Musical Overture to "A Star Is Born"

This is an overture I might use for a pretend musical adaptation of a "A Star Is Born". I really love the movie so I thought I would write a bunch of songs to go with it and make it into a musical in some manner for fun. Although I haven't finished writing all of the songs. This overture contains the main song "I've Often Thought Of You" which is arranged in two different ways the first way being a humorous arrangement to symbolize the character Norman Maine's comical behavior when under the influence of alcohol and the second arrangement being more romantic and sentimental to accompany the lovely relationship between Norman Maine and Vicki Lester. I don't know how to orchestrate very well. To be honest I used Garritan's Instant Orchestra to get the sound so don't hate on me too much :P. I am not entirely satisfied with the sound of the orchestra at some points because it sounds like it lacks legato. I don't have a score because I don't know how to legitimately orchestrate however I will provide a lead sheet with the melody and harmony. Ignore the lyrics they have some typos and are not complete.

A Star Is Born Overture.mp3 

I haven't heard or seen this film, but if you wrote the song here, it's pretty good! The orchestra could use a little finesse. But it's not bad! And you can't go wrong with those high strings.

Thanks for the comment and feedback ken! I've always been kind of afraid of submitting my work on here because I see you guys are more advanced in terms of orchestration, etc. So I didn't know where I would fit in. With regards to the film it is actually a film that has been remade 3 times with the notable musical version being from the 50's with Judy Garland and James Mason. If you want to here a hit song from the film google or search "The Man That Got Away". This is the main song from the 50's version which is far better than mine lol. Harold Arlen had a lot more experience than me at my current point.

With regards to the song yes I did write the music. The lyrics are my own as well but I don't really know how to write lyrics because it seems like another craft on its own. 

Now a question on the orchestration.

What do you mean when the orchestra could use a little finesse?

Is it the lack of legato I was referring to with the samples?

Or is it the lack of background lines, changing of textures?

If you would be so kind, what specifically led you to the conclusion that the orchestration lacked finesse?

As for the high strings yes I know I love the sound of those high strings! :)  They sound great to me especially when the melody reaches the climax on the A7(b9) chord. That sound is what really hits home for me. I think the sample on Instant orchestra is a double octave sample which seems like it has layered solo strings for vibrato purposes as well.

Anyways thanks for the feedback! :) 

Just to be clear, your song is unique and separate from the musical, chord progression, melody, the whole thing?

If so, don't be afraid to post here. As I sense that you know, a flashy orchestration never trumps a good solid song. The  orchestration was not bad, as I said. But you said there were problems with legato. That's it. Most people here use Garritan with a notation program. You have to sort through sound vs. intention. Please listen to some of my music here. I don't use Garritan because I want the "mock up" to sound the best it can be.

I love The Man That Got Away.

Thanks again for replying with feedback and I love how you listened to one of the songs from the original 1950's version.

With regards to the music I wrote and how I wrote it.

The melody came to my head a long time ago and just filled itself out naturally ( I find that melody comes easier than harmony to me at least). 

After I came up with the melody I harmonized it with basic harmonies that I aurally discovered. I think the basic changes or chord progression in other terms was:

A

Cmaj7 | % | Dm7 | % | G7 | % | Cmaj7 | %

B

Em7 | A7 | Dm7 | G7 | Em7 | A7(b9) | Ab7 | G7 

A

Same as previous section

C

Am7 | Ab7 | Cmaj7 | A7(b9) | Dm7 | G7 | Dm7 G7 | C6

Then I reharmonized the A section only because I felt like the other two sections were decent

The reharmonization thus became 

Cmaj7 | C#dim7 | Dm7 | Dm(maj7) | Dm7 | G7 | Cmaj7 | C6

BTW the Dm(Maj7) is more of a contrapuntal elaboration.

The harmony took some more thought and effort than the melody as I stated previously.

So yes I wrote all of the content on my own. :)

I didn't steal or copy the changes or anything, I don't pride myself in doing that as I love music too much to do something like that :)

Thanks again for the reply

And yes I will definitely check out your music as criticism and music talk must be mutual :)

18 minutes ago, MrLernerAndLoewe said:

Thanks again for replying with feedback and I love how you listened to one of the songs from the original 1950's version.

With regards to the music I wrote and how I wrote it.

The melody came to my head a long time ago and just filled itself out naturally ( I find that melody comes easier than harmony to me at least). 

After I came up with the melody I harmonized it with basic harmonies that I aurally discovered. I think the basic changes or chord progression in other terms was:

A

Cmaj7 | % | Dm7 | % | G7 | % | Cmaj7 | %

B

Em7 | A7 | Dm7 | G7 | Em7 | A7(b9) | Ab7 | G7 

A

Same as previous section

C

Am7 | Ab7 | Cmaj7 | A7(b9) | Dm7 | G7 | Dm7 G7 | C6

 

Then I reharmonized the A section only because I felt like the other two sections were decent

The reharmonization thus became 

Cmaj7 | C#dim7 | Dm7 | Dm(maj7) | Dm7 | G7 | Cmaj7 | C6

BTW the Dm(Maj7) is more of a contrapuntal elaboration.

The harmony took some more thought and effort than the melody as I stated previously.

So yes I wrote all of the content on my own. :)

I didn't steal or copy the changes or anything, I don't pride myself in doing that as I love music too much to do something like that :)

Thanks again for the reply

Fantastic!

Fantastic. I know all this music, Harold Arlin, Richard Rogers, Jerome Kern, etc. It's like a no-brainer to keep it alive, but it's not.

Yea I have a lot of people tell me that I am weird to like this "old-fashioned music" lol but the truth is I love this music so much that I don't really understand why it faded under modern forms given the prominence it used to have.