I created a video lesson on how to compose battle music for a fantasy video game. This is the first part of my new series about video game music. I hope you'll find it interesting, and useful! Feel free to leave a comment, and ask about the content!

The MMC is aimed for those who are new to craft or want a redresser. It will be broken into several parts, and each part is broken into different units. 

First question: why this forum? 

Answer: YC is the perfect community. It has perfect balance of both seasoned and new composers. 

Second: Will there be assignments?

Answer: Yes. As the MMC progress, you will be asked to assignments. They will get gradually increase in difficulty. 

Third: where should assignments be submitted 

Answer: Do the same as you would for contest...that way reviewers can easily find your work that is part of masterclass.  

Fourth:  How will be submitted assignment be reviewed.  

Answer: on a scoring system 0-10.  Similar but different to challenges. 

This topic was just announced the course.  

P.s.  If you would like participate, please reply to this by saying: I am interested or something. 

Once I know how many, we can start.  

Tintinnabuli. (I): Essentials

Tintinnabuli (II): T voice

Tintinnabuli (III): M voice

Tintinnabuli (IV): Adding T voices

Tintinnabuli (V): Adding M voices

Tintinnabuli (VI): Adding complexity

Tintinnabuli (VII): Addendum

Example:

I just wanted to share my latest video lesson on how to compose trailer music. I hope you'll find it useful and interesting. As part of this job, my composition had to replace an AI-generated track, so I'm sorry, but I'm taking the job of an AI. 😄 

I would like to present my new video tutorial on creating spooky Halloween music. I'm eager to write your opinion, so feel free to leave a comment!

I hope it's not a problem that I'm sharing my latest tutorial on composing dark and unsettling horror music. I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

I will post one movement at a time. If there is the interest and engagement in this sort of thing, I will look to do more. I suppose my somewhat ambitious direction with this is to develop a thriving educational hub, for there is not really any internet community dedicated to this form of musical analysis.

Here is the work for those who would like to have a listen before I go into the detail (a little history: this work was attributed to the young Mozart by Modern Musicologists when they discovered his name on the manuscript). He had in fact copied it note for note, most likely as a learning exercise). 

This is why the background music for video games often consists of one or more loopable tracks for each mood, key moment, activity, etc. There are tracks specifically for battles, different locations, or rooms, often even a more dynamic combat music for boss fights, and the list could go on.

These tracks reflect the mood and emotional scale of the respective situations. In this kind of music, it's essential for the finished track to be loopable, as it's unpredictable how long a battle will last or how long a player will stay in a certain location.

I've just created loopable "combat music" for an action/adventure game, and I'll briefly introduce its steps.

When composing music for any media product, it's always important to consider the emotions carried by the specific event, location, and characters, as well as the genre of the work itself. In relation to this, the following must be considered:

• orchestration (with particular attention to the number of instruments sounding simultaneously)

• tempo

• volume

• articulations (the manner in which instruments are played)

• melody/chords

I've decided to use symphonic orchestral instruments with epic drums for the demonstration. For their sound, I've employed the following Native Instruments – Kontakt libraries (not paid promotion, I use these libraries regardless):

• Audiobro – Modern Scoring Strings

• Cinematic Studio Brass

• Orchestral Tools – Berlin Woodwinds

• Laboratory Audio – Strikeforce (epic drums)

• Keep Forest - Ferrum

• HybridTwo – Project Chaos

Since our hypothetical game falls into the action/adventure genre, I thought that the grandeur of symphonic music would suit the display of the game's emotional/mood spectrum. Additionally, I used epic drums considering that this is combat music. The tempo is pretty high, it's 150 bpm.

