Vessigny Secondary School (SONG)

Date for Entry: (Unknown/Forgotten; JULY 2012)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Monday 28 July 2025)

Dear Diary,

    The following relates to the works associated with achieving accomplishment on works to the works of Vessigny Secondary School. Compilation of information for this journal entry began in 2025, and many dates from 2011 to the present may not have been recorded/recalled. Not all work (either used or outdated versions) may have been saved or video recorded for the presentation.

 

MUSIC REQUEST.

**  July 2012 **

This afternoon, there was a special visit from my Uncle Ram and Aunty Annmarie. At this point in my life, I was in Form Two at Hillview College. There was a request from Uncle Ram. He has asked to “do the music for this song”. I was given a sheet of lyrics and a disc. I learned from him that this was his school’s song.

    The challenge was accepted in my mind. I hoped at the time that I would be able to fulfil the task. Just before leaving, he managed to sing me a few parts of the song he could recall. The rest of the song would come by exploring the disc’s recording provided to me. The project became a ‘Universal Challenge’. This term did not exist at the time (probably until 2018 or earlier).

 

SONG’S TRANSCRIPTION.

** Unknown/Forgotten **

The recording provided to me by Uncle Ram was a vocal piece with piano accompaniment. The voice was sung by a female. I admired the depth that she went to in the chorus. Since my main task was to play the song on the Tenor pan, I worked on transcribing the melody alone. I made sure to insert the lyrics. I used the same recording to practice the music and follow the score I created. It was ready, but I was not sure when the time was to play it.

LINK(S):

• Recording from Disc. [Disc Lost]

 

PERFORMANCE.

** Sunday 20 October 2013 **

This afternoon, Aunty and Uncle came up from Princess Town in the cooler part of the evening. It was nice to see Joshua also. Daddy had to rush me home to meet them. I was helping mommy and her coworkers set up the polling station for the Local Government elections that will be conducted tomorrow. They were situated in the Curepe Community Centre.

    I got to share with Uncle the music that I did. Mommy suggested that I go through the song first. He was only interested in getting the steelpan music. Luckily, I had the idea to use headphones to hear the recording and play the pan.

    The first two attempts to record the pan playing were still quiet. On the third attempt, Uncle sat beside the pan and held his phone just below its belly. This time, the recording was clear enough. We learned that this recording would be used for a teacher’s retirement event. He also mentioned that the teacher was very fond of steelpan music.

 

PIANO SCORE.

** Unknown/Forgotten **

From 2013 to 2018, there were about five attempts to transcribe the piano part of the school song. It was my wish to have a complete score of the work for archival purposes and for the school to keep. The final attempt was the best that I possibly could, but sadly, it remained a nightmare. I’m not sure when the next attempt will be made.

STEELBAND ARRANGEMENT.

** May 2017 **

During the summer of 2017, I completed my Certificate in music. The final semester ended with a course in the Fundamentals of Steelpan Arranging. I decided to take the knowledge gained from the course and begin a trial of transforming my previous work into a steelpan arrangement.

    Just like the attempts of the piano score, the same occurrences occurred. I would not have known how many trials there would have been needed to get to where it is today. In total, there were eight attempts made, and they were finally accomplished.

    The final attempt that brought the completion was done after my degree in music at the University of the West Indies (UWI-DCFA). There were two more steelpan arranging courses in that programme, which had me return to the song for another review. 

STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT (V1).

    Towards the early beginning of the Summer Vacation, after the completion of my Certificate program at UWI, I decided to visit the piano and voice score that I made and attempted to do a steelband version. I thought that if the school had a Steelband, maybe they might have wanted that too. The idea came after I had finally been able to get Hillview College's anthem written out for Steelpan in 2015. 

    In the case of Hillview, even though I knew the steelpan tutor said "nobody wants to have that," I saw the necessity to have it. I also received appreciation from the boys in the band when I made copies for them.

STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT (V2).

    I think that at the end of my Steelpan Arranging 1 course (in the degree programme), I decided to revise and fix the entire score I did in version one. The second version brought a huge improvement. The song still remained incomplete in my view. I found it not pleasing enough to be shared. 

    I was still satisfied to some small percentage, knowing that the song was one step closer to completion. I was not going to give up that easily. I knew that someday it would be reviewed again. 

STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT (V4).

** Monday 11th October 2021. **

At this period in my life, I completed with Degree program at UWI. It was on Thursday 3rd of June 2021 that a plan was made to review the Vessigny Song again for the fourth time. My mind was not so focused on the project, and the ideas for tackling this fourth review were unfortunately not so numerous as I had hoped, resulting in a longer completion date. 

