Ocean Background Fantasia(The Theme from Tiktok/IG)

Hello peeps,

Merry belated Christmas and happy upcoming New Year. I recently wrote this work based on a popular theme that has been surfacing on Tik-Tok and Instagram. It usually appears on slow-mo reels or funny fails in general. I thought the theme had quite a bit of potential and decided to write a short orchestral fantasia based on it. 

I apologize if the score is a little hard to follow. I am planning to work on engraving after I receive more feedbacks.

Thanke Truly

Final Version + Animation

Edited March 6, 20251 yr by Mooravioli

Awesome work, and beautiful transitions, colorful and interesting rhythms. Truly sounds like something I'd have heard in an old Disney animated film on VHS. 

I really like this piece 🙂

However, just a couple of things to point out to ya. Some places, your rhythm notation, while the playback will play it correctly, and it's also technically right in terms of the notes covering all the beats in the measure, lets look at Measure 8 for the harp's Treble Clef staff. The rhythm notation there should be:
( ♩ ♩ 𝄾 ♪_♩ ) instead of ( ♩ ♩ 𝄾 ♩. ) 
because of that eighth note rest. gotta finish beat 3 off with an 8th, then tie into beat 4 with the quarter note 🙂 It's much more legible that way for a player, and it's just simply proper. This same thing happens in a good few other places in the score, from what I'm seeing. Although, while you don't have to do it that way, it's considered the formal grammar for rhythm notation, and if this were to be performed, the instrumentalists would appreciate it more that way! 

Also, the other thing I caught, was starting at b.32, with the violin solo there, ALL those accidentals!! You're still in the key of Db Major during that statement, except your notation reflects C# Major instead, hence the excessive amount of sharps and naturals seen there. 

Based on the playback sound, I'd assume you're using MuseScore Studio 4.4.4? If you select all bars within the sections with those accidentals, click the "Tools" tab at the top, and select "Respell Pitches" it should automatically correct all of that for you, in case you hadn't ever used those utilities before. 

But overall, my observations are just what I'd be sure to correct, if it were my score. I'm not an expert composer, just a musician with a knack for composition, who's untrained in the craft of doing so. 

The piece sounds wonderful, and I think would be an awesome piece to be played live and recorded. Appears to be pretty fun for all parts involved, and has a nice, well rounded and imaginative vibe to it, that I think is fairly brilliant! Do some'ore stuff! 

Edited December 29, 20241 yr by UncleRed99

Hello Kyle,

Thank you so much for this detailed post. I very much appreciate the fact that you clarified issues with notation, since that will help me a lot with the engraving process(which is not my forte at all). The solo at bar 32 has actually modulated to C sharp minor but I see your point on overloading the players with too many sharps. Will definitely revise my score for the rhythm you've mentioned, because there are probably a few other spots with this notation problem. 

Very glad you enjoyed this piece, you can always check out more works in my YC profile(recently made a corny about section). I shall get to listening to your recent work too. 

17 hours ago, Mooravioli said:

The solo at bar 32 has actually modulated to C sharp minor

Good catch, thanks for the correction. I was at a walmart parking lot when I was initially scanning it over.🤣 lol Was moving pretty quick. So I must've missed that! 

So I'll correct myself, and suggest maybe modulate to Db Minor instead, and change the key signature to the corresponding Major chord (Think a major 3rd interval above the note Db. That note's major key signature is your Db minor key signature) which would be the key of Bb. So you'd change the key signature to Bb Major (3 Flats), and respell your pitches to conform to that. You'll have much less accidentals 🙂

Hi @Mooravioli!

Great job on this piece!  I really like the micro-tonal touches you add to it.  I can hear that you're using Musesounds.  Does this mean that Musescore Studio now supports micro-tones?  That's a pretty exciting feature if so!  I like how underwhelming the piece is in the beginning.  But it develops and flourishes quite well and dramatically even with those crescendoing brass chords that give it a kind of cinematic vibe.  You make great use of space throughout the piece, with sparse orchestration until the piece really comes into its own at 4:09 which is my favorite part.  It's more fully orchestrated and the theme really sings beautifully there.

