MIDI Music
Composed by
Jim Farris

 

All these melodies were written to sound better with WinGroove (or similar wavetable player, such as YamahaXG), though they sound okay on a normal midi player. If you have Windows 95 or later, you don't have a wavetable player and you'd like one, you can download one by going here. When you install the program, it will ask if you want to make WinGroove your default midi driver. Answer 'yes' - it's worth it. The only drawback is that the player is nagware, and runs $20. If you can't afford $20 for WinGroove, do NOT download the player. Also, if you can't affford $20 for WinGroove you probably aren't going to be able to afford $80 for Yamaha XG. =/

 

All the music here is (C) 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005 by Jim Farris, All Rights Reserved. Please note that you may listen to this music freely, but you are not allowed to post this music anywhere without express written permission from me, the composer. You may e-mail me at xaa@3lefties.com if you would like to use any of my music for your pages.

 

Netscape and Firefox Users: If you cannot hear the music for this page, you need a plugin. The best I can suggest is Quicktime - it is completely free.

 

Our first piece is a composition I call "Pandora's Techno Box" - it's the music you used to hear on my main page. It's a fast, techno piece about 6 minutes long. Click here to hear the piece.

 

Next are some pieces I have done for my novel series, the Oerth Saga. It is a series of stories set in an "Anthropomorphic" world, with animals that walk on their hind legs and talk. From a compositional standpoint, this is my largest and most varied work - it comprises a bit over two hundred compositions created over the course of about a year, from 2000 to 2001. First, a piece called "The Wild Wood" - if you have a good soundcard or a wavetable player, you can actually hear birds chirping and woodpeckers tapping. Click here to hear the piece.

Next is another piece I did for the Oerth Saga, particularly for the first book. In chapter three, the story begins to turn, and more serious events happen to our innocent protagonists - which, in the end, are only a shadow of things to come. The piece is simply called "Chapter Three". Click here to hear the piece.

And here is still another piece I have done for my free e-serial, the Oerth Saga. This one is titled "Mustie Dance". The musties are small (about three-foot tall) anthropomorphic mustelid-beings, similar to weasels, that stand on their hind legs and talk. They are a very simple and happy people... Or at least, they are at the start of the first book. Click here to hear the piece.

Next is a piece called "Mousie Village (The Song of Regret)". It's difficult to explain outside the context of the Oerth Saga - suffice it to say that the mice are small, sweet little things, about three feet tall, but they have a history that is... Somewhat dark. Click here to hear the piece.

Next is a piece called "Snow Battle". As the story of the first book in the Oerth Saga continues, winter arrives - and with it, trouble. Click here to hear the piece.

If you would like to listen to more music from the Oerth Saga, click the links, below:

  1. The Last God
  2. Legacy of the Last God
  3. Ayre of the Last God
  4. Children of the Last God

 

Our next piece was composed for a specific scene in a fantasy novel I have written. The protagonists of the story find themselves in a ruined, devastated land, their civilization long destroyed by an ancient war. In this scene, the protagonists, who have been alone for many years in a silent tower, encounter a Dwarven Trader. The trader gives them a music-box - they find that one of the things they have deeply missed over the years was music to break the silence and cheer their lives. The story behind the music box is somewhat sad, as is the protagonists being alone in their quiet, desolated lands for many years. Click here to hear the piece.

Our next piece accompanies a scene which takes place several years later in the same story. Our protagonists are busy rebuilding their lost lives and civilization, and the music of the music-box is more "up-beat". Click here to hear the piece.

 

This next piece is a little "rock" number I composed called "I Know." It sounds best on Yamaha or WinGroove (see above). Click here to hear the piece.

 

This next piece is another "rock" number, called "Rock The Cradle." Again, it sounds best on Yamaha or WinGroove (see above). Click here to hear the piece.

 

This next piece is the personal "theme music" for a character I have created called 'Sledge Hammer'. He's a 'cyberpunk' character, living in the not-too-distant future less than a century ahead of us. Click here to hear the piece.

 

This next piece is my take on Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag". Click here to hear the piece. Please note that this piece was accepted for the Classical Midi Archives on 2/17/2000.

 

This next piece is a re-scoring of an orchestral piece. It's a transcription of full orchestral version of Ravel's "Bolero" to Grand Piano. Click here to hear the piece.

 

This next piece is another re-scoring of an orchestral piece. It's a transcription of full orchestral version of Cammile St. Sien's 'Danse Macabre' to a musicbox. It was originally intended as the "theme music" for the first of the four story-parts of "Pandora's Box". Later, it was selected by Douglas Clegg to be used in his free e-serial, Nightmare House. Click here to hear the piece.

