John More Smieton (1857–1904)

[tpaloj]

John More Smieton (1857–1904)

A Scottish industrialist and composer from Broughty Ferry, a community formally absorbed into the city of Dundee in 1908.

He composed songs, solo piano works, a string quartet (in C major) and an orchestral overture. Smieton was best known for his dramatic cantatas, an extremely popular form in late Victorian times. The Smietons' wealth allowed John and his brother James, a poet, to pursue passions for arts. The following family site includes, as well as information on the other family members, a useful list of works attributed to John More Smieton: The Smieton family site

John More Smieton on IMSLP:
https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Smieton,_John_More

A digitized score of a song "The First Spring Day" which is currently not mirrored on IMSLP:
https://omeka.uottawa.ca/christinarossettiinmusic/items/show/3157

His string quartet has been published by Prima la musica:
http://www.primalamusica.com/contents/en-uk/d127_Page_127.html



ARIADNE, a dramatic cantata.

The cantata Ariadne by the scottish composer John More Smieton, to text by his brother James Smiedon, was finished in December 1883. (The work is referred either by Op.4 or Op.9 in various sources.) Other cantatas by this composer include King Arthur, Op.15 (revived for a performance in 2018: Article in The Herald), Connla, Op.25 and Grammar Fairies, a cantata on English grammar (?!). I've attempted to typeset this rather fine cantata, and currently the first part can be heard via the link below.

There is not much story or action in the first part of this cantata. Theseus, hero of Athens, vows to put an end to the immoral tribute demanded by King Minos of Crete every nine years. Theseus sings farewell to Athens as he and a crowd of Athenian youths set sail for Minos' domain. Nevertheless, the lack of action hasn't prevented the composer in writing some very effective and lovely sections of music. After a short prelude, there is a lamenting and resolute choir of Athenians, a brief choir of the maidens, an aria full of noble sentiment for Theseus, and an uplifting final chorus.

This video is also a first attempt for me in trying to incorporate "sung" synthetic vocals from Cantai software into the realization. The software is still under development (it frequently makes some bad blunders with basic syllables as of yet...) and very limited with customization options. Far from real singers, of course, but these AI vocals should hopefully make it a little bit more bearable than listening to the wordless vocal sounds of Noteperformer. Please have a listen and let me know your thoughts:

Youtube link to Part I

[Reverie]

Very interesting on two counts.

Firstly Mr Smieton. Was he self taught?

Secondly well done for giving the Cantai software a go. I think it's a huge step up from the note performer. Can you add reverb to the voices or is that option unavailable so far?

Many thanks for your time on this Tuomas

[tpaloj]

Very interesting on two counts.

Firstly Mr Smieton. Was he self taught?

A british musical biography from 1897 mentions he was "a student of Sir H. S. Oakeley, Dr. J. F. Bridge, and others.".

Cantai only works from a webrender so far. There are only two options: hall size and reverb. I thought that with added reverb the words quickly started sounding unintelligible. Xml-files from Dorico refused to work, so I had to use midi files which limited customization even further (I don't know how to add midi control codes to better influence expression). I hope the software will improve as it was quite difficult to get decent results. I did the final mixing in Audacity, to keep volume levels in check: cantai produces quite high volume output by default which can't be adjusted in the webrender either.

[Mark Thomas]

The quality of the vocal lines is a huge improvement on the previous  "wordless humming", Tuomas. It's clearly tricky to do and obviously not perfect, but all the same it's a real step change towards realistic digital realisation of scores. Well done and thanks.