Sky Cannon

Hey Everyone! This is my first time uploading in this section of the site, so it's nice to meet anyone new!

SKY CANNON MP3

This is a...sort of, minimalist work. I basically write video game music, and I wrote this short piano piece called Sky Barnet, (which you're all welcome to check out) so for this song, I basically wrote a lot of small melodic segments based on the opening chords of Sky Barnet. It starts small (Solo Violin) and builds and builds until it climaxes. Those little melodic phrases repeat, basically for the whole song, however nearly all of the "sequences" are of different lengths, so everything starts melding (is that a word!?) together at around the 6 min point.

Also, the piano solo after the climax won't make sense unless you listen to Sky Barnet first.. Oh! And also feel free to see another variation on Sky Barnet here :)

Sky Cannon.pdf

so gentle, almost too gentle for a barbarian like me. but maybe that little 'too' makes me like it.

the moving is very fine. again, though i like contrast much more, the flowing of your piece is nice and i enjoy the way you put into a body the idea of melding (could've been a bit more skewed).

all in all it's a good piece of certain minimalist approach and makes me think of it as of other music (mostly of classic period) - as a sensibility that is forever closed to me.

Thanks Pliorius!

The critique it really appreciated! I'm really happy that you enjoyed it, considering what you....described yourself as haha. Thanks again!!

this kind of texture is called polyphonic or fugal , it is not a canon

I never called it a Canon. Cannon. As in BOOM!

Oh wait, I did! Haha. My mistake. I'll change that

i never said it suck , i thought it is quite cool but i dont know why the drum are go to sleep at most of the time

Haha. Well the build up is at the end, so the drums wouldn't fit the nature of the first 3/4's of the song >

I'm saving the recording and the score for my personal album of music that inspires me to write more music. This is an amazing piece... I'm glad you shared it.

By the way, I'd consider this work more Heterophonic than Polyphonic, only for the layered effect of the gestures and motives woven together as they are...

What did you use to render your recording?

Thank you so much! I'm really happy you liked it!! It means a lot!

I'll paste my list of stuff so you can look. I did this on another site so I'm just going to copy and paste haha!

Ok. We have.....

Hardware:

Mac Pro with 9 gigs of RAM

Apogee Duet Sound Card

Yamaha P-70 Electronic Piano

Axiom 49 Midi Controller

Yamaha HS80M Studio Speakers (x2)

Software:

Logic Pro 8

Vienna Symphonic Library (Special Edition)

Omnisphere

Kontakt 3

Ivory Grand Pianos

EW/QL Symphonic Choirs

Voices of Passion

BFD 1 (Big F'ing Drums)

Independence Free

Inspiring. The score is definitely a keeper on my list.

So.

If Cannon goes boom. And boom goes to a beautiful piano solo at the end.

Does that mean Cannon is really leading up to a beautiful piano solo? lol

sry. I feel like being stupid atm >.<

At any rate. I do really think it was gorgeous.

And yes, I know. Can you take that seriously?

Haha. I wouldn't connect the title to the music too much. It's part of a collection on songs that feature the same source material, but I can't give a reason for choosing "cannon" apart from the climax haha. Thanks!

I'm a big fan of minimalist style music! This piece is very soothing...it doesn't seem to have any direction, and it feels like gliding in the air in a circle...that's usually a bad thing, in my eyes, but in this case, I'll make an exception! The way you did it gives it such a strong atmosphere, that it's aimlessness actually enhances the experience...I think this piece is my favorite one I've listened to on this site so far, no kidding! =D

Oh, and by the way: the way your choir trickles in is sheer genius, it's exhilarating! However, I think you should completely drop that tuba, or whatever that harsh horn is: in my opinion, it hurts the mood of the song! Dx

Hey! Thanks for the feedback :) I'm really glad you enjoyed it!

~Kevin

Wow.

That's some really impressive sounding music. I can't really think of any situation it would be appropriate for, it's just too epic! (I don't mean that in a bad way, it's just some of the "biggest" music I've heard)

I really enjoyed listening to this. It's really nicely structured, I didn't feel that anything was out of place, abrupt, or drawn out. I only really have two pieces of criticism.

The first is in regards to the bassoon...Athough I really liked the way you gave it a soaring, free, for all intensive purposes completely shreddin' solo, it got a bit excessive. Not only would you need an incredible bassoonist to take care of some of that writing, it would get very drowned out in such thick orchestral texture that it would completely dissapear.

