The Orphanage

Hi everyone!

Last night and this morning I had some time to kill so I decided to write some random music to keep me occupied. I've been listening to a lot of Christopher Young's music lately so this particular piece is kind of like my take on his signature style (which, by the way, is fantastic and I hope you all go listen to some of his work).

This particular piece concerns the story of a creepy orphanage...the rest of the story you can piece together yourselves as you like. I'm very fond of how it turned out, and I put quite a bit of work into getting the individual sounds in the mix coming out exactly right, so I hope you all enjoy it!

The Orphanage

Feel free to leave me thoughts, comments, candies, etc. :happy:

Nice. What do the lyrics mean? And what piano is that?

Haha this is pretty ace and imaginative. Well done!

Marius

Since you so skillfully tore my last piece apart, I was hoping to return the favor :evil: :D

But then my last one was just a quickie to play around with a new synth.

AS will be my next one which I may or may not post tonight.

The voice is interesting. Where did it come from, as in what program?

Well I must admit that this was a nice little diversion.

Ron

I like this! The voice is super creepy. Awesome stuff. I'd say you definitely succeeded in matching the story/place. Really cool stuff, with some great variety to keep it interesting throughout. The chorus coming in adds a LOT of effect (especially with the quick dip into major out of the minor). I also adore the flute--simple writing but you used it really effective. The reflective piano solo adds a great little touch of longing/nostalgia, and when the strings enter it is gorgeous. And yay, more flute! Though when the flute comes in, some other woodwind seems to clash with it a hair--oboe maybe?

Hi guys!

Max: the lyrics are a series of whispered Gaelic words — they're more in there for the aural effect than any literal meaning. :) The piano is what I spent the most time on. It's not a particularly good sample, it's just a heavily tweaked one to give it what I hope is a sad, nostalgic, and distant sort of sound.

lJ-Parle: Many thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

Ron: Now now, I didn't "tear apart" anything, I just gave you my honest commentary — I wasn't being mean. :) You actually have me intrigued to try your friend's synth...I went to his site to check it out. Pity there's no Mac version. Anyway, the voice (I'm assuming you don't mean the choir) is from a collection of vocal effects I came across earlier this year somewhere on the net. I basically just did some stereo spreading and played around with the reverb a bit to get the creepy effect working just right. Thanks for listening to it!

Jared: Thank you for commenting on the piece's storytelling ability too, that's important to me and I'm happy to hear it worked for you. The flute, interestingly enough, was something I chose for two reasons; one was, as I said earlier, I was channeling my inner Christopher Young, and he is fond of simple but poignant flute solos in his horror scores, and the other reason is that my girlfriend is a flute player and wanted me to have a more prominent flute part in my next piece....so yeah. :P As for that little clash at the end, it is indeed an oboe, and the clash itself I didn't even really notice until you pointed it out...I'll have to see if it bothers me enough to change it. Thank you for pointing it out though!

I reappy appreciate all your comments, folks, thank you for listening! :)

I think the clash is more due to the sample than the writing, and I only notice it on one tone. It isn't too distracting =) Great stuff, I really enjoyed it!

This was pretty nice. I liked the style and the choice of instruments used. I have never listened to Christopher Young's music... or so I thought, till I looked him up and realised that I have seen just about every movie he features on his site. That being said I could see the his style from The Grudge in this piece. I could also see a story being played out as a listen to this, although I don't know whether it is the same story you intended.

On a side note, I hate horror movies. :(

Still, nice work overall. Would love to hear more.

Reappy :P

Jeees.. I'm glad I listened to this in the morning (i just got up, so yeah, it is morning for me)...:) Really nice, superb sounscape there. I wonder what did u use after 2:00 it sounds like a distant synth, is that from NI's Massive?

U had a nice progression there, and the piano-like theme was really tasteful. Good work!

The whispering voice scared the crap out of me. I loved it!

Marius, you're really talented.

Lovely sound, lovely mixing, lovely harmonies, really interesting piano sound, the sweet innocence of the latter half is very beautiful.

Thanks for sharing it :).

Oh, you caught my attention at the 2nd half with the minor tonality. Very nice piece, especially at the end. Thanks for sharing.

damn good as usual, the start was confusing, i like how you finally get to the point and bring it so clearly and passionately even though its incidental.

thanks for bring young to our consciousness ! i dig this guy(citizen kane AND vertigo RESPECT!)

This is genuinely frightening/creepy at some points. I must give you top marks for that, especially in this section of the forum...really made me feel something, for that reason this is the best piece i've heard of yours thus far. Very simple yet powerful and effective. Nicely done.

on my account each piece marius brings to us made me feel something he is just good , kill him quick.. ;)

THe composition is very nice, could use some production work unless it's meant to be played by a real orchestra later..

What can I say... ?! I mean it's absolutely, by all means... mmm...

I think I'm going to cry now...

Just kidding... Listen, it's remarkable! great sounds, great Ideas, very imotional

but you know all this don't you? :)

I never cease to be impressed by your work, Marius.

Did I say impressed? I meant "consumed by jealous rage". Yes, that's the one! :P

But seriously, very nicely done. Its not a style I think I've heard from you before, and it was quite eerie but also interesting to listen to at the same time. By the way the Orphanage I imagined when that was playing was one that had a serial killer walking its halls. I dunno whether that image was the fault of the music or my twisted mind, but all impressions are helpful, eh? :D

Your sound and your imagine just keep maturing. As simple as this is. It is great scoring music. I loved it.

You know, it's been forever since I've been out here to YC. But there was a bug in my ear today that said, "I wonder what Marius has been up to lately..." So I come out here and what do I find? Another. Beautiful. Piece.

Well done, sir. I'm always impressed by your work.

i really liked it mate... it was a mixture between horror and nostalgic feeling...very interesting and very well composed... :D

I very much enjoyed it.

I would hate to be in that orphanage.

Truly very creepy! The voice gave some real credibility to the opening strings. After the opening section broke, though, the piece holds its own extremely well! I love the march of the stacc. low string section. The return of the voice really brings you to a place of security. I would try to smooth out a couple of the more jarring movements and the introductions of the choir, though. The piano line and ambient noises following are really nice. The very end, however, was a bit too happy for me :P I would've like to have it end in uncertainty.

Overall, really nice job! Be proud of this one :)

Cannot add anything else but what is said here... I like the work, Listened to it for several times now, keeps amazing me. Would love to see a score though...