Music, please.

I’ve a whole backlog of String-y compositions that I’ve always avoided mocking up in virtual software instruments because I’ve never been able to get the Strings patches to sound right. Well I’ve been making friends with Logic Pro and the EXS24 instruments. I think it’s definitely getting there and would really appreciate some feedback from additional ears. I’ve been tweaking knobs and buttons for what seems like days now that I’m not sure I’m the most objective person when it comes to reviewing the results.

Anyway, here’s a little medley featuring bits of three compositions titled: The Story Begins; Arise, Sir and This Is Me.

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I write contrapuntally for parts so no block chords and most of the resulting harmony is a consequence of individual part-writing for the orchestra.

As an orchestral player I’ve really tried to use my experience of real orchestras to physically lay out my orchestra in sonic space. So if you were sitting in the audience listening to an orchestra in front of you, I’ve actually arranged the strings (from left to right):

Violins I (front left)
Violins II (mid left)
Cello (mid off-centre/right)
Violas (front right) and
Double Basses (far right, behind cellos and violas)

Physically this is a very common orchestra layout because you achieve the maximum sonorous and darker-tones of violas.

As usual. Comments, please.

This is some of 2009 in a bite-size audio morsel. Although I haven’t been writing full-time this year, I’ve actually ended up with a lot of music—many of which have not yet seen the light of day. I needed to prepare a montage of my music for screen for some music editors. Simple enough in itself, but as I started thinking more and more about which tracks to include, it was a total nightmare. So here’s what made the cut:

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Track featured are:
The Story Begins, Bicycle Music, [untitled], Breaking the C-ode, Dorian, Comedic Antics, Mischief Managed, Suspect Intuition, Festive Bustle, The Magic of Christmas (Choral), [untitled], This Is Me.

On a little aside, I’ve been battling away in Logic Pro and the EXS24 instruments for a while now trying to model a good orchestral palette. I’m definitely getting there—particularly with the challenging espressivo Strings so brace yourself for a whole bunch of big tunes I’ve wanted to upload for a while but haven’t due to bad String section rendering. The top and tail of the montage above are a little taster of my developing String tuttis.

Comments, please.

Audio:

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Score:

Fire any questions and comments about this orchestration using the comments facility for this post.

Audio:

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Score:

Fire any questions and comments about this orchestration using the comments facility for this post.

So to kick things off, here’s the score for Mischief Managed.

Audio:

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Score:

Fire any questions and comments about this orchestration using the comments facility for this post.

Right from the offset, I wanted to find a way of not only posting original audio to this blog but also making available their orchestral scores for reference. Primarily for those who are interested and/or can decipher the complexities of music manuscripts. I’d been toying around with Sibelius Scorch but found the whole user experience a difficult nut to crack – I knew I didn’t want to ask my readers to download this relatively obscure browser plug-in just to view my scores. I had to look elsewhere.

I came across a little online publishing service called Scribd quite a while ago but never really made the association that it might be the perfect vehicle to publish these manuscripts online. So I’ll be making the first manuscript post directly after this.

I’d really appreciate knowing what you think. How could I improve this offering? Could you suggest any other web technology that could do this? In the conversion process performed by Scribd, it appears that the fidelity of thin score lines are compromised. I’m looking into a solution for this.

I really do not know what’s wrong with me at the moment. I seem to have swallowed a happy pill by mistake. I can’t stop writing jolly music at the moment. Could this cue get any more infectious? Featuring sleigh bells; horses; chimes; things that go ting and other things that flutter – it’s all in here. Is it all too gratuitous? Leave comments and let me know.

Enjoy the moment while it lasts:

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I promise the next few posts are definitely going to feature compositions of much darker moods.