The strings mostly play in staccato, while the violas, cellos, and double basses occasionally play in legato. Staccato, along with the tight rhythm, is suitable for creating tension, which is essential for this type of music. The string section can be heard here. (Unfortunately, I couldn't embed this track with a player, so click on the link, and it'll open in another tab. And of course, you don't have to purchase these tracks, I just didn't find another opportunity for some reason than bandcamp.)

https://olivercomposer.bandcamp.com/track/action-adventure-game-strings

The trombones play during the introductory theme, while the horns play the main melody during the main theme. The dramatic sound of the brass instruments also enhances the mood. The trumpets play the main melody one octave higher than the trombones and also play chords.

https://olivercomposer.bandcamp.com/track/action-adventure-game-brasses

The woodwinds are present only as accompanying instruments. In most parts of the music, the first oboe and first clarinet play together with the strings. Additionally, the passage bridging the secondary theme and main theme is played by the flute and piccolo. The clarinet duplicates the secondary theme's trombone melody an octave higher.

https://olivercomposer.bandcamp.com/track/action-adventure-game-woodwinds

Although this is combat music, it would be a mistake for all drums to play at all times. Therefore, in the secondary theme, only these hi-hat-like drums are heard. This amplifies the contrast between the main theme and secondary theme, highlighting the main theme.

https://olivercomposer.bandcamp.com/track/action-adventure-game-drums

As I mentioned earlier, loopability is crucial for most video game music. It's often not easy to solve this problem, but there are a couple of tricks that can make things easier.

The first one is to use roughly the same instruments at the beginning and end of the music (in most cases, exactly the same). The other trick, as you can hear in my music, is that the first and last secondary themes complement each other; the first secondary theme (roughly the first six seconds) poses a musical question, and the last six seconds provide an answer. If you have the opportunity, import the file into a game engine (Unity, Unreal, etc.) and see for yourself! 😊

Finally, the music is complete in its entirety. 😊

https://olivercomposer.bandcamp.com/track/action-adventure-game-full

Video game music can build vertically and horizontally. Vertical building usually involves turning instrument tracks on and off. For instance, having the same music with drums and without drums. The developer decides which one to use in which situation.

Horizontal development is excellently exemplified by concluding the music or carrying the variations of the musical theme into another related piece. By using these methods, the game developer can handle the auditory material of various in-game situations more flexibly. I plan to expand on this topic in another article.

If you enjoyed the content of the article, please like, share, and feel free to provide feedback in the comments! Follow for similar content!

You can download all of the wav files from here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-9UMuzjTp0GprPrpTvMiiunE4rJ0HM40?usp=sharing

Have a great day!

It gave me some really important information... and then stopped. 

It was written seven years ago.

If any of you can give here a Sonata masterclass... that would be great :)

Video is really long, but I break all my content up into chapters. I'm open to suggestions on how to improve my videos. For example, if there's too much dead space I can try to make my videos progress a little faster. Or if the videos are just too long, I can break them up into smaller segments. I'm literally experimenting with video length.

If you have ever wondered about this tune I have discovered an easy way of memorising the chords using a symmetrical method.

The tune uses three keys a major third apart.

B G and Eb major

I call the first 5 chords "symmetry x"

they are B [D7] G and [Bb7] Eb

you then move this all down a major third using two connecting chords.

There then follows several 251's which I have called "symmetry y" and two connecting chords take you back to the beginning of this 16 bar tune.

Before we begin, it's important to state what this course will NOT be:

• This course will not present any rules or regulations 
• This course will not provide any sort of magical formulae for the successful creation of contrapuntal technique
• This course will not frown upon any violation of perceived common practice rules

With that out of the way. Let's get into some basics. 

Counterpoint is the foundation of the western musical tradition. Long before the rise of the Baroque theorists, the Mannheim School, and -of course- the Classical era, music focused solely on a horizontal development of ideas that -today- provide the basis of contrapuntalism. Modern takes of counterpoint -while often ridiculed for purposefully bucking CP tradition- pulls directly from this long tradition with its incorporation of traditional contrapuntal techniques. 

Motif (or Cell) are the building blocks of most modern contrapuntal techniques. For those that don't know, a motif can be a small piece of musical material that can be developed throughout a composition or compositional section. For the purposes of this masterclass, we will be discussing motifs in the simplest sense of the word. Leitmotifs will not be discussed. Cells are -for the most- motivic in nature but usually within a much larger texture. Thus, we will not be looking at cellular development UNLESS the associated cellular texture is contrapuntal in nature. 

Texture is a generic term that can be applied to the vertical and horizontal construction of any given musical line. We tend to view texture more in terms of the vertical scaffolding in multi-voice works (orchestral, chamber, choral, etc.) However, we can also look at texture in horizontal terms in looking at the combination of contours seen within different contrapuntal voices. A good example of this type of texture can be seen in Beethoven's Grosses Fugue where jagged contrapuntal lines are juxtaposed with other types of counterpoint.  We will go more into this topic later.

