daj's dumping ground of compositions! :D

[daj]

So um, yup! I compose stuff. I just keep them kinda secret because they could be used for competitions and stuff, but some of them just won't ever work out, so I'll be posting them online.

Hope you guys enjoy! If you've got any feedback I'd really love to hear it ^^


archive:


"Two Flying Ducks" (2015)
for horn solo and piano accompaniment

a clear wordplay, in case you guys don't get it.
also considered titling it "two flying effs", but that was too obvious.

so um, this makes it kid-friendly.

Youtube!~

~

"mortis." (2016)
for oboe, bassoon, violin, viola and cello.

well, it was premiered somewhere outside my country.

so that's cool.

Youtube!~

~

"walk." (2015)
a very empty solo piano piece.

the piece that got me started with the whole "small caps and period" title thing.

of course, there's melodrama and sadness.

Youtube!~

[daj]

#1: So um, how many ducks did I give to the construction of this piece?

Jazz, um...eccentricity and noisy humour. Yeah.

Do give two flying ducks in your listening of this piece as well.

[cashwarrior1]

Well, this is outstanding. This really shows how much you know about music and gives your pieces a lot of credibility. As for the song, I feel like it could have a whole orchestrated arrangement, but for some reason, the piano and horn seems perfect. This piece tells a story, and I don't know what that story is. You need to get an animator to animate this because this is perfect for a cartoon/short story. Make more, I love it!

[daj]

Well, this is outstanding. This really shows how much you know about music and gives your pieces a lot of credibility. As for the song, I feel like it could have a whole orchestrated arrangement, but for some reason, the piano and horn seems perfect. This piece tells a story, and I don't know what that story is. You need to get an animator to animate this because this is perfect for a cartoon/short story. Make more, I love it!

Hey, cw! :)Thanks for stopping by and thanks for your awesome comment, hehe!

Feels good to be told that my pieces "have credibility" ahaha. That really warmed my heart. This particular piece was written with a lot less thinking about theory than usual, so it's really nice to head ^^

As for the telling a story part, I think we associate this particular brand of music with cartoons because the old Looney Tunes shorts loved using some of the devices I played with. So maybe a goofy and generally idiotic story, if the title didn't give it away~

All in all, much thanks for your comment and many cheers

[E. Gadd Industries]

This is amazingness. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to that! I'd love to see it performed, too

[daj]

This is amazingness. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to that! I'd love to see it performed, too

Hey, it's cashwarrior again!

Thanks for the comment, E Gadd! Great to know it's enjoyable to listen to - that's pretty much all you're going for when you do a piece based on musical humour.

On the subject of performance and playability though, I've been told that the horn part borders on ridiculous, but playable with a lot of practice. So yeah. :p Some day, maybe~

[E. Gadd Industries]

There are some pretty skilled horn players out there. Just gotta find them, though.

[cashwarrior1]

I showed my friend, who is a horn player, and she thought that it would be really fun to play! (She also said that she'd punch whoever said it bordered on ridiculous before even hearing the piece)

[Dekkadeci]

I listened to "Two Flying Ducks", and so far, it's creeping into 2-4-listen territory! I like what that song does with its harmonies, and with all the times its opening motif plays, it definitely sounds like some thought was put into the piece.

[daj]

I showed my friend, who is a horn player, and she thought that it would be really fun to play! (She also said that she'd punch whoever said it bordered on ridiculous before even hearing the piece)

So you're asking me to punch my bro.

ohhh you dont mess with asian family trees ya dawg. WATCH OUT cuz all your rice and electronics will be gone tonight

Thank you so much for letting someone take a look at this, wow! ^^ I'm...honoured. If you guys somehow follow up on this please tell me, I'll love you more than I already do <3

There are some pretty skilled horn players out there. Just gotta find them, though.

Haha! xD Absolutely. Haven't seen a solo hornist make the spotlight in a while though, so~

I listened to "Two Flying Ducks", and so far, it's creeping into 2-4-listen territory! I like what that song does with its harmonies, and with all the times its opening motif plays, it definitely sounds like some thought was put into the piece.

