Hello! I have been composing since ~February earlier this year. I started by composing classical songs (Canons, simple Fugues, concerti, etc.) but now I have moved on to thematic songs. I hope that I can submit some of them to be put into RPG's some day. :) Please tell me whatcha think of my pieces! Any feedback is welcome! (But positive feedback is hoped for! :heh:)

NOTE: Due to the fact that I'm composing so much material lately, I will only be posting the compositions which are my personal favorites or I think are worthy of being submitted for listening. :P


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Piano Nocturnes:
Nocturne #1 in D minor (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=52569)
Nocturne #2 in G Major (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=52581)
Nocturne #3 in C minor (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=52582)
Nocturne #4 in A minor (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=52583)
Nocturne #5 in G Major (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=52584)
Nocturne #6 in G minor (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=52585)
Nocturne #7 in F Major (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=52588)
Nocturne #8 in D Major (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=52590)
Nocturne #9 in C Major (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=52591)
Nocturne #10 in C minor (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=52592)
Nocturne #11 in F minor (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=52593)
Nocturne #12 in E Major (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=52594)
Nocturne #17 in C Major (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=61133)
Nocturne #21 in Bb Major (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=61134)
Nocturne #24 in C Major (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=61135)
Nocturne #28 in A Major (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=61136)
Nocturne #30 in E Major (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=61137)
Nocturne #30 in E Major (transcribed to D Major and orchestrated, A.K.A. "A Winter's Nocturne") (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=73504)
Nocturne #32 in B minor (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=61138)
Nocturne #36 in C Major (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=61139)
Nocturne #37 in E minor (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=61141)
Nocturne #38 in D Major (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=61142)
Nocturne #40 in D minor (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=61143)
Nocturne #42 in G Major (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=61145)
Nocturne #44 in Ab Major (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=61149)
Nocturne #45 in A minor (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=61151)
Nocturne #46 in C minor (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=61152)


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My thematic pieces:
Amid the Darkness of the Cave (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=18851)
The Battle's End (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=19667)
Blurred Shadows (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=129198)
Down the Cobblestone Streets (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=86040)
Dreaming Under the Lilacs (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=93275)
Fading Evermore (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=69647)
Farewell to the Familiar (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=74057)
Fountain of Warmth (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=93276)
Haunting Nightmares (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=86045)
Heart of the Forest (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=86041)
Kingdom of the Hidden (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=86043)
The Land Where Light Was Banished (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=134748)
Lifeless Autumn (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=129199)
On the Trail of Adventure (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=15205)
Playing with the Sky (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=96790)
A Ride Upon a Cloud (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=144375)
Sanctuary of Ice (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=129201)
Shoal (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=129203)
Remnants of Yesterday (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=79017)
Return to Serenity (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=15281)
Showers Upon a Mossy Glen (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=107846)
Soft Rain (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=86044)
Tears of the Moon (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=73204)
Town Theme - I (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=15269)
Under the Starlit Sky (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=82335)
A World Against One (http://forums.ichigos.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=79018)

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The attachment doesn't work for me. Sorry >_>

Here's another:

I like the first one "On the Trail of Adventure"...it's really nice. When I just close my eyes and think of video gaming I can kind of see it as an adventure or quest song...The town's theme...don't know if I an see it as a town theme song...but I like it as well. Proably for something else. Don't know what else I can say about it...except, well done!!!

:sweatdrop: :) Thank you for your kind comments. Perhaps the town theme is a bit out of place. :P *awaits Noir7's comments...*

On the Trail of Adventure

I like how the song begins, and I also think it has a good chord progression. The left hand gets a bit repetitive and it's dull to listen to in the length. At 1:08 you add another part. Nice, it made the listener wake up. After that the song pretty much repeated itself again, but you made 2 parts, and I can tell you...if you only had put one of those parts in this song, no one would have listened to it to the end. So my final thoughts... an overall average song, not the one I could listen to and 'hum' it afterwards, however.

6/10- good.

Town Theme

I don't like this piece. First off, I cannot in any way hear a town theme. It reminds me more of music for some sort of scene, you name it. The melody you have chosen doesn't really catch my ears, and you should really try to vary the left hand on this piece as well. It gets better around 2:00, but then it's over. =/

4/10 - needs to be improved

Oh, I forgot to mention: some of my songs I just loop and repeat once, as many vg songs do. :) I like to try to make most of my thematic songs loop-able.

Here's another song:

Return to Serenity

When I listen to this, I could easily picture a tragic love scene in a famous RPG. Good job on the atmosphere. And just as I begin to feel that the song repeats itself way to much with the harp, you kick in strings, which was the smartest move in this piece. What was the song's purpose? Is it meant to be played in a specific scene? It can be further improved by adding an oboe or a flute to play a main theme too, to make it more memorable. I don't hear a main melody yet, I will have to listen to it multiple times if I want to remember it, so try focusing on a memorale theme so that I can think "Oh yeah, it's the song played when X met Y for the first time in Y"

6.5/10 - Good

Hmm. Good advice! Perhaps I'll tweak it in a day or two and let you hear the improved version. :D Well, it's sort of supposed to symbolize that good has finally triumphed over evil; it is called a return to serenity because now that the evil is overcome, everything has returned to peace, and yeah, it does sound quite like a love/wedding song. Maybe I should redo the name?

Here's a classical song (untitled thus far...) I made about a week ago (You'll have to excuse the poor violin soundfont...):

Everyone who knows me, know that I'm no classical genius, so I will just rate the song with my own thoughts.

First off, the harpsichord is a good addition, but sounds awful. I don't know if you messed around with the reverb, or if your soundfonts for the Harpsichord stinks X_X. It creates a good classical ambiance though. You use an instrument ( violin, viola? ) that is always playing the melody, which suits well into the song. I was prepared for some harpsichord solo, but the other instrument just kept going. At 01:27 the song got more interesting, aswell as in about 03:27. The violin, viola, whatever gets a bit annoying in this 4:45 long piece. Try to have at least one part with that excluded. It just gets into my nerves listening to that instrument playing a sad melody in almost 5 minutes, you know. At least you varied the melody, and put in some parts with different tempos, and I liked that, but it didn't really rescue the song's simplistic tune.

6/10 - Good.

Ok, I see what you mean. Yeah, I did mess a little with reverb, but Finale's soundfonts are just bad by nature... :P I wish I had a GOOD harpsichord soundfont... :( It's one of my fav instruments!