    One morning, I sat down from 12:00 AM until 5:00 AM and got the entire fourth version completed. I must admit Sections C and E were super challenging. I was now proud of myself for being able to accomplish them, along with the entire arrangement. 

    There were still a few insecurities (about less than five), which may have left me feeling as the first version. However, it was good to share with aunty Anmarie and Uncle Ram.

    On the Wednesday of that same week, I was able to send an email to Uncle copies of the separate parts. Getting pitch names levelled was a challenge. It was my first time using the inspector feature in Musescore to do this. Thanks to the kind people in the Musescore Facebook group for their assistance.

    In case the school chooses to use this arrangement, I hope that it brings them enjoyment and the proud, amazing feeling that I would have gotten when singing Hillview's anthem at the school. Version four was the same as version three. Minor changes were made to the ending.

STEELPAN ARANGEMENT (V5).

** Thursday 8th December 2022 **

A matter with the school’s logo was difficult. We did not have an electronic logo to work with. I was only able to find one on their school’s website and use it. This created the steelband arrangement and all of its accompanying parts to become version five.

    I saw that the shape of the ‘shield’ was not shown properly, but was darkened out to the lower portion. It was inserted and sent over by email. For some reason, I still found myself not feeling satisfied with the work. 

 

STEELPAN ARANGEMENT (V6).

** Monday 19th December 2022 **

    I saw another version of the same Vessigny logo given to me by Aunty. It was pixelated lightly, but I believed it was workable. However, the image was stained with a grey colour. The shape of the symbol in the lower portion had to be edited.

    It took about two and a half hours in total to clean the image and fix the shape of the ‘shield’. My biggest insecurity was spoiling the image in the process of trying to fix it. Because of this new change to the score, all separate parts had to be regenerated and relabelled.

 

SONG BOOKLETS.

** Thursday 16 December 2021 **

At that time, the COVID-19 pandemic was causing terror around the world. It may have been nearing its end around the date mentioned. On that day, I was visited again by Aunty Annmarie and Uncle Ram during the Christmas holiday from their trip up north. I had already prepared copies of the song booklets to bring to the school.

    There were twelve copies in total: one for myself and another for my aunty and uncle. The remaining booklets were copies that would be shared around the school’s compound. It was sad that I could not go with them to meet the Principal, and also to play the music myself at the school. I hope that in time these gifts from me will become useful to the students.

    Just as my working on anthems for other schools, the song needed a title. This was the only time that a person who was credited for creating a song was still alive. I was able to ask Miss County-Henry, through Uncle, to provide a name for the song. Within a few days, she named it “Our Very Own”. I was pleased that I did not have to decide on naming the song myself, as with all the other songs I previously worked on.

YOUTUBE VIDEO.

** Monday 28 July 2025 **

A few years of waiting had passed after the completion of the steelpan arrangement. I was requested by Miss County-Henry to wait until certain arrangements could be achieved before the video could be uploaded to YouTube.

    After waiting three years, I decided to move ahead with the YouTube video, which would then complete the work and finally bring an end to this project. The only difficulty at first was sourcing a workable logo and editing.

    Usually, at the end of the video, I liked inserting a picture of the school and its name printed clearly, but it was not provided. Instead of that image, the logo with a white background was used. I pray that after all these years of work, the video will be a beneficial teaching resource to the school and its students.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Tunapuna Presbyterian Primary School (SONG)

Date for Entry: (Sunday 27 October 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (2024)

Dear Diary,

    The journal entries below correspond with my work on the school song for Tunapuna Presbyterian Primary School Song.

 

MEETING THE “UNIVERSAL CHALLENGE”.

** Sunday 27 October 2024 **

    This evening, I had a scheduled meeting with John in person at home. At first, it was requested that some music notation be made. I was excited to see what kind of song he was bringing for me to work on. Before the work began (at 3:30 PM), he told me that Tunapuna Presbyterian Primary School had a school song, and they got a recording in the school from a visitor named Mrs Myrtle Panday. She once taught at the school.

    I got a copy of the lyrics sheet that he had prepared before moving to the computer. He asked to play the piano and said that the melody had been taken from the song “The Happy Wanderer.” This was my first time hearing the melody. At the end of the single verse that he played, I mentioned that it would have made a great tune for a steelpan arrangement. I think he was hoping that would have been done, too.

