instrumental rock V.D. - Unclear Destiny

Here I come again with another creation, almost 2 months in the making. This is one of my favorite creations up until now, it might sound repetitive, but I believe that would only bother whoever doesn't find it atmospheric or following a certain pattern that they'd like and/or expect.

All opinions are appreciated and loved, your feedback is what makes me keep on creating such music, not giving up.. if it were for me I'd have given up long ago haha.

Interesting idea with your opening but the beat ends up sounding so disjunct with the melodic fragment the whole thing just kind of sounds off to me; keeping it more steady would have maybe kept the whole thing sounding more cohesive.
The atmosphere of the main part of the piece is nice with the subtle chords and relatively obfuscated riff (in a good way)! The end section was fantastic with some really great chords. I think I would just say in the fast section to have it varied the second time through in some way. Maybe adding some more diminished or augmented chord, reverse bell tones or anything else to have the audience not fall victim to the "double repetition", which is more dangerous than singular repetition.

3 minutes ago, Monarcheon said:

Interesting idea with your opening but the beat ends up sounding so disjunct with the melodic fragment the whole thing just kind of sounds off to me; keeping it more steady would have maybe kept the whole thing sounding more cohesive.
The atmosphere of the main part of the piece is nice with the subtle chords and relatively obfuscated riff (in a good way)! The end section was fantastic with some really great chords. I think I would just say in the fast section to have it varied the second time through in some way. Maybe adding some more diminished or augmented chord, reverse bell tones or anything else to have the audience not fall victim to the "double repetition", which is more dangerous than singular repetition.

 

True.. many of my melodies feel 'disjunct', I always create a melody that's too short, and fail to expand it or lengthen it without sounding like I created two different melodies and attached them. The hardest part for me to get past in music it seems.

About the repetition, there are small differences but they might not be heard on the first few listens, but yes this composition in particular has much more repetition than others, so I understand your point. Thanks for your opinion! I'll work on fixing such errors in future compositions.

Hi Vadrif:  I can certainly appreciate the amount of work you put into this..  As always Monarcheon, hits the nail squarely on the head.. 

What I'm gonna propose here, may sound off the wall on first reading. but bear with me.   A while I composed an extensively long piece call

'Treatise On the Walls'. It is posted on this site

This was based on Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick In the Wall'..  then I just kept expanding on it. 

 It really is a challenge to write a long piece, have it interesting, cover a lot of territory, but have some continuity.

Part of the process I used in composing, but more so refining after the original writing sessions was 'binge watching' some great TV series on Amazon Prime

I watched  several shows consisting of 3 - 5 seasons..  

The eye opener for me, was a miniseries on 'The Unabomber'.  The guy who was mailing bombs in the 90's..  

The FBI had recently started using a 'behavioral analysis unit'..    This is the science of figuring out the 'back history' of someone, by the evidence.  Of getting psychologic with it. 

They totally developed the science of studying linguistics (how a person wrote or spoke).. to determine the exact geography and age of the Unabomber..  They made 'profiles' based on the bombers activities.

I then watched 5 seasons of 'The Wire'..  One of or perhaps the best piece of TV writing ever made..

What intrigued me was the ability to carry a premise and situation thru 5 long years of TV.. Their success depended on extremely great writing, great actors, great casting.

I looked to find analogies in long piece of music..  So this is a method I developed.  I somewhat embarrassed to admit here, I know practically nil about  classical music, especially symphonies.  I'm sure there is a good deal of 'methodology' used.  

Watching the TV shows - I boiled it down to:

1. There are characters (which would be the different instruments used in your piece)

2. The casting is the choice of instruments used to generate the melodic, harmonic parts.

3. The script - is when you introduce new situations, and know when to circle back to a basic premise, for continuity and stability

(Know when to bring the main, auxilary motifs again.  When to plainly restate it, when to mutate it a bit. 

So I generated some musical parts.  then I stepped back and did 'behavioral analysis' on the different parts, motifs, sounds etc I had so far created, and then worked on enlarging and lengthening the piece 

So I would very carefully select a 'sound palette' (choice of instruments to be used).   I deal with a lot of esoteric sound libraries, and I look for the emotional qualities of the patch, or instrument itself.  I then craft the musical statements it will sound, depending on the emotion quality of the sound itself.

I began to see, the different parts of the piece, served a specific function, I could repeat that, or modify it (changing to keep interest and motivation)

A big part of my process was too listen to what I had done - INCESSANTLY..  Put the music on loop, with a notebook and pen.. keep taking notes. I would play it all nite, while sleeping.  wake up in the morning with a mental list of issues to address. 

Believe you hit the point on the 100th listen where a certain part 'has got to go'..  It's may be striking at first. but it doesn't 't hold up..  

Good music to me, holds up to countless repeated listenings.  I love many artists, and still listen to their work 50 years later, because it has 'staying power'.  (I'm old)

Your pieces have strong emotional content,  which I like very much..  I like some of your other pieces.  I did get the work behind what you put into this piece

I know what I'm proposing here may sound off the wall to some, but in a certain way, music is an analogy of an aspect of life..  Hope this gives you something to think about....

Mark

You're always teaching me something new and incredibly valuable, I'm surely going to keep your reply bookmarked for a while, re-reading it for quite some time. I'm very thankful, and I surely see your perspective, my storytelling surprisingly matches my musicmaking, if it's a novel it'd have lots of chapters, each with little yet concentrated details & scenarios, yet seeming unrelated or happening in different places, to recollect in the end.