ON THE TRAIL OF ADVENTURE

- it didn't feel like on the trail of an adventure, sorry (hmm, instead of changing the music to suit the title, you could just rename it if you want)
- try to create variation and interest with some new chords from time to time, instead of repeating the main basic chords throughout the whole song
- the flow and transition between sections needs more work
- I think the left hand is a bit simple and repetitious; mostly it's just an Alberti bass
- there were a few parts that could use better phrasing
- sorry, but I felt your ending was weak; after you had repeated your song once, you didn't do any real changes afterwards to finish it off

RETURN TO SERENITY

- wow, it sounds like the person settled down to serenity pretty quickly!
- nice use of instruments; sets up mood nicely
- ending came too abruptly; and the song was too short
- as calm and reflective as it was, it was too repetitious

TOWN THEME

- sorry, it didn't sound like a town theme (you could just rename the piece)
- your harmony is weak (by that, I mean your doubling; try to look up some rules)
- a bit too repetitious, eg. chords, left hand, etc.
- your ending originally made me think you were moving into a new section instead of a conclusion

EDIT: 21

- there were times when your piece didn't sound baroque/medieval (just my opinion), even though the harpsichord was there, eg. the opening (what I'm trying to say is that using baroque instruments like the harpsichord doesn't necessarily make the piece baroque; something is missing that would have made it a baroque style, well, if that was your original intention)
- at the 1 min mark, you had some counterpoint between the strings and harpsichord, so I thought that was good because you made better use of your harpsichord instead of those arpeggios
- but suddenly you sped up (the transition could have been smoother) and the strings did some nice arpeggios of their own; I liked how the harpsichord came out strong as the dominant voice
- around the 3 mins mark, I didn't like how your strings was holding on certain notes for too long while the harpsichord was doing its thing; some more action would have been nice
- in general, you need to flow between your parts, and make everything go together
- you need to do more than just repeat the basic chords throughout the whole song
- let us know that your song is coming to an end, instead of just a simple cadence

Yeah, I know most of what you mean, Alphonse. :) Most of the songs I'm posting are ones I did a while back, before I studied up and experienced how to compose using harmonym counterpoint, etc. :P So I was kind of guessing with chords. :) Gosh! I guess my songs need a lot of reworking... :/

Maybe you could record the songs instead? They might sound better and with more feeling when you play it the way you want. I'm trying to do that aswell, but I can't come up with anything right now >_>.

I dunno - sometimes I can't record songs - when I turn the volume up too high (I have a bad microphone and it needs to be high volume), the computer starts making this terrible feedback noise... :( So I can't record.

Doh! Sorry to have to force a double-post, but I need to bump my thread! :P Forgive me, spoonpuppet, Angelic, Gand, and Zero!

Anyway... what do you think of this song? It doesn't have much of a theme, but it does have a dark, gloomy aura about it, which kind of matches the name. It's supposed to be played while a character is lost in a cave and feels despair. Rate if you wish. :doh:

EDIT: By the way, this was my 2nd ever thematic song...

Theres something wierd going on at 0:27 - 0:44 that I don't like. It gets alot better after that.

I like what you did at 1:17 to the ending.
I think this is very good.

If you wanted a Rating:
8/10
Sorry, there were just some parts that kind of seemed a little out of place for me. :sweatdrop:

Overall it fits as a cave theme, but I feel that the flute is too overwhelming. The mysterious feeling is great though, and I can picture me playing the scene. Some parts sound a bit false because of the background synthesizer. If you were to put a new part, somewhere in the middle, with a guitar instead of the flute, it would be great. The 1:20 >> parts are good, but I didn't see the end coming.

7/10 - Good

I really like Amid the Darkness of the Cave. The whole thing is just pretty, and it makes me picture one of those dark caves with faint light flickering around the walls yada yada yada...
It did end a little unexpectedly, but that's not a bad thing! XD Endings don't always have to be long, complicated, or easy to tell when it'll happen. But don't listen to me, I'd much rather comment than just attempt to give advice, because I thought it was really nice!

Your choices of instruments were good, and I liked the mood. Were you trying for just moods, or were you trying to make something thematic and memorable?

This song was mainly just an attempt to create an atmosphere and mood, not really to have a memorable single theme or anything. There are just little motifs, I guess. :D Thanks for the feedback, guys! :D I'll edit later and post another song.

EDIT: Here's one of my medieval songs for recorder quarter. (I just made it earlier today, took me ~2 hours.)

You're very good at medieval music, I see you like it alot. Have you listened to this one?

http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/sony/..._to_someday.mid (http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/sony/ps1/ff9_-_The_place_I'll_return_to_someday.mid)

Indeed, I have. I like that song: my friend was obsessed with it and she forced me to make her a CD-R of it... Lol! :) Thanks for complimenting my medieval music; I've come to a sort of formula for composing it! :P It's fun and each song is unique and the themes are so simple to come up with. I've learned to mimic King Henry VIII's style then I add a little of my own techniques into the composition. :D I'll post more later -

EDIT: Here is a song I made just earlier - took about 2 hours to do - it's for recorder quartet (I changed it to flute soundfonts...) in a medieval style -

What program are you using again? :heh: Sounds really good...

But anyway:

The melody is not solid. If anything, the harmony is too active to make the melody worth listening to. Either the melody needs to be stronger (not necessarily louder), or you need to relax the harmony a bit.

Second, some of your transitions were choppy. The chord progession was very nice, but when you changed to a new melody/style, it seemed a bit abrupt.

In terms of the style, it was perfect as you described it to be.

I don't really give x/10 ratings, so I just have to say it was very good, but needs some fixing.

I hope that helps. ^_^ And if I sounded harsh, I'm sorry. I'm known to be a brutal critic. X_X

Ok, thanks for your comments - I'll work on smoothing up the harmony. Often in Medieval music, the melody will play slowly while the harmony plays runs of 8th notes, so that's why it sounds like it. I'll calm the alto part down a bit -

EDIT: Btw I use Finale 2004 - does it really sound that good, the soundfonts? :P

DOUBLE EDIT: Is it that abrupt changing from one style or major to minor? I've listened to it several times now and just can't seem to pick out any abruptness. But I've grown to love this song I've just made. :P I guess my brain doesn't WANT to find anything wrong with it. But I'm sure it's very erroneous.

Yeah your soundfonts are good, but could be much better if you used them with Sonar3 >.<. You can read my mp3 making guide if you want to use Sonar3.

Sonar 3 won&#39;t install on my computer; it freezes every time I&#39;ve tried to install it.

Where can I get sound fonts? Oh ya, it was somewhere before halfway through the piece. I can&#39;t listen to it right now, my sound card is acting up.

The soundfonts come installed w/ Finale 2004 and are used by default -

How about this song? (excuse the poor soundfont)


(yes, the song does loop around a few times... please try to look over that fact - ) :P

I&#39;ve been working mainly on piano nocturnes lately... :) I&#39;ll post a few later today&#33;

This song is in 7/8 time... :)


NOTE: I have compiled a list of links in my first post for all my nocturnes and thematic songs that I have attached in this thread. Please feel free to use that list. :) Comments are welcome&#33;

#3&#33;

#4.

#5.

#6.

#7.

#8.

#9.

#10.

#11.

#12.

