My two latest film score type of pieces :)

[Schuldiner0707]

My latest film score type of a short piece

Would love to get some feedback on these if possible. About 8 months ago i started to learn composing theory so Im pretty new to composing. I also have other pieces on my channel so feel free to listen to them also if interested. I also added another piece at the end of this post which i made today. Hope you enjoy



In The Distance:

This piece is composed to be part of a scene in a film where the main character returns back home.



Link to the music:

[MEDIA=youtube]4YbThGTODxM[/MEDIA]



Finding Her:

When i started to write this piece i thought what it would be like to search for your loved on at a collapsed building and going through all the rubble. At first you are hopeless and almost tired to the point of giving up but youll end up finding her. First you think she would be mortally wounded but then you realize that shell be ok

Link to music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ1t-zkso3Q

[relm1]

I listened to "In the Distance" and enjoyed it.  Watch your enharmonic spelling but I'll give you a pass since you said you are learning but something to add to your list.  For example, you have D#, E flat, B flat, A# in the same bar.  There are times where this makes sense (seldom) but for music that is very tonal like this, how you spell the notes will matter and make it easy to read and just look cleaner. 

Regarding orchestration, you have quite a bit of tutti.  A little goes a long way.  A piece will feel very thick and heavy with tutti throughout so save it for the big moments.  This also means you could orchestrate your crescendos and decrescendos (as it gets louder, add in more instruments but generally at their tessitura (their money register)).  Similarly, drop them out after they've done what they needed. 

Sort of like the rule of thumb is that if a player has something important to say, like a big solo, take them out before that solo otherwise you rob something from it.  When doubling in traditional music, their is a rule of thumb of how important the doubled note is to keep it sounding clean. 

* Most doubling of the root, followed by the fifth
* No doubling of the leading tones
* No doubling of thirds of chords
* No doubling of seventh of chords

In music theory, when you see rules, it means it's a rule of thumb, you of course can ignore it but think of it as generally speaking.  When doubling, you don't need to double the exact same melody in different instruments.  Generally, do what each instrument is best at.

Take a look at this excerpt from the repertoire of how Rachmaninoff is doubling the flutes and piccolo.  Notice that the piccolo is playing maybe half the time the flutes are playing, but the exact same note.  This is very noticeable...it brings a sparkle to the flute line and is frankly more interesting because it's not completely duplicating the flute line.  The dynamics are loud so when the piccolo kicks in even though it's not playing the entire phrase, you really hear a bit more spice has been added.  This is again an example that "a little goes a long way".  That's a subtle touch and it's noticeable. 



I thought the melody was good and overall impressed with what you did considering you've only been writing for 8 months.  I could imagine this in a film.

[Schuldiner0707]

Really value your feedback and youve listed some great points that i should be aware of in the future. Thank you for such a comprehensive reply

[Iota]

Hi, @Schuldiner0707, welcome to the forum!

Fwiw, I enjoyed 'In The Distance', and found easy to imagine it fitting the scene you describe very well. (I actually found myself imagining the barn building scene from Witness as I listened, but I haven't seen that film for nearly forty years so that may be a little off target .. )

I have none of @relm1's scholarly knowledge of orchestration, but agree with him completely about the profusion of mixed enharmonic spellings making it very difficult to read the score. Might it be easier starting out with a key signature of Ab major for example, turning many of the G#'s into Ab and C#'s into Db etc, to clarify things a bit? It might even be a bit easier writing it too I'd have thought.

Anyway, the main thing is you clearly know how to conjure up a nice tune, and your feel for orchestration is very impressive particularly bearing in mind the short time you've been learning. I wish you luck with it all.

[Schuldiner0707]

Thank you so much for your feedback. I will forever try to improve in my craft and strive to be better