Perceived (Implied) Harmony is the development of a proxy harmonic center where such center does not obviously exist. Within my usage of modern counterpoint this is an essential aspect of the craft. This can be achieved thru individual 'cadential' passages or the centering of contrapuntal material on a specific pitch. We will go more into detail on this topic and will also develop material that fulfils this. 

Form is the last of terms that will crop up from time to time within this masterclass. Contrary to popular belief, modern music is heavily reliant on form. From the construction of a serial row to the structuring of large-scale works, form dominates every aspect of our craft. It's important to understand this intense intimate relationship within music. Modern counterpoint should be rich in formalism -no note should be made without some thought put into its place within the overall structure of the passage or piece. While there are no rules, the closest thing we have to a rule is form. 

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This concludes the first part of this masterclass. These classes will be updated weekly with new material. For the next class, I'd like students to compose a short melody of any type. Try to keep the themes no more than eight bars in length. At this time, we're not going to look at harmony or harmonic progression -so you are encouraged to venture out of the box! You may attach your material to this post. I'll review the entries and select three examples to utilize within the next class.

I'm debating on starting a masterclass that will cover a few topics:

• Modern Counterpoint Technique: Motivic interplay, Dissonant Counterpoint
• Modern Musical Forms and Microforms
• Modern Development

I might add a few more topics in here. These are pretty vague, umbrella topics. 

What I'd like to know is if anyone would find merit in learning these topics within a forum masterclass?

My idea would be to start with the contrapuntal techniques. I'd provide a short theme snippet of say 5 or 6 notes. Students would be able to take these 6 note themes and extrapolate motivic units that they would then utilize within a contrapuntal texture. Analysis would occur within the forum and the student would learn the various techniques available to develop further contrapuntal material from this material. 

Anyone interested?

But I also know that it takes time and a lot of effort for starting composers (or composers not familiar yet with this kind of genre) to get the hang of it. How great is it then to look over the shoulders of someone who is one step ahead of you. And is willing to share his knowledge and experiences.

That's exactly what I intend to do with this free masterclass. Reaching out to help you getting better in creating realistic orchestral mockups, orchestration and writing orchestral music for film and video in general.

Showing you how I made this track, how I did the panning, balancing, EQ-ing etc. Which libraries. How I mixed and mastered it. Sharing the project files (midi mockup) so you can rebuild the music track in your own DAW for either further learning.

I'll post a video every week on Thursday on my Youtube channel.

Feel free to join. In this first video you can pick up the project files and prepare yourself for the upcoming videos. On my channel you'll also find the music track which we're gonna rebuild: Show Opener.

This will be the place where I will share one classical composition including saxophones per week. The videos are not mine! 

As a saxophonist, I notice that still many composers do not use the saxophone in classical music. The most important reason for this is because they do not know how to apply the instrument. I often get the question if I could give some study advices for saxophone writing. My answer is always that one has to listen and study the works of our predecessors. 

This topic is meant to inspire and stimulate composers to write more music for the saxophones.

Contents

1. Graham Lynch - Unreal Promenade for Saxophone Ensemble (2015).
2. Jean Françaix - Cinq Danses Exotiques for Alto Saxophone and Piano (1961).
3. Georges Bizet - Suite No.1 from the drama l'Arlésienne (1872).
4. Claude Debussy - Rhapsodie for Saxophone and Orchestra (1901 - 1911).
5. Slava Kazykin - ''Bachiazzola'' for Saxophone Quartet (n.d.).
6. Mark Watters - Rhapsody for Baritone Saxophone and Wind Orchestra (2001).
7. Iannis Xenakis - XAS (1987).
8. Mozart / Arr. Niels Bijl - String Quartet No.15 in D minor, Kv. 421a.
9. Paul Creston - Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano, Op.19 (1939).
10. Erwin Schulhoff - Hot Sonata (1930).
11. Carter Pann - The Mechanics for Saxophone Quartet (2013).

#1 Graham Lynch - Unreal Promenade for Saxophone Ensemble (2015).

More information in the description of the video.

Best wishes,

Maarten Bauer