The Magic Flute

today marks one year since the passing of comic book/ comic strip/ animation artist Bill White.

Bill was not only an incredibly talent artist, but also a wonderful human being.  he and I struck up a friendship online, which led to us collaborating on a comic book.

Bill and I had a lot in common.  a lot.  had things been just a tiny bit different he and I would have met years ago, become friends, and worked on many happy collaborations.  unfortunately, he and I lived here, in the "almost" world.

one of our common interests was a Saturday morning television series titled "H.R. Pufnstuf".  I once mentioned to him that as a child I had mailed in box tops from kellogg's pop tarts for a plastic toy flute that was based on one of the show's characters.  I was very young, and receiving that toy flute is one of my earliest memories.  I remember how excited I was when I got the thing.  to me it looked just like the talking magic flute on the show (and I really liked the flute on the show.  I remember it was pretty upsetting to me when the evil Witchiepoo would try to capture it.  the poor little flute would cry out in its high pitched voice "help, jimmy!  help!", and i'd be all worried that thing was good to get hurt.).

I played with that cherished piece of plastic for years until it was broken to bits.  imagine my surprise when bill informed me that this toy had become an item that is coveted by collectors, and that it sells for hundreds of dollars.  bill also told me that as a child he had an almost complete collection of kellogg's toy premiums.  the only one his collection missed was the magic flute.

well, me being me, my mission in life became to get my hands on a toy magic flute for bill.  of course I wasn't going to pay hundreds of dollars for the thing.  I was certain that with a lot of patience and with a lot of hunting I would find one.  and I did!  I managed to find one in nice condition; sold to me by its original owner for next to nothing.

the perfect gift for bill, or rather it would have been.  though I managed to find the flute, I found it AFTER his passing.

as I said, bill and I lived in the almost world.  i'm sorry bill.  I really wanted you to have this.

I Hesitate ...

... to post this transcription of "Frankie and Johnny" for two reasons.

first because this the first transcription in which I attempted to "orchestrate" the song.  the sheet music only had the piano part.  I came up with the parts for "bass", flute, and hand symbol.  I know it's bad, but I've got to learn from my failures.

second because in order to make a "movie" out of this song I had to convert it from a wav to a midi.  somehow in the conversion the quality of sound was diminished.  the hand symbols got the worst of it.  in the original they sounded much more realistic.

well, have fun making fun of me (at least it's only 23 seconds long).

Schnitz un Gnepp, die gliech ich net

this very short very simple song was VERY difficult for me to transcribe.  I think the problem was that the person who originally transcribed it wrote the wrong time signature.  i'm quite ignorant when it comes to these things, but the computer program wouldn't let me put all the notes into the measures, and i'm pretty sure that the notes all add to a different amount of beats than 2/4.  so I added a measure, and did my best ... reworking things so they sound right.

btw - blogger won't let me upload just a sound file.  that's why I have to add an image and make these things into "movies".

English translation

schnitz and gnepp*
these I don't like
the beets are too sweet
the farmer's girls
these I won't kiss
they have feet too big

*dried apples and dumplings - a penna dutch dish of roast pork baked with dried apples and dumplings