Track Description: This is a strange little piece I wrote initially for a competition but decided against entering it. Written for full orchestra. A couple of caveats: I write mostly by ear, and only do chord analysis for modulations; as such, many of the chords I use I cannot name - so please be forgiving if some of the harmonies I use in this piece are not exactly standard structure. Second caveat: I know the ending is a little over the top for a short piece, but I figured it fits the character of the story.
My Creative Vision: It tells a story of a woman who likes a tad too much to get into mischief. Finally she gets into a situation that was far more than she bargained for. It’s a bit comical but also a smidgen ominous.
Composition Overview: The piece starts with a solo English Horn (one of my favorite instruments) accompanied by other winds, a tuba and muted trumpet. The melody moves into the cellos, and finally to the fully orchestra. The middle of the piece involves once again the English horn, followed by pizzicato strings, culminating in a solo bells passage, which then gets very quiet…in preparation for the surprise of the piece. The rest of the piece is a fairly standard ending, with a wind interlude in waltz form.
The piece starts in the key of B Minor and goes through a number of key modulations.
Main Sounds: As I usually do for orchestral works, I make use primarily of the East West sound libraries for strings, wind, brass and sometimes percussion. I like the sound of these libraries for the small cost.
Great insights in your description, thank you for sharing such valuable information!
So listening now:
Intriguing (curious) start with the triangle, pizzicatos and tambourine.
It gets very menacing/quirky almost instantly with the harmonies.
I totally agree that is is comical but with a dark sinister undertone.
Instrumentation goes well with the intended feel imo.
I love that you waited to introduce the powerful brass to contrast the more “sneaky” introduction.
The final section imo starts too strong, and even though you wanted to have a big surprise, I still would use some sort of connection in the transition into it.
I also think you might have went a bit overboard in this final section with the “chaoticness” as I personally feel the piece looses its direction and struggles with too many conflicting emotions/styles in one section.
The cadence was actually really well crafted, but I would have perhaps build my way more into it.
All in all a wonderfully fun piece to listen to, with that dark twisted comedy that could be well suited for let’s say a vampire animated movie with some Danny Elfman influences.
You know, I thought of something else. Try adding some punctuated mallet parts in there (marimba for example), I think that would go very well with this style!
Oh yes, I am very much looking forward to hear how everyone will put their own spin on Jurassic Park.
I have to say, I got to thinking about what you said about chaos, and as I was taking a shower I started laughing at myself for my stubbornness. So I get all these ideas in my head, melodies, counter-melodies, phrases etc, and, darn it, I am going to work them all in to my piece whether it sounds like a train wreck or not!
I’d say restraint is one of my biggest challenges. Anyone else like this?
Well as I said, this piece was intended to be chaotic to have that “menacing” quirky and spooky vibe. However, even chaos must have some kind of order…or at least direction, or overall style/emotion. Ah, hard to explain what I mean, but I hope you get my point.
And yes, restraint is incredibly hard, as we are creative people. We tend to be overwhelmed with ideas haha.
To practice this you could try doing some more very minimal and super simplistic arrangements perhaps? Let’s say, ONLY the I - IV- V chords of your chosen scale/key.
Nothing strange with this piece, it was a very fun listening, I wouldn’t worry so much about the technicalities of music theory. I think that the song matches very well with the creative vision and the harmonies match and make the tune interesting.
Also, always listen to your intuition, you say the ending was a bit over the top and you where right