NOTE: I have compiled a list of links in my first post for all my nocturnes and thematic songs that I have attached in this thread. Please feel free to use that list. :) Comments are welcome&#33;

What a shame, all that nice music, and hardly anybody downloads or comments . . . nice to see you&#39;ve branched off from your medieval style. Lots of many nocturnes, but it&#39;s great that you managed to stay original in each one.

Nocturne__1_in_D_minor:
I liked your motif, and I liked the middle section where it was moving along.

Nocturne__2_in_G_Major:
Very peaceful . . I thought it was interesting how the majority of the piece wasn&#39;t in G major.

Nocturne__3_in_C_minor:
Sounds so tragic . . I like the harmony in some parts.

Nocturne__4_in_A_minor:
I get a feeling not of restlessness, but I think of uneasiness?

Nocturne__5_in_G_Major:
I liked the bass and how it sounds a bit classical.

Nocturne__6_in_G_minor:
Strong key, so good use of the chords in those sections.

Nocturne__7_in_F_Major:
I liked this one a lot . . nice opening theme, nice arpeggios . .

Nocturne__8_in_D_Major:
Relaxing all the way through, even at the climax . .

Nocturne__9_in_C_Major:
Calming . . reminds me of a happy, curious child.

Nocturne__10_in_C_minor:
Another C minor nocturne eh? At least this one wasn&#39;t as tragic-sounding.

Nocturne__11_in_F_minor:
A sense of doom, but still hope?

Nocturne__12_in_E_Major:
And we finish off the cycle with a happy song . . tranquil . .

Originally posted by Alphonse@Oct 14 2004, 07:55 AM
What a shame, all that nice music, and hardly anybody downloads or comments . . . nice to see you&#39;ve branched off from your medieval style. Lots of many nocturnes, but it&#39;s great that you managed to stay original in each one.


Thank you for your kind reply. :) It means a lot to me. :cry:

I&#39;ll post some more of my songs later...

Would you please define what you meant by:

Nocturne__4_in_A_minor:
I get a feeling not of restlessness, but I think of uneasiness? ?

Was it a drudge getting through all my songs? Sometimes I feel like they&#39;re empty or... pointless... But I suppose the goal of my nocturnes is to evoke a thoughtful, "faded memory" effect in the listener... I hope that it worked. :) I especially enjoy the minor key noctunres of mine... They sound so pensive. Now I&#39;m up to Nocturne #28... From now on I guess I might just post the ones that I like the most. :)

Does it become a bore while listening to them? Or just certain ones? I bet it felt like a chore... :P Since most of them are in the 50-80bpm range, I do hope that they are not too slow to keep one&#39;s interest for long enough... :) Thanks for your reply, once again.

EDIT: One more question... Do you find the key changes and time sig. changes to be excessive...? I try my best to keep transitions subtle when it is called for...
:D

Nocturne__4_in_A_minor:
I get a feeling not of restlessness, but I think of uneasiness?

That&#39;s just the mood I interpreted, how I tried to understand what you wanted us to feel. Sorry if I got it wrong, heh. But indeed, for all the songs you succeeded in "evoking a thoughtful, faded memory effect in the listener".

I honestly can&#39;t say if they were a bore or not. My internet is messed up, so when I downloaded the files, they were corrupted. Everything sounded "wavy" . . like the sound goes in and out many times per second . . I can&#39;t explain it well. But it made it impossible for me to listen to everything properly and truly enjoy it. Sadly, I could only listen to bits and pieces of each song . . and also for that very reason, I couldn&#39;t tell the key and time changes. Sorry&#33;

#17

#21


NOTE: I have compiled a list of links in my first post for all my nocturnes and thematic songs that I have attached in this thread. Please feel free to use that list. :) Comments are welcome&#33;

#24

#28

#30

#32

#36

#37

#38

#40

#42

#44

#45

#46

This song is in 7/8.

Too much&#33;&#33; =P My internet can&#39;t handle all those downloads, and the files will probably end up corrupted anyways . . so instead can you recommend your favourite 3 - 4?

37, 38, 45, 46... Those are probably my favorites. :)

wow&#33; didn&#39;t listen to all of your songs yet, but what i heard was great :)
I especially like "Nocturne 37 in E minor" and "Nocturne 45 in A minor".
The fast part in Nocturne 45 ~1:58-2:15 is very nice ^_^

I wish I knew what was wrong with my internet . . all my downloads get corrupted, and it&#39;s a shame, because from what I can tell, your songs are really nice, but I can&#39;t hear them properly.

Not much else I can say about them aside from the usual, heh . . but I&#39;m just wondering about your future direction. So many nocturnes already . . are you going to keep at it, or are you going to try a different genre/style?

I dunno. I&#39;m having trouble diverging from this style... I feel as though I&#39;ve evolved greatly so far as a composer, but I&#39;m quite content to continue with nocturnes for the time being...

Any advice about evolving my style? I don&#39;t want to be another Vivaldi... (Not that he wasn&#39;t brilliant...)

I always think of a theme or a feeling I want to create with my songs. Sometimes I imagine a scene/situation, for example a person walking along a street by night or something like that and try to make a song which fits this theme. Maybe you should try that too :lol:

Thematicism... I&#39;m not too good at that, really... :( But thanks for the suggestion. Al? Need more advice&#33; :P

I&#39;d try to improve counterpoint/fugal technique... but it&#39;d take me at least a few months before I could write anything halfway decent and/or publically presentable&#33; ... It&#39;d be almost a waste of time...

But, then again, imitation does always catch my interest...

Perhaps imitation will be a new style for me to venture into. :)

=P . .

Like all things, thematicism will take practice. But if you can&#39;t adapt to imagery, you could try using words, like writing a song for lyrics. =) And don&#39;t give up on counterpoint/fugues. I consider it an important skill to have, and I still plan on writing my own fugue on of these days.

It&#39;s hard to tell how your style will change over time. I thought I was going to write classical music my whole life, but recently I gradually grew out of it . . I guess it was because I listened to other types of music a lot more, so you could try that too. Whatever it is you do in the future, it should be naturally progressive and comfortable.

Imitation? Eh? Of a whole song, or the imitation device eg. canon?

Imitation referring to a canonic/fugal device, I meant. :)

I think I see what you mean about "natural progression"... I&#39;ll just keep my head high and keep on doing whatever gets me farther and fits my fancy in my musical experience. :)

Here&#39;s a recent piece I have composed. I composed it on Monday the 22nd... :)

It&#39;s called "Fading Evermore" because when I asked my friend to listen to it, I asked him to close his eyes and try to interpret what it sounds like. I told him before that the strings and vocals made it sound "whale"-ish and he ended up thinking of a tragic story in his perception of the song.

He pictured a young whale reluctantly abandoning his lifeless mother in search others of his kind. He searches endlessly until he finally hears the faint yet familiar cry of other whales in the distance. He follows the cries until he finds a pod of several larger whales. However, as he tries to become part of the pod by swimming near them, they shun him and leave him. He remains where he found them, discouraged and disheartened. He makes a final cry as he swims slowly into the distance, fading gently into the black void of the sea.

