Alex J Whapham

I think you should extend the deadline until you have the two other judges. That would give me time to formulate an entry ;]

I think the orchestration was a bit too simple at times, one major example that comes to mind is the fight scene with the multiple orcs. It really could have done with more oomph and a musically fatter orchestration. I just felt like there was too much open air in the music to be the emphasis of a battle scene. I really missed hearing any recurring motives. There may have been some, but none were memorable enough for lightbulbs to go off in my head. It seemed like perhaps you were trying to be a bit too Howard-Shore esque and lost sight of it? Forty minutes is plenty long enough to develop and few motifs. Overall I really commend you on many things. The general audio mix was great, the choice of when to have and when not to have music was spot on, the general mood created by the music was fitting, the instrumentation of most of the cues was appropriate, it all fit the vibe and time period of the movie. One last thing I'll critique is that some of the devices you use to achieve certain moods are a bit cliche(ie. the high strings during pause moments of the orc battle scene). You can get away with them, but its the little creative nuances you put in that really distinguish your music from say, Howard Shore's. I'm not saying get rid of the high strings, I'm more saying embellish upon them somehow to make them unique and fit into the musical entity as a whole. Overall, it was a good movie, although the best actors were the orcs :P You're music certainly got the job done though, you're well on your way.

Whenever I try to open an encore file in my Finale 2007(Mac), finale just sits there and does nothing after I select the file and press ok. Is this a known issue? I doesn't freeze, its like it never recognized I told it to import the file.

yes, mac, how would i go about doing this?

or showing up when I open files that should have movies already in them. Tried stacking and tiling windows, resetting finale, resetting computer. Any ideas?

*poco a poco

Inspiration is not what a composer needs to write music. Inspiration is what a composer instills in a listener through his own hard work. :)

It's been a while since I posted any music here, so here goes. Canon for Violin and Cello This was a piece born from a canon assignment in my Tonal Counterpoint and Invention class. It is more or less a piece formed by two canons, each beginning with the same motif except the second is retrograde. It was performed on October 27, 2008, although the audio you will hear on the youtube is a GPO synthesis. The score(pdf) is attached below. Hope you all enjoy it! canon.pdf

To be honest, to me, your work sounds like every other EWQL-whoring wannabe film composer out there. Now. That's not exactly a bad thing. :cool: The motivic ideas are there, your grasp of music is phenomenal, but the mix that EWQL produces is just so monotonous and boring. I wish more film composers would learn to EQ to create some reality and space. Maybe that's just my producer/composer ear being way too picky. But... Every one of the 2nd tier composers (below the A listers) has the sound that you have. The constructive criticism I would give you is to delve more into the mixing aspects of it, create a sound all your own, continue to work with your self-recorded stuff, and gradually start to distance yourself from your peers. Only then will people take notice :)

jeesh guys just take out the space at the end of the URL... cant you guys do anything for yourselves? :whistling:

Some suggestions.... 1 Vary your instrumentation on the second repetition of the motif, it helps to break monotony. The greatest tool you have to keeping a listener is variety, plus if you ever record with an orchestra, you won't have very many unhappy people =] 2 As for how to continue, I'd say a -subdued, highwind & highstring with harmonic support- variation on the main theme would work well. At least, that's how I'd continue it. But its tough to say without knowing what you're visualizing while writing. Go with what you feel.

I think it would be a great idea to divide the incidental music forum into subforums that separate the video game music from the rest, seeing as how there is so much of it. I, personally, as a composer for film, often venture into that forum looking for the film work of other composers, only to find a gigantic amount of game scores ;) I think this would be a helpful and more focused place for the VG composers.

EDIT: Start writing for film.

Posted this a month or so ago but got no feedback, figured I'd try it again. PDF - http://www.freewebs.com/alexwhapham/opus1%5Fbelfiore.pdf MIDI - http://www.freewebs.com/alexwhapham/opus1%5Fromance%5Fbelfiore.mid

MP3 - http://www.freewebs.com/alexwhapham/opus1.mp3 PDF - http://www.freewebs.com/alexwhapham/opus1%5Fbelfiore.pdf :: Comments?