This is my entry for the Discovery competition that is being held by Orchestral Tools.
Creative Vision.
When approaching this piece i tried to imagine what it would be like to wait and anticipate the formation of a new Galaxy, as if the Discovery had been traveling past a super nova from a distance and as it comes into sight the tension builds slightly, before the gravity of the singularity collapses on itself with so much force that in a blink of an eye it implodes and disappears. Then as quickly as it left the galaxy appears with a bright glow and gradually expands until everything slows down, as if gravity stabilises once more.
The overall genre of this piece is very Epic, and some elements are inspired by Trailer music, though its a bit more melodic than the typical Trailer style. I chose to use all of the sounds from the Discovery Sine Player instruments which created a firm bed for me to create the rest of my piece. All Hits, Risers and Electronic elements were created from scratch, and i also recorded live shakers, glochenshpiel and rain maker which i later manipulated to create swirling textures for the introductory section. The rest of the pallet is based on a contemporary orchestra.
Harmonically the piece develops in three stages. The introduction starts in D minor which suited the Discovery instruments and the chords move around a drone which holds the piece in its harmonic centre. After the Implosion I then establish the Key more firmly and introduce the Theme, which was only intend at in the introduction. Finally the harmony changes modally for the climax which signals that something exciting is forming. The harmony switches through three different implied key centres in these 8 bars to give the impression that in this section the galaxy is developing quickly. Finally we arrive back in Dm as the majestic horn fades out playing the start of the main motif.
No. I have never entered any other than those here. I think will sometime though. I think I must do that to force myself to develop. Any suggestions where I can find any for orchestral music? I haven’t got in to any sound design yet.
Orchestral tools do about 2 a year I think. Obviously if you’ve seen on my forum, I’m running small ones that could really help you develop. This months is orchestration.
Others I’ve seen are on the BBC. They do a lot of composer competitions each year. The winner usually gets their track recorded by the welsh philharmonic
Thank you Carl. Yeah, they provide a small selection of instruments which are just 2 layer pads and one short Klingon choir section that’s restricted to 3/4 syllables. You can hear I’ve used the choir and two of the pads but the other elements just thivken the last section
Yeah, I do like the modal modulation at the end; I’m getting more comfortable using chromatic harmonies in my pieces, almost to the point where I think it’s necessary! For my fantasy piece I actually start out with an implied Dm harmony that finishes on Dmaj then modulates to D Dorian. Unfortunately, every time I write in Dorian, it sound really cheesy and cliched.
I like that moving in thirds though, makes it sound really big to me. As always your sound design stuff is top notch!
Yeah it’s not really modal. I wish it was that simple. The harmony is based around D… the samples we were given were limited from D-D so I stuck to Dm.
The D then becomes the pedal tone in that last section, so it moves from a Bb and moves up to Bm… then there’s semitone movement that Moves up as the harmony around the static D anc chromaticism outlines the keychange, before implying D major… but it doesn’t actually land in D major at all.
Can’t remember the exact chords but it’s something along the lines of Bm E7, Gmaj, Amaj… so completely different.
I guess Bm-E7 implies a soft perfect cadence in E major which is the maj6 (-3 below G) of G major… and the G major to A major implies a 4-5 progression in D major which is the flat major 7 of E and the 5 of D… so that’s why it sounds like it’s rising… because I’ve impled a 5-1 in one key and a 7 that always wants to rise to the tonic in another… so I’m technically tricking the brain mwhaha!
Sounds Terrible… Very amateur. Very poor quality. Very bad composition…Enoying.
This kind of music should be forbidden and composer should be sent to jail inmediately.
Just kidding man… Sounds Amazing…Congratulations.
When I grew up I want to be like you…
For my fantasy piece I actually start out with an implied Dm harmony that finishes on Dmaj then modulates to D Dorian. Unfortunately, every time I write in Dorian, it sound really cheesy and cliched.
and welcome to the forum!