My second issue is more of a personal one...I really enjoy listening to minimalist music, however playing is sucks, because I'm a double-bassist, and most of the stuff I encounter on my instrument within this gere is very similar to what you've written here, and it can really start to suck. Although wailing on a low Dflat can be pretty satisfying, 10 minutes of it loses the charm. But as a composer I know you can't please everyone, so it's no biggie.

Hey :) Thanks for the response and the critique!

@ Bassoon response. I understand where you're coming from completely. I know the volume of the bassoon but I guess in the moment I wrote it I wasn't remembering it, and when I did remember it I didn't want to get rid of the writing I had already done. All I guess I can say is I will remember it more prominently in the future haha! Thanks!

@ Bass line ^^ - Haha. Again I know what you mean. I guess I'm really counting on the bass players musicality here. To really but as much feeling into those 3 notes as much as possible haha. But yea. 10 mins would suck. I guess I'll just have to go with (like you said) I can't please everyone haha!

Thanks so, so much for the response!

~Kevin

All I can say to this is W0W.

What you have here has gone straight to the top of my favorite pieces list. I listen to it everyday and it inspires me in ways I can't convey. The atmosphere you created is just . . . indescribable by words known to the human race. The buildup to the piano solo is just so outrageously fantastic I can't contain myself from getting giddy every time I think about it hahah. The first time I listened to this, even though I was following with the score I was just flabbergasted the impact of the "cannon" has on my mind. I loved it beyond words. Thank you for gracing the world with your music Mr. Penkin.

~Derek

Thank you for listening :)

For the bassoon, all of those tuplets are highly unnecessary. If you're really just looking for a fluttery, "fast as possible" feel, simply write the pattern of 5 notes or whatever you want to be repeated, draw a box around them, and write "play pattern as fast as possible." That alone will reduce your score by about five pages.

N.B. You don't want a gong, you want a tam-tam. Gongs have a specific pitch.

Now, stylistic comments. While it's certainly minimalist, I think even considering that it takes far too long for anything structurally to happen. All you have is these lines floating around, lacking any form and simply sitting there for however long that took, then boom, then piano. There need to be more arrival points in a piece this long, or else "getting lost in the atmosphere" becomes "bored out of our minds"

As a percussionist I would hate you with a high passion if you have me these parts. You know what the hardest percussion parts to play are? They aren't the four-mallet marimba solos with quintuplets or whatever (okay maybe they are, but I'm making a point) - it's the pieces where you rest 25 measures, hit a triangle, rest 41 measures, roll a cymbal, etc. etc. especially in something like this where there aren't any clear-cut phrases to grab onto. You're asking four players so count for - what was it? Ten minutes? Not only is that mind-numbingly boring, but it will be easy to lose count in a space that gigantic.

You've made a piece that creates a nice background atmosphere, but for a concert audience as well as the ensemble that plays it, there simply isn't enough to hold attention.

Thanks for the feedback. I see your concerns, but obviously you know what you're talking about, so you know you can't please everyone. I was aware of what I was doing with the percussion when I wrote the piece, and I'm prepared to get slapped in the face for doing what I did. With your stylistic comments, of course I respect them, but I have found that this is a piece that grabs some people, and bores others. It's really looks like it is the listeners own opinion at this point. I guess that applies not just to my piece too.

Also, thanks for the thing on the tam-tam/gong. I'll change it if I am going to present the score haha. Obviously I'll change the bassoon line too haha.

You've made a piece that creates a nice background atmosphere, but for a concert audience as well as the ensemble that plays it, there simply isn't enough to hold attention.

I agree and disagree with this statement. I'll tell you why...

I agree that it will be difficult for a concert ensemble and perhaps the audience as well to hold attention for the performance reasons you already mention. Why? Because of the performance factor... in a live performance, I have to say that there is a particular 'magic' that has to take place. If the ensemble doesn't 'believe' in the piece or is not 'convinced' that what they put into it will produce a purely 'magical' result of music, then you won't see the magic.

But this is why I disagree as well. I'm a percussionist. If I had your piece in front of me and billions of measures of rests... having already heard it from the recording... I believe truly magical things can come from it in a live performance. I'm convinced that the music has something in it worth waiting for... it's nothing 'technical' or anything that requires a high degree of 'genuine performance skills'... it's within the cannon and emerges over time.