    He also shared with me a copy of the “Happy Wanderer” score from a songbook called “Let Us Sing”. I chose to YouTube the song too to follow the words from the songbook and the gentleman playing his guitar. Once we got to the Chorus, he mentioned that the words were to be replaced with the words created by his wife, Allison.

    By opening the lyrics sheet he had created, I realised that the school song was originally strophic (only with verses) and the chorus has now been given a Chorus by Allison in 2024. The melody was copied from John’s “Let Us Sing” songbook for both Verse 1 and the chorus into Musescore. I had it copied and passed for the other three verses.

    When it was time to insert the words from the school song, it was then that John had sent me the recording of Mrs Myrtle Panday singing. His melody was in C major. She sang in the key of G major. I had the tune transposed and began working on the changes. Hearing several changes, it was best to open a new score on Musescore and transcribe the recording from scratch.

    After scoring the first verse and the first chorus, it seemed to me that their verses were shorter than the original melody. The chorus was shorter by eight crotchet beats (or two bars) of music. Moreover, looking at the chords in John’s book (using them as a guide), I knew there was going to be a lot more I needed than what was provided. This was also mentioned to him.

    Within three and a half hours, the entire lead sheet was finished and ready to become a steelpan arrangement. The first lead sheet and a recording were sent to John and Allison. When looking at the temporary result, I noticed the name. The given ‘name’ was “My Alma Mater”.

    Again, as with other school songs, it had to have a name. This was the final challenge of the night with the song. John’s suggestion was “Your call I’ll Always hear” from the first verse. I was sharing how it had to be something that stood out the majority of the time, as with Tunapuna Secondary School, when choosing the name “Thy Light is Come”. Looking at the Chorus that Allison created, I took the sentence “You Truly are the Best” for the name.

    I also wrote down some more information for him on a short piece of paper about things I needed for the project. We had a joke about the paper being ‘homework’ for Allison. There was a list of ‘homework’ for John, too, in hopes of it becoming another possible music project that I can work on.

Link(s):

• Happy Wanderer Score. **
• First Lead sheet Attempt. (*Destroyed)
• Happy Wanderer (YouTube). 

 

STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT: THE VERSES & CHORUS.

** Wednesday 30 October 2024 **

    Tonight, a strumming pattern and bassline were given to the first verse and chorus. They were attempted on the same night as the first attempt to create a lead sheet (Sunday 27 October 2024) but that attempt was not successful.

    After three hours of working on the strums (from 6 PM to 9:13 PM), I was able to find something that worked. It was immediately copied and passed to the other three verses and their choruses. From the last beat of the verse into the chorus, minor changes were made to accommodate the transition.

    I was wondering if an introduction would be appropriate. I had a big, scary fright, not knowing what to do at all. John told me to create something nice. This most definitely would have had to be left for tomorrow, then. The three hours had tired me out. While listening back to what I did for the night, I began to hear more possibilities for the chorus. A note was left in the Musescore file for tomorrow.

 

STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT: THE COMPLETION.

** Thursday 31 October 2024 **

    Today is Divali. From about 8 AM this morning, work on the introduction began. I couldn’t believe how difficult it was to create a short melody from scratch. Sadly, the verses or the chorus did not have much that I could use to work with at the time. I decided to keep it short within four bars and then find a way to make it flow into the first verse.

    By 1:43 PM, the first version was sent as a recording to John by WhatsApp. It was discarded immediately. I found it necessary for an F-A-C chord to be used in the last two beats of the introduction before the first chord of verse one.

    Once the introduction and the verse worked best to my liking, the chorus followed similarly. However, the possibilities for the chorus were tried, and it worked. Only the tenor pan part will carry it. My wish was to do the same in the lead sheet, but having separate voices created an untidy visual. The arrangement was finally completed by 1:58 PM and sent back to John.

    By 2:30 PM, the lyrics sheet was taken and created in uniform styling to the previous books. The cover page for the book was created, and the ‘Book Matter’ document was prepared. I will have to find the school logo to generate the parts of the steelpan arrangement and have the documents ready for compiling the booklets.

 

SCHOOL PHOTOGRAPHS.

** Saturday 02 November 2024 **

    Today, I was given the images of the school. The quality was excellent. The only issue was that there was a date stamp. I had to find an online programme to assist me. It was not easy until I found the right platform. More technical work was required, but Praise God, I was able to accomplish the task.

