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Quote:
Journey to the Oasis
The first flute melody sees a man waking up in the middle of a desert. He begins walking forward, and the first trumpet entrance shows the grandeur and vastness of the desert as he reaches the top of the first dune and it's spread out before him. The next section has him plodding forward, step by step, as the sun blazes above. He eventually stops, as he sees a couple of vultures begin to circle over him - the descending tremolo chords - and as the viola solo begins, he sinks to his knees and begins sobbing into the heels of his hands.
The strings pick up the melody next, and he sees what he thinks is an oasis, far off. It is only a mirage, however, and our hero is back to his long, tired walk. He hasn't long to wait. He reaches the top of another dune, and to his great pleasure (as well as a triumphant brass melody backed up by violin arpeggios), there is a real oasis in the valley beyond the dune! He relaxes in the shade for a short time, drinking the cool water, but he can't stay in the oasis for the rest of his life, so his march begins again, more adventurous this time. His spirits have been lifted, and the camera pans slowly back and up, as the final chords sound and the man continues into the horizon.
For an MP3 using the Garritan Personal Orchestra, go here. Note that the GPO doesn't contain saxophones, so I used horn patches instead.
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I listened to about half of the piece and what I heard sounded really good. Very filmish and it painted the
scene very nicely. I didn't listen to it all being on I am on the slowest dial-up in the entire universe, but I hope to later tonight.
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Whoa, that's a ton of reverb! Doesn't sound like a concert hall... more like a cathedral! Also, the clarinets seemed a bit too strong and I thought I heard oboes, though that could have been the trumpets.
A very nice, hymn-like feel. I love the slow transformations from chord to chord, and the melodies you use are very distinctive and memorable. However, I got the feeling that it was rambling just a little bit. This felt like it should have been a bit shorter, like it was strung out too long. Part of this, I think, was that there weren't really any contrasting sections - no tempo changes, major textural shifts, or even a great deal of dynamic contrast. While it got the ideas across, I thought it could have done so more effectively; the shifts in events were cued by subtle changes in harmonic language, and thus they were very hard to detect. It would work well as background, but as a concert piece it seems a little repetitive and too subtle.
A few of the chords right at the end seemed out of place from what had just been laid down for ten minutes, and the instrument on the 3rd at the very end (perhaps violas or something, I couldn't tell) was quite glaring. I think you'd want to stick to a perfect authentic cadence after such a piece, putting the root in the top voice and providing a more conclusive ending. If you're going to end on the 3rd like that, you probably need to ritard a bit and anticipate the ending a bit more in advance, then get around to the actual end gradually. What might work is just to take that final chord and have most or all of the ensemble fade out, then back in slowly, maybe with just a timpanum roll carrying over the break.
Nice work... very sentimental and convincing, considering the scenes you were using. Relaxing, too - I think this was the musical equivalent of a good back rub! 
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Ah, well... I tried.
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As I said I am on the slowest dial-up in the universe. Is there anyway you guys could private message me a
midi? If so I will respond here about them. I don't mind how good the midi sound is, I just want an idea. |