I was really impressed when I listened to this. It sounds very authentic. Some parts remind me of 12-tonal music, it doesn't have predictable melodies which frankly excites me, haha. The brass is also very menacing. 5 stars from me! Good luck :)
Reviews for "The Abyss"
DamienFleisch responds:
Thanks!
This is just insanely good. It honestly has the production quality of a film-score, so when you submitted this, needless to say I was very scared and with good reason! You did a fantastic job with this. You should be really proud of this :)
DamienFleisch responds:
Thank you, that means a lot! Your submission was wonderful as well, and it really was anyone's game. Next year though.... >:D
Holy crap how did I miss this one. 10/10 bear my children
DamienFleisch responds:
That sounds painful, and may require some science. But we must all suffer for our art at some point :P
Ermehgawd so fab I love it.
DamienFleisch responds:
Thanks dewd!
This is an NGADM round 1 review.
Your Score Breakdown:
Production: 27/30
Composition: 28.5/30
Orchestration: 14/15
Originality: 9/10
Emotion: 12.5/15
Total: 91/100 or 9.1/10 or 4.5 stars
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This track really was one of my favorites out of the contest. I really enjoyed the combination of various influences. I could hear a bit of Russian Romantic (mussorgsky-esque) and some Impressionist and post romantic. Then along came the cinematic part... which was another story, but I will get to that in a bit.
My first point of awesome was the inclusion and detail of woodwinds in the first part of the work. There's a lot of nice runs in there and some good use of orchestration to paint the intended picture. I really felt it had a great set of textures for the most part.
The big problem here is that the piece is not memorable. I can listen to it and I can't even remember what I just listened to. My memory sucks, but this isn't just a matter of that. I can remember that cheesy pop song I heard earlier on the radio. Just because you're writing scary music doesn't mean there is no need for any memorable phrases or something that stands out or really has a sense of "you" to it.
A slightly smaller but also important issue is continuity. You start off with this great impressionistic-style piece, an then transfer into this brassy, almost modern climax. I don't ask that you write a piece that sounds like a period, heck no, but when you do mash up stuff, make sure both parts are equal. The contemporary action-horror cinematic portion was very basic- brass tropes, drums, some runs. Lots of big bold noises played very loud and without any resemblance of effective phrasing as present earlier. It just kinda pops in our face and goes BWAAA BWAAA BWA BWA BWA BWAAAA. It doesn't really make me feel anything, it's just a bunch of obviously sampled instruments and the effect, the texture the first half strained to produce, is shattered on impact.
This piece made me think a lot about some old Bernard Herrmann music (guy who scored all those old Alfred Hitchcock movies like Psycho and Vertigo), the "grandfather" of the "horror" music in movies. Herrmann managed to create very powerful pieces without losing the effectiveness of emotions to just blasting brass, and without sacrificing the quality of his composition. I think taking a listen to his work may help you come up with different ways to approach the climax of this sort of style without having to lean back on tropes. He also is a certified black-belt at leitmotifs and their effective use, so maybe there's something in there that will help you come up with ways to make your music more memorable. (examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMTrVgpDwPk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC5AzFc3coo, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCMMDvDUXzA, etc)
The thing that makes horror (or all music for that matter) music effective, and is something that really defines why your first half is super effective, is tension and release. Being able to grab the listener's heart and release it is a very challenging thing to do, but with effective use of dynamics, tensions, and textures, it is considerably easier. Also important an hand-in-hand is the dynamic of the textures and orchestration you are using, notably for the climax. Blending instruments via doubling or harmonizing in thirds or sixths is a hugely effective and powerful art that is mostly ignored by many today. Consider an example from Vertigo, composed by Bernard Herrmann: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytC5jUBpMls
In this scene, the main character is waiting for his love to emerge from a bathroom (silly, right?). Yet, we hear this great tension and release, and a buildup as she approaches, finally releasing in a full-out climax, featuring a resolution to major, with a central motif throughout it all. If you don't have this little earworm in your head for at least a day, I would be quite amazed. In the world of music, tension and release is the most powerful force in existence. Consider ways it might apply to creating any emotion or texture, not just love or fear or anger (although tension that doesn't release or fails to resolve can create feelings of desire and longing). Even in scary music, feeling the tension and release is important to stir the emotions of the listener. ;)
I hope at least one thing in here will prove helpful. As the doctor recommends, take with a grain of salt, after lunch, and KEEP COMPOSING! :)
DamienFleisch responds:
This is a really great review, thank you. I am actually very familiar with Herrman's work as he is one of the first composers who inspired me to pursue a career in scoring. I wasn't referencing him very much in this piece, although now that you have mentioned it that may have been a good idea. With this piece, I had intended to have some of our friends the Russians, and a good deal of Britten. Even Herrman's less rhythmically intense scores (like Vertigo) still have much more energy than I wanted for this piece. But I do hear the similarities listening to that main title again now with the big chords in the brass.
I understand and agree with what you mention about the earlier parts vs the later parts. The fact is I started writing this piece right into my DAW, which I don't always do. If I had gone into the sequencing of it with a better idea of where it was going, I think that would have helped it a lot. What happened instead was that I got through the first half or so of the piece and realized it was rambling and lacked cohesion so I had to do something to pull it together. What I came up with is more of a band-aid than a cure, I suppose. This is definitely another piece that I plan to revisit in the near future. It deserves to be longer and it deserves the attention and detail the beginning has all the way through to the end.
Thank you for your words!