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@therealAJGS has submitted the following quartet!

[Updated - May, 2026] A Fire Within - Main title from the 2026 short film "A Fire Within: A Railroader Movie". Find on YouTube starting on May 16th, 2026. Welcome to A Fire Within, a project I started in February, 2025. This film follows the relationship between two friends, Sam and Andy. The main moral of the story is betrayal and hits at the idea that 'even your closest friends can betray you'. This main theme accompanies this tale and welcomes you to their world and acts as a basis for the rest of the soundtrack. The soundtrack for "A Fire Within: A Railroader Movie" will be released to all streaming services starting on May 16th! Creating the score: Set into a large binary form, this work is in E-minor and is one of my most emotional works. It is very personal to me, as the whole story mirrors a small part of my life. I felt inspired by the soundtrack from the 2010 movie, "Unstoppable" and with Barber's Adagio for Strings. It was my goal to capture melancholic emotions and an overcast/ gray atmosphere. If you would like to know more about the score, go to the "About" section on page 4! ________________ Program Note: A Fire Within is the main theme from the short film "A Fire Within: A Railroader". Published on YouTube in 2026, this indie film is an an original story written by Mason Kistler detailing betrayal between two friends. Based on the composer's own experience with relationships between friends, partners, and colleagues, this title theme acts as a reflection of those turbulent times from his perspective. In context of the film, this work acts as vehicle to display various leitmotifs and acts as the foundation for the entire soundtrack. This story established itself as the first short-film made solely in the video game Railroader, which was released in December, 2023. Join the orchestra as they bring you in towards this cinematic universe and listen as they ignite the Fire Within. [DO NOT REPLICATE] FireWithin_Audio.mp3 A Fire Within_MainTheme.pdf

How would I go about learning romantic harmony like Chopin or Tchaikovsky?

Listen more, analyze more, find some good harmony books on it! Henry

Some more ideas for the Landscapes - Soundscapes competition: "The Peace of Nature" award "A Rustic Mood" award "Nature's Garden" award "Nature is wild" award

Errr...probably still won't work. It would be better to keep all those runs within the same instrument family (strings or winds). This reminds of a passage in Brahms' 1st Piano Quartet where the piano has a mini cadenza towards the end: https://youtu.be/uwAQ7zVM6sE?si=HpAKiiDPOwnDPdHC&t=2285 Arnold Schoenberg eventually orchestrated this piece and had a clever take on this passage: https://youtu.be/7wzJluXJ5H8?si=th4OTUQ7RTSntfSD&t=2422 The Fauré passage is bit different in character, but I think Schoenberg has a good example of something you can try. Maybe give those runs to a 2 clarinets: 1 Eb for the higher pitches, and 1 regular Bb clarinet. They'll be sitting close to each other, and would easily blend in to each others' runs and timbre. The violin/piccolo combo would be too jarring in tonal color, and the fact on stage they'll be separated by a few feet, making the coordination really difficult.

@danishali903 You are correct for most of your assessment. I never learned the proper format for notating string harmonics. This is a gap in my knowledge and the way I meant to convey the information was the pitch written is what the harmonic should be sounding. Not to start a harmonic on that pitch. In a simple fashion, I liked what was sounding based on the notes I picked and decided to keep it.. whether it was correct or not 😅 If you are able, would you be willing to explain the notation? Are you meant to write the note head lower? I saw your example note heads, however, I am still confused by what the information is conveying. With the dynamic marks/ hairpins, yeah… I got lazy the last few weeks on this copy. I was focused on school and actually publishing the movie versus all the final engraving passes. It is fixed on the completed soundtrack score with all 12 pieces back-to-back. Lastly, while I can understand the stillness of the B-section may not keep everyone’s attention, I have my reasons. While I can add more movement in accompanying instruments, it is kept simple for the title theme so I was able to expand upon it in later installments. To add, I also know not all pieces of music need a moving line in the accompaniment. It was my goal to focus on the harmonic language and advance the harmony compared to the A-section. ‘Simple and sublime’ if you will. I intentionally went with doubling as it is reminiscent of how I play it on piano. Just slow moving chords moving higher in register. Adding the weight from the literal sound and feeling the vibrations from the entire ensemble. Thanks again for the comments!

Having read the program notes page, I think you capture the atmosphere of some of the themes (ie. betrayal, turbulence) you mentioned. It would be interesting to hear the rest of the soundtrack to see how the themes/motifs you have here develop. Though, I gotta be honest...film scores lately have a very generic sound to them and this (for me anyways) falls in that category. Some things musical things from the score I noticed: The way these harmonics are notated is confusing. I'm saying that as a string player. Some 2nd violinists might think you want an open E string, which I'm pretty sure you don't want. If these are actual sounding pitches, the 1st violinist would have an easier time understanding these notations (one is a natural harmonic, the other is an artificial....don't really have a preference): The 2nd violin note (if that is the sounding pitch) is impossible to play as a harmonic on a violin. As I said, players would probably play an open E string. The viola one looks alright, it'll be a natural harmonic on the G string. Saw this in the score a couple of times. Wondering if you could move the pp before the barline to avoid those awkward looking measures with rests. Overall, there seems to be over-reliance on doublings between instrument groups. E to the end is the prime example. I think most of the wind/brass instruments can drop out at 47 for a quieter ending. Also that section felt a little...static? Could use some more rhythmic drive (maybe bring back the bass guitar/cello figure from the beginning?) or just some counterpoint.

Thank you Peter, I become the first recipient of this badge!!!!!! 😍