A Melancholy Memory
Usually this time of year you'd expect Christmas music, but I was busy working on other things.
Something more akin to an underscore than a piece of music that draws attention to itself, this all started off with me playing around with a new freebie Orchestra Tools gave away with a intimately sampled old upright felt-key piano. While the piano would probably work well with the upbeat chaos of a jazz band or some quirky electronica, it also has a rather warm if a bit solemn sound, and a few simple chords (as it's always simple chords) gave me the idea of this piece overall.
When I made the piece include strings, I began to think about what the piece of music could represent.
To get away from the usual "sad strings and lonely piano" that most emotional underscoring relies on, I have the strings playing flautando and added in a low brass ensemble with a solo french horn. While you could say the piano and strings represent the core "melancholy memories", the section featuring brass is obviously focusing on the "majesty that lays within in the memory".
That's the trick to soundtrack scoring. You have to realize that the music you're making isn't just for the sake of making music or creating something catchy... But it is in many ways, trying to tell a story without words or pictures, or to accompany those words, pictures, and scenes you see before you.
Something more akin to an underscore than a piece of music that draws attention to itself, this all started off with me playing around with a new freebie Orchestra Tools gave away with a intimately sampled old upright felt-key piano. While the piano would probably work well with the upbeat chaos of a jazz band or some quirky electronica, it also has a rather warm if a bit solemn sound, and a few simple chords (as it's always simple chords) gave me the idea of this piece overall.
When I made the piece include strings, I began to think about what the piece of music could represent.
"Perhaps there is an elderly person we're talking about here. They're alone with their thoughts, only to find themselves drifting off into one of their memories. A memory of a childhood long gone on the rolling hills of Napa Valley, the last day of summer of the last time they were truly youthful. There's good things, there's bad things, and then there are things they just can't put their finger on, all the while they lay under the branches of a great oak tree and look out to the fields, ranches, and wineries that dot the valley, all blanketed under a majestic vista of the Sierras and a warm orange sky. Melancholy, peace, and majesty... How would they love to return to a state like that."
To get away from the usual "sad strings and lonely piano" that most emotional underscoring relies on, I have the strings playing flautando and added in a low brass ensemble with a solo french horn. While you could say the piano and strings represent the core "melancholy memories", the section featuring brass is obviously focusing on the "majesty that lays within in the memory".
That's the trick to soundtrack scoring. You have to realize that the music you're making isn't just for the sake of making music or creating something catchy... But it is in many ways, trying to tell a story without words or pictures, or to accompany those words, pictures, and scenes you see before you.
Category Music / Classical
Species Unspecified / Any
Gender Any
Size 120 x 120px
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