New abstract hymn print: Be Still, My Soul.
I’m experimenting with a slightly new style here, masking the notes (after adding noise to the outlines with SVG filters and then eroding/dilating with Imagemagick) and painting inside the mask in Procreate. (And then texturing it in Affinity Photo as usual.)
A new abstract hymn print for As Sisters in Zion:
Me being me, I went ahead and explored what abstract hymn prints might look like.
I also played around with making one in Blender via depth maps:
A new experimental nerdy thing, for people who like hymns, sheet music, and textures:
How I make these hymn prints (as I’m calling them):
convert input.png -morphology erode disk:18 -morphology dilate disk:16 output.pngI’m still figuring out how I want to do these (full bleed or not, barlines, clefs and key signatures or not, etc.). Also thinking about possibly doing some abstract versions as well, to avoid all these music typesetting issues entirely.
I’ve been enjoying Emily McQueen’s The Green Hymnbook project (@greenhymnbook) — typewritten hymn texts with lovely linocut illustrations underneath.
Here’s an 8-bit chiptune rendition of the LDS hymn “The Spirit of God,” transcribed straight across from the hymnbook:
Back story: A few years ago I heard about MML, a way to write Nintendo chiptunes. Shaun Inman had put together an MML bundle for TextMate, which came with ppmck, a command-line tool for converting MML to an NSF (Nintendo Sound File).
I was curious what hymns would sound like as chiptunes, so I transcribed the hymn to MML, converted it to NSF, used Audio Overload to export it to WAV, then used Audacity to convert the WAV to MP3.
Because someone will probably bring it up: no, I don’t think it’s sacrilegious to do this. The 8-bit sound is morally neutral. I wouldn’t play this in a sacrament meeting — it wouldn’t be appropriate — but outside of church I see no problem with it.
Links:
The MML code (and yes, you have to spell “PROGRAMER” that way):
#TITLE The Spirit of God
#COMPOSER W. W. Phelps
#PROGRAMER Ben Crowder
@v0 = { 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 }
ABCDE t150
A l8 o4 @01 @v0
A f4 b-2 > c4 c4 d2 c4 < b-4 b-2 a4 g4 f4. g8 f4
A e-4 d4 f4 b-4 > d4 c4 < f4 g4 > e-4 d4 c4 < b-4 a4 b-2.
A f4 b-2 > c4 c4 d2 c4 < b-4 b-2 a4 g4 f4. g8 f4
A e-4 d4 f4 b-4 > d4 c4 < f4 g4 > e-4 d4 c4 < b-4 a4 b-2.
A f4 f2 d4 f4 f2 d4 f4 b-4 > d4 c4 < b-4 a4 g4 f8 g8
A a8 f8 b-2 > c4 d4 < g2 a4 b-4 > e-2 d4. c8 c2.
A c4 d4 < b-4 > c4 d4 < g2 > e-4 d4 c4. d8 c4 < b-4 a4 g4 f8 g8
A a8 f8 b-4. > c8 d8 c8 < b-8 a8 g4 > e-4 d4 c4 < b-2 a4 a4 b-2.
B l8 o4 @01 @v0
B d4 d2 f4 f4 f2 e-4 d4 g2 f4 e-4 d4. e-8 d4
B c4 < b-4 > d4 d4 f4 f2 e-4 e-4 f4 g4 f4 f4 f2.
B d4 d2 f4 f4 f2 e-4 d4 g2 f4 e-4 d4. e-8 d4
B c4 < b-4 > d4 d4 f4 f2 e-4 e-4 f4 g4 f4 f4 f2.
B d4 d2 < b-4 > d4 d2 < b-4 > d4 d4 f4 f4 e4 f2 f8 g8
B e-4 d4 f4 f4 f4 e-2 f4 f4 f2 f4. f8 f2.
B f4 f2 f4 f4 e-2 f4 f4 f2 f4 e4 f2 f8 g8
B f4 f2 f4 d4 e-2 f4 e-4 d2 c4 e-4 d2.
C l8 o2 @01 @v0
C b-4 b-2 > f4 f4 b-2 f4 g4 e-2. e-4 < b-2 b-4
C a4 b-2 b-4 b-4 > f4 d4 e-4 c4 d4 e-4 f4 f4 < b-2.
C b-4 b-2 > f4 f4 b-2 f4 g4 e-2. e-4 < b-2 b-4
C a4 b-2 b-4 b-4 > f4 d4 e-4 c4 d4 e-4 f4 f4 < b-2.
C b-4 b-2 b-4 b-4 b-2 b-4 b-4 b-2 > c4 c4 f4 e-4 d4
C c4 < b-4 > d4 c4 < b-4 > e-2 c4 < b-4 a2 b-4. > f8 f2.
C f4 b-4 d4 f4 b-4 e-2 c4 < b-4 > f2 f4 c4 f4 e-4 d4
C c4 < b-2 b-4 b-4 > e-4 c4 d4 e-4 f2 < f4 f4 b-2.
One of my all-time favorite hymns is “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” and today I found out I’ve been singing it wrong. (By the way, anyone know why it got taken out of the 1985 LDS hymnal?)
You know that part in the second verse where it says, “Here I raise my Ebenezer”? We were rehearsing it today in ward choir practice (I’m the accompanist) and when we got to that part and everyone sang “eb-uh-neezer” (as in Scrooge), one of the basses pointed out that it’s actually pronounced “eb-uh-nezzer.” Which rhymes better with pleasure later on in the verse, too. Turns out it’s a Hebrew word, Eben-ezer, meaning “stone of help” (it shows up in 1 Samuel 7:12).