    Seven images were sent to me, and after a very long and careful process of elimination, I came down to four good images for being used in the YouTube video of the school song. The most important things for these images would be showing the front of the school, the name of the school on the building, and most importantly, the Aramalaya Presbyterian Church that crowns the hill at the top of the street. I still have to see if the four images will be used or if another will be eliminated by that time.

Link(s):

• Photographs of the School.

 

SCHOOL LOGO.

** Wednesday 06 November 2024 **

    Tonight, I was able to get the school's logo. Unfortunately, the status of it was a photograph of a professionally created one. This professionally created one was not sourced. It took me three hours of trying and hoping that the internet would be able to assist me. I discovered a site called Canva that was able to alter the witness of the background, the darkness of the lines in the image and other editing necessities.

    The black and white version was the first that I had created for the evening. This was my favourite out of the two versions. The second one was a light black and blue-coloured version of the lines. I tried to make a coloured version to match what was provided to me.

    However, black was the only colour being given. I wish there had been a way to go back and change the colour to light blue like the Presbyterian Church’s colour. These images were sent back to John for the school to have copies of them and decide if they would like to use them.

DELIVERY OF SONGBOOKS.

** Tuesday 11 February 2025 **

    Today was a sick day from school. Daddy was very surprised when I told him I wanted to visit the school. Fortunately, I was still able to meet the principal. There was a special surprise that the principal is now Mr Hanooman.

    I got to share a recording of the steelpan arrangement from Musescore to him and Mrs Ramesar at the school’s office. The booklets prepared for the school were handed over when the song was finished.

    As soon as I got home, I tried to email the scores to the school’s email, along with the recording that was played today. A separate email was sent to the school with the updated image of their school logo that I was able to enhance and fix for the printing of the scores.

    I recalled that while coming to the school in the car, there was a nice Bollywood song playing on the radio. I recorded the last seven minutes of the song. Later that night, Google told me it was called “Raah Mein Unse”, and I got the YouTube recording too.

 

YOUTUBE VIDEO.

** Wednesday 02 July 2025 **

    Tonight, I was successful at creating the video for Tunapuna Presbyterian Primary School. I had a very long delay in doing this work since the program I used for creating my previous YouTube videos was updated and became too complicated.

    I did more research to find something easier. I came across a new software called “Wondershare Democreator.” My experience with this new application has been better than the previous one. It took care of the extra technical work for me.

    I felt glad that the updated school’s logo, which I did myself, had a good fit as a thumbnail for the video. I’m slightly insecure that the image is too blurry. Hopefully, it would not be a problem.

    I hope that this work of mine will become an asset to the school and a wonderful experience for the students when they sing their school anthem with this steelpan arrangement. 

    This steelpan arrangement was completed on Thursday 31st October, 2025 (Divali Holiday). Special thanks again to Mrs Myrtle Panday for assisting us with recalling the melody.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

GIRL GUIDES - Anthem

 Date for Entry: (Monday 21 August 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 23 March 2024)

Dear Diary,

    The following is an account of my personal work with the Girl Guides Anthem. (This journal entry was composed in the weekend after the YouTube upload.)

 

THE SCORE.

** Monday 21 August 2023 **

    This evening, I was visited by John to review some work for school. He showed me some of his scores and I soon came across a handwritten score for the Girl Guides Anthem. I did not know at the time that Girl Guides had an anthem.

    I began to sing the melody by melodic solfege and it did seem interesting enough to make a good song for a steelpan arrangement. I was able to get a scan of the score that he had for when I was ready to start working on the song.

 

SPECIAL FINDINGS

** Saturday 27 January 2024 **

    I knew that the words from the score John gave me was missing. I went to Google and started doing my research for this piece. I was lucky to find two scores for the same melody on a webpage. There was one in English and the other in English and French.

    The French lyrics required a quaver on the third beat in some measures to end the remaining syllable from words. There were also a few more syllables in the English text. Thankfully both scores provided chord symbols that were taken immediately into the Musescore file.

    Before the night was over, at my decision, I had the melody from the English version transcribed into the Musescore and took the chords.

Link(s):

• Website for Girl Guides Anthem.
• The World Song (French) - C Major LEAD.
• The World Song - C Major LEAD.

 

THE STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT

** Sunday 04 February 2024 **

    Work for the steelpan music was done and completed today. It took a similar format as the majority of my arranged notations. A lot of research had to be done. I had to find out the name of the composer, the year that the song was done, the name of the lyricist and the composer of the melody. Fortunately, the two lead sheets found earlier provided some of that information. I wanted to see if Girl Guides might have known. I will have to see if I can find their email address to message them.