The only engraving nit-pick that I just noticed after having glanced at the score the first time I listened is that the piece seems to be notated in 4/4 in the beginning, even though the phrasing seems to suggest that it should be in 3/4.  Also - Musescore has the feature of displaying only the instruments that are playing at any given point in the score which would make your score that much easier to peruse.  Thanks for sharing!

9 minutes ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Also - Musescore has the feature of displaying only the instruments that are playing at any given point in the score which would make your score that much easier to peruse.  Thanks for sharing!

Yes! Musescore has this feature. Makes a score look a lot prettier many times 🙂

A very easy way to achieve this without having to dig through the formatting windows, is to make sure you have nothing selected in the score, press F8, (or Fn+F8 for laptop), and then click the "eyeball" icon next to "Empty Staves". I typically leave the properties panel open all the time anyhow. It's a useful toolbar! 

Glad to hear from you again, Peter, and also elated to hear your favorite part was around 4:09 since I think the part starting from 3:40 is one of the best I've written thus far. I've tried out your advice beforehand but a problem presents itself in the violin cadenza:

I can't tell if this is ok for an orchestral score, because I've never seen anything like this appear even in "Scheherazade".

Would love to know both your thoughts on this.

I see no problem with the cadenza having just the solo Violin part.  As long as there's some indication ahead of time for when the orchestra is about to come back in so the conductor can cue them.

Edit:  a closer look at the cadenza brings a different issue to mind.  The implied key seems to be C# minor now and sometimes even G# minor which would necessitate some respelling of the pitches to for example Fx's instead of G naturals and B#'s instead of C naturals.

Thanks for the heads up.

also, yes Musescore 4 seems to support detuning now as well as snap pizz and harmonics. 

Edited January 4, 20251 yr by Mooravioli

44 minutes ago, Mooravioli said:

also, yes Musescore 4 seems to support detuning now as well as snap pizz and harmonics.

Do you know what this means?!  ... I MUST MAKE MICROTONAL PIECE!

Hi @Mooravioli,

Given what @UncleRed99 and Peter have said, I almost have nothing to add. I usually don't like microtones at all, but the beginning microtones really make the music more like in the other world! Your use of harp, and also the twirling figure like in b.80 really sounds like ocean waves. 

On 1/4/2025 at 11:33 AM, Mooravioli said:

think the part starting from 3:40 is one of the best I've written thus far

I think so too, it sounds vivacious here like the oceanic habitat for me.

For me I would hope the piece to last a bit longer! The ending doesn't seem conclusive to me, though it's a magical way to end all of a sudden. Thx for sharing!

Henry

Final Version + Animation of this piece:

Edited February 20, 20251 yr by Mooravioli

On 2/19/2025 at 9:00 PM, Mooravioli said:

Final Version + Animation of this piece:

 

 

Man, how did I miss this reply!!! What program did you use for the animated score playback? That's awesome! 

Hey brother,

it's actually just your basic Musesounds, but I added a lot of reverb to the instruments. I've also discovered a few compositional techniques to make it sound better.

Thanke for checking in.

On 3/23/2025 at 1:18 AM, Mooravioli said:

Hey brother,

it's actually just your basic Musesounds, but I added a lot of reverb to the instruments. I've also discovered a few compositional techniques to make it sound better.

Thanke for checking in.

 

oh no, I got that the sounds were muse, but the animated score video is what I was looking to know more about lol

Oh darn, sorry about that, brotha, I actually gave a second thought about your question and guessed that you might have been asking about the score animation. This isn't actually a playback but you'll have to go into an editing software to edit the notes frame by frame. It works differently depending on your style, I believe Wolo Wolo Wolo gives you a very good tutorial on how he creates his animations in this video: