The Forgotten Mind

Hi Everyone,

Rogier and me decided to compete in a composing competition organized by the Gaudeamus music week. Now we weren't selected unfortunately, but we both think we have made a good piece here, and we want you to listen to it. I hope you could take the time to listen, and maybe even post some comments. That would be great!

We tried to capture the life and thoughts of a patient suffering from dementia.

The piece is composed in sibelius and we used the sample library of East West (EWQL)

Enjoy listening!

Composed by Rogier Wildeboer & Hugo Aben

I have uploaded the piece on youtube too, if you'd like to comment, please do so!

Here's the link:

The Forgotten Mind

This is quite an undertaking! Very nice work, and you certainly didn't make it easy for the strings. I especially enjoyed the unexpected waltz section. I don't see any glaring orchestration issues, but I will say that the bass drum got on my nerves and I think that the piece ended too early. Otherwise, great job!

bravo ! good work

Hey guys!

Thanks for the comments.

@Black Orpheus: About the bass drum: We tried to simulate a heart beat, as you can see in the score, so in the end it is clear what happened to the person we are describing. What would you have liked to hear more, if we would extend the piece? Thank you very much for the comments, I really appreciate this kind of reactions!

@makwinga: Thanks a lot :)

@Black Orpheus: About the bass drum: We tried to simulate a heart beat, as you can see in the score, so in the end it is clear what happened to the person we are describing. What would you have liked to hear more, if we would extend the piece? Thank you very much for the comments, I really appreciate this kind of reactions!

Yep, the heartbeat idea came through clearly. If you extend the piece I would like to hear the end (at S) taper off more slowly. Right before S you have a lot of agitation in the strings and one last brass call in measure 258, and I thought it died off quickly at S. You could write some string tremolos into the final section and have them eventually taper off, for example. However, on a second review the ending is not as abrupt as I first thought.

In the future, especially when submitting a piece to a competition, make sure there are no collisions in your score. The bottom of page 40, for instance, looks messy because your string notes and dynamics are running into each other. Luckily this is not difficult to fix.

Again, this is really excellent work.

Ok! I am sorry to reply this late, I was very busy with my study. I want to thank you for comments like these, we can really do something with this. I think we overlooked the collision at the bottom of page 40, which should not happen ofcourse. I am glad you liked it, and if you (or anyone else) could comment on orchestration or harmony I'd really appreciate that.

Kind regards,

Hugo

Wow this is incredible! I'm glad you posted the score, I love listening to music and being able to read it at the same time.

I'm actually not disturbed by the constant bass drum, as it's quiet in the background most of the time. The idea with the heartbeat is really great though!

It's fantastic, when your fast string accompaniment enters and I love the following crescendo and climax. Overall I like that there is so much variety in this piece, it shows very well the confusion in the person's mind when having this disease.

Then there are these "horror movie strings" at 2:26 / part E, the polyrythm sound very cool. Then there's this mysterious sounding celesta part, again a very good contrast.

So - I don't think I need to go on any further, this is so magnificently done. May I ask how much time you put into this - the orchestration is so dense, this must have taken an eternity, or not? ;)

One thing: The part around 7:30 actually sound very beautiful and hopeful again - what was your intention for this? I heard sometimes when the disease is quite advanced the patients can get their memory back for just a few moments (if that is true, I don't know...) Did you have something like that in mind at that part?

The ending after this, does perfectly make sense again, the lonly "dying" clarinet and the fading heartbeat is very well done I think.

Pity you didn't win this competition! Can you maybe post a link or someting, I'd like to get an impression of the other entries if this is possible...?

So thanks for sharing, it's really quite a masterpiece if you ask me! ;)

very good stuff there, alot of going on, i would definitely put it on some film scoring competition. the production is well thought as well. and the midi usage is also well executed.

was that an art competition or film scoring ?

Hey Guys,

Thanks for your great comments, and for taking the time to listen :) I am really glad you liked it.

@ oliebrehm:

The making of this piece took a great lot of time. I think we both put in about 80 hours, in composing/orchestrating, but the editing took quite long for this piece. The tydiing up the score took very long too.

@ both: the competition was just an art competition. It was quite open in the content of the pieces they wanted, so we took a shot and composed this piece. But after listening to some of the selected compositions, I think this wasn't really the competition we should compete in. I don't know for sure of course, but all the winners sound very contemporary (and I'm sorry, but I just don't think that's really good music most of the time). So next time we will try to compete in some sort of film music competition (if there are any..), so if you know of any competition, please let me know! :)

The link of the competition: http://www.muziekcentrumnederland.nl/en/contemporary/home-hedendaags/

This is excelent work. The athmosphere in the first part reminds me of the "The village" soundtrack, violins make a great mood there. It's very long too, I can imagine it was a lot of work to put it together just because the time needed to hear it again and again as you have to when making a piece of music. I feel it has a few breaks that are too long and don't have much going on, the listeners tend to loose interest at those points. Other than that, I think it's an excelent piece. Can't really imagine it all working in a movie as a single sountrack, it would probably have to be cut up, but I think thats ok.

Hey there Phantom,

Thanks for your comment!

Since you said there are a few breaks where there isnt much going on, I am interested if you could specify those by time or, by bar number. That would be great!

Greetz,

Hugo

this is a great work , i love the horn line ! . the beat in the background gives it an enjoyable feeling . the strings really discribes a person suffering from dementia , and especially with the brass hits and cresc. and good mixing for this piece. good job

The best orchestral song I've heard on this website, ever.

Amazing!

Hey Guys,

Thanks very much for the kind comments :)

@ kookiblob, wow that means a lot to me, however, you joined only 14 days ago, so i don't know i could take this that serious :P

I hope any of you could comment on harmony or orchestration, and I'd really appreciate comments on the production!

greetz

Hey Guys,

Thanks very much for the kind comments :)

@ kookiblob, wow that means a lot to me, however, you joined only 14 days ago, so i don't know i could take this that serious :P

I hope any of you could comment on harmony or orchestration, and I'd really appreciate comments on the production!

greetz

I've been scavenging the forums for a while now.. only a few weeks ago I decided to finally become a member! take it seriously! such a great piece, I really loved the heart beat from the bass drum

great piece my friend, keep up the awesome work ;]

Thanks guys :)

It's alright, but i find your description a little funny. "We tried to capture the life and thoughts of a patient suffering from dementia." yeah, like u know how someone who is mentally ill really feels. I suggest that you should drop all this self-aggrandizing BS, and just focus on write music for the sake of creating art. Not everything needs a reason behind it you know.

Hi anton,

I think its good to discuss with you.

We (Rogier and me) both happen to have had grandparents with dementia, and we know at least from the outside it must have been really chaotic in their heads. Now of course we don't know how they exactly feel, but that doesn't mean we can't try and write music about it? I am a 4th grade medical student, so I also know the medical theories and ideas behind dementia.

What you are saying is that anything you make art about, should be experienced first by the artist, or otherwise it is self-aggrandizing BS?

I think telling a story with music is a powerful idea, and if you succeed in telling it, the music must have been good. Maybe it has to do with me trying to visualize music, or whenever I read a book I séé everything happen in front of me. Maybe it has to do with my interest in film/game music. Maybe it is because many classic composers also tried to tell a story. For example Vivaldi with the 4 seasons. If I want to write music, I want to see something happen.

I understand your opinion about music is really different from mine. We dont have to agree about anything of course, but I am interested in your ideas about music. So please don't refrain from posting or anything.

Kind regards,

Hugo