    However, the song does sound amazing. I feel very proud of it and hope that it will be useful to the Girls Guides in the future. There was a big challenge with the introduction and the ending as usual since many recordings did not have them. I discovered a beautiful piano-accompanied version on YouTube but refused to take things from it to avoid plagiarism.

Link(s):

• Piano Accompanied Version – Girl Guides Anthem.

EMAILING GIRL GUIDES.

** Thursday 08 February 2024 **

    Tonight, I found an email to the Girl Guides Commissioner and another from the Website. I got the email address for Girl Guides in Trinidad and Tobago. But the homeland email address unexpectedly ended up bouncing. I'm not sure if the address provided on their website was no longer in service. There was a nice electronic response saying that the email was received. I hope that in time a response will be given.

 

GIRL GUIDES LOGO.

** Friday 08 March 2024 **

    I was planning to upload the YouTube video for the music that I did on the song. I would need an image of the Girl Guides Logo but after my previous sets of research, it seemed like when a certain country took Girl Guides, they had a certain twist to the logo.

    The Girl Guides logo would be taken and arranged to suit the country’s Coat of Arms or could be embellished to look different from other countries.

    I decided that the Logo from the United Kingdom’s page would be best suited since it came from there. However, there were many versions some with better quality of colour than others on the internet. I took one with a black background and one with a white background.

    I thought that the white background logo should go first and match the white with the rest of my videos and the black could be used after in the video either just before the score appears or towards the conclusion. There was a third logo I found with the first making in turquoise but the image was too blurry. I kept it but did not use it.

 

GIRL GUIDES ANTHEM – YOUTUBE VIDEO.

** Sunday 10 March 2024 **

    Today was a painful and emotional day. I waited for the night to come to upload the anthem to YouTube. No email or response was sent and it resulted in me having to go ahead without approval or any feedback based on what was shared.

    Three attempts to record the video were made. One video upload was done but it was deleted because the information I was looking for was right in front of me the entire time (see Webpage link). With the new addition of information to the score, the music had to be recorded a fourth time and then edited a third time.

    That time I knew that the anthem was finished and ready. I was able to find out that the anthem’s melody came from an existing composition by Jean Sibelius. The name of the piece was “Partiolaisten Marssiquot” (March of the Scouts); Opus 91b. There was a piano and a choral version of the song on YouTube.

    I learned that the song in its arranged version was approved by Girl Guides in 1950 to be their anthem. This was the year I took to be the year of composition for the anthem on the score.

Link(s):

• Sibelius Jean (Op.91b), “Partiolaisten Marssi” – Chorus Practice.
• Sibelius Jean (Op.91b), “Partiolaisten Marssi” – Piano.

• My Steelpan Version.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

St. Mary's College (SONG)

 Date for Entry: (Saturday 4th February 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 4th February 2023)

Dear Diary,

    The following section below is an account of my attempts to create a steelpan version of the St. Mary’s College Song.

 

ACQUAINTANCE TO MELODY.

** Saturday 4th February 2023 **

This morning I woke up and as I began to scroll through Facebook, I saw an image of a brown and ancient sheet of paper with music notation on it. It immediately caught my attention and I slowly realised that it was the music for a school’s song (St. Mary’s College).

    It was nice to see that a school had musical notation to their school song. I began to sign sing the melody using ‘fixed Doh’. I thought that maybe God had sent it to me to find a sixth school to work on a steelpan arrangement for their song. (The previous School songs worked on were Hillview College, Vessigny Sec., St. George’s College, and Tunapuna Sec.)

    Luckily, in the comments section of the Facebook post, someone left a link to the same song and students were singing it. That night, I began laying out the document and formatting it on the Musescore Programme for working the next day after steelband practice in the church.

Link(s):

• Facebook Post.
• College Song – YouTube Recording.

MUSESCORE FILE.

** Sunday 5th February 2023 **

**Score Setup

After returning from church practice this morning, I began working on re-transcribing the melody found on Facebook. I had an image of the score saved to work on while staying at Home #1 for a while. A majority of the song was completed at home in Tunapuna. I had to do my personal research via the internet because I did not know the song personally as a student should.

    The search for information consisted of sourcing the name of the composer of the lyrics, melody composer, and name of the song and finding a good image of the school’s logo.

    The lyrics were composed by Father Tom Kennedy in 1933. An existing melody entitled “Le Reve Passe” by Charles H. Helmer and G. Krier was recycled for the melody of this school’s song. I was able to find the school’s logo online. Some minor adjustments were done to it before inserting it into the Musescore file.

