98906
ohhh my gaaawd man, when the drums and guitar part come in this jumped from a 5 to a 7 real fast. So beautifully done, insanely impressive stuff.
After more than ten years without touching a MIDI, I'm very happy to be back at it again, thanks to BotB.
This bolero belongs to the Cuban form, very popular in Latin America as romantic music. If you're looking for similarities with Ravel's chef-d'œuvre, you won't find any. Popular songs of this genre include "You Belong To My Heart" (Spanish title: "Solamente una Vez") or "Bésame Mucho".
This MIDI was made with Sekaiju. I really felt as if I was traveling back to the past when I used to write these songs with Cakewalk. Speaking of which, the bolero was a WIP that I left unfinished back in... 2007! It was originally composed for fancy soundfonts, but I was gladly surprised at how good it still sounded with the underrated Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth. The ensemble consists of a piano, two guitars, a fretless bass, strings and Latin percussions which include maracas, congas and bongos. This same ensemble (minus the bass and the percussions) follows the bolero with a fugue, just like baroque composers used to do.
Why A♭m instead of G#m? At some point, the bolero modulates to the paralel major, and I use mostly the harmonic minor. Both cases would have needed double sharps, which unnecessarily complicate things.
Enough talk for today. I hope you enjoy my return to the MIDI world, and I also hope that I have not gathered too much dust in this format after 10+ years.