Talk about sad&#33; :cry: But however sad that may be, it did seem to me that it fits the song&#33; So I named it "Fading Evermore".

:)

Thoughts, feedback please&#33; :D

Wow, your friend is surely creative for having thought up that background story . . oh, and of course you&#39;re creative too for having composed this song ^^ I don&#39;t know if I would have thought whales, but those percussion instruments you used helped remind me of nature in some way, so whales wouldn&#39;t be a big stretch of imagination. Anyways, good job&#33; It&#39;s almost like an orchestral version of your nocturnes, wouldn&#39;t you agree? Your ending . . I think it would be good if you actually made it physically fade away, eg. dim and rit to really fit the title of the song =P

Here&#39;s a lullaby I made just earlier. I&#39;m very happy with the end result&#33; :D Even though along the way I was tempted to start over, I kept with it and it turned out pretty well, methinks&#33; :D

It&#39;s unnamed at the moment... Any suggestions for a name? :)

I just want to say that it is really lovely so sweet it makes me think of my grandma that died I want to cry but I dont know heres some names:
-Moonlight guidnence
-Slumber in sweetness
-internal lifeless
-go on

Are these ok?

Wow&#33; Thanks for giving such positive feedback. :)

I like Slumber in Sweetness... I might try to modify that one a bit to fit a bit more. :) But those are all good ideas&#33; "Moonlight Guidance" is a good idea, too&#33; But I&#39;m not sure if it fits as well...

Anyone else have ideas/feedback? :)

=) sounds nice, something I could sleep to (that was not meant to sound bad&#33;) . . you should expand your ending though, because I didn&#39;t expect the niceness to end so soon =P

As for titles, how about:

Serene Slumber
Tranquil Slumber
etc. variations on that idea

Thank you for your feedback and suggestions, Al&#33; :D

Here&#39;s a nocturne that I recently arranged for the Christmas Competition here on Ichigo&#39;s... You guys reckon it&#39;s worthy enough to be presented yet? :P

Also, I need a good Christmas-y name for it... :P Does it sound Christmas-y anyway? :think:

Yeah, it does sound like it ^^ I like the bells . . I get a sense of peaceful snow falling down, or some people taking a gentle carriage/sled ride?

Thanks for the encouragement&#33; :D And thanks for listening&#33; :P

I named it Sleigh Ride Through the Snow-Speckled Woods. Is that good? :P It&#39;s a tad long...

EDIT: Here&#39;s a song I have made recently. It&#39;s named "Tears of the Moon" because while I listened to it I could picture a sorrowful moon slowly gliding across the night sky, it&#39;s thoughts and pains and worries gently liquifying into teardrops which fall to earth serenely... :) I know it doesn&#39;t have any warning of an ending, but I didn&#39;t mean for it to; I meant for it to be a type of song that can be looped over and over (like most RPG music). :) Good interpretation? :P

*bump* Here&#39;s an orchestral version of my 30th Nocturne (transcribed from E Major to D Major). The cool thing about this song is that I actually orchestrated it so that my school orchestra can perform it at the upcoming Christmas concert&#33; I can&#39;t wait&#33; It&#39;ll be the public premiere of my works&#33; :D Feedback, por favor&#33; :P

This song is also known as "A Winter&#39;s Nocturne".

Tears of the Moon: I love the imagery, what else can I say? =)

since i am new here all i have to say is that you are a great composer like everyone else in this forum ^__^ v&#33;&#33; i have personally listened to all the songs you have uploaded on this site&#33;&#33; i am no critic, but all i have to say is that they&#39;re ALL great&#33;&#33; just the fact that you made them is even better&#33;&#33;&#33; you and many others have inspired me to make my own piece&#33;&#33; GREAT WORK&#33;&#33; ^__^ b&#33;&#33; you will be seeing my compositions in the future&#33;&#33; HAPPY composing&#33;&#33;

THX a LOT&#33;&#33;

Thank you for your zealous inspiration and compliments&#33; :) It&#39;s good to know that new members take time to hear the compositions posted here... :) I was beginning to think my whole audience was turning to Noir7 and Al... :heh:

Good luck w/ composing, too&#33; :D

EDIT: Here&#39;s a new song I have just composed earlier today. It is entitled, "Farewell to the Familiar" because I pictured families being torn from their motherland in search of a more promising place to go to. Or perhaps a party is about to go on an adventure and they must finally leave the lives they once lived in a calm, rural village. Although it is saddening on some levels, it is uplifting to know that it is all in the pursuit of a self-bettering. :)

don&#39;t forget me :( i listened to all of your songs ^_^ i&#39;m pretty busy recently, sorry that i can&#39;t critic all your songs (that would take a... long long time...). Anyways your songs are great, you improved a whole lot in the past few months :) Seems like you manage to orchestrate songs now, too :P

*brightens up* :D Forgot you, Matt-Chan&#33; :P Dreadfully sorry. Yay&#33; Now I have an audience of 4 - 5 members&#33; Lol&#33; :heh: :P Thanks for listening. :) Is "Farewell to the Familiar" a good enough name for that song? I&#39;m kinda having doubts about it, but I do like the idea... :)

i like the name very much ^_^ it fits this slow and sometimes sad peace well :)

:cry: heart-breaking . . great title *thumbs up* ^^

Two new songs to post&#33; :)

Feedback, please?

Also, what do you guys think of the names?

#2 :)

Remnants of Yesterday:
Maybe it&#39;s because I&#39;m in a sad mood, but this song was so sad&#33; I really liked the instruments you used . . they evoke that effect/style that I can&#39;t explain . . oh no, your ending finished too soon&#33; =T

A World Against One:
Same thing here with your ending =P other than that it&#39;s really nice&#33;

However . . I&#39;ve just realized something about your music, and please don&#39;t take it the wrong way, but . . . you write so many songs&#33; While that&#39;s not a bad thing (I&#39;m getting to my point, hold on&#33;), especially since each song is unique and different, still, they . . they lack something that makes them stand out from each other. What I mean is that personally, I have a hard time telling them apart (could be just my bad memory, but nevertheless&#33;).

For example, take your piano nocturnes. They&#39;re all great, but if you happened to play any one of them randomly, very people would be able to tell you the title (key and work number) . . here&#39;s an analogy: think of the stars at night. Each one is bright and beautiful, but there are so many of them. How do you tell them apart? By grouping them into constellations&#33;

Now I&#39;m not telling you to write less songs, and I&#39;m not telling you that what you already wrote is bad (far from it), I&#39;m . . I&#39;m just confusing everybody now, I don&#39;t know what I&#39;m trying to say x.x sorry . . I&#39;m really sorry if I offended you, I don&#39;t mean to . . it&#39;s best if you just ignore me . .

Please don&#39;t take my comments to heart, there are plenty of other critics out there besides me with different opinions, I&#39;m just being --&#62; ._.

