Faust

PLEASE NOTE: As this is meant to capture the story in sound, I will refrain from posting a score - now or ever. To elaborate with an analogy, I intend this work to be appreciated as one would appreciate a story from one's grandfather: sitting down and listening to it being told by someone, in their own way, as they interpret it, with all the quirks and inflections of their speech and manner. I wouldn't expect that anyone would tell their grandfather to stop and show them the book, and in the same way, I am not going to post a score for this piece because it is irrelevant to the presentation and appreciation of it as I intend. If this is not something you accept or understand, then you may kindly refrain from reviewing the work.

::shakes head:: That's completely fine, but you see, the relationship the members of this community share among each other is not that of grandfather and grandchild and the 'passing on' of any sort of story. We are all equals here, trying to become better composers, and scores help in that capacity. I would implore you to reconsider your position on this, as the reviews that you get will be a lot more thorough and insightful if a score is readily available.

Now on to the music!

Your harmonies and orchestrations are simply lovely. Throughout this opening section (sorry that I can't give a bar number :P ) your harmonic rhythm is mostly uniform throughout. This is fine, if this is what you want, but be aware that eventually the ear grows tired of hearing the chords change at a constant pace. It becomes very difficult to keep it interesting since the ear comes to expect "OK, we're going to change now...then now...and then here now."

I don't hear any 'development' in this movement in the classical sense of the term (and I'm speaking neutrally here, not passing judgment!). Certainly there is development of orchestration and tension, but not so strikingly in terms of development of the musical devices of melody, rhythm, and harmony. For example, there is a flute melody after a buildup about 2/3 of the way through the movement. It is the strongest statement of melody I heard in the piece, and it seems so full of potential to develop, and grow, and go on a journey. But it doesn't, and this is your choice as the composer. As long as you are aware of the effects this has on the listener, then I'm happy. :-) See? There. I'm happy.

I could make many more detailed comments about little possibilities for improvement in your voice-leading if I had a score to pinpoint specific measures and instruments. Therefore, should you decide to post a score, I will in return post a more detailed review.

it is difficult to appreciate it with more depth knowing that this makes part of a bigger whole but without knowing how it would articulate with the missing movements. it seems that as just a preliminary statement to a longer tone poem it works finely. even so, it seems also a bit too short, but i am not sure about. maybe some words about the planned structure of the entire piece with its 4 mvts could be of some help to understand this one better. anyway as far it goes it is a fine piece of music, composed with great sensitiveness and perfect balance. the atmosphere is desolated, almost depressed, but with a splendid long and continuous breath and the grandeur of the great losses, all very fit to the text, so i think you got the point. looking forward to see the rest. cheers!

Hey Marius, I don't remember listening or commenting on your pieces before so I thought I'll try this one. and I am glad I did ! I am not familiar with Faust and I really can't comment on how you interpreted the story with music. From what I am hearing, I am loving your harmonies and your use of the orchestra. Simple and effective. There was a slight lack of recognizable theme that you could have used to associate with the characters in the story. But perhaps I couldn't get it. I think this is the only thing I could criticize; a lack of prominent theme. I am aware that you intended to make an atmospheric music (or an introduction to your suite) but then again I cant judge from only the first movement. I believe this will be a wonderful symphonic tone poem when finished.

As you are going to me making this a mutli-movement post, I have no compunction about leaving this post where it is for now, provided you do post the remainder of the movements. As it is, standing at just under four minutes, I believe it may be too short on its own to merit inclusion in Major Works. But as I said, you promise to post the other movements, so I guess that will have to do for now. I happen to be the trusting sort. :)

Regarding the music, first let me preclude my remarks with this. Oliver Knussen once said that he would rather be tantalized for a few minutes than mesmerized for an hour. This in reference to his preferene for the tone poems of Liadov (some of which clocked in under four minutes), than for the symphonies of Mahler (none of which clock under forty!). I happen to disagree with Mr. Knussen. I enjoy the brevity of Liadov as well, but I am transported to a new world by the likes of Mahler, Bruckner, Elgar, and so forth, who with their stirring music that generally takes quite some time to come across, do indeed mesmerize. And as you saw when you listened to my Concerto, my own temperment is for the highly developed and lengthy statement.

