The Song of the Siren

Hello Guys,

Yes, this is a typical "aaah" song, but it's not arbitrary, it's because of the theme of the track. Of course, feel free to add a comment or criticism! Thank you!

Hi @olivercomposer,

15 hours ago, olivercomposer said:

Yes, this is a typical "aaah" song

LoL haha!

The opening is very colourful like the Harry Potter or the Sugar Plum Dance. I like your accompanying the voice with harp or lute like what Orfeo's doing. That F minor(Ab major) colouring throughout the piece is lovely. Again in the latter half starting form 1:56 you're going for the grander brassy climax, but I like it especially with that modulation from A minor to C minor. But I think you can add the voice here as well as I think the passage will be too instrumental and you can just add more "aah"s in it for me! Is there the story of Odyssey included here too? Maybe it can be more dimensional with the story added.

Thx for sharing!

Henry

3 hours ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Hi @olivercomposer,

LoL haha!

The opening is very colourful like the Harry Potter or the Sugar Plum Dance. I like your accompanying the voice with harp or lute like what Orfeo's doing. That F minor(Ab major) colouring throughout the piece is lovely. Again in the latter half starting form 1:56 you're going for the grander brassy climax, but I like it especially with that modulation from A minor to C minor. But I think you can add the voice here as well as I think the passage will be too instrumental and you can just add more "aah"s in it for me! Is there the story of Odyssey included here too? Maybe it can be more dimensional with the story added.

Thx for sharing!

Henry

 

Thank you for your review! This is not that specific story from Odyssey, this is just an average dangerous siren, who wants to kill sailors, who knows why? 😄 This is the nature of sirens. I didn't want to add voice to the middle section, and if I added it, I would have to rewrite the score and find some "place" for the vocal. Now, I don't want to create another version of this track. But, this particular track maybe will appear in a media sync library, and then I will consider creating a "more vocally" version.

Your brass section makes me think of swashbuckling pirates on the high seas: so I think you hit the brief!

I also hear echoes of the Harry Potter movies, and the vocals almost sound like a shampoo commercial on first impression.

(Not necessarily a bad thing, since adverts tend to have catchy music!)

I believe it is an effective work well done. I always associate this kind of music with something cinematographic...
I think the strings sometimes "conflict" with the voice because they are in a similar register and follow a similar melody.

Thank you for your comment! The strings are one octave higher than the vocal. I wanted to use strings and woodwinds together, so the flutes play the same part as the violins, and there are clarinets under the vocal.

I really appreciate your opinion, and your criticism but I think there's no problem with the strings and the vocal, but maybe I'm wrong. If you see it differently, please elaborate on your comments. I'm really interested in your point of view!

Hi Oliver,

I like this piece.  I noticed however, that many of your pieces resort to stereotypical "epic" scoring for choir and orchestra and sometimes using the "aah's" in a typical way as well.  I know you've written solo piano pieces that you've shared here as well.  Have you considered writing some chamber music?  I would be excited to hear what kind of music you could write for 8 individual instruments or less.  Or maybe a Piano Trio or String Quartet?  When writing for those kinds of ensembles you have to use different means to create variety and contrast and it might be a good exercise for you!  I did enjoy this piece ofc although of course, without a score it is hard to tell whether everything you've written would actually be playable by a real harp.  Also - nice job with the horn lines!  But the reason I mention smaller ensembles is because you seem to be using as many instruments as you can/fancy.  But writing for smaller ensembles might force you to be more economical and concise with your use of orchestral forces as well.  Thanks for sharing!

7 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Hi Oliver,

I like this piece.  I noticed however, that many of your pieces resort to stereotypical "epic" scoring for choir and orchestra and sometimes using the "aah's" in a typical way as well.  I know you've written solo piano pieces that you've shared here as well.  Have you considered writing some chamber music?  I would be excited to hear what kind of music you could write for 8 individual instruments or less.  Or maybe a Piano Trio or String Quartet?  When writing for those kinds of ensembles you have to use different means to create variety and contrast and it might be a good exercise for you!  I did enjoy this piece ofc although of course, without a score it is hard to tell whether everything you've written would actually be playable by a real harp.  Also - nice job with the horn lines!  But the reason I mention smaller ensembles is because you seem to be using as many instruments as you can/fancy.  But writing for smaller ensembles might force you to be more economical and concise with your use of orchestral forces as well.  Thanks for sharing!

 

Thank you for your thoughts! Yes, maybe I should write a piece of music with fewer instruments. It would be interesting. I'm thinking about a string quartet. I composed a medieval-like music, I posted it on this forum.