You&#39;re right, Al... :( I compose to compose, to establish works that I can later correct, improve, work with... I mentally feel that 90% of my songs are rather "asexual" or empty or not worthy of being called music. :(

I thought that my insecurities as a composer were purely superficial, but your observation has proven that it isn&#39;t just my way of thinking. My songs will never be considered RPG material, will they? I spend several hours every day to work on a song, and in the end my results are just not up to par with the works of others, even though I put my entire mindset and strength and time into composing. Another Bach, I&#39;m not. Another Mozart? Hardly. Another Mitsuda? Kajiura? Uematsu? Chopin? Henry VIII? Nope, none of them. But I am me, James Greterman. I do have the power to change whatever it is that I&#39;m doing wrong, but I just don&#39;t know what it is that I AM doing wrong. I feel like I&#39;ve got my basic harmonic knowledge, but it&#39;s like I&#39;m staring through an invisible wall in front of me, and on the other side the grass is greener. I&#39;ve got no means to cross this wall, and until I do, there will be nothing of any true value coming from my work... :(

Instrumentation? Always a hard thing to choose. Sometimes I&#39;ll spend 20 mins staring at the screen thinking of which instruments to use.

Harmony? I know about chords. I know about progressions. I know how harmonize. Period.

Independence/Intermingling of Voices? Many of my songs sound very one-dimensional, like there&#39;s always just one solo voice being backed up... There&#39;s nothing wrong with that, but for all of my works to do that, it&#39;s not right. What would Aeris&#39;s theme be without the interweaving of the woodwinds and strings with piano and brass? Or Bach&#39;s Brandenburg Concerti without the intermingling melodies of the flutes, harpsichord, cellos, and violins? I need to work on this, I think...

Endings? I find that endings are trouble for me on most of my "RPG" songs that I try to make. I feel that since it would only "background" music to most players that it only needs to be loopable. Am I wrong in thinking this? I know that endings are important and I believe that at least 80% or so of my nocturnes have decent endings, but for my thematic songs, I find most of them very lacking.

Length of Songs? How long should any one song be? Well, I find it difficult to make a song short and sweet. Not that that is always the best combination, but how can the Curan Abbey Theme from Wild Arms only be ~45 seconds and still be a joy to hear for quite so long without getting repetitive? How can the Snow Cave theme from FFVII be so simple yet splendid, elegant yet fitting?

I suppose that there&#39;s something I need to fix in my style. In the back of my mind ever since I started seriously composing, I&#39;ve had this feeling that my works aren&#39;t worth the time it takes to make them, that composing them was simply a waste of time for a repulsive 3 minutes of cacophony... I don&#39;t want to quit composing, but I need to pinpoint my problems so that I can alleviate the stress, doubt, and discouragement that I feel most of the time after composing.

Oftentimes, I&#39;ll be in the process of composing and I&#39;ll think, "This isn&#39;t good at all&#33;" But when it&#39;s done and I listen to it, I think, "This isn&#39;t too bad&#33; I could picture this in an RPG&#33;" Rarely do I completely dislike a song that I make. However, I wish that my compositions were a bit more rewarding; I want to compose something and be proud to say, "Yeah, I composed that." I&#39;m sure that&#39;s what every composer wants some day, and I&#39;m no different. Last week, my school orchestra performed "Nocturne #30 in E Major" (see the list in my first post for the link to "A Winter&#39;s Nocturne") and the principal came up to me and patted me on the back and said it was great. My friends all loved it and I felt kinda good about it. But I still had doubts, even then. It&#39;s no fun getting praise for something when you don&#39;t feel completely confident in...

:(

Ideas? I feel like I&#39;m a whiny, impossible-to-please composer. But I assure you all that my "rants" are completely genuine and I don&#39;t mean to seem like someone who just wants attention. :heh:

Thanks for reading this&#33; It&#39;s like a mini-essay&#33; :lol:

James, nooo ;___; you&#39;ve got the wrong idea . . all those problems you&#39;ve pointed out (insecurity, originality, instrumentation, harmony/voicing, ending/length) are perfectly normal for every composer&#33; So in fact, those problems are not the issue here. I myself don&#39;t think you&#39;re having difficulty with them. Well sure it&#39;s hard work, but as with all things, it takes time and practice, so don&#39;t give up. You&#39;ve got a bright future ahead of you, because you&#39;ve studied a lot in your own free time, and plus like I told you before, when you get a proper composition teacher in university/college, who knows what you&#39;ll be able to accomplish&#33;

(Did you know that Brahms, the perfectionist, tended to destroy his songs after he wrote them? I&#39;m not saying you should destroy the songs you hate, but I&#39;m saying that even the great masters had their doubts.)

Your songs are not "asexual" (although I don&#39;t know how music can have a gender, but I get what you mean) nor empty nor not worthy of being called music. The first step towards self-improvement is to not give up&#33; Don&#39;t discredit what you&#39;ve already written&#33;

Remember: the only problem I had with your songs was the ability to tell them apart. So, what do you do to fix that? Well, one possible solution could be as easy as having a "memorable melody" as some of us here are fond of saying . . and there are plenty of other ways too, just try experimenting . . I hope that clears things up.

~~

By the way, for the ending: you can fix it by not stopping your song on a "phrase" or a simple cadence . . if it&#39;s a fast song, try to aim for a climax with a "big bang" or if it&#39;s a slow song, perhaps a climax with a fade away will suffice . . that&#39;s what I meant by having the ending come too soon. You just have to build up on it, that&#39;s all. As I always say, "let us know it&#39;s coming".

As for an ending for a RPG, you can still loop it and have a decent ending at the same time. For instance, bars 1 - 24 can loop as many times as the game needs, but when it&#39;s ready to end, bar 24 should lead smoothly and nicely into bars 25 - 32 for the coda.

Thanks for clarifying. :) Making a song memorable is probably the hardest thing for me. Because I&#39;m the composer, I can hear like the first measure or two of a song and then I can hum the rest without the computer playing it along with me. But that&#39;s because I&#39;m the composer... I doubt any of my friends would be able to hum the melodies. How does one make it memorable in the first place? Simplicity? Terseness?

Oh, by "asexual" I meant that my songs are kinda sans identity... :P Sorry to be inspecific&#33;

Um something catchy?well personaly I cant forget them their that goo I LOVE them so far I think your the best composer here sorry if I make others feel bad but its my opion&#33;please keep it up I think a lot of your music&#33; ^_^

Thanks for your support, Kariekh&#33; I will continue to compose, but I will try to improve my style a bit... :) A Lot of my music is just kinda like background music, but that&#39;s ok for RPGs, right? :) I just can&#39;t picture a lot of my songs in RPGs. But I&#39;ll continue to do my best&#33;

I can I played KingdomHearts:Chain of memory wile lisening to your music and I think it worked out well&#33;oh your welcome for the support&#33; ^_^ I like helping&#33;

I really admire your spirit :) I mean, I can&#39;t even focus on one song...
I drift away, playing something different, later come back to the song i&#39;m composing.
That&#39;s the reason why I didn&#39;t finish the song I&#39;ve been composing for the christmas competition yet. And you make one song after another ^_^
You are my hero&#33; :lol:

[EDIT] managed to finish that x-mas song :huh:

I wish I could put my stuff up here....but sadly I cant and I guess I should leave it up to the pros oh well great music&#33;

Why "can&#39;t" you, Kariekh?