That said, your opening movement to this four movement work based on Faust was indeed atmospheric. Clearly, in your line of work, writing for game companies, it is imperative that you maintain some brevity, as I doubt you'll hear a Brucknerian Adagio ever show up in a console game. And yet you do manage to pack a bit of emotional depth in these three-and-a-half minutes. It is filled with bitter misery, right from the start. The almost haunted echoing strings seem to vacillate between anger and nihilism. When the harp enters around 0:50 I am left wondering if this is meant to symbolize a question asked of the Heavens.

You have a few places where the strings seem to be playing awfully low against a melodic line that cannot possibly be supported by it. Perhaps this is not so, but it is the aural impression I am being given.

The theme around 2:15 is quite enchanting. I am curious if this is not symbolic of Gretchen, or at least of Faust's love for Gretchen. It seems to be a story of lost love here in the closing bars.

What I am thinking is missing from this overture is any hint of Mephistopheles. One cannot have Faust without him. Perhaps I am missing something, but it seemed somehow empty of the diabolic treachery that is needed. All I hear is some bitterness and lost love. Where is the hint of damnation that must follow in the Faust legend?

That said, I enjoyed this work, and look forward to hearing more, Marius. I would be delighted to see the score for this work, as I prefer to have one when I review (because then I can actually talk about specifics instead of relying on aural impressions that are admittedly biased).

Keep up the good work!

Matusleo

Excellent orchestration and harmonization. As I told you before, i really couldnt hear much of a melody. It's more of a background peice than a stand alone. But it's just the first movement. Excellent work! Keep it up!

Marius -

This is an amazing piece of work. While I'm not very familiar with the actual story of Faust, from what I read it, seems that you've been successful in bringing out the mood of the poem. I can't wait until you compose the rest of this work. It's going to be great!

Wow, You have an awesome sense of orchestration/instrumentation. Where did you learn about it? how did you go about learning that stuff? taking lessons? Im in awe of how it sounded and how much emotion were in the chords. Any tips, book reccommendations? awesome

Marius is completely self-thaught. At least he was last time I talked to him.

No kidding - everytime I ask to learn anything about composition all I hear is "just let your ear lead you" or "just write it the way you think it should sound." It drives me crazy. I want to learn the right way! I want to break the rules by learning what rules I am trying to break! To my mom's credit she sat down with me yesterday and begun to take me through a form and analysis book. This is the first time anyone has even started something with me. I hope we do the whole book.

I really like your use of color...the whole mp3 is quite dark in a rich color, even when the higher melodic lines come in. It seems almost too dark; the entire movement never really gets out of a deep green or burnt umber. Of course, if this is what you want then awesome, but adding in even more color would make it all the more spectacular!

Hey everyone!!

Thanks for the comments! I've just returned from my vacation and I love to see comments, made my evening :D

I really appreciate the comments, so I will address them now. Cain, I am entirely self-taught, yes. Clarinetty, I did intend for the entire thing to be quite dark, so I am glad that I succeeded in capturing that. The next movement will be pretty awesome, especially with my new orchestral sound library which I intend to use.

RRR, the base of it is that you do what you feel. If you feel that you should learn out of a book and learn things the "proper" way, then that's what you should be doing. In my case, I didn't even consider that a possibility until I was already writing, and by then the concept seemed overly stringent and confining to work for me, so I continued to learn on my own and it has led me to what I hope will blossom into a unique orchestrating style and musical voice. Time will tell :innocent:

Thanks again everyone!

so I continued to learn on my own and it has led me to what I hope will blossom into a unique orchestrating style and musical voice. Time will tell :(

I do believe with sincerity that that has already happened.

Can't wait to hear the 2nd mvt, Maek

Hey everyone,

Sorry for my lack of updates here but you know how life can sometimes get in the way of composing personal projects.

As it happens, my exam period and my evil first semester are both about to end, and with them I will find myself with a lot more time to compose what I need to.

