Conceptual Music Competition 13: Last Stand

CMC 13: Last Stand

"You and your group of warriors are surrounded. There is no surrender. Morale is low, but you decide to cheer them on. This final battle is all or nothing; it is either victory or utter defeat." -Blue.Nocturne

Results!:

• Text results and critiques

There are 7 entries for this round...

HoboKa - "Final Retaliation"

• "This song is set in a modern world, where an army is being bombarded by overwhelming odds of a fascist regime. The commander realizes that he and his troops will be wiped out before the next sunrise. But surrender is not an option, thus he prepares a final charge. Rather, a final retaliation."

• "Starting off with a simple march, the soldiers get ready to battle. They are nervous, yet they are ready. There is great uncertainty in survival, but there is a lot of hope. As the great battle goes on many are lost, yet many survive. When all seems lost, the courage of the group manages to persevere. Pushing all that they have into a final attack, they do their best to win the fight. Their efforts have not gone in vain, and they are victorious."

glenji2k4 - "Final Desperation"

• "You and your band of warriors, weary from a long fight, seek solace and retreat in a mountain clearing only to find that your nemesis and and arch-rival has been expecting you there. He appears to be alone and unarmed and offers a truce, but something just doesn't seem right. As soon as you turn your head you realize that you were set up for an ambush, orcs and humans alike wielding swords and spears but only 20 yards away. You brandish your sword and turn to strike your opponent, yet he has vanished. Not to worry, he has sent one of his trusted generals to meet you in combat. A fierce battle ensues as you fight through the horde, making your way to their leader, your final enemy. You are severely outnumbered and fatigued, yet with each successful kill inklings of hope well up from inside of you. After many encounters you finally catch up to your enemy and this time it is all or nothing. Everything will be resolved, for better or for worse, after this battle. You grab up your last ounce of will to draw your sword for perhaps the last time."

• "The year is 2052. The world's social order has collapsed after the Third World War in 2044. There is no East or West. There are no continents. Only one lonely island survived the nuclear warfare that destroyed the world in 6 days: Great Britain.
  Over the course of 8 years numerous self-proclaimed Governments have taken hold across the island; each seizing control over an area of land. These so-called 'Governments' have built up their own personal armies, through recuiting local mobs to their cause.
  You, the leader of the gang known as 'The Warriors' have recently pledged allegiance to the most powerful Government in the south-east of the island. You have heard that the rival gangs in your locality are attempting to overthrow this Government in an attempt to establish their own.
  ---
  0:00 - 0:24: You and a handful of your gang embark on a routine patrol of your area. Everything appears normal at first. However, as you walk you begin to feel something is not right.
  0:24 - 0:34: Your fears are confirmed. Homes around you have a distinct black mark painted on their doors - the symbol of 'The Python Society', your greatest rivals and an infamous group of gangs determined to overthrow your Government.
  0:34 - 0:42: You see darkly clad mobs approaching from every side in the distance. You command your own militia to take up arms and prepare for battle.
  0:42 - 0:50: You shout a few last words as the enemy closes in.
  0:50 - 0:54: They are almost a heartbeat away. You raise your weapon, waiting for the onslaught.
  0:54 - 1:01: Suddenly they stop, feet away from you. You are surrounded with no means of escape. Certain death.
  1:01 - 1:36: The silence is broken by distant music sung by a choir. The song being sung is an old one. It is an anthem said to have been written before the war... happier times indeed. As the choir sing you are struck with warmth and honour. As the music fades away, you face your small force and rally them one last time to defend their home from their greatest enemy.
  1:36 - 1:58: With strengthened morale you and your gang prepare to charge out in all directions. The intensity increases until...
  1:58 - 2:32: Both sides clash. The fight begins. You are outnumbered but are prepared to fight for your lives.
  2:32 - 2:54: The enemy start to disperse, but it is not over yet. You and your militia see this as an opportunity to pull back to the garrison while the enemy lines are broken. You run through the night and can hear the enemy behind in the distance.
  2:54 - 3:07: Sounds of the enemy become inaudible but you dare not turn around. You keep your gang moving swiftly homebound. The Government must know of the Pythons' movements if it is to survive."

James Householder IV - "Todesmarsch"

• "An army marches on, men and women, and even children.... a whole populace making its way towards it's own end, the violence and brutality they will face weighed on each and every one of their minds. Whether they live or die doesn't matter, the only thing on the line is their pride. Their town was burnt to the ground in the night as they slept, nothing remained. Some were lucky to still have their lives. The barbarians still surrounded the land, stationed at intervals and out of sight over the hills. The only thing the villagers had left was a chance to go down with a fight, if at least it would show their glory as a final homage to their lost home. It is just that that their elder said as they rested for the night by campfire. He sang. A warm hymn, the last music they would hear before they trudged solemnly but assuredly on into their last stand, off into the distance, blazened against the morning's dawning sun."

