The journey of an ancient music sheet (Tales of a musician in SotA, part 1)

Friends!

Y'all know what this is:

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But do y'all know what this is?...

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It's a traditional musical instrument from China, called a guzheng (古筝). It's a zither – like the piano. Well... Sort of. Piano seems to be considered a 'true board zither with resonator box', when guzheng – according to Hornbostel–Sachs – is considered a 'heterochord half-tube zither in the chordophone category'.

Now try and say that out loud while keeping a straight face. :x

And guzheng is what I play in RL (... I apologize to those who thought I was a talented pianist... I'm not. At all. For real, I suck at piano).

It means that for most of you guys, music sheets look like this:

(from 'The Entertainer' (Scott Joplin) – public domain)​

When, for me, they usually look... like this:

(from '几多愁' (谭建常) – public domain)​

Because traditional music from China is written using a numbered notation called jianpu.

Now... a bit of musical magic.

See that bunch of numbers above? They're part of this specific music sheet.

It's a traditional piece for guzheng (original title: 几多愁), written by 谭建常 (Tan Jan Chang) based on the poem 虞美人 ('Corn Poppies'). That poem was written by the South Tang Emperor 李煜 (Li Yu) who lived during the Xth century.

When (beautifully) played on guzheng, it sounds like this:



And I sort of want to see what I can do with it, for SotA.

So... Let's start by rewriting the base melody using letter notation and type it in Aria Maestosa. Then, let's try and flesh it out a little bit – for it to sound good when played on a western instrument:



A quick check on a visualizer, just to make sure there's no unwanted gap / overlap:



And now that we have a basic (but functional) .midi file... let's code it:

Code:

[B,,/B,b3/B3/] ^F,/ [z/B,] [a/A/] [^F/^f/] z/ [Aa] [b/B,,/B/B,] [F,/bB] [z/B,] [a/A/] [f/F/] z/ [F,F^F,,] [B,B,,B] [dD] [eE] [A,/A/a/] [F,/F/f/] [E,,/e4E4] A,,/ B,,/ D,/ E, F, [B,,/B,B3/b3/] F,/ [z/B,] [E/e/] [Ee] [D/d/] [^C/^c/] [B,/B/] [C/c/] [A/A,/] [B/B,/] [F,F] [F,,F,] [E/E,/E,,2] [A,A] [F/F,/] [E,/E/] [F,/F/] [D/D,/] [C/^C,/] [zB,,,4B,4] B,,/ D,/ F, B,, [D,,/D,D3/d3/] A,,/ [z/D,3/] [B/B,/] [BB,] [Dd] [E,,/eE] A,,/ [B,,/a/A/] [f/F/D,] [eE] [EE,] [A,,/A3/a3/] E,/ [z/A,] [e/E/] [D,fFF,F,,] [AE,A,,aA,] [B,,/B4b4] D,/ F,/ A,/ B, D [E,,/E3/e3/] B,,/ [z/E,] [e/E/] [dD] [d/D/] [e/E/] [B,/B/] [C/c/] [A/A,/] [B/B,/] [FF,] [F,F,,] [E/e/E,,2] [Aa] [F/f/] [E/e/] [F/f/] [D/d/] [C/c/] [zB,,,4B4B,4] B,,/ D,/ F, B,, [B,,/B,b3/B3/] F,/ [z/B,] [a/A/] [f/F/] z/ [aA] [B,,/b/B/B,] [F,/bB] [z/B,] [A/a/] [f/F/] z/ [F,F,,F] [BB,,B,] [Dd] [Ee] [A,/A/a/] [F,/f/F/]
[E,,/e4E4] A,,/ B,,/ D,/ E, F, [B,,/B,B3/b3/] F,/ [z/B,] [e/E/] [eE] [D/d/] [c/C/] [B,/B/] [c/C/] [A/A,/] [B/B,/] [FF,] [F,F,,] [E,/E/E,,2] [A,A] [F,/F/] [E,/E/] [F/F,/] [D/D,/] [C/C,/] [zB,,,4B,4] B,,/ D,/ F, B,,
[D,,/D,D3/d3/] A,,/ [z/D,3/] [B,/B/] [BB,] [dD] [E,,/Ee] A,,/ [B,,/a/A/] [f/F/D,] [eE] [EE,] [A,,/a3/A3/] E,/ [z/A,] [e/E/] [D,F,,F,Ff] [AaE,A,A,,] [B,,/B4b4] D,/ F,/ A,/ B, D [E,,/E3/e3/] B,,/ [z/E,] [e/E/] [Dd] [D/d/] [E/e/] [B/B,/] [C/c/] [A,/A/] [B,/B/] [FF,] [F,F,,] [E/e/E,,2] [Aa] [F/f/] [e/E/] [f/F/] [d/D/] [c/C/]
[zB,4B4B,,,4] B,,/ D,/ F, B,, [D,,/D,D3/d3/] A,,/ [z/D,3/] [B,/B/] [BB,] [dD] [E,,/eE] A,,/ [A/B,,/a/] [F/f/D,] [Ee] [E,E] [A,,/A3/a3/] E,/ [z/A,] [E/e/] [fD,F,,F,F] [A,,AaE,A,] [B,,/B4b4] D,/ F,/ A,/ B, D [E,,/E3/e3/] B,,/ [z/E,] [E/e/] [dD] [D/d/] [e/E/] [B/b/] [^c'/c/] [A/a/] [B/b/] [Ff] [FF,] [E/e/E,,] [Aa] [F/f/] [e/e'/] [f/^f'/] [d/d'/] [c/c'/] [B8B,8B,,8b8] 