Having said that, I would just like to give a heads-up that the second movement is underway, though I'm not having much time to work on it, and that I haven't forgotten about the project.

Thanks!

Congratulations Marius!

I really enjoyed the sound world of this first movement of a multi-movement tone poem! The colors were very enjoyable to listen to and I think that the other movements will make the whole a lot more interesting. These days I think audiences prefer shorter orchestral works to colossal beasts and I think your tone poem, once completed, could make for an excellent opener on a concert program. I find the idea of four brief different movements very appealing. Keep up the great work! I look forward to hearing the other movements.

One other comment: As you seem to be a technical guru here with respect to sounds and orchestral libraries, I was wondering how much tweaking was needed to get your piece to sound this presentable. In other words, which sound libraries did you use? Did you do most of the tweaking in Finale or in another program? Or is this simply Finale with higher quality sound libraries? I would love to learn how to transform a written score into something that sounds so appealing and professional.

this is really pretty, it sounds like something that might intro a movie, or just be the music to a part in a movie, or like one of those fantasia musical cartoon things! (if u kno what im talking about!:D ) I love this piece, very nice job!

I'm glad you enjoyed the first movement, guys :D

To address your questions, neuhausen, I did this entire piece in Finale using only Garritan Personal Orchestra. I wrote this movement before I got my new sound libraries and I've opted to use only GPO for the rest as well just to keep the sound consistent.

In terms of tweaking, I really didn't do a whole lot; I simply wrote the score keeping in mind that I wanted GPO to play it, not a real orchestra. What I mean by that is that I wrote some of the dynamics and articulations much more exaggeratedly than would be necessary for real performers, simply to tailor the piece to the way GPO operates. I am writing up a detailed manual on using Finale and GPO effectively to render things the way I do, so keep an eye out for that in the future! :)

I think you bring up a brilliant point about the lengths of concert movements to appeal more to today's rushed audiences and I think that it's a point which should be further explored perhaps in a thread of its own...I may just make one.

Thanks again for your comments, they're all appreciated! :)

Ok, heres my first attempt to review a major work ^^. Overall, i find the whole piece cinematic and a tad too "ambient" for my liking. I can hear interesting chord changes here and there but i think this piece lacks a strong melodic movement . The chord changes seem to be quite predictable too in the sense that it all nicely changes one after another. Now on to the parts i enjoyed =) , this piece is beautiful by itself, the way how the instruments come in and some parts in which they counterpoint. I like the part where the flute solo is too ! Overall , i enjoyed some parts of the piece, but i feel that it is lacking in some dynamics n melodic structure to push the piece even further. Phew.. that was my first attempt to give something constructive, its a great piece though! Hope you don't mind me =)

Hey there Tera,

Welcome to the boards, first of all, and good to see another game music composer around!

I appreciate your comments and I'm glad for the parts of this movement that you enjoyed. The ambient, harmonically-driven style is intentional because of the style of introduction I was looking for; I guess some people get it and others don't. It's a matter of imagination, really. Being a tone poem, this piece doesn't aim to be a recognizable symphonic work with the typical sorts of structures that you'd find there.

Anyway, thanks for your review and don't worry, I certainly don't mind you! VGM composer = I like :)

Yea, understood! :).. =) Hope to see ya around, do check out my music too~! :)

Hey everyone,

I know that I've been promising an update here for a while and you've not seen one, but you know how life can be sometimes. In any case, I now have a sample of the next movement to share with you.

Faust II: "Mephistopheles"

Please enjoy! :thumbsup:

Loved it.

Erik

Sorry, the link may have been dead for a while; I fixed it now though, so you can listen to the sample of the second movement while I work on finishing it! :)

Any comments are appreciated, enjoy!

so sad feeling!

Hey everyone,

I know that I've been promising an update here for a while and you've not seen one, but you know how life can be sometimes. In any case, I now have a sample of the next movement to share with you.

Faust II: "Mephistopheles"

Please enjoy! :huh:

What can I say apart from the fact it's genius?! :D that's better than most film music out there (yes, even when describing Faust, you're as filmy as always :))

I can't say it sounded too evil and tempting to me though... but otherwise, brilliant!