All music and noises © Copyright Paul A. Williams aka Elwood Herring - Please read these notes before downloading
EXPLORING NEW DIRECTIONS AND NEW POSSIBILITIES IN MUSIC COMPOSITION.
LOTS OF DIFFERENT STYLES AND APPROACHES, EVERY PIECE A MUSICAL EXPLORATION. GIVE YOUR EARS A TREAT!
NOTE ON PLAYING MIDI FILES: All my MIDI works are meant to be played using the standard Microsoft GS Wavetable. Usage of any other wavetable will give unintended results. By all means experiment if you have the capability, but please be aware that what you end up with will not be what I intended!
Also, some MIDI files played on Winamp before version 5.3 (and it appears, after 5.541) will not play correctly. If you use Winamp, please up/downgrade to a version between 5.3 and 5.541 (incl), or alternatively, download this version or go here where you can download ANY version of Winamp.
| Play | ©Yr | Mins | Works with no opus number. | |
| A breath of smog |  | 1977 | 03:45 | A nice simple guitar solo. This had lyrics added, and became "Circle Round the Sun". I remember I worked on this piece for months, and thought it was really clever at the time. In actual fact it's my first real composition of any sort. Spot the time signature changes: 4/4 then 3/4 and even a couple of bars of 5/4. MIDI version made with great care in June 2009 (I even included the authentic fret noises!). |
| Llamedos | | 1978 | 03:05 | A MIDI reworking of my very first multi-tracking experiment, using guitars (You can hear the original here). (Incidentally, if the MIDI version sounds a bit off-key, that's because it's meant to. If you play it, be sure to let it finish otherwise the next piece you play might sound off-key too. It's a quirk of MIDI music.) |
| Transtemporal Paradox | | 1978 | 07:30 | Another early guitar solo. MIDI file made in June 2009, original dates back all the way to 1978. The major-minor shifts make it sound a bit baroque in my opinion, a bit like that old classic Greensleves. |
| September Sunshine | |
1980 | 04:10 | A MIDI version of my guitar instrumental from my Sketches album. |
| Siberian Sunset | |
1981 | 08:15 | Possibly my favourite of my own guitar pieces - originally called simply "Fade Out", it was improvised from start to finish (with Mark Walker on organ accompaniment) - before I realised the tape recorder wasn't running, so I had to do the whole thing again. The last few bars are sublime. I reckon the first version was better, but that's gone like the snow of 1981. The original recording can be found on the Red Herring album. This MIDI version was completed in August 2008, and dedicated to the memory of Alexander Solzenitsyn whose book The Gulag Archipeligo I am currently reading and whose death was announced just as I was putting the finishing touches on the piece. Seems fitting. It's difficult getting the guitar pitch bends exactly right, so I might try tweaking it a bit more at some point. Otherwise I'm quite pleased with the way it came out. |
| Just Passing Through | |
1982 | 04:42 | Another early multi-tracking attempt, this time with drum machine backing and pseudo-phasing effect made by manipulating the tape as it passed over the heads. It was the best I could do at the time, and I'm not going to change it now. Note the hemiola 3/4 rhythm over a 4/4 melody. Tricksy! MIDI version made in June 2009, and I took the opportunity to replace the guitar with a sitar sound which given the "eastern" harmonies of the piece sounds much more appropriate. Altogether a quite intense piece. |
| Aslan's Theme | |
1983 | 03:10 | An instrumental piece written for my 80's band Interface. No specific reason for the title - Aslan was suggested as a name for the band originally, and the name somehow got transferrred to this piece instead. Original name was "Eruption". (Tune used as part of November Odyssey) | Who needs friends? | |
1983 | 03:15 | Another Interface song, written about a former Herring member who did something unforgivable. (Tune used as part of The Ultimate Marathon) |
| One More Lie | |
1983 | 05:50 | Yet another Interface band piece, arranged for MIDI (Tune used as part of The Ultimate Marathon). To hear the original mp3 versions of all these Interface songs, go here. |
| November | |
1983 | 07:55 | Interface again. This piece works really well as a MIDI file. Click on it - go on, you know you want to. Then have a listen to the 27 minute version November Odyssey. |
| Midnight Expression / Childhood's End | | 1983 | 06:25 | This is a re-working of the first and final pieces of the Concentric Circles suite. (Nothing to do with the Pink Floyd or the Iron Maiden songs.) This piece was integrated into the 2005 suite November Odyssey |
| Roadrunner / Aslan reprise | |
1983 | 09:30 | Another Interface instrumental. This nine minute medley became the final part of November Odyssey |
| The Marathon | |
1983 | 06:15 | Another Interface song arranged for MIDI (Vocals omitted of course.) This is only a rough MIDI version of the song. There's no point in me redoing it as there is already a finished extended (and far superior) piece: try The Ultimate Marathon |
| Childhood's End | | 1983 | 04:40 | This is my original MIDI version of Childhood's End, included for comparison with the finished version above. |
| Pavanne for Anne | |
1984 | 04:40 | A MIDI piano reworking of my Interface band piece, which I also incorporated into my symphony. One of my best tunes, so I thought why not make the most of it? Also I've included here an arrangement made by Patrick Dent (then 14), also known as Kant Predict. |
| The Last Herring | |
1984 | 04:30 | Another instrumental written during the transition from the old line-up ("Red Herring") to the new one, hence the name. Think Jonathan Richman's Egyptian Reggae, and you're on the right track. It actually went through several name changes including Phrygian Cadenza (too intellectual) and Up the Khyber (Too Carry-On) and even "That damn cowbell thingy". The MIDI version's nowhere near as good as the original though, with QP the quitarist playing all the right notes in the wrong order, and Maz the drummer laughing hysterically as she dinked and donked the cowbells. Ah - memories! (Tune used as part of The Ultimate Marathon) |
More MIDI files HERE!
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