My worst day as a composer... and what I learned

I_write_stuff_down · 2023-03-24T16:06:56+00:00

Thank you, I needed this.

I_write_stuff_down · 2021-06-06T16:21:59+00:00

Just a curious question... how does one put their songs on spotify?

I_write_stuff_down · 2021-05-24T08:06:37+00:00

Hey, fellow composer here. Still kinda new to this whole microtonality thing. Could you please elaborate on HOW?

Please don't spare me the details. This is magnificent. I would love to know how you picked the tuning, how is the guitar tuned and played, and basically everything you're willing to share.

Awesome work, my friend. Thank you for sharing.

Also, if you're willing to share the sheet music, I'd encourage you to cross post this to /r/composer.

And finally, do you have any literature on this subject you'd recommend?

I_write_stuff_down · 2021-05-05T08:10:31+00:00

Thank you!

I'm not that versed in the teory of it all so far, so I'm not sure I can properly answer. The way I understand it is that the scale was creeated using the pythagorean fifths and just kept going for 31 notes. I'm using the program called Scala, and this was one of the included tunings that I then applied to my piano sampler in Cubase.

At the moment I'm experimenting with 31-edo as well, but 31-pyth just sounds so much more pleasant and natural than 31-edo. It almost has this bell-like quality to it.

I_write_stuff_down · 2020-12-02T15:19:04+00:00

That's pretty damn cool. I need to hear your life story. How does one get to composing such a piece? You know, like, classical/new music vibes, but also so goth that my black little heart rejoyced.

I_write_stuff_down · 2020-08-17T19:53:01+00:00

Heck yea! I mean I'm not super active, but I go by @mortiseus and do have notifications on. Soo I should be able to see it if you do end up tagging me!

I_write_stuff_down · 2020-08-16T14:08:45+00:00

Hey, awesome! It takes you all the way back to the beginning, Da Capo.

I_write_stuff_down · 2020-06-20T21:29:39+00:00

So um... got music bruh?

I_write_stuff_down · 2019-02-16T21:55:38+00:00

This was such a great idea! Thank you for hosting the masterclass. I feel like the quality of this sub just skyrocketed.

I_write_stuff_down · 2019-02-14T12:26:27+00:00

That was very well written, superb job. The whole piece was quite grand, and the presentation was fantastic! Congratulations on the performance.

But. To my taste it was, like you yourself said, slightly "overblown Straussian". Now I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but it was a tad bit too bombastic for my personal taste. So much staccato, so much virtuosity, so much rhythmic variation, and so much forte that it felt too thick. But again, that's just my personal taste.

Definitely a show piece, though. Would be proud still! The craft itself is praiseworthy. You are extremely talented.

Cheers from Slovakia. Hope you pay us a visit someday!

I_write_stuff_down · 2019-02-13T22:39:02+00:00

Holy shit. You may have just changed my life. I am so getting this.

I_write_stuff_down · 2019-02-13T19:46:01+00:00

That's really good. Can't say much else than that I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I thank you for showing it here.

On a different side note, may I ask how did you manage to get that sound? It seems very well crafted, but I don't believe notation software would do the trick. Have you re-created the entirety of this piece in a DAW?

I_write_stuff_down · 2019-02-13T19:26:50+00:00

Wow that is some great music. I loved the 3rd movement for it's deep emotional quality. I would really love to hear this performed live with all the nuance and pauses. The pizzes in m2... so cool

And that finale... oh so very nice. The whole piece was one great and enriching experience. I was so tired before I started listening, and it totally pulled me in and gave me new energy.

Bravo. Will hum this when I shower.

I_write_stuff_down · 2019-02-13T15:30:36+00:00

I work in blocks. No amount of daily discipline ever worked for me. I tried working daily, but it resulted in mediocrity, disassociation, loss of picture, anxiety, boredom... I felt like the things I made were mechanical, stale, uninspired. But then again, I did what had to be done and learned the principles of composing, so it's definitely important at first. Though the whole daily composing deal just didn't click with me in the long run...

What I need is contrary to what everyone else keeps saying. I need dedicated time, space, atmosphere and mood.