    Sadly, when I looked at the notation I found, “The College Song” was written to the top; meaning that it could have been left as a name for the college song. When I saw 1933 as the year for the lyrics composition, I thought it might be impossible for the same person to find us a name for the song. I thought that maybe the person might have died by now. 

Link(s):

• St. Mary’s College – Website. 
• St. Mary's College - Student's Handbook.

 

EMAIL FOR REQUEST OF INFORMATION.

** Tuesday 7th February 2023 **

On this day at 7:10 the night, I had an email sent out to different parts of the school. Was not sure from whom I could source more information on the college song. Having difficulty with determining the chords for the melody, I wondered if there was an existing piano version of the song like with Tunapuna that I could take and determine myself.

    I was also wondering if the score contained the full song since there are indications of a ‘verse’ and a ‘chorus’. I was also wondering if there was a name for the song apart from “The College Song” or if in the student’s Handbook, they had “St. Mary’s College Song”. A name was needed from me and would be needed at the end of the arrangement’s work. I hope that someone would be able to answer the email at some time. 

CHORDS FINALISED.

** Sunday 12th February 2023 **

For the entire week of having the melody written out, it was a very hard one to work with. There were not many chords to work within the key of G major.

    I did not continue work on chords until the key was transposed to B Flat Major. I wanted to make sure that the tenor pan was able to ‘sing’ the melody comfortably and carried easily sticking for the steelpannist.

    Somehow today as I shifted it to B Flat Major it became easier to listen to the melody and work with it better. For my re-transcription of this melody, I did not write it in the six-eight meter shown in the brown image (in the first section above).

    I decided that it would be better for the notation to be done in a two-four meter. It was then changed to the four-four meter where I got more understanding of the chord placements done previously. Listening and inserting the final chords was even easier, thank God.

    At this current time, I am not sure if I will continue with the four-four meter or re-set back to two-four meter. Even though I may be satisfied with what I had done, I feel the need for the opinions of more musicians before proceeding just in case.

COMPLETION OF STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT.

** Saturday 25 February 2023 **

On the mentioned date above was the completion of the St. Mary’s College Song steelpan arrangement. The dates for other progress were not recorded. Usually, on a steelpan arrangement, I would begin working from the introduction but listening to the song that the melody was taken, I realised that more time and hard creative work was needed to do that.

    Surprisingly, I worked on the entire arrangement in a retrograde motion. I began working with the part label “Chorus” (Bar 22) from the melody’s score provided on the St. Mary’s College Facebook page. That portion was the easiest for me to complete. There was also a bridge completing the “Verse” mentioned in the same melody score.

    This was another great challenge being able to fuse the “Verse” into the “Chorus” (Bars 17 to 22). I was glad that both ‘sections’ had comfortably fused over the multiple trials I did during working hours at St. George’s and evenings at home.

    The next challenge was finding something for the section labelled ‘Verse” from the melody score (Bars 7 to 33). I tried to have the strumming pattern very similar so that students learning it would have less work to do. Bar 9 in the Tenor section was an attempt at decoration from the brass recording of “Le Reve Passe” found on YouTube.

    Seeing that the feeling from the song was like men marching like scouts I tried to create the strumming pattern in that same manner. Thankfully, that helped me out a lot. However, getting closer to where the end of the “Verse” and “chorus” had fused well, I also had to fuse the beginning part going to the fashion already done so that they don’t clash.

    This created a compromise for me and the only way I could have solved the issue was to use rhythmic patterns from the ‘fushion point’ at beats three and four in each measure/bar before so that the audience would have been accustomed to that particular feeling. And, when the ‘fusion point’ into the “Chorus” should take place, it would be smooth thereafter.

    For the introduction, a very close study of the original composition was done. I decided that it would be best for extracts of a “Le Reve Passe” arrangement by George Pollen to be used. My concern was the repeat used but maybe if the school decides to use my arrangement, I thought that maybe the gentlemen might appreciate it in some way. 

    In addition, to the song, a title had to be given apart from "The College Song". As with the situation with Tunapuna Secondary and St. George's, I had to make the move on giving the song itself a name. After reviewing the lyrics of the song as I did with St. George's, I had chosen the words "Fearless & Strong" to be the title of their College Song.

Link(s):

• “Le Reve Passe” – Brass.

• “Le Reve Passe” – Arrangement by George Pollen.

