Alex Weidmann

N.B. Williams himself doesn't follow this rule. He quite often has chords of 6, 7 or more pitches spread across several octaves. Especially when he's using complex polytonal clusters. He also doesn't tend to write in chorale form, not that I've noticed.

Obviously everyone hates this! LOL! I wrote it at great speed, and the idea was to make a piece with a very bizarre and fluid structure, to match the odd instrumentation. I wanted to try writing for a weird collection of contrabass instruments, as I thought this would be a good challenge. The contrabass ophicleide is one of the rarest instruments in the world, with only five in existence, three of which are unplayable: so I can rest safe in the knowledge this will never be performed! 🤐

Thanks so much for listening! That's all all really helpful. The challenge was apparently inspired by a short cue from Harry Potter ("Buckbeak's Flight"); although I didn't actually discover that until after I'd finished writing on day 5! For the piano sketch, we were told to use four piano tracks, one for melody, one for harmony, one for counterpoint, and the last one for extra flourishes. It's actually quite a good idea, because it makes the orchestration process much quicker and easier. We were told to write about 30 seconds of music; though I went beyond that (and some people ended up writing about 2-3 minutes!) I wanted to use harp and celesta for extra colour, as these are frequently employed by Williams. He also tends to have triad fanfares in three trumpets quite often: so that's why I used one here. Probably should've added some woodwind runs as well; but I felt that would make it too busy. The challenge gave me some new composition techniques: so it was definitely a helpful thing to take part in. I may decided to expand this into a longer work of 5-10 minutes at some point. Anyway, thanks again for the analysis, and the links. Alex.

Hi Henry. This reminds me of Haydn and Mozart. Definitely sounds Late Classical to my ear. Congrats on finishing this major work! Alex

The title speaks for itself...

You were dead right with your analysis. Turns out MuseScore doesn't like to have more than two instruments playing the same pitch at the same time, and sometimes seems to prefer only one. Otherwise the mid frequencies stack up on top of each other, and blow out of range, even though the overall level is well below maximum. When I thinned out the arrangement, most of the distortion disappeared (see attached version). Unfortunately this has sucked the life out of the cue, and it's lost all its former richness, especially in the middle section. Sounds very hollow and thin now, not to say badly orchestrated!

Hi Marius, Yes I do hear it on both the mp3, and the playback within MuseScore. I've checked with two sets of headphones, and I'm hearing it in both. Not all the way through, just when many instruments play together. Also hear it on my laptop speaker. Spectrum analyser shows some red transients in the mid frequency range: so I'm guessing that's what's causing the distortion. What you're describing sounds like buffering, which can be a problem if your PC is low spec. I think this issue has been improved though with more recent updates. Many thanks for listening! Alex

Wow, great analysis! Thanks for getting back to me so quickly too. Agreed I didn't really hit the brief very well. Quite difficult though in just 5 days, as JW tends to use lots of strange chords and exotic scales. Hexatonic and octatonic seem to be his favourite. Will go back and rethink my arrangement along the lines you've suggested. Part of the reason it ended up that way is down to the course itself. We were told to use octave doublings to create a strong melodic line on Day 2. Then on Day 3 we added harmonies. (I pretty much copied the orchestration of the course leader here.) Day 4 was middle ground (counterpoint lines), and Day 5 finishing touches of orchestral colour, like harp, cymbals, glock, mark tree, celesta etc... Some of my tracks have a ton of extra reverb, e.g. celesta and trumpets 2, 3 & 4. That's because I liked the effect; but I imagine this uses up lots of extra frequency space in the mix too. Anyhow thanks again, will take another look at this over the weekend. Alex

Hi to all. This week I took part in a 5 day composing challenge, where we had to write a short cue in the style of John Williams. We started with a piano sketch, then progressed through different stages of orchestration. Posting my work from all 5 days here. What I found, was that MuseScore produced progressively more distortion as I added more instruments. The meters didn't show any excessive levels, but I'm definitely hearing a serious problem, even when I turn the faders down by 6dB or more on all instruments across the entire mix! Tried using the free EQ and mastering plugins from MuseHub; but they're very limited in scope, and seemed to make things worse. Any tips on mixing solutions very welcome! I could pull everything into Logic Pro 11, and try to fix the issues there. Not really sure what plugins to use though, and on which tracks to apply them.

Thanks Henry! If nothing else, this exercise helped me get more familiar with the range of electronic sounds available in MuseScore.

Hi to all! Here's another silly experiment I tried with electronic music. I was trying to see if I could write something musical just by copying and pasting a simple motif into different synth types available on MuseScore, and offsetting the rhythms slightly. Think the second half works better than the first; but I'll let you decide.

Thanks Henry! MuseScore makes contra sound extra realistic with that blowing sound.

That's probably 'cos I'm a little odd! 🤪 Glad you liked it though. Will try con sord, though I already have flautando at the end; but I guess I could use both together?

Many thanks for the kind words. The dynamics were designed mainly for the MIDI rendition from MuseScore. Would have to adjust them for a real orchestra. Anything below ppp is a bit silly and meaningless for real musicians! Also think I should've used n instead of ppppp and pppppp: so will go back and change that. Probably should've pushed up the master fader too, as my mp3's are both very quiet. I was aware of Colin Matthews' version; but have avoided listening to it, as I wanted to come up with my own ideas.

Thanks Vince! I did think about adding a piano; but that seems like cheating! I made the wider orchestration first, and then my composition tutor suggested I use a smaller chamber orchestra instrumentation instead. That's partly because contrabassoon is apparently not a standard part of the line-up, even in a larger orchestra.