Fantasy Music Contest: Vision of Annwn

Contests for Composers Fantasy Music Contest
#1

Hi friends,

here’s my first entry in one of Mike’s contests.

In Welsh mythology, Annwn (pronounced Anoon) is a mystical island or underworld whose inhabitants are basically living like we are doing in our world but are much happier than in ours. The myth says, that people can enter and leave it without harm. So I imagined a person wandering through a forest then, by accident, getting a glance of this parallel world and returning safely where he left.

To get this mystical feeling a magical world usually provokes I used many woodwinds, like really… MANY. I’m using basically everything EW Hollywood Woodwinds provides, except Contrabass Clarinet and Piccolo. Also dulcimer (in fact qanun), harp and lush, wavy strings, and the magical sound of my Nyckelharpa. The finale is then played on some Hurdy Gurdy voices before everything calms down again.

I’m looking forward to your opinion and hope you like it :smiley:

10 Likes
#2

Wow I´m impressed. Very fantasy. You know your woodwinds. I can´t find anything to criticize ni this composition.
It will be very hard for me not to vote for you due to that and one other special fact:
This is the first time I´ve heard an entry with nyckelharpa. That instrument is very dear to me. I´m born and raised in the region of Sweden where the nyckelharpa comes from. It´s in Uppland. The first known picture of the instrument in the world is in a church there in Härkeberga. I´ve heard it since I was born. In real life it has an extremely deep and magical tone. Many of the older people in my village have build their own nyckelharpas.

2 Likes
#3

Wow that’s cool. I made two Bagpipes (except the chanters) myself but I never thought about making my own Nyckelharpa because of all the fiddly little pieces which must fit perfectly together. The more I think about it the more I’m surprised that this is so common in Uppland. :smiley:

Glad you like the piece, it’s not my first one with Nyckelharpa but the most “orchestral” one. :slight_smile:

1 Like
#4

Are you kidding? :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
I thought I was really dare to use a nykelharpa in my entry. And everyone knows this instrument. :crazy_face: And you Chris are using it also this month. :man_facepalming: Amazing.

Well, your song is beautiful very surrounding and with a huge control of the volumes. Well chosen intervals to evoque the fantasy feeling. I LOVE IT. Congratulations :clap: :clap: :clap:

2 Likes
#5

Haha, really??? That’s awesome, folk bro! :joy:

Considering the nationalities of the Members here, I already assumed that there are some that know that instrument but it’s really funny that we had the same idea to include it in our songs in the same competition. :smiley: Let’s declare this Month Nyckelharpa November. :joy:
Do you play it yourself or do you have a good sample?

Thanks a lot for your kind words, really appreciate it! :smiley:

2 Likes
#6

I haven’t heard about this instrument until this month. I found good sounds and decided to include it.
I will upload it soon, i hope. Just some mastering, and I’m editing a video for my song.

What about creating “the nykleharpa Friday”. You can buy folk instruments only, at a good price. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

2 Likes
#7

Hm. I haven’t started on any contribution yet. Must hurry up :blush:

1 Like
#8

I have only one thing to say… you NAILED it!

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#9

Thank you so much! :blush:

#10

This is really wonderful! Great job! I love the instrumentation and the assortment of woodwinds and harp-type instruments. The concept is great. It’s beautiful. The only VERY minor criticism I have is that the strings sample in the beginning section seemed slightly too piercing. When the other instruments are all plucked or hammered, a smoother string sound to accompany them might have helped keep those textures separate. But again, great work.

2 Likes
#11

Thanks a lot, Mike. Really appreciate your kind words and your criticism. :blush: You’re right, maybe it would have been a good idea to start a little softer with smooth flautando Strings… Well, next time. :smile::+1:t2:

#12

A great piece of music in terms of orchestration, arrangement and instrumentation. Creates a nice atmosphere and is very pleasant to listen and sounds true to the fantasy genre. My problem with this and other pieces is here is that I am not getting a sense of a memorable melody, hooks or something that says why this piece is important, stands out or what kind of a statement it is trying to make. Everyone seems to have a great understanding of arranging but my personal opinion is that there ought to more compelling pieces here like the Ennio Morricone contest had. This may sound really basic but the average person needs to find something you can hum or is instantly recognizable. I listened to a lot of fantasy tunes on Spotify and heard really nice melodies, happy tunes and some excellent Celtic inspired music. I feel that in listening to these entries there is a need to spend more time working on phrases and motifs that stand out by themselves and use of stable and unstable tones to build up tension and release and get some feeling of forward motion. That’s my take.

3 Likes
#13

Thanks a lot for your feedback, Gary, I think I fully understand what you mean. To be honest: When I started to compose the song, I tried to keep a coherent motif but I think I got carried away a bit. :sweat_smile:
But in my defense: For the Fantasy Music Contest it was not my top priority to have a catchy melody all around but rather exploring a more intimate and at the same time broad sound.

1 Like
#14

Well you certainly excelled at that! Thanks for your response.

1 Like
#15

Lovely piece of music! You have used the pads well to create those compelling swells that add the dreamy aspect. Nice job on the Nyckelharpa. If anything, I would bring that out more. That is a beautiful instrument, and deserves more recognition than it gets in general. (I do have a friend that plays and records on one all the time). My only suggestion would be to tone down the pad sounds a tiny bit. Awesome.

1 Like
#16

Thank you so much, Suzanne. :slight_smile:

To be honest, it took me quite a number of takes to get the part recorded right as I’m not that good at playing the Nyckelharpa (procrastinating instead of practicing is a big thing here. :sweat_smile:) so I think it’s better for all of us if I keep it a little more in the background. :wink:

#17

Ah, yes. I do that as well… I thought it sounded wonderful myself!

1 Like
#18

Awesome piece Chris! I think you got the Fantasy vibe down and you nailed the folk instruments. This was exactly the kind of piece I was looking to write, but I kept straying to the more epic side of things.

Great job! One of my favorites so far.

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#19

Normally I’d agree with you Gary. Though I didn’t put my piece into the contest this time, I purposely tried to do the same thing and NOT write any big themes. The reason was that I was thinking along the lines of if the music was actually used in an RPG, it’s mostly going to be background and ambient, so I tried to not draw too much attention to the music and instead tried to create development through evolving textures and instrumentation and just use a couple of short motifs for recognition. I probably failed though :sweat_smile: My impulse was to always go bigger. :grin:

1 Like
#20

Thanks for letting me know! That’s something I don’t think I considered. Really appreciate your input.

1 Like