Fantasy inspired compositions

Thank you! Yes I took another look at JW imperial march - he uses the bass drum rarely, and often for a sort of tail effect it seems, a hit towards the end of a bar to create a long tail into the next bar, sort of like a gong!? So rather less than some it seems. I will stick more to the timpani and try and limit it somewhat. Do you have any advice about the tuba ? I am always confused about this instrument in an orchestration context. As a solo instrument it is easy to use I think.
I plan on using the old field drum rather than the snare. For more medieval settings I like it more.

 

I decided to post my first sketch for the Warcraft II impressions. Counter melodies and strings etc will be added now.. So I think this will be for the humans/alliance.

 

More work done! Now it starts to get fun
Writing the strings was hard! I have so much respect for you guys who can do it on the piano alone

Now I will work on the introduction and end/loop, and add snare/field drum, bell, harp or cembalo etc...

 

Sketch 3 :
Now I start to be happy about it! I am having a difficult time with the introduction and loop. I might change it all together. I feel I need more melodic material for the middle happy section. That might be a more free flute expressive melody. I will also add the harp to this section, and probably harp glissandi.

 

Sketch 4 :
This is pretty much it!
I am not happy with the introduction and loop and might work on that towards the end. Everything else is pretty much how I want it. The interpretation can of course be improved in the DAW...

 

Now I consider it done! All in all the structure is loosely based on the original Warcraft II human1 track.

 

I finally finished another, this will count as the first track for the human-alliance. My plan is to make 6 tracks for the human-alliance, and 6 tracks for the horde.
Critique appreciated. Let me know if you need to see the messy sibelius sheet and I will post it also! Noteperformer 3 all the way!

 

Thanks you are right! I guess I want to make it for game music, but my main inspiration is classical - Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and in large part John Williams. So it will take some time before I settle on a "style". I guess I will end up doing pure classical works for pleasure and more "tried" and simple compositions for Computer Games. Or perhaps I can find a compromise, who knows . But yes I should have mentioned the "loop" structure. I guess forcing myself to listen to it over and over will reveal if the structure is fitted for being looped.

 

Thank you!! The warcraft 2 style is in general very percussion heave. I think in direct comparison I'm much softer already
I guess what I'm doing now is just experimenting, I will definitely try to incorporate more variation.
One big problem with looped game music is the constant BPM, it can get very unnatural, but at the same time the audience is also used to it.
I will publish score when I can get around to it

 

I finished the 4th track for the Human Alliance, so part of same soundtrack. The style is a bit different, It is moving towards the more cheerful victory music(5th track). The loop is around 3.10.
Again Noteperformer and Sibelius all the way! I will post the sibelius score when I can get around to it!

 

On a second listen I can definitely hear what you are talking about percussion wise.. It should be a quick fix!
I won't get around to do it atm but at some point definitely! Thanks !! I can delete a lot of tambourine hits and have more variation between the tambourine and the cymbal, that should more or less do it I think.
I listened to JW emperial march and noticed his snare is much more subdued than what I thought.
Here is the score... I started to use non-transposed instruments throughout (concert pitch), let me know if you prefer a transposed version ? Also the horns are in alto clef. And the tenors in tenor clef.