Anyway, UPDATE&#33; :D Here&#39;s a new song that I made earlier today with about 2 hours and 15 mins worth of time. It&#39;s entitled "Under the Starlit Sky" because I pictured it being played during an emotional scene in a video game between two characters, and the name kinda sounded romantic yet thoughtful or maybe sad all at the same time.

I think that my style is starting to evolve for the better, finally&#33;

I think it does, too ~ but I think of your music as background music (which is good in some perspectives) and that kind of music will never be much appreciated in a game&#39;s soundtrack. Your melodies and touch of memorability is just not enough for that.

Your instrumentation is perfect for the mood and also for the starry background =) . . but in my opinion, you still need work on dragging out the ending, so keep at it and don&#39;t give up&#33; You&#39;re improving the more you write&#33; ^^

Originally posted by Gnomish@Dec 29 2004, 12:13 AM
Why "can&#39;t" you, Kariekh?

Anyway, UPDATE&#33; :D Here&#39;s a new song that I made earlier today with about 2 hours and 15 mins worth of time. It&#39;s entitled "Under the Starlit Sky" because I pictured it being played during an emotional scene in a video game between two characters, and the name kinda sounded romantic yet thoughtful or maybe sad all at the same time.

I think that my style is starting to evolve for the better, finally&#33;
cause I cant put them up here I donno how...but good songs sorry I havnt been on much lately but it seems people are WAY to strict here and its um well I donno but great&#33;PLease keep it up I donno it sounds good in FFX when I played it while I was in Malcana Woods just well I think you need to think harder and make it more complexed but i LOVE it good song I may just take one of your songs {ASKING of corse&#33;} and see which one is my theme song ya know cause well I think your GREAT&#33;

I like the song ^^ the title and mood are great. :)
About the ending, I think Al is right it&#39;s a little bit abrupt. But besides that, it&#39;s supposed to be game music and game music is looped anyway ;)

P.S: you&#39;re not using much punctuation marks, aren&#39;t ya kariekh? :P meh, nevermind ^^

I Have a Dumb Question. Why would you want your songs in RPG&#39;s? The average

gamer does not listen to RPG music passionately. Why not have your music played by

renowned groups?

I just think that it&#39;d be fun, considering how much I enjoy a good RPG and the music makes the experience, for me, even more enjoyable&#33; :) I don&#39;t think it&#39;s a lowly goal or something... Besides, I doubt that I could produce real CD&#39;s that people would buy. :/ I&#39;d love to be the next Enya of the New Age venue, but I could never master harmony and melody like she does. :)

I&#39;d settle for RPG composer&#33; And I&#39;d enjoy it in the process. :)

I agree. There are plenty of people out there who are passionate about their RPG music. An RPG composer is definately a worthy goal.

I agree. There are plenty of people out there who are passionate about their RPG music. An RPG composer is definately a worthy goal.

That&#39;s your inner-nerd speaking. :P

:blink: :whistle:

Updates&#33;

:)

:D

;)

^.^

Down the Cobblestone Streets:
Those strings fill me with warmth&#33;

Haunting Nightmares:
Oh, I like your harmonies here . . I like the "vocals" (?) too, very fitting . .

Heart of the Forest:
I really like your percussion, they really do remind me of a forest . .

Kingdom of the Hidden:
Ah, I wonder what this kingdom could be . . sounds so secretive&#33; Someone on a search to find it . .

Soft Rain:
You&#39;re really good at picking out the instruments for your pieces . .

~~

I still think you need to make your endings more obvious, but that&#39;s the only thing I can pick at. Because aside from that, these songs were great =)

Heart of the Forest:

Good beginning, and good use of percussion. Reminded me some of a forest, but more of a sunburnt endless field where people with camels travel - especially when the bass drum kicks in. The oboe is a nice instrument, but for a forest song I would have used a flute instead. Also, the ending was too abrupt.

Kingdom of the Hidden:

I don&#39;t like using harp as a melodic instrument, but it worked fine here. The easy percussion was also a good touch. Your main instrument (flute..?) was also a good addition, and gave the song a good contrast and a memorable melody. The harp set the mood, and the flute took over - good.

Soft rain:

Hm.. I think this was too repetitive somehow. I know you didn&#39;t use the same chords over and over, but the whole concept became repetitive to me. It doesn&#39;t show me a good melody, so I see it as a background song. Rain? I don&#39;t know..

Down the Cubblestone Streets:
The melody/harmony is just great ;) The cello part reminds me of Zelda - Kakariko Village ^^

Kingdom of the Hidden:
omfg&#33; XD I would buy any rpg with this kind of music&#33; ^__^

Soft Rain:
I can imagine this song played in a peaceful village, very nice and flowing :)

Haunting Nightmares:
Seems like not only your skill in composing is improving, the name fits this song well. ;)
You should drag out the ending a little bit, I especially like the the last choir part. ^^

Two new songs to update&#33;

Here&#39;s the piece that I submitted for the "Celebration" theme of the January CMAs.

I hope the name is appropriate. While listening to it, I pictured two children daydreaming, laying under a tall lilac bush. Eventually, gentle rain begins to fall, and a little bit even gets through the leaves to the kids below. This snaps them out of their daydream, and they stand up to see the rain splashing upon the whole garden of flowers and trees around them. The smell of fresh precipitation is strong in the air, and a small band of rabbits can be seen hopping to shelter among the tall grass. As the rain dies down, the children return to their daydreaming and doze off under the lilac bush, care-free as kids ought to be. :)

:)

Here&#39;s another&#33; This one is for piano solo.

It&#39;s entitled "Fountain of Warmth," because when I listen to it, I can picture an ivory fountain in the middle of a large hall of a manor. The fountain is surrounded by a circular "pool" of embers, and it tapers into a spire as it gets taller, where tiny bits of flame spout outward into the air, then they delicately fall to the ember pit below. The rolling left hand and the inner-voice of the piano create a perfect "bouncy" feel which I can picture the embers in the pit below dancing to. There&#39;s not much more to it than that, but I thought the name/theme were fitting. :)

I also am very happy with the MP3 quality itself&#33; You would never be able to tell it&#39;s a soundfont&#33; :think:

I&#39;m only going to listen to your January submission once the new thread is created. In the meantime, "Fountain of Warmth":

Indeed it feels warm =) . . I really like the parts when you harmonize, because your right hand has multiple voices running at the same time. Although I liked how your left hand bounced around, I thought it was a bit too much of the same thing, meaning, it didn&#39;t change a whole lot. I know you could do more with it ^^ The way I see it, sure, you can maintain the bouncing feeling, but don&#39;t forget that the embers go off in different directions. You can&#39;t always predict where they&#39;ll end up&#33; =P

Thanks for your feedback, guys&#33; :D

Here&#39;s a new song called "Playing with the Sky."