 

This next piece is a transcription of Bach's Two-Part Invention No. 1 in C, BMV 772, to guitar. It was done (believe it or not) at the request of my mother. Click here to hear the piece.

 

This next piece is my rendition of "Haru-No-Umi", or "The Sea at Spring". The piece was originally composed by Miyagi Michio, one of Japan's most famous and beloved of classical composers and koto-players.  After a childhood in Korea, where he lost his eyesight, Miyagi returned to Japan and began studying the koto (Japanese harp).  In 1927 Miyagi composed his most famous composition, Haru no Umi (Spring Sea), a serenely haunting duet for koto and shakuhachi that is loved throughout the world.  Michio Miyagi died in 1956 after mysteriously falling from a train.  Click here to hear the piece.

 

This next piece is "Hommage Aux Vieux Musiciens" by Jean Baptiste Lemire (1867-1945) - it was a request by his grandson. Please note that this piece was accepted for the Classical Midi Archives on 4/22/2000, and earned a {¶} for an exceptionally well-executed performance.

 

These next few pieces are "Audio Portraits" of other authors I know. Here is (in alphabetical order) Eva, Janet, Leta, Linda, Pat, and Rita.

 

This next piece is a rendition of "Greensleeves" done as a gift for my wife. In it, I've used some harmonies for 'Greensleeves' I composed back when I was 16, and first dreaming about women and love. The melody is also known as "What Child Is This," a christmas melody about a love of a deeper, and more spiritual nature. In this piece, I've tried to bring out both aspects, and create a work that displays a powerful and deeply moving love, a love that goes beyond life itself - such as that which I have for my wife. Click here to hear the piece.

 

Here's a piece that's a little more recent than "Greensleeves" - my take on "L'homme Armé" (The Armed Man) by Guilliame Dufay, written in the 15th century. Dufay was one of the most highly regarded composers of his generation, and one of those principally responsible for inaugurating the Renaissance in music. Dufay was one of the most cosmopolitan composers of his or any age, and his large musical output, much of which has survived to the modern day, contains masterpieces in every genre of his day - from cyclic masses and isorhythmic motets to simply ornamented hymns and dramatic cycles. This version of the melody, with strong timpani and a trumpet countermelody, was inspired by the dramatic rendition originally done by Dr. Jeffery Briggs for the PC game Darklands. Click here to hear the piece.

 

 

Next are some works I composed for Douglas Clegg's free e-serial, Nightmare House, called "The Dances of Darkness." To hear any of the pieces, just click on their title.
1) The Dance of Terror
- A subtle piece, it is a simple waltz that slowly gets faster... And faster... And FASTER! (insert terrified scream here)
2) The Nightmare Waltz
- You'll never sleep again... (insert blood-curdling scream here - you know, one of those screams you make where you stay up too late eating pizza and watching "Marathon Man", then dream you're in the dentist's chair with the bad guy asking "Is it safe?" and using the drill on you and you wake up going "Ah! Aaah! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" You know - like that.)
3) The Dance of the Mad
- Insanity is merely a state of mind... (insert chilling "mad" laugh here - you know, one of those long, strained laughs that slowly grows more and more strained and hysterical and ends in screaming.)
4) The Dance of Death
- The Grim Reaper approaches... (insert horiffic, vocal-cord ripping scream here - you know, like the one you make when you find out the IRS has decided to audit the last 28 years of your tax returns)
5) The Dance of the Damned
- The souls of the damned perform a pavane in an endless stream of countless millions, dancing to and through the gates of hell... (insert ghostly, chilling scream here - not one of those "The Ghost and Mrs Muir" screams, though. No, one of those "I was walking though the graveyard at midnight and fell into an open grave" type screams. You know - one of those wailing, helpless, soul-chilling shrieks of terror and despair)

Some other pieces I have done for Douglas Clegg's free e-serial, Nightmare House include this one, the Nightmare House Lullaby. It's a gentle piece... The lullaby a father sings to his daughter as the rain quietly falls outside. Click here to hear the piece.

And here's still another gentle piece I've done for Douglas Clegg's free e-serial, Nightmare House - "Hear The Raindrops Falling, Children", or just "Raindrops", for short. Click here to hear the piece.

And finally, here's a version of Beethoven's "Für Elise" done for Douglas Clegg's free e-serial, Nightmare House. I tried to give this an almost... Pained rendition. As though the musician playing the piece had something else on their mind... Something terrifying. Click here to hear the piece.

 

I'll add more pieces at a later date, if people are interested in hearing them and I find the time.

 

Jim Farris
xaa@3lefties.com

 

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Note: If you're were looking for a playlist of music from the guy who plays blues music on radio KKUP in Cupertino California, this ain't the place. I'm the guy who writes science-fiction and fantasy books.