This piece is part of my library and will remain so for quite some time to come, I think. To me, it brings to mind the weaving of fabric into something genuinely comforting, and maybe in a philosophical way, enlightening... yet the fabric itself, these various independent lines that are woven together, isn't necessarily groundbreaking or revealing in any meaningful way. There's nothing within the interweaving lines that seems particularly poignant to me. Rather, the work builds into an absolutely glorious 'collage' of ideas that independently resonate and react to each other.

I think my 'only' complaint about the piece is the ending. The piano solo holds no meaning to me within the context of the piece. The build into this phenomenal powerhouse of a climax needs something else... perhaps a full minute of silence. That's really what the piece says to me. I just want it to end at it's peak, because anything after it is completely overshadowed... what more can your music say that it hasn't brilliantly expressed at the moment of the climax?

There's nothing particularly memorable or fulfilling about the piano solo... it's like the end of Garth Brooks' The Dance. It almost seems to be there purely for the sake of 'having an ending'. That's really my only critique of the piece, and like I said, it's a permanent resident of my music library now. Thank you for writing it, and I hope you find an ensemble that is not only 'willing' to perform it but also 'believes' in the piece as much as those of us who lose ourselves in it when we listen.

I agree and disagree with this statement. I'll tell you why...

I agree that it will be difficult for a concert ensemble and perhaps the audience as well to hold attention for the performance reasons you already mention. Why? Because of the performance factor... in a live performance, I have to say that there is a particular 'magic' that has to take place. If the ensemble doesn't 'believe' in the piece or is not 'convinced' that what they put into it will produce a purely 'magical' result of music, then you won't see the magic.

But this is why I disagree as well. I'm a percussionist. If I had your piece in front of me and billions of measures of rests... having already heard it from the recording... I believe truly magical things can come from it in a live performance. I'm convinced that the music has something in it worth waiting for... it's nothing 'technical' or anything that requires a high degree of 'genuine performance skills'... it's within the cannon and emerges over time.

This piece is part of my library and will remain so for quite some time to come, I think. To me, it brings to mind the weaving of fabric into something comforting and warm... and the fabric itself isn't necessarily groundbreaking. There's nothing within the interweaving lines that seems particularly poignant to me. Rather, the work builds into an absolutely glorious 'collage' of ideas that independently resonate and react to each other.

I think my 'only' complaint about the piece is the ending. The piano solo holds no meaning to me within the context of the piece. The build into this phenomenal powerhouse of a climax needs something else... perhaps a full minute of silence. That's really what the piece says to me. I just want it to end at it's peak, because anything after it is completely overshadowed... what more can your music say that it hasn't already said brilliantly already?

Silence is better, because there's nothing particularly memorable or fulfilling about the piano solo. It almost seems to be there purely for the sake of 'having an ending'. That's really my only critique of the piece, and like I said, it's a permanent resident of my music library now. Thank you.

I agree ^^ With the ending thing, there was an original track called "Sky Barnet", that is where all this originated from, so the piano at the end is special to me. I love your idea of silence! If this was performed live, I would have 1 min silence after the climax and then do the piano solo. I think I would also perform Sky Barnet before Cannon, then after , perform Sky Resonance, which is the final piece in this series. It's all connected :)

I agree ^^ With the ending thing, there was an original track called "Sky Barnet", that is where all this originated from, so the piano at the end is special to me. I love your idea of silence! If this was performed live, I would have 1 min silence after the climax and then do the piano solo. I think I would also perform Sky Barnet before Cannon, then after , perform Sky Resonance, which is the final piece in this series. It's all connected :)

Well, I can see what is special to you about the solo piano melody. I'm not sure you understand what gets me about the Sky Cannon though. The solo piano is... well... not 'it', at least, not for the ending of Sky Cannon. But it's all rather 'moot' anyway. It's your music. I wouldn't expect you to make any significant alterations to your concept simply because little 'ole me gets something completely different from it.

Do me a favor. Find a video sequence that specifically represents what Sky Cannon means to you. Sync it up with whatever anime best represents its meaning for you. I might understand more of your concept if I 'see' what is behind it.

I see exactly what you mean. I had something in my head. A scene. And, the piano solo wouldn't fit there. I see both things working.