The Quest (conceptual stage) - Case Study

Hej Guys,

I was encouraged to post that piece still at an conceptual stage though and so "unfinished" yet. But that is the cool thing I thought because it shows unfiltered everything of I have to struggle while writing music. I had a couple of weeks practically no time in doing any new personal music stuff, besides maintaining a bit my piano practising, so 2 days ago I started this piece as with the main idea based upon two chords with lydian relations (D maj / E Maj).

I thought to share a screencast of the piece so that you can see the notes and also the piano roll as how I voiced and played it. Sure as I am not that excellent player, some parts a bit performed clunky as to my limitations. I would like to have feedback in where you see things which work or maybe not. Just throw in thoughts regardless what.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2uu0sjftkg2jjou/The_Quest.mid?dl=0

 

Hej Sylvain,

I have also attached the midi.

 

He Louis,
as the piece is still at a conceptual stage, there are things which are lets say to be more repackages as you pointed out JW which is an excellent example right on.

My track at this stagew actually has 3 kind of motifs plus some I call it transitional "fillers".

a). One lydian motif
b). one little fanfare
c). a larger darker motif
d). some fillers..just to glue parts in the conceptual stage.

It starts with the main motif which I wanted to be my main thing (a) in the track like from the beginning followed by that fanfare (b) with a very light "b-Section". I call it very light because it is very close to the 2 motifs (a+b) apart that it doesn´t just ride the lydian way, it uses I/IV/IV/I before it utilizes the lydian movement again. And then there is the 2nd darker motif which there are 2 bigger blocks of it. The first one of these blocks is a more traditional minor version with a I/IV/V, the second one rides a bit more on a minor / diminished version of it (whcih I wanted to present more dissonant) then followed by the more uplifting A motif and B again which appears a bit more restraint and ends up a bit quasi jazzy romantic lol.

I glue actually the parts with some few fillers together. So this is very basic..still and now comes the point to use those 3 ideas to make something out of it. Sometimes I tried to put some counterlines into the motifs which actually still sound clunky but you get the idea.

So from now on I try to shape the parts and I think..about the process to create more derivations of the existing material, so to shift ideas around which I yet hadnt done that much. I am no near a class of JW with that and so I can only say: His perfection in shifting ideas around is unparalleled. And I am rooky when it comes to that, But I try to give my best..

 

Hey Paul. Thanks for the insight. Yes, good idea with that. Where do you feel I could do that in the piece? Thank so much for the input here.

 

So this is so far the structure here:

The green blocks represents the lydian parts
The slight yellow green ones the "more fanfarish" parts which appear in slight different contexts later
The red ones the darker 2 larger parts
the blue ones are the short transitions

 

@Louis Calabrese Hej Louis, so here is my answer applied to the example. Today morning I went back to the A / B Section and I thought about how to extent those ideas and I did 2 things:
1. I thought about to counterpoint and fill out more the gaps and
2. I tried to extend the Motif by "repurposing" the same idea with a more minorish bitterwsweet context". That process is practically playing slower / half time and reharmonizing the melody and the idea.

So take a listen, so before I enter really the fast first darker part I have much more to say in regards of my "main" idea. That is at least how I start to work out more the ideas. You know you create "clones" or "brothers" of the same stuff over and over again but you shift the harmony and style.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bysmcvugzslthvi/AS_Comp_02_04_18_v6.mp3?dl=0

 

Hey Doug,

Thanks for the insight with the Firebird. I actually like those comparisons as they are very approachable with that visuals.
No actually I didn´t update the video (I think with YT it is not possible to replace videos)
But I did update the file, see my post #9 where I started moving a bit the a/ B Section around and exploring other paths with it so in order to say a bit more. I yet didn´t had time to explore more, probably monday tuesday then.

I actually didn´t thought much this time about JW and Indiana Jones, but more about the general consensus what I have learned during the last year by so many trial and error things. So like I said in my first post I had like this Dmaj / E Maj lydian relation thing followed by this simple bit of fanfare with a that major 7th structure in it. And I wanted a darker counter more fast paced action oriented motif which breakfasts through a classic I/IV/V at its first appearance.

 

Ok, I had a cuban coffee this morning, and normally I don´t do anything on sundays, but still spent an hour to rearrange some stuff:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xa5i8zd6zjo8ea8/AS_Comp_02_04_18_v8.mp3?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2uu0sjftkg2jjou/The_Quest.mid?dl=0

 

I will check that spot..

but the coffee thing, it is a style of cuban coffee also called cafe con leche. I actually use this maker in the attachement (cost just 10 Euros when b - ware):

The procedure is as the following showed in the short YT video, but with the difference that I add one spoon of sugar in the upper part of the maker (the top). What makes it cuban style is that you make a half cup of milk and heat it up and then you add and the fill up the rest of the cup with the coffee. To get the most out of it, I also grind every morning my beans.


That whole concept I learned from my american wife (which has puerto rican roots). The method showing in the video though I remember I know from my parents, ecspecially my dad who travelled a lot to Italy (had many friends there).

 

@Doug Gibson
https://www.dropbox.com/s/guvdpppqiof1rwv/short record.mp3?dl=0

 

Ok, I did work on the stuff, and that is version 9 with some new stuff..

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yugsaa8csyt4s21/AS_Comp_02_04_18_v9.mp3?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8k2w4oi6lv2jkoe/The_Quest_v9.mid?dl=0

 

I orchestrated a few bars today, actually with my sketch template, just to see how things work with an eventual orchestra scenario..

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6tweusfz5026kfe/AS_Comp_The_Quest_Orch_Sketch_template_v1.mp3?dl=0

For those who (I don´t know if that are any here but a friend of mine wants to orchestrate the track too) and so maybe for those I would not then recommend to listen to it.

 

Ok, and here is the second version.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/igi99j2ftrzc20w/AS_Comp_The_Quest_Orch_Sketch_template_v2.mp3?dl=0
changes mainly:
Violins in the beginning are more outlining the chords as decoration and forward motion element
Later dark part: Completely redone because I was tired always to use for such things a Horn Ensemble playing the melody. I did that countless times and I wanted to try out something different that strings are playing the melody (Vlns, Vloas, Cello Stack) and brass doing the accents and forward motion fillers.
I think just for reference I will keep all the versions just that you can also look up where I change things and so on.

 

Allright, and here is the v3, with that version I changed some stuff in the composition as well mainly I added a part in the middle to have a little cliffhanger momentum.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4np85sjls0m8cok/The_Quest_v10.mid?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/toa44izm39zq8cw/AS_Comp_The_Quest_Orch_Sketch_template_v3.mp3?dl=0