It&#39;s entitled this because I picture a magician entertaining a group of young children with his magic tricks. As he finishes with the little stuff, he moves onto bigger magic and begins to manipulate the sky at his will. He summons rain and clouds which lightly trickle droplets of water onto the foreheads of the kids as they try to catch some in their mouths. In the middle part, the clouds darken and sleet falls in the distance as thunder is seen spewing from the sky far away in another direction. The kids are awed as the magician waves his staff once more in the air, warding off the storm. The clouds dissipate slightly and light beams through the cracks of the once-strong rainclouds. By the end, the sky is returned to normal with another shake of the magician&#39;s staff and a sudden perfect cadence. :)

Whatcha think? B)

EDIT: :blink: I just realize how much I&#39;ve evolved as a composer&#33; I went back and listened to some of my first songs, like my first nocturnes, medieval pieces, and songs like "Town Theme - 1" and "On the Trail of Adventure". I&#39;ve changed so much since then&#33; :heh: Now I think my songs are actually RPG-worthy, in case I do decide to pursue being and RPG composer&#33; :think: :lol:

Great job, I love how you&#39;re always able to tell a story ^^ and I definitely heard the raindrops even before I read your description =P and your "sudden" perfect cadence wasn&#39;t that "sudden", in fact, it was just right&#33;

i&#39;ve been listening to your songs and i&#39;m really liking it. i can&#39;t really comment on all your songs since there are so many of them. but it&#39;s about time for me to comment on your songs. you have great melodies on almost all of your pieces and i admire that. keep it up dude&#33;

Yeah, Gnomish. You&#39;ve really improved and evolved. When I first heard you I considered you in the throng of talentless, trite, uninspired hacks who plague the internet. But then I was amazed at how persistent you were in your study and just bulk of composition. And eventually, in the pieces I could see glimpses of what you&#39;re really letting loose now. You&#39;re the example of what hard work can do. Just think about how much you&#39;ll learn when you have professors.

:cry: Thanks so much for your admiration and support, Alfonso&#33; I&#39;m happy that I&#39;ve become the composer that I am today. ^_^ I assure you that when I get into college, I&#39;m going to take as much music composition theory as I possibly can. I was worried how I was going to bump this thread (I don&#39;t post unnamed songs, and I haven&#39;t had any named ones lately that I want to post...), but now I see you bumped it for me. :o Perhaps I&#39;ll name a song later and post it just so I can show you what my most recent works are turning into. :)

Thanks again, everyone, for all your feedback&#33; :)

*bumpity bump bump*

This song, entitled "Showers Upon a Mossy Glen", is reminiscent of an ancient, green valley surrounded by mountains. In the center is a large cluster of trees, and atop a surrounding hill are two children laying in the grass. Winter&#39;s just been thrust away by Spring&#39;s grand entrance, a cloudburst from above the valley. The children, getting soaked in the springtime drizzle, get up and run to the trees for shelter, playing tag along the way. They find cover under a gnarled tree and lean their backs to its trunk as they watch the rain fall subside and spot a faint rainbow peaking out from between the clouds above.
^.^

Feedback, por favor&#33;

Such a nice title . . I wonder how long it took for you to come up with it =P

I really like the pizzicato, reflecting the drops, and the mood is awesome. Just so sweet and peaceful . . wonderful&#33; ^^

As Al said, very appropriate sounding for the backdrop. However, I wish you&#39;d added just a touch more variety; the entire piece has a feeling of "sameness" throughout, probably cause of the persisting ostinato parts. But with that said, this would certainly work pretty well as background music for a light-hearted video game or something like that.

*ahem* I&#39;ve finally got some compositions to update my thread with. :) The only reason I hadn&#39;t updated before was that I hadn&#39;t had any new named pieces of mine to post, and I really dislike posting unnamed compositions of mine in this thread. But anyway, just so you all know, I&#39;m still working hard at composing every day, and to prove that, here are a few of my recent compositions&#33; :lol:

This composition is named "Blurred Shadows".

This one is called "Lifeless Autumn".

This one is "Sanctuary of Ice". The e-piano with synthesizer backdrop is used to create the icy feel of the piece, and the subtle voices in the background signify the hallowed halls of a fallen sanctuary.

This one is named "Shoal". It is representative of a school of fish journeying through a motionless ocean. This is perhaps my favorite of these 4 most-recent submissions. :)

Feedback, anyone? ^_^

Composer&#39;s note: I do apologize that these recent compositions are so melancholic, but it just turned out that way. I&#39;ll name a few light-hearted songs and post them soon enough, so don&#39;t let these downers get you too depressed. :P

Blurred Shadows
I&#39;m a huge fan of the chimes and i really enjoyed listening to chime in this piece. it really gave me the hair-rising feeling.

Lifeless Autumn
this piece is very dead... and yet very... alive. yea.. i know it doesn&#39;t quite make any sense but i can really feel the drama.

Santuary of Ice
another great piece that fits your title. you instruments were great. when i first heard it for some reason i thought of the ice cave in FFIX. awesome.

Shoal
i liked this piece the best. you did a wonderful job of music painting. and when that cello kicked in (or at least that&#39;s what i think it is) it just wanted to make me compose just to do what you did.

overall score.... 8.75/10

Thank you for your comments, yellowmonkey121. :) It&#39;s nice to hear that my pieces please ears across the board. :lol: Good critiquing.

Blurred Shadows:
Maybe you can make the sound font for the main instrument louder? So we can better hear that nice melody you&#39;ve got going. Nice ending by the way =P

Lifeless Autumn:
I agree with yellowmonkey . . more going on than we realize. Ah, I just love that classical chord progression, so fitting here . .

Sanctuary of Ice:
I thought of Legend of Zelda =P anyways . . it was interesting that the chimes weren&#39;t used the whole way throughout. Your ending wasn&#39;t as strong here, sorry. It wasn&#39;t bad, but you know how I complain about it, haha.

Shoal:
I liked how you slowed down in that middle section, don&#39;t remember if you&#39;ve used that technique before . . I wish the cello came in much sooner&#33; I was beginning to worry that your piece was all &#39;accompaniment&#39; =P But then you dimmed the cello after you introduced it? No =&#092; well, I guess it makes sense to remove it so you can end the song, but still . .

~

Great job, and nicely done on differentiating the four pieces&#33;

Your compliments are very much appreciated, everyone. :) Thanks for giving my pieces a listen, even though they aren&#39;t the most exciting pieces in the world. Here&#39;s a quick update, just one piece, entitled "The Land Where Light Was Banished". Anyone want to give me some feedback?

