“Pangea” is my submission for the Jurassic Park Music Contest.
It was fun (and challenging) listening to the original and then writing themes in a similar vein, trying to match the emotion. I made the orchestration a JW-like as possible to help match the tone. Fortunately this was one JW score I studied before. I went through a phase a few years ago listening to many of his soundtracks and studying his orchestrations. He is quite a genius and his work ethic an inspiration!
I hope you enjoy listening to my piece as much as I had fun writing it.
(Suggest changing settings in YouTube to 1080p for optimal video viewing)
Really enjoyed this, loved your original themes. There’s nothing I could really say in terms of mixing advice etc except some of the soloists were a touch loud. I think that’s just a taste thing though.
One small thought though.
I thought we had to use the themes from the track that Mikael linked us too sorry to say that as I love the piece.
very good arrangement and very close to the feel and sound of
Jurassic Park Themes by John Williams. I suppose, Some harmonic changes are
inspired by the original work of Williams and your work is an orchestral piece also as the
original.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I thought we were to write original music that captured the emotion and spirit of the JPT and not do a rescore (of themes).
In coming up with my own themes, I tried to imagine something that would work with the grandeur and excitement discovery of these noble prehistoric creatures, as well as something with excitement and anticipation that you would hear while flying to the to the island for the first time. I actually had another sub theme, similar to the trumpet theme (2nd half of the original), but thought I’d cap it at just over 3 minutes.
Thank you Klaus. Yeah, I was definitely inspired by the original and JW’s style.
In coming up with a theme and harmonic progression, I found I had to keep to more simple and strong harmonic progressions to make the emotion joyous and bold. (ie. tonic, sub dominant and dominant chords). Almost like a pop tune. That to me was the biggest challenge, using that type of progression as it’s pretty much seems it’s all been done before! One could easily make a small change or two and the piece turns into something familiar. I decided to not worry about this so much when I started and go ahead with orchestrating and developing the piece out to see how things worked out. I’m hoping the unique orchestrations for each section help to offset any of those potential issues.
It would be amazing to pick JW’s mind how he approaches his themes that are so brilliant and memorable.
It’s your own piece in the style of JW inspired by Jurassic Park. Which isn’t quite a cover. A cover is a piece that is using the same melodies to either recreate the same piece with your own flavour, or create a new piece that used the thematic material in a new and fresh way.
Completely agree we shouldn’t really copy. Well I say that bug I’ve used this as an ear training excercise so I’ve tried to get fairly close wio the original and then I’ve altered the harmony a bit to make it a bit more “me”.
I wouldn’t say what you’ve done is wrong as I love it, it’s just not to brief. I love your piece, it’s so up my streeet that I think we should do a “write in the style of JW” competition. This would win 1st prize every time
Haha it’s easily done. This was in the discussion right at the start of the Jurassic Park thread and a few others were a bit confused too, so it’s no big deal. I’m sure Mikael would accept this masterpiece
Well when my wife listened to my piece, she said… “It’s pretty good. It sounds like someone was trying to play the Jurassic theme but lost the sheet music”. LOL
Yeah I probably missed it. I think at point of the confusing discussion I decided just to go write some music. I think I’ll get off these forums now and go write something! these forums start to get addicting.
Your wife sounds hilarious! Best comment I’ve read in a while!
Yes these forums do become a bit addictive. I try and limit myself to only looking for updates once every 3 and a half minutes… it’s not going well
Seriously though, they really are. I look around 2/3 times a week and I still feel pulled to do more haha! But that’s the great thing about a community of like minded people. You end up wanting to be here.
Wonderful composition, and very John Williams in spirit and character for sure!
To be honest I was imagining a cover as in “anyone would recognize the piece as Jurassic Park”, but this is just so good and in the perfect mood and spirit and even composing style that I’ll certainly will not fault it for the contest.
sorry to say that as I love the piece.
I love your piece, it’s so up my streeet that I think we should do a “write in the style of JW” competition. This would win 1st prize every time 
Mikael to the rescue 
Oooooouch. I need listening to this. But, i promissed myself that in contest I would listen to all the themes toguether at the end of the submission. 