A Long Way Home

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A Long Way Home

Author Comments

I present to you my composition for Round 2 of the NGADM 2013, 'A Long Way Home'.

Firstly, I want to mention just how thankful I am for the response my Round 1 submission 'Blind Maiden' received. I'm really humbled, so thank you everyone! In Step's review, he mentioned that perhaps I focused too much on my vocals so that the instrumental parts didn't shine as much as they could have. With that in mind, I moved on to compose submission #2.

This composition in all technicality is split into three parts. My aim was to have the first part, singing the story of the feelings of the girl's journey ahead, with the piano composition representing the start of the journey itself. The build up in that whole piano part is there to symbolise the journey but the incohesion and interruption after the build up with this last part is my attempt to symbolise becoming lost along the way, hence tying in the title 'A Long Way Home'. It's almost ironic hopelessness despite the words that are sang in the beginning.

The female singer here is my lovely friend Joy, also known as JoyDreamer whom you can find with a quick search on YouTube. It would have been much easier for myself to perform the vocal parts indeed, but she has the perfect voice for the feeling I wanted to capture with the vocals in this composition.

A huge thank you to Joy for performing vocal parts alongside me and helping out with the Danish lyrics! She's a talent indeed.

Yet another huge thank you goes out to the wonderful BlazingDragon (best of luck in your Round 2 submission!) for performing the piano in this piece. I sent him the parts I'd composed using soundfonts and how he learned it so perfectly and sent it back to me is beyond me, yet another huge talent and an amazing composer in his own right. It's an honour to have him play the piano in my composition and by that I'm also humbled.

My music is still very much a learning process and I'd still definitely say I'm amateur at very best, but I'm still very early on in my life. I wanted to branch out in my Round 2 submission and working with others is something beautiful indeed. Sadly I don't have any expensive software like EWQL, I'm working with free soundfonts and my own imagination, but it's the best quality I can produce at this moment in time! ^ ^

Lyrics & Translation:
Et sted hvor solens stråler er fortabt
Hvor din styrke er din foragt
Hun daller ned og hør hvad du taler
Og hun ved du drives af en magt

Du følger kun dit hjerte og dit sind
Og de ved hvor du må gå hen
Et enkelt mål men så mange fjender
Det' den enste vej hvis du vil hjem

A place where the rays of the sun are lost
Where your strength is your contempt
She falls down and hears what you speak
And she knows you're driven by a power

You follow only your heart and your mind
And they know where you have to travel
One simple goal but so many fiends
It's the only path if you want to return home

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Benmode

2014-02-25 07:21:41

So many cool melodies in this. I love the feel, very dreamlike. Big fan of the strings+woodwinds+piano together too. :)

edarddragon

2013-10-20 05:18:48

hi
the good and very god
the vocals are the best i heard until now
the background of the vocals is good and the piano the atmosohere to talk in general
this seems like alot really lot of work and like is it for a movie or something really beautifull and emotional

the not so good
even troght i really like the voice and the rest i could really understand the words rarely if i strain myself ,
there could be some more of the voice at then end
well 4.8 my rating great song

bassfiddlejones

2013-10-03 17:05:09

This is an NGADM Round 2 Review.

What I liked:
-Vocals! Very nice, and mysterious. It's very chant-like, which is good!
-I like the piano sounds!
-Chord progressions are not entirely standard, which is rare and good.
-Parts of this sound like they belong in a move like Lord of the Rings or something like that. Especially those super emotional strings near the end.
-Great job producing atmosphere throughout. I'm impressed.
-For working with sound fonts, your sound quality is quite high.

What could have been better:
-This piece feels a little disjointed, the beginning doesn't feel connected to the rest of the piece. While I really loved it, I would have liked to have seen it incorporated more or reintroduced.
-That somewhat Asian sounding part in the middle is out of place to me. The rest of the piece does not fit in to this genre.

Excellent job here. I'm really impressed with this, especially from 2:37 onward, the composition is quite strong. You have great talent, and I'm looking forward to hearing more of your music in the future!

Score: 8/10

Echo

2013-09-04 05:47:36

NGADM Review:
---
Beyond a doubt, the highlight of this piece, are those fantastic vocals. They're very well sung, they're emotional, they fit in well with the theme of the piece, and they're well mixed. All in all, they're just right. They're definitely your strongest suit.

However, the instruments that come after are kind of disappointing when considering the quality of the introduction. They just sound a bit too fake, too robotic, to have the same striking effect as the vocals. The melodies and harmonies you used are fine, but the instruments that play them just aren't. There are also some mixing issues at points, with reverb drowning out notes when it shouldn't be.

Overall, this really is a great piece, and it has the potential to be more if you could work more on the instrumentation. Great vocals and great ideas, keep up the good work!

Score: 8.8/10

SkyeWint

2013-08-30 21:35:00

Hi.

The Good:
-Your singing is top-notch, just like the last round. It does sound like there's a bit of pitch-shifting at one point, but that's not really an issue. There's a lot of musicality in how it's sung.
-Nothing wrong with the way you use your strings, they sound fine.

The Not-So-Good:
-After all those natural and musically-sung vocals, you then have a COMPLETELY QUANTIZED piano and erhu at 1:07. I'm sorry, it sounds horrible in comparison. :(
-Some little mixing issue at 1:35, sounds like there were some misplayed piano notes an octave too high.
-This entire piece is REALLY reverb-washed and only not that muddy due to the few instruments.
-Off-key piano note at 2:16, sticks out like a sore thumb.

Overall: Score of 7.6/10. This is well-done, the singing is great, but the natural sound of it clashes with the quantized instruments. Your vocals are your best part - let them shine! This doesn't mean ignore the other instruments, you can still have them shine as well. You don't need to have them solo in order for this to happen.