"The Land Where Light Was Banished" is meant to invoke the mental image of a lifeless plains area encompassed by a daunting black mountain range. The only light in the entire area comes from the distant, shy violet moon peeking just barely over the meeting point of two towering hilltops. The dark green grass sways under the biting wind which slithers through the air regularly. Glowing yellow eyes are visible in the brush near the center of the plains, likely from menacing monsters which move about the land without a noise. In the North stands a Gothic tower, overlooking the desolate landscape before it. Its several balconies reveal nothing of its contents lurking inside due to the lack of light. Just what was it that expelled luminescence from these unforgiving plains? Whatever it was, it&#39;s long forgotten now....

Whoa.

I&#39;ll review this recent batch in the order I listened to them in.

Sanctuary of Ice: Wow. Just wow. This was gorgeous. Really. Among these recent ones, this is hands down my favorite one. I loved the melody, the instrumentation, and the mood they portrayed. I loved the choir voices and how they added an eerily holy air. And the E-Piano and the Synthesizer. And the small major-sounding parts. When those major-sounding parts play, it&#39;s as if you&#39;ve just entered the center of the sanctuary or something. *_* I had this one stuck in my head for awhile.

Lifeless Autumn: I loved how atmospheric this piece was, with the strings. This would be perfect for a dramatic scene with major story developments.

Blurred Shadows: I&#39;d say this is my second favorite one. I loved the melody and the vibraphone accompaniment. Especially the chimes. Those solemn, ominous chimes. *_*

The Land Where Light Was Banished: I loved all the percussion, how they followed one after the other as the melody played, and how that fell apart in the end. Then, I just love the eerie air about it. ^_^

Shoal: Very relaxing and dreamy. Reminds me of an underwater DK Country stage, and I love the underwater stage music in that game.

Overall, you&#39;re an amazing composer. All very beautiful, touching, and atmospheric pieces. They all reminded me of Valkyrie Profile music, which was amazing.

Good job. :D

I heard the land where light was banished. I love this song(and your other ones as well) it sounds so sad :D . It gives me a clear mental picture. How long have you been composing?

:cry: Such kind words&#33; I appreciate you guys giving me these wonderful critiques, and thank you especially, Apollo XI, for giving such lengthy ones. I never knew how much my music could mean to someone. ^_^


It gives me a clear mental picture. How long have you been composing?

About a year and a half now, rfree21_82. @_@

Thanks again for taking your time to listen to my compositions. :)

Ah, that sustained bass note really does it for me . . just wonderful&#33; Great work as usual =P

The Land where Light was Banished: Great song&#33; The atmosphere and setting is indeed very dark and eerie. I also like your choice of instruments, like tubular bell effect and etc... Nothing much other than good job, Gnomish... So yea...

Great song again Gnomish :P the atmosphere is simply wonderful, you can imagine the evil beings wandering around in this desolated land. Nice job again&#33; :D
and sorry for not commenting your other pieces (they&#39;re amazing&#33;) but I don&#39;t have much time atm X_X)

"A Ride Upon a Cloud" is so titled because it is meant to depict the tale of a boy and a bird which he finds flailing upon the ground, learning to fly.

A boy is walking along a sandy beach one day and hears a faint rustling of leaves in the distance by some trees and shrubs. As he approaches the noise, he finds it is coming from under a dense pile of shrubbery. A little nervous yet curious, he cautiously moves aside the plant matter to discover a little bird struggling to learn to fly. Perhaps it fell from its nest and its parents had forgotten or lost it, but either way, the boy is determined to help it. He gingerly reaches his hands in the shrubbery and picks up the little baby bird and cups it in his hands. Unsure of what to do, he walks back to the sandy shore and holds his hands up as high as he can in an effort to show the bird that the sky is where it belongs. A few energetic chirps come from the bird and it flaps its wings so hard that it is able to lift itself up into the air. However, much to the boy&#39;s surprise, as the baby bird begins its ascent, its tiny talons clamp around the boy&#39;s hand and it pulls him into the air along with it&#33; Petrified of heights, the boy immediately begins to panic as he looks down to face the ground getting ever so farther away. Realizing that the boy is scared, the boy&#39;s feathered friend flies quickly toward a nearby cloud and drops him off on it. Astonished, the boy jumps up and down for a bit and emits childish laughter as he realizes how little the world he lives in really is from a bird&#39;s eye view...

Feedback, please&#33;

You always have such solid and yet whimsical compositions. They&#39;re quite clever. You would be great at symphonic poems. It all blends so well. Congratulations on another piece well-done.

I thank you for your to-the-point compliment, Alfonso de Sabio. :)

A Ride Upon a Cloud

Okay, I&#39;ve got to say that the opening harmonics remind me strongly of Enya&#39;s music. So does almost the entire song, but I guess it&#39;s kind of intentional, right? You know you have a working sound, so why change it? :P It&#39;s good to hear that you&#39;ve achieved your very own (not the most original) sound&#33; It&#39;s a hard thing to do, it really is. Now for the song itself;

You know I&#39;m partial to the harp, if used well ^_^ I must say you did&#33; The strings and the harp work well together, pretty much throughout the whole song. However, in my perfect-imaginary song, I was waiting for a good solo to come along, with a strong, clear instrument like a cello, but since this is a song about a short story, it was alright. Is it that you don&#39;t want to include memorable melodies in your compositions? Songs without them could be used for a good purpose too, especially in a soundtrack. Whilst the characters all have memorable themes, there are other things that could just be brought up artistically with music, like special moments, or places..

So to summarize, I think you&#39;re doing good in the genre you&#39;re composing in. I don&#39;t know if it&#39;s a permanent style or if it&#39;s just something you&#39;re messing around with - it could be a great addition to a soundtrack of some sort, if you&#39;d continue with it and develop it into something bigger. The symphony orchestra is very popular in all kinds of films, and used to bring forth feelings and dialogue without using words. Maybe this is an area you could explore..?

A Ride Upon A Cloud

Whoa.... That was a great song&#33; It sounds exactly like you desribed it. I don&#39;t think there&#39;s anything that could make this song better. Man, I wish I could compose like that. Exellent job&#33;

This is a beautiful song :D . The instruments work very well with each other and for the mood of the song. Like your other songs it gave me a clear picture in my head.
Waiting for more ^_^

^.^ Thank you all so much for listening to and reviewing my composition(s). It&#39;s greatly appreciated&#33; Perhaps I&#39;ll have an update in a few days, rfree21_82. On another, my new synthesizer equipment should arrive in just about a week, and then I should be able to make even better MP3 files&#33; :D

Anyway, I must say again that I am grateful that you people don&#39;t mind listening to some of my work. :)

*bump* I am hereby requesting this thread to be closed until further notice. I will most likely end up constructing a new thread. Don't worry, I'll be back to my old posting in no time! :)

*puts lock on*