Haha, about the amount of thought put in...

*casual improv*
"ooh, i played a nice theme!" *notates*
"ooh! cool harmony!" *notates*

*finishes improv, downs a beer*

"..."
"...!!!"
"AHHHH I SEE ALL DEM MODULATIONNSSSS"

...yeah! Much thought. Mmm.

Um, glad you're enjoying it! Not too sure what that 2-4-listen thing is, but tis cool! ^^ Really nice to hear from a fellow composer too!~

[daj]

#2: Not my title. I think it's pretty creative though! ^^

"Mortis" was written for the 34th Asian Composer's League (ACL) Young Composers' Competition, and subsequently premiered in Vietnam on the 14th of October 2016.

It was also written from scratch in the course of one military week - so that's five days of no musical equipment and less than 48 hours on the weekend of actual work. The title was made by my brother, because back then I wasn't creative enough to make my own ones. Welp.

Basically, this was the first piece of mine that went legit. Hehe. It also got me to consider going legit, and that got me to eventually return to NSM.

I'd like to write more about it, because it is partially a music-theoretical experiment, and as with every sharing of this piece I'd like to talk a little about the conditions it was written under...but bleh. Most of it is in the description and stuff, so if you're interested all you need to know is already up ^^

~

So, something a little less open and out there than my last release. "Two Flying Ducks" was made in the spirit of good fun and bad humour; "Mortis." (yes, with a full stop) was about emptiness, vulnerability, and the doom of an impossible deadline.

It was, and still is, the only legit composition of mine premiered outside of my home town of Singapore. Which is cool.

Expect immediate feelings of displacement and distortion. General feelings of irresolution throughout. Emptiness. And, just like a guy walking around a room alone in circles, a never-ending monologue that doesn't come to rest until the end.

So here's something a little closer to home. Hope you guys enjoy ^^


p.s. will update OP once i have computer access

[daj]

#3: something a little more vulnerable.

~

A piece that I didn't like sharing then, haha. Gosh, the look on my teacher's face when he heard this.

But someone recently talked to me about getting over depression and all, and I remembered that I once wrote something.

For quiet listening. Enjoy ^^

p.s. notes below, if you're interested

~

walk. - a very empty solo piano piece.
Release Notes.

Spoiler

"walk." - yes, with small letters and a period at the end of it - was conceptualised at the beginning of my last year of schooling.

Some friends had it worse than me then. Burdened by deadlines, studying things that I didn't really care about, and a pretty messed-up love life, I got knocked down quite hard. Energy was low, motivation was low, spirituality was critically, dangerously low. Lots of stupid things were done around that period of time. Once again, some guys had it worse than me.

But there was music, there were the music lessons, and there was the piano in the Music Room. "walk." was crafted out of a desperate improvisation on a sad day. That weekend, I took the main ideas from the improvisation and extended it to a full piece, partially motivated by the need for another composition for Music submission requirements. That, and I really didn't want to do homework that weekend.

Eventually, the piece wasn't used for the Music assessment, plans to convert this to a multi-movement work were scrapped, and the paper draft that threw me to the ground continued to harass me for another six months.

Once again, I'm pretty sure that some people had it worse.

~

But the piece turned out okay. Right now in the army, any episodes of motivationless-ness or depression are countered with more practical means. Back then it was all in the mind, and especially hard on the feels. The answer to depression was more depression, except said depression - luckily for me - transferred over to my music. So this piece was exactly that - depression on depression.

It didn't go through as a submission for Music because it was too one-dimensional - back then I was against it, now I realise that I was a little mentally unsound. But yes, it is one-dimensional. It is sad, sad and sad - no proper harmonic resolution ever comes, the piece stays quiet all the way, and the melody itself jumps everywhere in a futile search for rest and resolution. It is empty at the beginning, and it ends with the lowest, muddiest open fifth chord I have written on a score. It was painful to write sometimes, because it never felt satisfying to listen to on playback, but I guess I was a little numb then.

Those times have gone by. They were pretty tough. But I held on to the score - the score that never really made it anywhere. I gave it a read this weekend, I decided to polish up the audio, and here we have it - "walk." as it was meant to be. Tired, purposeless, and all-around empty.

