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Hey guys! Wanted to post a quick update. If you'd like to hear some of my music, please check out my soundcloud! I have a game demo, 15 minutes of a vast variety of game music. I also have my stage works on soundcloud, as well as a few game remixes. Let me know what you think, feel free to connect on any social platform! Miss you all!

SoundCloud

Composition Recital TOMORROW! 3 PM EST!

This event will be streamed so you all will be able to watch it! Hope you guys tune in! =D

I don't NSM well, so if you don't mind spreading the word... Hope peeps see this.

I'll post the link closer to time (also in the facebook link)

November 24th at 2:00 PM CST (3 EST, 12 PDT)!

Event!!!

Something something Composition Recital! This will be streamed.

A teaser just for those of the community. The last piece will be a small chamber piece coordinated with a video game player on-stage playing a game... Which game will it be...

Hope you can join and enjoy the stream! =D

^ what she said.

I can't download 7 PM for some reason.

Hey guys. I finished a piece last semester and thought maybe some old friends would like to hear this.

Here is Festive Fire

Hello Mr. York.

What advice do you have for those beginning to nosedive into the realm of Game Audio? I've about a year until finishing undergraduate work in Music Composition, but should be fluent enough to orchestrate or help program multitracking in games.

Thank you so much for your time. It means a lot to us here. Hope you can come back at some point.

NSM moderators at the time asked me to use that notation so it would get uploaded to the site. I too find it disturbing haha. Never made it. Glad you learned something!

Back to Ascent:
I wouldn't even use key in those sections that "modulate." They're common-tone related chords, not linked together by key. Each chord shares a note in common with the previous. Not diatonically based. Jompa's suggestion of key changes works in a diatonic context where scale degrees function to give motion towards a finale or resting point. However, with common-tone chords, this motion is offset. Common-tone related chords have been used as early as Beethoven to convey a sense of motion harmonically rather than melodically. With the past century's minimalism, common-tone chords brought a new sense of stability that tonality can not offer. Motion through common-tone chords create a harmonic structure that has no beginning or end. Can move freely among triads. See John Adams, Phillip Glass.

General overall:
I went back and listened to everything. There's a reason I picked Apollo's Ascent to look at your arrangements. Definitely the most complex harmonic structure of the soundtrack. Or so I thought. Tanglewood has some stuff too. He crafts it well.
In your 3/4 arrangements, sometimes you use a quarter note tied to eighth. It's okay to use a dotted quarter, then have an eighth tied to quarter.
When using crescendos and decrescendos, it's always a good idea to give a definite starting dynamic and ending dynamic. I got confused a few times reading your arrangement.
When your beams from multiple layers overlap, there's options to flip the beam direction if your finale is high enough. Definitely cleans up the sheet a ton. You want to strive for no collisions of any sort in your published arrangement.

All done. Sounds great. Please keep up the good work. Message me whenever you add more Golden Sun stuff

Heya. Really great job on the sheets. It's always incredible to see a fellow Golden Sun fan around these parts.

Here's my take on "Apoji Islands" from back in the day. NSM asked me notate the rhythm that way (doesn't it look awful?). I'd definitely recommend replacing the trills with the tremolos. Sakuraba-san is mimicking Caribbean marimba/vibraphone playing. Feel free to copy and paste, then upload your own. Obviously mine was never accepted haha.

Really nice job with Kandorean Temple! The only slight suggestion I would make is layering the piece with dynamics. Since there's about 4 layers of music occurring at the same time, some are very clearly in the foreground while some are subdued. I would notate this with dynamics every time a line occurs. Also when a line changes hands such as measure 14 to 15, I would draw a line between the two, showing that the line simply moved to another hand.

Had to check out just one more. Very good job with Apollo's Ascent! Quick music theory lesson. Our system of chords are based on triads, 3 notes separated by a note in between. A C major chord would be C E G, as there is space for 2 notes (D and F) in between the three. You also only use the same accidental (sharps, flats) in each triad. 95% of the music on this site is based on triads. So from measure 17 for a bit onwards, the first chord should be F# A C# instead of Db F# A. 25-28 is just as keyless, where the motion is based not on functioning triads but common tone related triads (ignore this, or message me. but really probably ignore). Whereas the chord in measure 25 is Ab Major, m. 26 should be E G# B instead of E Ab B.
Also use a D# instead of an Eb in measure 4. Easiest way to explain this is that you don't want two notes with the same letter name with different accidentals in the same measure. There's a more complicated explanation, but this should hold for now (again, message if for some reason this interests you).

Great job! Are these your first arrangements?

Fun, relaxing listen. I searched this thread out to see what you've been up to. Is this for a style writing course? If so, you might can disregard most of what I'm about to say.

I would suggest reworking the theme. There's too much measure-to-measure melodic repetition, throughout. While this is typical of the 19th century dance, you can certainly write longer melodic lines to the same dance forms. Take Brahms for example. Same melodic material manipulated through time in most of his waltzes and dances. I particularly love his set of waltzes.

As my teacher told me, the music must always stay interesting or the audience begins wondering "What's for dinner... How about some chicken?" And he also said don't write a note unless the purpose it fulfills is necessary to enhance the piece in structure, aesthetically, and motivically. Repetition does away with the aesthetic part almost instantaneously. Only Haydn can get away with it (and only sometimes).

The reasons the octaves stand out are they sound so empty and bare. Russian. Ravel began the first real orchestration through the overtone series. It's incredible how well all of his pieces sound based on simply reinforcing the partials at certain points. But if you want to write in that style, feel free too. I don't think you're being true to who you are by imitating that style. Be yourself. Don't fit the mold. Make the mold fit you.

Bump because this still exists.

Nebbles! ZeldaPianist!
We'll see what happens during this stay. No promises.
Glad to see the site up and running, chugging out sheets of quality.

And a ton more, but not to be shared publicly. Message me if interested.

Maybe? We'll see.

A gift to spread all the Christmas cheer. Or destroy it, however you want to render it.

Hope you all have been well. Happy Holidays!