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"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent." (Victor Hugo)
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David in his home studio (note the Kurzweil K-2000 in the background).
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* EmploymentA PERSONAL NOTE By transposing the letters of a person's name to musical notes, a unique musical theme is revealed, and a complete composition can be written. "A Personal Note" is just such a piece - a personalized composition based on the letters of YOUR NAME.The above is the official spiel from the original literature back from when I first started doing these. They're fun to do, but extremely time consuming and thus very expensive. I've done a grand total of less than 20 since I started doing them in the mid-1990s (I even got to weave 2 names together into a single piece for a couple's anniversary, which was very challenging and fun!), so there is no fear of market saturation.
"A Personal Note"is based on the idea of "Tone Painting", a style of composition which was probably an outgrowth of "solmization". There were many systems of solmization (the replacement of lettered musical notes with syllables), but the most common was invented by Guido of Arezzo (995-1050) - the famous "do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do".Tone Painting became a somewhat common practice during the Renaissance Period of music (1400-1600) when many composers, writing romantic song or honoring royalty, used several methods of transposing a given language into the musical language...or a person's name into musical notes. Thus, Tone Painting became a musical portrait of the person being honored, praised, or courted.
Later, composers utilized a direct letter relationship to "spell" melody. The most famous example of this is the unfinished end of the "Art of the Fugue" by J.S. Bach (1685-1750), where Bach "signs" his name to his final composition! Many composers have since expounded on this theme (most notably Liszt and Schumann). Many 20th century composers, exploring increasingly articulate methods of transposition, began relying on several "alpha-numeric" systems.
Your finished music - honoring family, friend, organization, or perhaps that special someone - will be composed in quasi "classical" style, performed on standard instruments, and recorded to CD. You will also receive a certificate with your unique musical theme spelled out in musical notation and bearing a personalized signature.
Give a listen to the 2 below and enjoy! If you really want one for yourself, a loved one, your company, or whatever, drop me a line and we'll talk about it.
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SDML web-site first published 1999; last up-date: 2009