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Well, despite attempting to keep it simple and easy, I still managed to clock in another 8 hours this time…hmm, note to self – attempting to score an orchestral piece is not keeping it simple and easy ;)
I think I was in a funny mood when I started this – it had a very melancholy sort of sound to it – and you can still pretty much hear that in the introduction, though it takes on a different sort of feel once it gets going. I’m not sure what though. It actually rather puts me in mind of wide plains – golden grass swaying in the wind, but then it gets all martial sounding for a bit before going back to the grass again, and then there’s some sort of conflict which seems to end up being OK in the end.
Or something.
Anyway – on to the music itself.
There’s no guitar in this one for a change, and no real flute either. I did try to use the flute, but unfortunately nothing shows up how bad my flute playing is like trying to get it to blend in with a bunch of always-perfectly-in-tune sampled instruments. So I gave the strings the flute part and wrote a smaller part for the fake flute instead.
The main theme is very heavily pentatonic, which gives it a rather distinctive sound, and the second part is based on suspended chords which does quite a nice job of adding tension. There’s a couple of bodgy bits though – the transition from introduction to bringing in the orchestra is a bit abrupt, the feel in the intro is just too different, and I didn’t do enough to either foreshadow the change, or ease it in. The other not so good bit is the transition from the second theme back to the main theme – the second theme just sort of peters out and then suddenly we’re in the first one again. I tried to use the drums to foreshadow that a bit, but that didn’t quite work. Then when the main theme does come back again, I’ve done a kind of half keychange, but not really. The first time round it was in Am, on an A bass. But the second part ended on an A as well – so it didn’t feel right jumping back into it. So the second time round, I invert things a bit, and play the theme up a fith, and use an E bass. Technically it’s still Am, but it has an E feel to it – then after going up to the D as normal, I then slip back down to A as if nothing ever happened. It feels a bit odd when I notice it – but you kind of have to be listening for it, so it’s not too bad.
Overall, I’m rather pleased with this one – I really enjoy doing orchestral pieces, as there’s so much you can do with it, with little bits going on all over the place, and warping the theme around. The only trouble with them is that more parts means more work, so I think that next week I will probably go back to guitar, bass and drums so I can actually get some sleep ;)