00:00
00:00
Newgrounds Background Image Theme

mcd410 just joined the crew!

We need you on the team, too.

Support Newgrounds and get tons of perks for just $2.99!

Create a Free Account and then..

Become a Supporter!

The Princess is Not Dead

Share Download this song

Author Comments

Full title: The Princess is Not Dead Yet

Composed with LMMS (Linux Multimedia Studio). Features a number of instruments from the Fluid 3 soundfont and the Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra. (And I used one other soundfont for the strings section, but I can't figure out which one...)

Inspired by Pavane for a Dead Princess (specifically this rendition: https://soundcloud.com/me ffis/pavane-for-a-dead-pr incess), I composed this back in November 2012 for a Knytt Stories level (that has not been released yet). I poured my heart and soul and time into this piece, and I hope you can feel that. It's far better than any piece I've composed since then, and rightfully so. :)

The original project file is somewhat corrupt so it would take entirely too much time to restore it and continue editing where I left off. Still, please post any suggestions.

Feel free to use this in any project other than a Knytt Stories level as this is reserved first to be used in the level that I mentioned.

Log in / sign up to vote & review!

oh, working with soundfonts & LMMS is so awesome haha ;D
well, I keep it short: you made a really cool track... respect. hehe

Krichotomy responds:

Thanks! Working with LMMS is nice except when certain sound plugins decide to randomly blare very loud sharp high pitches while I'm wearing my headphones.

I can imagine how the Ravel piece inspired this. Quite beautiful. A few thoughts:

-I like the general atmosphere of this piece. I felt waves of melancholy wash over me as I listened. There is a nice variety of instruments and subtle mood changes throughout.
-In general, your melodies are a bit on the weak side. Although you keep a continuity going throughout the piece with repeating chord progressions and smooth orchestral transitions, I don't know if there is one distinguishable, main melodic idea. It's like you are using the orchestra as this nice background pad and improvising melodies over the top for a few minutes. The melodies aren't bad, as they fit within the harmonies and are pleasant. But they don't build on one another or develop and therefor do not have any staying power. I've listened to this a few times now but cannot think of what the primary melody is. If you just want to create pretty background music, this is fine. But if you want something that will really stick with people, you'll have to give more focus to melodic development. Take a motif and reuse throughout the piece. Trade it off between different instruments. Make variations on it and elaborate on it. The point is to give the listener something to grab onto and remember.
-I REALLY like the timpani part starting at 1:55. It totally changes the feel of the piece and adds a feeling of resolve to it despite the sadness. It makes me think of someone facing some seemingly impossible obstacle knowing that they can't turn back.
-I do like some bits of call and response that you use between instruments. An example is the flute and :44 and how the guitar responds to it a few seconds later.
-Starting at about :26, you have a couple of woodwinds playing right in the same range. I think this sounds muddy, and it is kind of like the instruments are stepping on each others' toes. Try putting one of them in a higher register to create clarity.
-Read some orchestral scores and examine what the strings tend to do. Whole notes are well and good, but they do get boring for players. Around 1:36 was a nice exception, but strings can really do so much more than block chords. They can do pizzicato, tremolos, play countermelodies, double melodies by octave for support and all kind of other cool things. They can do pedal tones and inverse pedal tones...Oh, the options!!!
-At the very beginning (and throughout), I would turn down the volume of the harp and up the winds. The harp is nice and colorful, but it isn't exactly the most important element in the texture. Bring the melody to the foreground.

This is really beautiful. Do try to focus a little more on mixing and melodic development though, and study as many orchestral pieces as you can to learn what each instrument is capable of. This will help you tremendously. :)

Keep at it!

Krichotomy responds:

Thanks for the mega review!

This piece is supposed to have somewhat of a backgroundish melodic-ambient feel, hence the weak melodies. It is supposed to feel unresolved, hence the lack of a clear theme. It is supposed to take a place side-by-side with a few other very different musical pieces. I was trying to make a good theme that sticks with the listener, but it may be good that I didn't totally succeed given the purpose of the piece. I'll keep your advice on mind as I continue to compose stuff.

The muddy sound of the two instruments at 0:26 is completely intentional. :)

Melody was not the focus of this piece, so I think the winds should stay at that volume. The harp really is too loud.

Lots of good advice there (and encouragement) - thanks!

Wow. Just wow. You take LMMS, 3 soundfonts and then? You make just an awesome emotional song. When i decide to make a game from an idea i had for my english lesson-story, then i would like to use this song for the princess.

Krichotomy responds:

Somebody asked me to come up with a spooky remix of Pavane for a Dead Princess and I tried but ended up with sad emotional music instead. But I liked the result so much that I continued to pour my heart and soul into it. Somewhere in the middle of that I discovered Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra and started adding all the percussion. That helped guide the musical flow a lot. Glad you like it!

I'm quite excited about what Sonatina and Fluid R3 can do. Sonatina can sound very emotional as you proved here.

Krichotomy responds:

The original project file is kinda corrupted so I can't see what the instruments where, but I just listened through again and compared to samples from soundfonts. I think this is the breakdown:

Fluid R3: Harp, Flute, Cor Anglais, Nylon String Guitar, Kalimba, Oboe
Sonatina: Cymbal, Bar Chimes, Timpani, Finger Cymbal, Chimes
And the Strings where from some other soundfont. I haven't been able to find out which one yet.

So I only used Sonatina for percussion, and I only used percussion from Sonatina. I did most of the work on the project before I had Sonatina soundfonts (I only had the source wave files) so really percussion was all I could practically use.

Credits & Info

Composer

Listens
1,188
Faves:
3
Downloads
41
Votes
8
Score
4.80 / 5.00

Uploaded
May 2, 2013
1:41 PM EDT
File Info
Song
3.7 MB
2 min 42 sec

Licensing Terms

Please contact me if you would like to use this in a project. We can discuss the details.