using WIDI (Music) Recognition System (version 4.5 Standard) [$]
Some WAV files edited using Seventh String's Transcribe! (legacy version 8.40) [$]
Some WAV files originally transcribed into MIDI, MusicXML, and printed PDFs using Musescore (version 4.0.2) [free]
To convert any MusicXML file into MIDI format (e.g., using MuseScore on the command line): "%ProgramFiles%\MuseScore 4\bin\MuseScore4.exe" -o "<destination MIDI file name>.mid" "<source MusicXML file name>.xml"
MIDI file player (of choice) is MIDI Sheet Music (version 2.6.2) [free]