New Piece "Love Theme"

Hi Everyone

My new piece "Love Theme" is now on Soundclick for listening. It's an orchestral ballad in the tradition Horner, Newman and Barry.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=639078&songID=5412020

wouldn't this not be better served in the "incidental/sountracks" forum?

it's very short, and really does sound like a movie or television underscore.

musically speaking, it was bland to me. a bit too clich

I'm sorry you found the piece bland. I do know it's a very short piece, and of course that can change opinions in and of itself. In all acuality, I should have placed this in the Soundtracks forum, but found the musical content to be evenly akin to classical. As far as cliche goes, I believe music to be a personal expression, so if it was cliched, it was unintentional, and I hope it wasn't painfully so. : )

As far as the "spacey" element, I suppose I was trying to implement a bit of a wondrous "romantic" flair if you will.

Well, I respect your opinion, and thank you for taking the time to give it. Please continue to listen to my works as I mature (I'm only 16.)

Have a nice day.

Jared Kraft

well, since you are the epitomy of the "young" composer, I will recommend something that you may not particularly care for at this time, but will pay off in the end: don't listen to so much movie music. Even if you intention is to eventually write music for films, listening to filmscores, while fun, isn't what will teach you the necessary craft to become a good composer.

The reason I mention this is that I do not believe Horner, Barry and Newman are ideal subjects for study. Their music, while maybe effective in a film, shouldn't be the basis upon which non-film music should be based. It is important to understand the larger form, harmonic direction, and proper construction of extended melody. Most young composers who are enamored of film composers tend to forget that they (film composers) almost all have strong foundations and backgrounds in classical music. Even James Horner, whose music I am not often willing to laud, has a doctorate in composition - geared towards concert music, not film-scoring.

There is plenty of fascinating and exciting music out there that isn't filmscore. You needn't feel trapped into listening to Mozart or Beethoven.

Something that I have heard before is that if you want to write film music, study the Russians, and if concert music is your aim, than the Mozart stuff is what you should be listening to. This really makes a lot of sense to me. Listen to Scheherazade by Rimsky Korsakov, and I really think you will like it. It has much more of a 'film score' feel to it, while still being focused and well constructed. I am not saying that film music isn't well done (John Williams is a favorite of mine, and I think that his pieces are incredibly well constructed and complexly focused) but it most certainly can be the case. It is easy to fall into the idea of 'I need this much boring filler music, and this much action sequence music' without having an overall sense of the direction that you are trying to head.

But, having said all that, I think you piece is very very good for a 16 year-old. Listen to the music you like, but listen to more, too. And write write write. You really have some very good thoughts in the piece, so i look forward to hearing more from you later.

Colin Thomson

Colin. Thank you very much for your advice. I have heard some of the Russian composers, and know exactly what you mean. I definately should be adding to my listening library. I have to admit I've been extremely indulgent in film scores since I was around 7 years old, so it's become like a second nature to me. Your constructive criticism was the just the kind of thing I needed to boost me to the next level of compositional maturity.

I also want to think you for your kind words about the piece, I will definately continue to write, and look forward to hearing more of your advice in the future.

Thanks!

Jared Kraft

Your welcome. Actually, I am just a few days from 18 myself, so I am trying to learn all these things, too. Just trying to heed my own advice, which can be hard sometimes. Trying to listen to more of the classics all the time. One of these days I will post one of my works, and then you will probably wonder why you would want to listen to anything I say in the first place :D Just kidding.

Colin Thomson

<-- feels like chopped liver right now.

what? were my comments no help? :D

(just teasing)

Your comments were probably much more useful, because everyone has heard what you can do. As far as anybody on this forum knows, I can't even read music (which, by the way, I can :D ). Until I post something, no one will really know whether to take me seriously or not. You, on the other hand . . . .

Colin Thomson

Nice music. Try to make it longer. I would also like to suggest that you should get into classical music rather then film. Classical music is the foundation and from there you can travel elsewhere to your heart's desire.

I can just see this old guru-type saying, "Let me tell you a tale...," and then we are whisked off to the distant past of a fantastic, let's say medieval with slightly arabic-flavor world, where some great tragedy unfolds right in front of our eyes, like, the hero's brother dies in his arms on the field of battle or something, then we show the funeral (which would either be humble or luxurious, based on the hero's own background), which introduces the hero's love interest who is comforting and consoling him, and then we see them together later, happily ever after, possibly.

That's what unfolded in my head as I listened to it. I really enjoyed it. Can't comment on the mechanics much, but it's a good idea. I would love to hear it a little bit longer, and in my opinion the ending seemed a little abrupt, but I enjoyed it much.

Thank you so much! It's awesome to hear that my work is being enjoyed. I'm glad you could view those scenes while hearing the piece, as it was fully intended to be listened to that way.

Thanks!

Jared