And voilà! Here it is. We went from jianpu, to letter, to code. And we now have something that's playable in-game. Basic, without any variations or tempo changes but... playable.

Now, that's all very well, but... what does it sound like in-game?

I let you guys be the judges of that.

(Please don't pay attention to my crappy videomaking skills, I taught myself how to make that from scratch in less than two hours. :x)

Of course, it's just a basic / generic sheet at this point, and it will require more work for it to sound really good. But, eh... the bones are there, and they're solid!

I put this together hoping it'll help people who are somehow scared by the music system in SotA to realize that, with just a little bit of logic, time, and patience, one can achieve pretty nice results. Whether you're used to jianpu, solfège or letter notation, it's basically just a matter of translating notation from a system to another – and then, translating it into code.

Thanks for reading this tale, and I hope I don't lost you guys during the journey (and that it was worth your time)!

Now stay tuned for part 2, it's gonna rock your casbah, rock your casbah (Sharif don't like it).

Eve'

 

Wow, thank you so much for sharing. I am a guitar player with an interest in cultural music from all over the world and I found this really interesting and awesome. I was interested in the music system in SOTA in the early days but lost interest when I found it too complicated. This inspires me to check it out again. I would love to put some Dowland lute pieces and some early renaissance music in. Thank you for inspiring!

 

Aaaww thank you for your kind words! <3

I actually got the same feedback from a lot of people I talked to – overall, they find the music system in SotA at best intimidating, at worst simply too complicated. I lost count of how many people told me over the years: 'I really like that we can play music in-game, have our own sheets and all, and I intend to use it someday™ – just not now'.

For most of them, that 'someday' turned into 'never'. But not because they don't want to do it... because they just can't wrap their heads around the 'how' to do it. And I must admit that it takes time and patience to figure out what to do and exactly how to do it.

So I'm trying to spread the joy, and see if I can help some realize that it's really not as scary as it seems. Seems I caught you in my net, so: one down, a lot more to go (hopefully). In part 2 I intend to write about the pros and cons of using midi to .abc/.mml converters, which ones are not-so-bad and which ones are simply terrible, etc... pretty sure you'll find useful info in that!

 

Thank you for sharing @Eveara. The song is so beautiful. I too am a great fan of sheet music and music in SOTA. While I don't make my own music yet. I do download abc files to the game music that I find and love. One of my hopes is that we do get some more basic instruments. We really need horns and perhaps harmonicas. I use the accordion to add something extra to songs but sometimes it seems to me it is a bit off tune but hey it could be me lol Also I have a School of Rock dedicated to the music of Shroud of the Avatar. While we don't have classes there atm there are classrooms set up and even a text book and school supplies bags. I at one time thought to share my limited knowledge with others who may want a break from grinding, questing, or combat but due to available students I now just have the building for visitors to view and read the Rock Trivia. Sorry to get off topic Eveara your post is inspiring. I agree with the joy of music. Here is a quote I really like regarding it:

Plato said that “music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything”.

 

Thank you, @majoria70! A thread about music would feel incomplete without you chiming in (forgive the bad pun).

I'd add the hammered dulcimer to that wishlist of yours! One can dream...

... someday™ ;p