[DELETED] [XBOX] Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - "Darth Malak" by JediMaestro

[Zeta]

Submission Information:
Series: Other
Game: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Console: Xbox
Title: Darth Malak
Instrumentation Solo Piano
Arranger: JediMaestro

[JediMaestro]

Link to the original score: https://youtu.be/oZQ0MjRR8q8

[JediMaestro]

Video of me playing this arrangement as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVPg8krUMxs

[Kricketune54]

Awesome to see this submission, and that you came back and submitted your other KOTOR sheet!  Together, perhaps we can build out a Star Wars category on NSM lol

One thing I noticed on your sheet: The bottom copyright text on page one should read (disregarding the correct formatting)

Bioware, LucasArts  © 2003 https://www.ninsheetmusic.org/

Overall sheet looks pretty good and well arranged!  Great series to rep

[JediMaestro]

Awesome to see this submission, and that you came back and submitted your other KOTOR sheet!  Together, perhaps we can build out a Star Wars category on NSM lol

Heck yeah! One of my biggest laments is the relative lack of Star Wars video game sheet music on the Internet. I've found a few KOTOR arrangements on MuseScore, and a couple other SW video game arrangements on various YouTube channels that have been dead and unresponsive for multiple years, but that's about it lol. I have another KOTOR arrangement complete and was thinking about getting back into arranging some more.

(Side note, I saw your Bounty Hunter arrangement, and I never knew Jeremy Soule had done other composing work for Star Wars other than KOTOR 1! That's really cool)

[Kricketune54]

Heck yeah! One of my biggest laments is the relative lack of Star Wars video game sheet music on the Internet. I've found a few

Yeah I've seen a few things for Force Unleashed, and the Rogue Squadron theme.  Ever seen this? Not a sheet but pretty cool to see if you were a fan of the Rogue games ever. 

Definitely a lot out there!  Sometime I'd like to look at some of Gordy Haab's music (new Rogue Squadron, Battlefronts) and Jesse Harlin's (Republic Commando).  I was working on an arrangement of Star Wars 1313's theme a while ago but I kind of stalled out on it.

[JediMaestro]

Definitely a lot out there!  Sometime I'd like to look at some of Gordy Haab's music (new Rogue Squadron, Battlefronts) and Jesse Harlin's (Republic Commando).  I was working on an arrangement of Star Wars 1313's theme a while ago but I kind of stalled out on it.

Gordy Haab is a brilliant composer, but his pieces are just so complex (like the maestro himself) that I would be a bit intimidated to try to arrange his pieces haha. He's such an amazing composer though; I love his Squadrons theme and how he rearranges the same theme to sound heroic for the good guys and villainous for the bad guys.

And yeah, Star Wars VGM is such a treasure trove. I've found great KOTOR 1 and 2 and SWTOR arrangements, but there's still so much left to be arranged there. A good arrangement of Vode An and some of the other RC stuff would also be awesome, and yeah, all the new games are pretty much completely untapped thus far. Also, I didn't realize 1313 was far enough in development that it had a theme lol; I'll have to go listen to it

[Libera]

Sorry for the wait, but let's see what we have here...

This is a pretty difficult piece to arrange for piano (as orchestral stuff often is).  Generally I think you've done a decent job, but there are a few places where the texture is a bit odd or the parts have been written/combined in a confusing way.

Firstly, some notation things:
-The fact that there is a musx file here suggests you have at least some paid version of finale.  You need to make your submission fit the formatting guidelines i.e. remove Pno. markings, remove the 'Score', composer info bolded, arranger info in italics etc. etc.  The copyright should be attributed to the developers/publishers, not yourself, and a url to NSM needs to be added.
-The whole '8vb unless indicated with *' is very non-standard and extremely confusing to read.  I recommend that you use actual 8vb/8va markings instead, or just use ledger lines (I'm not sure anything is actually low enough to need it).  Is the loco cancelling the 8vb in bar 1 or the 8va in bar 11?  I assume it is the 8vb in bar 1 since otherwise these notes aren't on a piano but I hope you can see that this notation is very unclear.
-There are multiple collisions of elements in the sheet e.g. the hairpin in 12-16 (could be replaced with cresc.) the clef change in bar 18/28, dynamics in 25/39 etc.  These need to be adjusted.
-Try to spread out your staves more evenly on the pages, particularly on pages 1/3.
-Copyright, mini-titles, page numbers are not aligned to the margins.

Texture/arrangement:
-You use a lot of tremolos when the original is actually being much more rhythmic.  A good example is bar 16 where the original doesn't do anything even resembling a tremolo.  In bars 9-11 I'm not sure the low Eb tremolos really capture what is going on either.
-The 17-24 section is a tricky one, but I'm not sure what you have is the right sort of texture.  In the original, the high string part is a) not that prominent in the mix, and b) only seems to play every other beat, rather than every beat like you have it.  The texture is also very inconsistent, with chords on beat 1 of some bars (17/18-20) whereas other bars start with single notes, or single notes and high string part.  I think it would be much better to prioritise the large chords and spread them across the two hands more evenly.  Often chords in the left hand give a muddy sound, whereas with both left and right hand you can put the full chords in the right hand and have octaves in the left hand, which I think will give you a more even texture.  The melody horn line could certainly be in octaves here, perhaps boosted with harmonies from the choir.
-The way you have written 25-26 out doesn't seem to match the original very well.  I think you have combined a few different parts into one melody and over simplified other bits to the point where it is quite difficult for me to work out what is going on.  Try to listen to this section again carefully.
-I don't really follow what you have written in for 27-30.  I don't hear what you have written in for the left hand at the end of 28 (unless you've merged it with another part which is also not a good idea, but for a different reason) and I don't understand why the left and right hands swap going in to 29.  I think it would be better to keep the melody in the RH throughout here and keep the backbeat stabs as low bass ones like you did in the beginning.  You can then beef up the right hand with the some of harmony that gets added into for 28-30.
-I don't hear the chords written in for 30-4 at all.  It sounds like octaves with a harmony line that moves around a bit.  The Ebm chords don't sound that bad but the chords written in for beat 3-4 of bars 31-32 sound very odd.
-Again for 37 the G chord needs to be fuller, across both hands.  The trill Dn/Eb that you have throughout these bars sounds very strange and I don't really hear anything like it in the original.
-The ending notes aren't just all octaves in the original.  Have another listen, there is also some movement on the final two three note 'phrases'.

Accuracy/notes:

I don't want to say too much hear because I've given you a lot of other stuff to work on which may change things significantly, but here are some things I found that are likely to be worthwhile saying:

-I don't hear the pattern you wrote in for beats 3-4 of the left hand of bar 7.  It sounds like it just continues the same downward pattern established in beats 1-2. (Gb Gb F, F F Eb.)
-The F in the right hand of bars 9/10 sounds like a Gb to me.  In the same bar the final note also sounds like a Cb to me, like you have it later on in 13/14, although you wrote these as Bns (they should be Cbs).
-Beat 2.5 of bar 11 just sounds like a Bb to me, not F -> Ab semis (16ths).
-The chord in 34 sounds like F7, not just F.


I think I'll leave it there for now since you have plenty of stuff to work on.  Let me know if you need any help/clarification with anything.

[Libera]

Any progress on this?  If you want any help with anything or need clarification on something, let us know.

[Latios212]

I'm going to archive this one for inactivity. Feel free to resubmit when you're ready to make changes, and let us know if you need any help~