CREATION OF SONG BOOKLETS.

** Wednesday 29 March 2023 **

**Books image

After a nice ride up to Curepe from Miss Santana, I met dad and we went to visit Isa. It was a very long two-hour stay to get everything printed. He said that a printer wasn’t working today and only the slow one was in use. I had some time to enter marks in my mark sheets for the end of the term. I took the time to individually place all the sheets together.

    There were 6 books made for St. Mary’s College as I have done with the other schools. One copy will be one for me. Since the school is connected to a church I decided that the church should be gifted with one. The other copies would go to the Library, Music Room (if any), Office of the Principal, and the Office of the Vice Principal.

    On Friday 31 March 2023, I found the number for St. Mary’s College and was able to speak with the Acting Principal. I hope that there would be a suitable time for a scheduled appointment to visit them.

(MORE COMING SOON!!!)

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Tunapuna Secondary School (SONG)

Date for Entry: (Monday 17th October 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Sunday 18th December 2022)

Dear Diary,

The following sectioned entries below will detail the occurrences and activities relating to the creation of the Tunapuna Secondary School’s Song.

 

FIRST TIME MEETING MR J. RAMASAR.

** Monday 17th October 2022. **

[St. George’s College (Week 5) – Day #17]

This morning I was supposed to go to join the teachers in the staffroom for a meeting about the concerns of the school’s danger to everyone. It was a long day with the morning meeting for heads to go to the University of the Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) site and the continuation site in the evening.

    Sitting at my desk in the staffroom at around ten o’clock, I got a Messenger text from a new Facebook friend name John. He was someone I did not know. After the long and tiring day, we did not speak for much until later that night.

    During our conversation via text from 6:43 to 7:06 pm, he had asked for assistance in music notation. It was to score the Tunapuna Secondary School song. I learned that there were no music notations for the song. It reminded me of when I first heard the anthems for Hillview, Vessigny and St. George’s.

    I was told that there was something done that he met there when starting to work at the school. It was a recording of the song with a lady singing and someone playing a keyboard. While listening to it, I knew that a lead sheet would have been necessary before beginning to transcribe that entire song. I was surprised that the length and wondered how the students would learn it. I suppose it is the same as Vessigny. I just at the time hoped it would not have taken forever like the Vessigny steelpan version.

    As soon as John was approving the lead sheet, I asked him for the name of the persons responsible for the text/lyrics (Amanda Jagassar), melody (Juliet Robin) and the name of the school song. I was told that the name of the song was “Our School Song”. I recalled seeing that in their school’s anniversary magazine in the newspapers some months ago. I did not agree with it as a name for the song but didn’t comment.

    I was given a snapshot of the school song’s lyrics. That would have been helpful to me in creating the lead sheet. Before our conversation concluded, I learned that Dr Mohammed had referred him to me about notating the music.

Link(s):

• Full Entry: St. George’s College (Week 5) – Day #17.
• Text/Lyrics. **
• Vocal Recording. **

 

ZOOM MEETING FOR VOCAL & PIANO ACCOMPANIMENT.

** Saturday 22nd October 2022. **

This evening was kind of my first face-to-face meeting with John on Zoom. We did not chat much at first but got straight into the music topic of the evening. I was the one that created the link so I shared my screen and showed him the lead sheet first.

    I mentioned that the text was difficult during the chorus section. I did not know if all of the chorus sections were “thy light HAS come” or “thy light IS come” since they were not exact. The melody with piano accompaniment version was five pages in length. The playing was done and we spoke some more about it. As I did for St. George's and Hillview, I also had to ask for a copy of the school’s logo that will decorate the score.

    As part of the conversation, I also added a share of what I had done for St. George’s anthem and Vessigny’s anthem. Then I moved the attention from the three to Hillview’s College song on YouTube. I did offer John to make a YouTube video of their school song but had mentioned that if the principal had given his or her approval, I would continue to work on that.

    A little before my presentations for that one meeting were over, I shared with John a short view of the results from a new software I downloaded called Anthem Score on Thursday 20th October 2022. As I had expected, there would have been a huge mess created. I was consulting with John during the week about the chords used in the piano part and he too found them to be very confusing.

    While I was busy trying to strictly notate what was being done in the music, I had forgotten about listening to the music and allowing it to tell me what it wanted. I found it to be much easier as I used it this way. I’m glad that the music spoke to me. I was also forced to make some negotiations as expected and sooner than expected too I was done with the piece.

