"Unexpected Heroes" short orchestral cue

Here's a short orchestral cue I wrote recently. I believe it would do nicely for film. The title came about because in my mind, and my friend's, the choral beginning represents the sun rising in the morning. Then, we imagined farmers working out in the fields (the guitar section and the short fiddle/violin section). While working, a crisis arises, and our "unexpected heroes" draw swords from hidden sheaths (indicated by the trumpet call which 'rescues' the rest of the piece from a dark, looming minor chord. The swords are represented by a cymbal roll as the trumpets come in. This is, in my mind, the general idea I was going for in terms of possible cinematic imagery. It was composed using GarageBand (sigh) for Mac. Please tell me what you think.

Unexpected Heroes

OK, I think you have the mood off here. I read your description beforehand and I heard everything you described....but I couldn't picture it. The solitary minor chord leading into the trumpets sounds like it could lead into something connoting a "crisis" but beyond that you go back into the happy melody. It feels almost like this:

"Hey, what's that!?" *the men draw swords*
"....oh, it's nothing, never mind." *The men sheath their swords and start playing in the field*.

I think you need to change the melody to fit in with the forboding minor chord you have coming in, and keep that going for a few phrases at least before bringing back the original melody. I also feel that the "heroic" part when you're done with the minor part of the melody needs to be vastly different from the first part of the piece - you need to give the listener something different to elevate these characters from "farmers" to "heroes".

Hope this was of some help, let me know if you have any comments or questions about what I said.

Originally Posted by Fox

OK, I think you have the mood off here. I read your description beforehand and I heard everything you described....but I couldn't picture it. The solitary minor chord leading into the trumpets sounds like it could lead into something connoting a "crisis" but beyond that you go back into the happy melody. It feels almost like this:

"Hey, what's that!?" *the men draw swords*
"....oh, it's nothing, never mind." *The men sheath their swords and start playing in the field*.

I think you need to change the melody to fit in with the forboding minor chord you have coming in, and keep that going for a few phrases at least before bringing back the original melody. I also feel that the "heroic" part when you're done with the minor part of the melody needs to be vastly different from the first part of the piece - you need to give the listener something different to elevate these characters from "farmers" to "heroes".

Hope this was of some help, let me know if you have any comments or questions about what I said.

Ah, I see where you're coming from. Yeah, from your point of view, it's different. I'll try reworking the piece. Thanks.

The song is really... dare I say "cute"?

I like the choirs, and the orchestration further into the piece... I'm not sure that guitar fits though, it sounds kind of cheesy. I would change it to spicato violins or something, if you can't find a better guitar sample. Other than that, I wouldn't change it at all. It may not perfectly describe what you tried to accomplish, but it's still really nice... sounds like it would fit into "Dawn of Mana" actually.