• "0:00 - 0:22 A massive army of beasts and war machines march toward the city.
  0:22 - 0:53 It's all or nothing. The good guys desparately prepare themselves to defend their people.
  0:53 - 1:25 The war machines fire large boulders, the beasts charge. Our friends stand their ground. 'FIRE!' Arrows fly across the sky raining on top of the beasts. The boulders destroy the wall.
  1:25 - 2:00 (Before the happy part ends) Our heroes skillfully cut beasts down like massive trees. Victory is just on the horizon!
  2:00 - 2:30 Oh no! Suddenly another evil army comes out of nowhere! Our heroes are surrounded! There's no hope. Everyone dies. :D
  :: The Camera switches to the story-teller ::
  2:30 - 3:32 'Long ago in the hills of Takontis there was a great war. Your forefathers fought the evil Gidious-Kan. Hopeless, everyone fled the city. Most of the retreaters were killed in vain. However, some of them managed to escape. The few survivors built this secret community in this underground cave we live in now...'"

Numegil - "This is the End"

• "In this song, I tried to fit the mood of a group of warriors, who were in a conflict with some other, more formidable, force for some time. Both forces have finally met together in full, and the climactic battle is inevitable. The outcome of the battle to come will determine the fate of both forces for some time to come. I guess the group of warriors in question could be considered the "good guys", like from some kind of historic movie or something, with the other side being stronger, but more immoral (Lord of the Rings, 300, Braveheart, etc.) The warriors mentally prepare themselves for battle, and remember all of the past time they spent fighting that led them up to this point."

• Voters will be allowed to pick a first place (3 points) and any number of honorary mentions (1 point). Only one set of votes from any one voter will be accepted and a person cannot vote for any one piece more than once. Corrections to votes, from the original voter only, will be accepted, but corrections will void the previous votes. Send all votes to Abadoss by PM or e-mail. Please include any and all constructive critiques (not to be confused with bashing) about them with your votes as well, so that there's always a sense of growth in the artform. If you wish to remain anonymous, just state so in your PM. Thanks.

• The voting period will last from the moment the entries are posted in the thread to the Saturday of that week. The voting period for this round ends November 10, so be sure to spend some time really listening to the pieces.

By Nov.3? That's 2 weeks! That's insane. I'll try, though...

I think I can whip something up for this one, I have an idea that migh tbe able to work for this.

I just saw this competition last night, but I think I'll be able to put something together by this weekend...

Cool. I look forward to hearing it.

I submitted my entry to your Yahoo mail account yesterday... hope you got it. ;)

It might sound rather iffy as to fitting the theme... even provided it fits the plot I wrote for it.... but I feel it is a good interpretation of the theme. Instead of making a battle track... like action music... I made it a PRE battle track, such that a community has been ransacked and now they are surrounded, preparing to march off to battle their offenders who encircle the whole general area, but are waiting just out of sight.

Yes, I did get it. Sending it to my Yahoo was a very wise choice.

Ok, I just submitted too, after making many small changes. Talk about last minute...

All entries are posted! Time to vote!

My votes are already in, this is the only free night I'll have all week, so I thought I'd take advantage of it.

I PM'd them to you, ellipse man. :P ;)

I must say, we had a nice turnout for this round, I was very pleased with each of the other entries, so I was rather particular with the criticisms. :toothygrin:

My votes are also in as of yesterday, I just want to say that I am quite impressed with the quality of two of these pieces in particular, especially one of which (which i gave first place) only seems to get better each time I listen to it. I want to be able to play it :D, but unfortunately that it out of my grasp right now. May the best song win.

-Numegil

I don't belong to OverClocked Remix Forums, but I've been over there a few times. I noticed some talk about a restriction on lengths for the narratives, so I just wanted to put in my n00by little two cents...

The length of Mr. Smith's entry doesn't bother me that much, I have no problem with the length, but I do feel that he, though created a very vivid soundscape, seemed to tend to rely on the narrative to tell about each and every detail involved in the piece as it happened with timestamps instead of letting the listener figure it out what represents what. It's okay that he 'got a little bit carried away' with it, but I think contestants should keep in mind that their music should tell the story, and that the narrative should only open and hone the imagination to the ideas they are trying to get across, not tell every detail as it goes each moment in the piece, that almost defeats the purpose. I think a fair course of action would be to simply discourage play-by-play, time-stamped synopses of the pieces, even if not entirely but to just refrain from them. I know it's kinda hard to draw the line, but do you see where I'm coming from? I think what I'm basically getting at here is the timestamps, or maybe I'm just not plain sure. :happy: So basically, my view is that the narrative is to enhance the listening experience by providing explanations of the interpretation of the theme, but the piece should stand alone without the explanations.

Of course, maybe you can just beat me down on this :laugh: .... the idea of this competition is to get the listener to buy into the ideas presented using conceptual music. So I guess it's however you want to interpret the idea of the competition. :D

Again, just my (albeit possibly n00by) point of view.

The reason I mentioned that was because this forum has a character limit on posts, which used to be 10,000 characters. In order to fit everything, I had to cut down on the text of the post. If you'll notice, there's practically no information other than the entries. However, I talked to Mike and he's graciously fixed that problem.

However, that doesn't mean I don't agree with you.

All votes must be in tomorrow! Don't wait please!

The results are in!

Aaaand another one's over. Very good work, everyone :thumbsup:

The next round has been posted! Here's the link:

http://www.youngcomposers.com/forum/conceptual-music-competition-14-dreams-visions-12099.html