    When my meeting ended with John with a long conversation (7:30 pm), I took the same lead sheet and began working on the steelpan version of the same school song. I left like it was too much work to do but I did not entertain the feeling. I continued because I know of the special importance it will serve later on. My work for the night ended at 9:00 pm.

Link(s):

• Lead Sheet. **
• Vocal Score with Piano Acc. **
• Anthem Score Results: Voice & Piano Acc. **

 

STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT (V1).

** Sunday 23rd October 2022. **

At 9:00 pm the last night, I was able to complete the introduction of the song which was four measures in four-four times. The verse was not difficult at all to create a strumming pattern. I ended up ignoring all that was given in the recording of the singing lady and the confusing piano part. Instead, I did what I wanted and chose to bring it to life like Vessigny’s anthem and St. George’s anthem.

    Additionally, I was very pleased that the same strumming patterns for the verse could have been reused for the chorus. It reduced more work to be done and they were copied and pasted in immediately.

    Verse three on the other hand presented more challenge because it was different from the other verses. A new strumming pattern had to be made for the double tenors and double seconds, and the Guitars and Cellos.

 

LOGO/CREST.

** Monday 24th October 2022. **

In my previous work with St. George’s, I felt that it was necessary and satisfactory to have the Tunapuna Secondary School logo inserted into the scores that I had created. Unfortunately, as time went by from the date above all the way to the end of the team, no logo was given to me. I had to source the same image from Google. This image was not a proper or official one.  

    On Tuesday 6th December 2022, I saved the image and edited and cleaned it myself. The file format was changed for the insertion of the image into the Musescore file.

 

SCHOOL’S SONG BOOKLETS.

** Tuesday 13th December 2022. **

Last night I had all the materials to make Tunapuna’s Song sent to print by ISA. I decided to make a book for them as I did for St. George’s with all the parts for the steelpan arrangement and the vocal piece with piano accompaniment previously completed.

    In addition, I decided that it would be good to insert copies of all the parts of the national anthem I had done for “PanChile” some weeks ago. I heard that they were starting a steelband trial for the first time and knew that as a steelband in Hillview, the college song and national anthem were the two most crucial pieces above all other repertoires.

 

FIRST MEETINGS & ACQUAINTANCES.

** Wednesday 14th December 2022. **

This morning was an early one. I had a nice surprise visit from Mr Ramasar (at 11:28) for a while until our conversation was then continued in the Tunapuna Secondary School’s compound. It was my first step into the compound. I was very excited. My view of the school was only the back entrance by my home.

    The environment was quite different but standing in the car park, gave me that same calm and welcoming feeling that St. George’s presented me all these years. I was asked to sign the guard’s book shortly after.

    It felt like I was definitely going to school. I carried my bookbag on my back with the booklets and another bag in my hand. We met the Principal and Vice Principal for the first time some minutes after setting up my laptop in the waiting area. I had the vocal piece with piano accompaniment opened first to play for them and explained that this was the work requested of me to do.

    Immediately after the vocal and piano version, I had the steelpan version waiting. None of the three had heard this one either. I explained my reason and the importance of it and then played it for them. I found a bigger, better feeling from the steelpan one after playing the vocal and piano one. Even though I have heard the steelpan version many times before the meeting, I think we were all surprised by the way the rhythmic introduction came in. The chorus was way nicer. We enjoyed it.

    Once the steelpan version was completed, I got my plastic bag with the booklets out. It was another surprise I had for them. They were already sorted so that I would distribute them. I mentioned that the books were gifts to the school via a particular area or office within the compound and not to a specific person. They understood.

    The last and eleventh book remaining in my bookbag was left with Principal for Miss Robin who composed the melody. One book was given to the Principal’s Office. One book was given to the Vice Principal’s office. Three books were sent to the Music Room. Three books were sent to the library for archival and safeguarding. The final two books were given to the Administration Office.

    In my view, as the Form One version as a Hillview student, I can now feel satisfied that notation in every necessary way for the school song is created and is available. It would be easily accessible throughout the school and no longer scarce.

YOUTUBE VIDEO.

** Monday 21 August 2023 **

    This afternoon I decided to put together the arrangement and photographs that I was given on my visit to the school into a YouTube video. There were six recordings done. Unfortunately, after six attempts, the quality of the visuals was still not pleasing. I am glad that this project is finally completed after an entire academic year of waiting. In addition, I hope that it provides a useful tool in assisting the students to learn their school song.

Link(s):

• Tunapuna Secondary School (TSS) Song.

Daryl Zion M. Ali