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Ryan Leach April 2024 Composing Competition

Here's mine but I have to preface this first, since I'm swinging way above my level!!

You know that person with a bat up at the plate and is so ready to send that ball over the fence...they swing so hard, while missing the ball, that the bat takes them down!!! :rofl: ...well, after finally listening to the submissions so far (ALL of which are incredible!)...Here goes nothing!

Before I do though I have to apologize to @TheNashJMusic I had only read page 1 and haven't revisited this thread until now plus I've already submitted, can't change the name of mine so I swear I'm not trying to steal your name! :emoji_flushed: I know its probably no big deal but just had to say something.

 
Chad said:
Before I do though I have to apologize to @TheNashJMusic I had only read page 1 and haven't revisited this thread until now plus I've already submitted, can't change the name of mine so I swear I'm not trying to steal your name! :emoji_flushed: I know its probably no big deal but just had to say something.

Click to expand...

Don't worry about it, my lawyers will be sending you something in the morning😂

No, but seriously you'll be surprised how many people have the same concept idea or name when they make something. It happens in scriptwriting too, I entered something that had a disclaimer along the lines of "you'll be surprised how many scripts have similar concepts and ideas in the same sitting".

So dw bout it😁.

Nice composition as well, very different tone to some of the others I've heard.
 
TheNashJMusic said:
Don't worry about it, my lawyers will be sending you something in the morning😂

No, but seriously you'll be surprised how many people have the same concept idea or name when they make something. It happens in scriptwriting too, I entered something that had a disclaimer along the lines of "you'll be surprised how many scripts have similar concepts and ideas in the same sitting".

So dw bout it😁.

Nice composition as well, very different tone to some of the others I've heard.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the compliment, its very appreciated and I thoroughly enjoyed yours!
 
Finally got around to finishing my entry! Took kinda a long time but that's what I get for working in Dorico and then doing a mockup as a totally separate secondary thang AFTER finishing the whole thing (though I can't seem to do it any other way, it's a long and crappy workflow but it's not possible for me to keep orchestration bits in my head when I can't see them in notation). Sigh.

Anyway there are a ton of lovely entries in here as always. I just took a quick listen to everything in this thread so far...

@TheNashJMusic I really enjoyed your lighthearted and fanciful take, the children's choir was a nice touch!

@swinkler That could have been taken from any one of my childhood favorite fantasy movie themes, incredible work, I'm kinda blown away.

@Ben Bytehugger and @peastman y'all both took a lighter touch and a more peaceful vibe than I did, I think both of your entries fit the image quite well!

@Kenneth Malm I have to agree with swinkler I think the judges are going to love this one. I personally quite enjoyed your woodwinds writing, and your string sound contributes to giving it a old Disney kinda vibe, really lovely!

@Frank Paul that is one great theme and I think you also got excellent mileage out of it, beautiful writing and beautiful orchestration, not much else I can say :P

@Crunchy Penguin loved that opening, kinda put me in a Christmas spirit in April 🤶 Those woodwinds trills too for that matter. Also apparently I didn't get the memo to use accordions or similar timbres that you all did. What is that accordion-like instrument? Harmonium?

@Ferenc Bátri I was hoping you'd submit something since I was looking forward to hearing whatever it was, (and I had very high expectations too). But man, this would work as an opening title for The White Queen or The Tudors or any kind of high budget production of that nature. Bravo.

@Chad congrats that's beautiful and melancholic that really goes menacing and hard at the end (reminded me of the O.G. Warcraft music which I adore).

Honestly, it's humbling to hear SO many damn good entries. It's not only cool to hear everyone's different takes on the same "source" material, but also gives me goals to aspire to ;)

Here's what I've cooked up, tried to be unabashedly "adventurey" with it:
 
blaggins said:
Finally got around to finishing my entry! Took kinda a long time but that's what I get for working in Dorico and then doing a mockup as a totally separate secondary thang AFTER finishing the whole thing (though I can't seem to do it any other way, it's a long and crappy workflow but it's not possible for me to keep orchestration bits in my head when I can't see them in notation). Sigh.

Anyway there are a ton of lovely entries in here as always. I just took a quick listen to everything in this thread so far...

@TheNashJMusic I really enjoyed your lighthearted and fanciful take, the children's choir was a nice touch!

@swinkler That could have been taken from any one of my childhood favorite fantasy movie themes, incredible work, I'm kinda blown away.

@Ben Bytehugger and @peastman y'all both took a lighter touch and a more peaceful vibe than I did, I think both of your entries fit the image quite well!

@Kenneth Malm I have to agree with swinkler I think the judges are going to love this one. I personally quite enjoyed your woodwinds writing, and your string sound contributes to giving it a old Disney kinda vibe, really lovely!

@Frank Paul that is one great theme and I think you also got excellent mileage out of it, beautiful writing and beautiful orchestration, not much else I can say :P

@Crunchy Penguin loved that opening, kinda put me in a Christmas spirit in April 🤶 Those woodwinds trills too for that matter. Also apparently I didn't get the memo to use accordions or similar timbres that you all did. What is that accordion-like instrument? Harmonium?

@Ferenc Bátri I was hoping you'd submit something since I was looking forward to hearing whatever it was, (and I had very high expectations too). But man, this would work as an opening title for The White Queen or The Tudors or any kind of high budget production of that nature. Bravo.

@Chad congrats that's beautiful and melancholic that really goes menacing and hard at the end (reminded me of the O.G. Warcraft music which I adore).

Honestly, it's humbling to hear SO many damn good entries. It's not only cool to hear everyone's different takes on the same "source" material, but also gives me goals to aspire to ;)

Here's what I've cooked up, tried to be unabashedly "adventurey" with it:
Click to expand...

Swashbuckling and exciting! Fantastic work!
 
@blaggins same with me. I've tried to compose in a DAW and I just can't figure out how to work that way. I compose in MuseScore, export to a MIDI file, and load it into a DAW to add expression and articulations. I'm not sure if that's less work than just reentering everything by hand, but it works.
 
I finally finished my entry. Having hardly any experience with composing orchestral music it was quite a struggle. Hearing all the amazing entries in this thread, I can't help feeling a bit inadequate. But I had fun and I learned a lot (I think). Mainly that composing orchestral music is hard work.

I decided not to use the original image, which required registering and even giving credit card details. But some AI generated images help me tell the story that it suggested in a different way.

 
And here another one, based on this normandic castle. The piece has two parts, the first half depicts the static serene view from a distance with the blue sky, white clouds and green foreground whereas the second half depicts the activities during the many centuries in and around the castle.
There is a kind of 'Leitmotiv' in the piece, and that is/are the up and down scale runs.

 
dalec said:
I finally finished my entry. Having hardly any experience with composing orchestral music it was quite a struggle. Hearing all the amazing entries in this thread, I can't help feeling a bit inadequate. But I had fun and I learned a lot (I think). Mainly that composing orchestral music is hard work.

I decided not to use the original image, which required registering and even giving credit card details. But some AI generated images help me tell the story that it suggested in a different way.

Click to expand...

A very strong appealing theme in the opening.
 
Whilst replying to a YouTube comment on my entry I looked through, as I usually do, the commenters channel to see if they had an entry so I could listen to it and comment my thoughts on it in my reply and what I liked from theirs. And I encountered this which is an entry by an AI generating composer. It's interesting to know that we're up against AI and now that I know it's a thing even in comps, I'm even more motivated to take my craft up to a whole new level and my all round musicianship:

 
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