MaestroUGC's Compositions *In Progress - Symphony No. 2 in D minor - Mvt. I-IV*

[MaestroUGC]

-There's no real dynamic climax, I went for climactic ideas.
-Sure, that cadence is weak, but that's what I went for. It's not supposed to sit very well.

-Maybe, since I very rarely write music for the piano, it's usually just a vessel for orchestration later. This is one of the few pieces were I never imagined an orchestration outside of a snare drum keeping the polonaise rhythm.
-Yeah, there are alot of octaves, I play and write in octaves. I love octaves, it's one of my favorite techniques.
-Fair enough, but I opted for more subtle changes with each repeat, outside of the main idea.
-Artistic preference
-Looking at it again, I might go back and re-work the middle section later.

The polonaise is a very strict and stately dance. It's definitely an idea I'm going to revisit again. This was my attempt at understanding the style. Actually, orchestrating it might not be a bad idea. It would be an interesting approach to orchestrate one of my own works, based off of a piano score.

[pumpy_heart]

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.

[MaestroUGC]

Hey! So I haven't been doing much music, right?

Haha.

WRONG

I've actually been working on an original score for a game my friend of mine has been working on. No, I can't disclose any details, but I wanted to show some of the stuff I've written. This is all draft work, most of the below tracks will not be like this when finalized in the game.

Since we don't have any sort of concrete direction bright now (we're just fiddling with some programs and getting the story down), all of the titles are generic, but I will give a short description of what they're supposed to be for.

Atlantis - Draft 2 - This started as the theme for a "Lost World" of sorts, however...
Atlantis - Draft 2 - I found it worked much better as a cinematic spot used to unveil this "Lost World"

Level Theme A - Draft 2 - Instead this has become to working theme for our "Lost World"

Forest Theme - Draft 1 - One of the earliest things we figured we'd have is a forest of some kind, but not something like the Lost Woods or Forest Maze. Just a general forest area.
Forest Theme - Draft 2 - Here I elaborate on the original draft and write some additional material for use in some variable mixing for the area.

Fanfare 2 - Draft 2 - Just a fanfare I whipped up for potential use in the game. Nothing too complex, but loopable nonetheless.

March 1 - Draft 1 - While not technically a march, it was written with a very militial feel originally intended for an important scene in the story.
March 1 - Draft 2 - However, after I wrote this initial orchestration we felt it would work better as a theme for our antagonist. It's up in the air at this point.

[MaestroUGC]

Level Theme B - Another level theme proposed for the game. It sounds a bit like a Shimomura piece, though, so I may need to trash it.

[FireArrow]

Oh wow, that's so cool Maestro! Am I allowed to offer criticism?

[MaestroUGC]

By all means.

[FireArrow]

Well, one thing I noticed is that your melodies are weak, which is perfectly fine in some scenarios as all video game music is is background music to set the mood. However, in some cases, like an antagonist's theme, you really want a melody with a strong personality. Plus, it sets you up with a song that's easy to remix into battle theme's and such. Just search any antagonist's theme in SPM for an example.

I guess it's really a taste in style, as there are games out there that just soley use background musc, but I urge you to try and make your music for this game more than that, because that's what makes people go "This game has such a great soundtrack."

(sorry, this came out pretty corny) 

[MaestroUGC]

Noted, but I'm still working without much clear direction, so these are all just place holders for something better/more proper.

That said, there's a strong chance none of this might end up in the final product, that's at least a year or so away.

[FireArrow]

I see. If your planning on selling it, you've already got one copy sold. 

[MaestroUGC]

I've compiled the above works into a new folder:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/k7bdp63g0ser5vi/cQLHEzKOJG

Any time I add something to it I'll update accordingly, like right now!

One of the things we knew early on was that at some point we'd have an underground/cave type level. We're making an RPG so I had to write something that felt like you were underground, and when you're deep below the surface of the Earth, far removed from any life (or familiar life, anyway) you can sometimes hear the darkness calling in the distance. Or something like that, I don't know.

Underground Theme - Draft 1 - I came up with this a few nights ago. I really wanted something hollow and scarce, and something that doesn't really leave you.

Undergorund Theme - Draft 2 - Crystalline, hollow, deep, and down right cold. Those were words I wanted the orchestration to fill. Hopefully it did..

[MaestroUGC]

Aw, c'mon, I'm really proud of this one!

[Jompa]

but it takes ages to download D:

[MaestroUGC]

Yeah, well.

I can't exactly give you the mus files.

Maybe I'll get a sound cloud.

[FireArrow]

Can you put it in a zip file?

Also, out of curiosity, do you use finale to compose these?

[MaestroUGC]

I can, give me a second.

Yes, I use Finale for everything. I even use Finale to wash my dog that I don't have.