Aeternum Proelium

For the title of this piece I literally just used google translate and translated "Eternal Battle" into Latin.  Although it probably does not sound intense enough to be battle music in an RPG, the melody when I first conceived it sounded to me like that kind of melody.  In this piece I tried to use the forces judiciously using space in choice places to give contrast, although I am a little dissatisfied with some of the colors I achieve owing to the poor Musescore rendering.  I wrote this for Orchestra with a 5-string Electric Bass instead of Contrabasses and Distorted, Overdrive, and Acoustic Guitar included, as well as Harp.  Also included are Glockenspiel and Vibraphone although Horns are the only brass that make an appearance.  Let me know what you think and thanks for listening!

It has a thematic/rhythmic quality similar to the theme music from the 1970's television programs!

Mark

Awesome piece! I love your style man, I really enjoy the modern take on orchestra by adding in guitars, subbing bass guitar, and the drum set. I think you definitely have a future in game music if you really go for it. The thing holding you back is your sound samples, which you stated, but once you get a sequencer you can import all of your midi pieces into it for a huge head start in bringing these more to life.

I really like how you have more difference in texture with this one, like the string and wind interplay section (you could have done that with guitars too :P). It was a great change for the listener from the tutti passages. I also really like that you worked out the drum parts. I know those can be really tedious and a pain to notate out (although maybe bar 28 is impossible with 3 toms? Dunno, hard to hear). Love the section with just open and closed hi hats. Cool drum change. You always have a way of ending your pieces with such a cool chord, stuff I never think of doing but I really dig it. I need to tear that page out of your playbook 😄

One thing I would keep focused on is that overall texture. It's way better then some other pieces I've heard from you, but keep exploring different combinations with the instruments! There were plenty of times you could have removed some of the instruments in the tutti sections to really let the other instruments be heard. For instance, I wouldn't have even known there was an acoustic guitar without looking at the score. 

And speaking of, I'm a guitarist so I'll comment on the guitars a bit.

1. Maybe have the bass guitar with the other guitars in your score? I think it would be easier to follow with it being in it's instrument "family"

2. I noticed at the end you gave the strings vibrato for the last chord. Why not the guitars? We can vibrato too bruh. In fact, Your main melody was begging for it. I'm not a fan of long sustained notes with no vibrato. Even if it's just subtle, which is what I do most of the time anyway, it can really make those notes soar and sing. And EVEN if your notation software doesn't play it back, it would be good to indicate it. Then again, it could be up to the performer to do it liberally. 

3. Are the overdriven guitar power chords supposed to be palm muted for the staccato markings? I would write p.m. with a dashed line over the indicated parts if they are. It'd sound better imo anyway.

4. Watch for playability in the acoustic guitar at bar 49, those notes are high up there and depending on if the guitar has a cutaway may be impossible. It might be better to drop that down an octave or give it to an electric.

5. I know you're writing for musescore playback, but keep in mind the electric guitars can switch from distortion to clean to wah sounds to alien languages with their pedals. You could have one electric guitar part go back and forth between clean arpeggios then to the main melody or whatever. Again, I know you're writing for playback, but if you ever were in the position to have performances of these pieces, something to consider. 

6. This is my biggest point. I want you to imagine the lead guitar part being played at the piano. Would you write for it differently? What I'm saying is take advantage of the guitar being a polyphonic instrument. Yeah I know you give it chords sometimes, but what if you played the main melody, and did a repeat with thirds? Or even octaves to really cut through the orchestra? You have a lot of potential with the instrument, and I think you could open up a lot more possibilities with your already-great-writing by exploring the instrument more. 

I know you're going for a certain sound with your music, and like I said, I really dig the orchestra plus rock band. But when I was in school, we constantly had to write for small ensembles, forcing ourselves to squeeze every last timbre out of the instruments, and really getting acquainted with what they were capable of. You've got loads of talent, and possibly more importantly, and consistent and ever evolving dedication to your craft. Keep learning, keep studying, keep writing for instruments you're unfamiliar with, because, well, that's like the whole purpose of posting here imo. 

I'm excited to hear what's coming next from you; I'll always look out for new pieces from you. Nice work here, I love how your music continues to improve!

On 8/7/2022 at 9:47 PM, Thatguy v2.0 said:

Awesome piece! I love your style man, I really enjoy the modern take on orchestra by adding in guitars, subbing bass guitar, and the drum set. I think you definitely have a future in game music if you really go for it.

Thanks!  

On 8/7/2022 at 9:47 PM, Thatguy v2.0 said:

I really like how you have more difference in texture with this one, like the string and wind interplay section (you could have done that with guitars too :P).

I do try to give all the guitars a spotlight here and there but I also happened to include the glockenspiel and vibraphone and with the tinny sound of the midi acoustic guitar that gives I think a poor impression.  Those are the parts where I feel most dissatisfied with the colors of the rendering but I can't actually be sure if it's a poor instrumental combination or not.

Then there's also the part at exactly the halfway point of the piece that is meant to have a more classical approach to it so I kept the guitars out of it.  It's actually inspired by and meant to portray Kefka's march across the desert from Final Fantasy III (VI).  Big fan of that music.

