Harvest Moon Piano Quintet - "Mountains"

Hello!  Earlier this year I had the pleasure of organizing, hosting and judging the "From Bits to Bangers" Instrumental Music Composition Competition, and now I've finally had time to write a piece using the requirements of the contest as inspiration!  I've chosen an 8-bit track that nobody else used - Harvest Moon - "Mountains" which I've also attached here for your listening pleasure.  I didn't write this in my regular method, by first finishing everything on paper before even allowing myself to input anything into the computer.  I think the very repetitive nature of the original track was a challenge for me to make something interesting out of and I coped with that by entering the music piecemeal into Musescore.  Let me know if you like the result or not.  I welcome your constructive critiques, suggestions and observations!  Thanks for listening.

Same theme and similar rhythm, but a completely different context! Very modern sounding and I love your opening. Almost sounds a little like Secret of Mana (not sure if you know that game, its from the SNES days). But it reminds me a lot of the overworld music from that game. But interestingly enough I just got recommended by a friend to listen to Sibelius' Violin Concerto, and wow, the beat is very similar. I know you are going for the Harvest Moon beat, but I think you slightly change it up a little, and it sounds more like Sibelius now haha!

I don't have any recommendations musically, it's a very good rendition. But in terms of your dynamics, I felt like the strings "release" were getting cut off by their attack. The strings just felt a bit too sharp and unnatural at times, but it could have been an issue with recording.

Hey Peter,

First of all, thanks for using the track for the variations! It's the track I choose and the only one unused LoL...

For the opening theme you completely transform the theme from a naivety of nature to sadness of humanity when you mix the melody with more dissonant harmony. A very nice introductory figure in b.18 to introduce the repeating pattern! The repeating pattern is very interesting when you mix both triadal and quartal harmonies in it. The figure in b.28 piano comes from b.4 and that means you have already foreshadow the pattern in the theme and combine both figures in it. The change of harmony in b.44 is very nice. I love b.68 very much as it appears the only the strings are playing the repeating figure, maybe more of that will be even better! Nice counterpoint in section D, maybe the melody can be given to other instruments other than the 1st violin.

The only thing I will say is that I want the piano to play the melody more! I would love to play the melody when imagining myself as the pianist haha.

Thx for sharing!

Henry

Wonderful music here. I love the quirkiness of the rhythm, and although repetitive, it never gets boring. I especially like the 7/8 - 3/4 rhythmic section. 

On 10/1/2023 at 8:47 PM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

I didn't write this in my regular method, by first finishing everything on paper before even allowing myself to input anything into the computer.  I think the very repetitive nature of the original track was a challenge for me to make something interesting out of and I coped with that by entering the music piecemeal into Musescore. 

I definitely think it worked, and a lot of aspiring composers could look to this as inspiration getting out of a creative rut, or just as a method of continually honing their compositional chops when their method's might be in need of a change. I think it's really healthy to take different approaches to your craft, and the more ways you have to execute musically the better off you'll be. 

I just listened to this and 2 of your other more recent pieces, and I must say you've gotten way better at creating interesting textures with your music. It's something I remember always making note of while listening to your work, but it's not something I felt the need to critique with these pieces. Sometimes I feel like us composers are always trying to fill in spaces in the music, but when you let off the gas a little with it, it turns out to be maybe the change the listener needs from time to time. 

Great work, Peter, it was fun getting reacquainted with your music, and I love the new sound you have as a composer. Can't wait to hear more!