Hope y'all enjoy the quiet show ^^

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[AmpharosAndy]

Shit, man...

I feel genuinely moved.
It's bloody rare that I like anything I hear but uuuuh! I'd put the notes at the start of the video as mandatory reading, I think the context is what gives it power.
Pretty much all of it agreed with me. I'd usually have some criticism but you've stumped me.

You bastard.

[daj]

Shit, man...

I feel genuinely moved.
It's bloody rare that I like anything I hear but uuuuh! I'd put the notes at the start of the video as mandatory reading, I think the context is what gives it power.
Pretty much all of it agreed with me. I'd usually have some criticism but you've stumped me.

Ahh, thank you for taking the time to read those man. <3 Moving notes on a screen are slightly boring, and a wall of text is definitely boring, so thank you for stopping by and spending your precious time to explore my track, hehe

And I'm really glad that it left an impression! This track reflects a melodramatic, exaggerated kind of sadness, but I guess everyone relates to that in some way. Thanks for taking the whole concept in, ahaha <3

You bastard.

mmhmm i love making people sad when i am sad bwahahaha
(that being said times have passed and things are cool now haha, no worries~)

[daj]

#4: the irony is cruel. oh, so cruel.

~

This work of mine will be performed this saturday! ^^ it's a work about freedom in the army, so they thought it'd be a nice representation of a "local work".

Meanwhile, I'm punished with confinement in camp. Exactly on the date of this premiere. Ahaha such is life you dont win all the time

It's really lighthearted and easy to listen to. And it might sound kinda simple here - it is technically easy, but the real orchestra required tip-top co-ordination to execute this. ^^ So yeah, it's supposed to be simple music with little intricacies that make it sparkle a little.

Cheers, hope you enjoy the show! ^^

~

Oh, and in case you're interested:

Dream Free.
Release Notes.

Spoiler

Full post here ^^

"Some say freedom is free -
But I tend to disagree;
Some say freedom is won,
to the barrel of the gun..."

~

Dream Free was conceptualised while melting away in a sentry post at the live firing range - four hours in, an unknown amount of time to go...but 8 months in, and 14 months to freedom.

Fundamentally, the work is a parody of military tunes, but along with that comes a message from a little soldier in the army: bound me to my duty and I will accept it, but you can't stop me from dreaming about freedom.

~

Every day starts and ends with us wondering why we're here. Funny thing is, we know the answer. But in the vulnerable one-to-one talks, committed to the boredom of the wilderness, our uniforms soaked with rain, we question anyway. The piece starts off with that image - a solo violin laments to the sky, and his buddies echo him. He takes his time, because there's lots of it, and it moves slowly. His friends, with tired, downcast voices, follow.

Then comes the dance of optimism - every day passed is a day closer to the Friday book-out, every book-out is another reprieve of freedom. The opening theme is set to the tune of "Little Soldiers", from which the introductory epitext of this work is derived. But the theme is inverted - that is, flipped vertically. Originally, "Little Soldiers" is to be sung in unison to a moderate marching rhythm, full of gusto and fire, but its inversion here is set to a mild pizzicato rhythm and played by a solo violin, reflectively and quietly.

The dance of optimism ends on a warm, small chord, which drops into silence. In comes the march of acceptance, based on the classic tune used to accompany the inspection of a parade. The original tune is literally a march, but for the little soldier standing amidst a huge contingent, that tune signifies the passing of another rehearsal - another session fitted into a schedule, another day closer to freedom.

Perhaps, though, there is some pride in standing in a parade. It's a show of military might, and that's the little soldier's duty in an army so much bigger than himself - to stand strong and defend his country. To go through the pain, rigour...whatever they wish to call it, of everyday routines, because there are people to defend. And so the little soldier marches on with pride.

Yet, he dreams. Amidst the fanfares pounding in his head and all the shouting going around, he dreams. He dreams in the chaos of mission exercises and the peace of his bunk bed. And day by day, freedom - that beautiful freedom he had never cherished before - becomes closer and closer of a reality.

[close]