On 8/7/2022 at 9:47 PM, Thatguy v2.0 said:

I also really like that you worked out the drum parts. I know those can be really tedious and a pain to notate out (although maybe bar 28 is impossible with 3 toms? Dunno, hard to hear)

I wrote the whole of the drumset part out on paper this time always glancing back at a notation key to try and make sure that it was playable/possible.  From what I read, most drumsets have 2 floor toms and 2 high toms so I wrote it for that kind of setup which from what I understand is considered to be the standard.

On 8/7/2022 at 9:47 PM, Thatguy v2.0 said:

You always have a way of ending your pieces with such a cool chord, stuff I never think of doing but I really dig it. I need to tear that page out of your playbook 😄

Thanks - I'm glad you noticed that!  Although perhaps this piece is a bad example of how "out there" my ending chords can be considering that it just ends on a tonic minor major 7th chord.  I guess its the way I approach it though coming from many rapid modulations that juxtapose F# minor (which is the key that I modulated to earlier in the piece) with the home key of D minor.

On 8/7/2022 at 9:47 PM, Thatguy v2.0 said:

One thing I would keep focused on is that overall texture. It's way better then some other pieces I've heard from you, but keep exploring different combinations with the instruments! There were plenty of times you could have removed some of the instruments in the tutti sections to really let the other instruments be heard. For instance, I wouldn't have even known there was an acoustic guitar without looking at the score. 

Yeah - you're right.  I think the acoustic guitar was much more audible in "A Brand New Day" owing to the fact that the instrumentation was less than half of this piece.

On 8/7/2022 at 9:47 PM, Thatguy v2.0 said:

Maybe have the bass guitar with the other guitars in your score? I think it would be easier to follow with it being in it's instrument "family"

Well - in a way I consider it to be already in it's instrument family seeing as how it replaces the contrabasses.  Plus I'm just so used to seeing the lowest voice below the cellos.

On 8/7/2022 at 9:47 PM, Thatguy v2.0 said:

I noticed at the end you gave the strings vibrato for the last chord. Why not the guitars? We can vibrato too bruh. In fact, Your main melody was begging for it. I'm not a fan of long sustained notes with no vibrato. Even if it's just subtle, which is what I do most of the time anyway, it can really make those notes soar and sing. And EVEN if your notation software doesn't play it back, it would be good to indicate it. Then again, it could be up to the performer to do it liberally. 

The strings do have a trill on the last note but surely you're not suggesting that I put a whole bunch of trills into the guitar parts?  That would be total overkill in this piece.  As far as I know there isn't any way to indicate vibrato in Musescore although I'd be glad if I was wrong.

On 8/7/2022 at 9:47 PM, Thatguy v2.0 said:

Are the overdriven guitar power chords supposed to be palm muted for the staccato markings? I would write p.m. with a dashed line over the indicated parts if they are. It'd sound better imo anyway.

Whatever you say man.  I'm almost a total noob with respect to the electric guitar and all the droves of gear in use for it.

On 8/7/2022 at 9:47 PM, Thatguy v2.0 said:

Watch for playability in the acoustic guitar at bar 49, those notes are high up there and depending on if the guitar has a cutaway may be impossible. It might be better to drop that down an octave or give it to an electric.

Totally right again.

On 8/7/2022 at 9:47 PM, Thatguy v2.0 said:

I know you're writing for musescore playback, but keep in mind the electric guitars can switch from distortion to clean to wah sounds to alien languages with their pedals. You could have one electric guitar part go back and forth between clean arpeggios then to the main melody or whatever. Again, I know you're writing for playback, but if you ever were in the position to have performances of these pieces, something to consider

Yeah - there's actually a few more options for the electric guitar in Musescore besides just distortion and overdrive, one of which is "jazz" but I don't get if that's just a different kind of guitar or another pedal... ?

On 8/7/2022 at 9:47 PM, Thatguy v2.0 said:

This is my biggest point. I want you to imagine the lead guitar part being played at the piano. Would you write for it differently? What I'm saying is take advantage of the guitar being a polyphonic instrument. Yeah I know you give it chords sometimes, but what if you played the main melody, and did a repeat with thirds? Or even octaves to really cut through the orchestra? You have a lot of potential with the instrument, and I think you could open up a lot more possibilities with your already-great-writing by exploring the instrument more

That's a great point and something I hope to explore in future pieces!

On 8/7/2022 at 9:47 PM, Thatguy v2.0 said:

I know you're going for a certain sound with your music, and like I said, I really dig the orchestra plus rock band. But when I was in school, we constantly had to write for small ensembles, forcing ourselves to squeeze every last timbre out of the instruments, and really getting acquainted with what they were capable of.

I've been thinking along the same lines and have been longing for some solo instrument with guitar accompaniment pieces which I might start working on soon when I pick my acoustic guitar back up in the fall.

On 8/7/2022 at 9:47 PM, Thatguy v2.0 said:

You've got loads of talent, and possibly more importantly, and consistent and ever evolving dedication to your craft. Keep learning, keep studying, keep writing for instruments you're unfamiliar with, because, well, that's like the whole purpose of posting here imo. 

I'm excited to hear what's coming next from you; I'll always look out for new pieces from you. Nice work here, I love how your music continues to improve!

Thanks for your continued dedication and attention to detail!  Your reviews always make me hope that when I post a new piece you'll be lurking around LoL.  Btw - for my next submission I'm working on an old Andante for Strings.  Thanks again!

Peter