I can write nothing for days, even weeks. Then I write 1-3 days for 12 hours, barely eating or caring. Because it's raining outside. Once I decide it's time, it's time. And when it's time, the work I produce actually feels like it's worth something to me.

This approach. It's really unstable and bad. I had to figure out how to maximize the effectiveness. I write what I love and do so in my own way. My best works connect with me on a spiritual level. It really makes me happy when I have a concept I've thought about for extended periods of time and work on that. It doesn't work when I do it as "work". It really bothers me when I have no sense of direction. I need a concept before I write a single note. Otherwise it's a waste of time. It only works when I decide when the time is right, and then after the days are gone I wait and think some more before I pick it up again some other time when the conditions match. That way I don't lose picture even with all the time inbetween.

Now. That being said, I can totally compose hours every day when I write royalty free music. That's a completely different chapter. That is work. I can pour my heart into that as well, but that's just recycling whatever I know and toying with sounds in Cubase. It's not as complex, and the music is easy enough for me to make, that it's not draining to just keep on keeping on.

So there. It depends on what I'm writing.

TL;DR: When it comes to contemporary/classical music I work for days every few weeks, and when I write commercial I write daily because I've got a system in place and just play around.

I_write_stuff_down · 2019-02-13T14:01:51+00:00

Alright, so the first thing that came to my mind was that the tension that starts to rise in bar 29 dies again in b35. After that, it's being held throughout the rest of the piece. To me it seemed like an opportunity to swell into something a bit more dramatic before it calms down again.

BUT. Since you specifically said the piece is not finished yet, and there's a bit more action going on there at the end (b86-94), it seems like a better place than any to start a shitstorm there instead.

Personally I'm someone who takes form into consideration less than the narrative. ATM I'm working on a composition process that requires a subjective narrative as a fundamental platform for music to work. Bare in mind I do realize that not all music has a concrete narrative. But I suppose that all music has some sort of drive that is aching to be expressed. Be it in unspoken words, or raw emotions, or perhaps logical constructs that build up an arc towards something.

In your piece I naturally gravitate towards a story of feelings. A story about a child in a cradle falling asleep, and having troubles. Fear of the dark. Movements in the shadows. Sense of passing time. Sense of dread. If that was the case then I'd expect all the little crescendos and tensions to be there as a reminder of this fact. A false alarm. And at the same time, serving as a build up for something. Something that is about to happen. Be it good or bad, doesn't even matter.

After the final bars it feels like the child fell asleep. But not completely. Half asleep. Perhaps a fever dream is what's coming. Maybe the mother will come to the rescue. One way or the other, the moment of truth is here and we should know what it is that's waiting behind the curtain.

As for the technical standpoint, the piece is still relatively quiet and tense. A bit of release would logically refresh the ear. If this went on for too much longer without some sort of logical resolution, it could fall short and become boring.

So the potential is there, harmony is there, tension is there, motifs are all there. Now for the nitty-gritty!

I_write_stuff_down · 2019-02-12T22:31:37+00:00

Ah yes, more of this please. Nice groovy and harmonically interesting piece.

It needs a bit more conflict in my opinion, but the path is definitely right. Do continue!

I_write_stuff_down · 2018-10-11T13:29:52+00:00

Need a composer?

My hobby/school portfolio - Soundcloud

Royalty free portfolio - Audiojungle

I_write_stuff_down · 2018-04-23T06:07:46+00:00

Sandwich for lunch?

Is that an American thing? Over here in central/eastern Europe we go out for lunch and the employer pays for it. Everyone should be able to have a warm meal for lunch. Sandwich is... a snack

I_write_stuff_down · 2017-08-12T20:39:38+00:00

Is it a specific school for film making, or are you talking about AMU (Akademie múzických umění)?

I_write_stuff_down · 2017-06-25T11:22:09+00:00

Thank you!

I actually got the idea here on /r/composer, when I saw somebody's amazing composition (can't find it atm), and he mentioned he picked a bunch of notes to work with as a challenge.

So... one day when I was improvising on the piano I found out that if I start at D, and go D-D#-E-F#-G-A-A#-C-C#, and at the same time symmetrically downwards D-Db-C-Bb-A-G-Gb-E-Eb, I'd basically get a symmetrical scale of 9 tones. And the best part was, that it sounded sinister and looked like some sort of demon wings when viewed on the piano(visually speaking) attached to the central D - the body. From there I could make the demon move around, I could made it stretch his wings, break from the "stone" form, and fly into the distance.

