The Melding of Middle Earth

This piece was inspired by the work of Bear McCreary on Amazon Prime's "Rings Of Power".

I imagined all the creatures of Middle Earth coming together in a large Gathering. Hence all the different themes weaved together!

Have only spent two days on this project thus far: so expect to make quite a few revisions!

New versions of the piece and score will be posted lower down the thread.

Hopefully it sounds cinematic? That's what I was aiming for anyway 🤪

Edited March 14, 20233 yr by Alex Weidmann

Hi @Alex Weidmann,

You always know that less is more and I always love you for that. Most of members here including myself tend to add more and more, but you know how to achieve great effect economically using fewer intstruments and musical resources.

6 hours ago, Alex Weidmann said:

Hopefully it sounds cinematic? That's what I was aiming for anyway

For me it can be good trailer music with different music fit for different scenes! That piano ending can create a contemplative ending usual for a trailer.

I will add more once there's the score and update!

Henry

16 hours ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

I will add more once there's the score and update!

Many thanks for the kind words.

Have added a rough score now.

When I get round to it, I'm going to divide the double bass part, with the upper notes going to the Nyckelharpa. 

Will also divide the Orchestral Strings part between Cello I and Viola.

Edited February 22, 20233 yr by Alex Weidmann

Have made a new version today.

The only change is an extended intro to my exotic Middle Eastern theme.

The new material can be found at 03:10.

Hi @Alex Weidmann,

That alto flute really gives the mood of Japanese or orientic feeling!

That new material in 3:10 is very Japanese or Middle Eastern with that augmented 2nd and I love it!

I love that piano passages in b.91 but will you afraid that it will be too "functional" and tonal in its harmony or fine? I don't know whether you want to have a contrast of modality here! It's definitely beautiful, however!

Henry

13 minutes ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

I love that piano passages in b.91 but will you afraid that it will be too "functional" and tonal in its harmony or fine?

Perhaps it's too obviously a linking passage into the last section with its underlying piano ostinato?

Wanted to have some measure of unity between the opening and closing Sections of the work, so that it's not just a bunch of contrasting passages spliced together. Not sure I've achieved it; but that's what I was aiming to do.

With the new material, I think I need to take the harp down in the mix, so the flute duet really sings out.

Have been watching some of Bear McCreary's interviews on You Tube about Rings Of Power, which are really interesting.

In fact I'm watching one right now!

I have a vague idea about which of Tolkien's creations are represented by each of my themes; but I'm interested to hear what others think?

29 minutes ago, Alex Weidmann said:

Perhaps it's too obviously a linking passage into the last section with its underlying piano ostinato?

I don't mean the linking passage, I mean the contrasting modality between the two parts. Before the piano section it's quite modal or at least not too functional, but in the piano section is very functional.

41 minutes ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

I don't mean the linking passage, I mean the contrasting modality between the two parts. Before the piano section it's quite modal or at least not too functional, but in the piano section is very functional.

Think I'm ok with that, because it draws a contrast between two themes representing very different creatures of Middle Earth.

Sweet

It actually kinda reminds me of the Witcher 3 around the 1 minute mark. Fields of Ard Skellig, maybe is the tune I'm thinking of?

Also, the harp's tuning sounds wonky.

9 minutes ago, AngelCityOutlaw said:

Also, the harp's tuning sounds wonky.

Hadn't noticed that. All the virtual instruments are from the the same app, and I don't think there's any way to retune them.

Haven't watched The Witcher yet, but it's on my Netflix list!

I know Bear did the score for the most recent series.

His blogs are really interesting, especially where he talks about his instrumentation for Rings Of Power.

Many thanks for listening!

Alex

13 minutes ago, Alex Weidmann said:

Haven't watched The Witcher yet, but it's on my Netflix list

Noooo not the awful Witcher Netflix series.

I mean the game, Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. That was good, and had some pretty great tunes, and your piece around the 1 minute mark sounds like it would fit in that game.

14 minutes ago, Alex Weidmann said:

I know Bear did the score for the most recent series.

I'm old, so the Bear score I am most familiar with is Battlestar: Galactica

4 minutes ago, AngelCityOutlaw said:

I mean the game, Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Oh right! Haha.

Witcher: Blood Origins was the series Bear scored.

I loved the music from Battlestar Galactica! Really awesome show.

Made another version tonight.

Rebalanced the tracks from 3:10, and added a bit more new material.

Wow the section around b.65 is more extended and I love the interplays! For me the music is getting more concrete and beautiful by adding those developments and extensions! I feel like the sound is better now but can't concretely tell the difference!

I just notice you use bass clef for violin in b.89 where you should keep using treble clef instead!

I hope you can have the finished product soon!

32 minutes ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

I just notice you use bass clef for violin in b.89 where you should keep using treble clef instead!

Thanks Henry for pointing this out. The scoring software must've created the clef change automatically when I imported the midi file.

MuseScore tends to make some odd decisions sometimes. Not least the key signature assignment, where it's chosen to have the piece in E minor.

Think the opening section should be in D minor, and the closing section has lots of C sharps: so it would make sense to change into B minor.

7 hours ago, Alex Weidmann said:

Thanks Henry for pointing this out. The scoring software must've created the clef change automatically when I imported the midi file.

MuseScore tends to make some odd decisions sometimes. Not least the key signature assignment, where it's chosen to have the piece in E minor.

Wow I don't know Musescore will have this kind of weird decision! I know the weird usage of staffs before but key signatures and clefs, that's really strange.

Have almost finished the score for this now. Only have dynamic markings and expression marks left to do.

Have very little experience scoring for orchestra: so hopefully it looks ok?

Hi @Alex Weidmann,

As it's musesocre anyway you cannot control the score, but the double bass should use the bass clef more except only in its high range. The trombones in section E is better separated to two staffs instead of having three notes in one staff. 

I would use A# in b.124 for the violin instead of Bb to indicate B minor there.

Thanks for your update!

Henry