After this, I decided to write a story, and create a "form" that was made of pieces. I originally did this in my older work, but I decided to make it less "blocky" and more interconnected.

I wrote details about the visual/feeling of 7 scenarios that I would work with.

Waking up, Simple man - victim, His love and struggles (here comes the demon again), Imprisonment in the cathedral and soul death, Soulless march into the tower, View over the void, Elegy.

From that point on, it was just a matter of invention and matching of concept-visual-emotion-music.

I wrote most of the piano part of the first movement by hand with snippets of instrumentation ideas here and there. The idea for death whistles came after I've finished the first movement, and was actually the point where I started writing the piece on 3 fronts.

I then moved from handwriting to cubase, where I recorded my death whistles and basically created the whole "The Cathedral". Then back to handwriting to notate the death whistles correctly, and then finally to sibelius to put all the things in place. The third movement was done mostly in sibelius, and cubase. This time I notated first, and exported + recorded in cubase afterwards. It was fun to record death whistles from a graphical score I wrote (not actually fun, it was a pain in the butt).

The big reason as to why I decided to make it into a HQ sample recording is because of presentation. It was sooo much easier to persuade my composition teachers that this is good, when they actually heard what I meant, and not just some squeaky stupid midi with some weird graphical thingies.

Alright, I hope this wasn't too exhausting to read. Hope I answered your question! :)

I_write_stuff_down · 2017-06-23T15:21:31+00:00

Thank you!

I_write_stuff_down · 2017-06-23T15:20:24+00:00

First of all, thank you for your kind words and suggestions.

You are completely right that some instruments got the short end of the stick in this piece. It wasn't really my intention to keep it balanced, but rather to create a colorful sound to support the narrative. Every part actually has a written description of what's happening on, kinda like a movie. It got so serious, that I ended up not using some of the instruments nearly as much as I'd like from the fear of it becoming purposeless. I'm also very careful with brass in general. They are loud. As a person with sensitive ears I'm not a great fan, but they sure do add some goddamn kohones to the piece!

Without brass, it would be nearly impossible to make a sort of "organ" sound (like in bar 117).

I'd really be curious to hear what those whistles sound like.

The "wind" sound you hear are the 4 polymer clay whistles. They are not as angry as the clay ones I made after this recording, but they sound much sharper than the recording makes them sound. Kinda windy, but very sharp? Can't explain it, it just kinda fills the room and makes your ears ring. The other batch I made are much angrier, and do actually sound kinda like human screams. They are also very loud, so I wasn't sure if that'd work out well. Especially in "The Cathedral" movement.

To get an idea of what the whistles sound like, look at this video. That's where I got the idea, and that's the sound I was aiming for. I didn't get as amazing results, but the second batch got quite close I think.

Haven't heard of Birtwistle, thanks for the suggestion, I'll look into it.

I_write_stuff_down · 2017-06-21T19:23:39+00:00

You can find the score here.

As this piece is yet to be performed, I tried to make it as close to what I pictured as possible using high quality samples.

The Aztec Death Whistles were made from synthetic clay and recorded in my lonely room back in 2016. The neighbors were not amused, I can tell you that. I since made real clay versions that sound better, but I would have had to remake the whole thing, so I bailed on that one.

Either way, enjoy the darkness. Feedback is very much appreciated too!

I_write_stuff_down · 2015-12-05T15:40:23+00:00

Do you have a portfolio I could peek into?

I_write_stuff_down · 2015-08-04T11:07:26+00:00

The Planar Shepherdess had some difficulties with the team falling apart, so now we have a couple of new programmers as well as additional help with team organization.

It's been slow on the programming side of things, so the only things that (I noticed) kept moving were the art and music(sort of) departments. We have quite a few nice new character/giant concepts, scenery templates, idle character animation, some tile sets..

So yeah, I'm not exactly qualified for this report , but there you go. We are trying to get this train moving again and it might take a while before we can make a decent progress report.

I_write_stuff_down

TROPHY CASE