Although I'd agree that this piece isn't likely to win, it's one of my favorite submissions so far. I have a high level of neuroticism, so I can really relate to the extreme emotions this track evokes. This will definitely be one of those tracks that I'll listen to periodically over the course of many years.
Reviews for "Penderecki's Dream"
Phonometrologist responds:
Well I hope this doesn’t contribute to the neuroticism, but rather it being a theraputic one. Thank you for the comments.
OMFG YOU JUST DROPPED DA NUKE! (no pun intended)
What you kidding me bro? this piece is going to win so hard it will knock everything else in the path. The production and quality overall is above and beyond. Thank goodness I listened to this in the noon time, else I would have all my hair on the body stood up at midnight. And I'm listening to this on loop, that's something.
I have heard Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima before this piece (in Children of Men), but I do believe your rivals that piece. Mind melting work. The amount of detail is amusing. Damn I ran out of vocabularies to describe this...
i don't want to sound like a wimp but this piece brought back some dark memories. Sometime I wish I could undo my life and start over again, erasing all these unpleasant memories. but i can't.
thank you for this mindblowing track.
Phonometrologist responds:
I actually hope it doesn’t win, because I don’t want to offend anyone if a non-tonal piece places over other tracks that are. But also, judging music in general is hard to do since it has many points of personal opinion and tastes, but by adding to it an aleatoric piece makes judging it even less quantifiable. Thank you for the endearing remarks. However, I can’t ever put myself in a position next to Penderecki as he envisioned and created this style. The laurel wreath remains upon him as the creation can never surpass its creator. At a technical stand point, I emailed 8Dio that we still need a library that could change in oscillation in realtime of the string’s tremolo like in "Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima.” Also, In “Threnody…” the tone clusters has different string players resolve to microtones. We are still far from achieving complete control of what a string player can do in a performance. But then again, the argument would be that these companies are only interested in creating libraries for commercial use.
While I love harmony, I can also completely lose myself in dissonance.
Did you not win 1st or 2nd place with "The Place of a Skull" back in 2014? In the very least, I recall you earning a high placement. I hope the judges don't discriminate on genre or approach alone! That said, I understand why a piece like this might be difficult to judge. The mix sure is effective, as is the structure. For instance, I like the sudden silences here and there, and then the quick (almost) slashes of and hammerings on the strokes to grab the listener's attention. The buildups, like the one near the end, are also most effective.
I've heard the piece you're referring to a fair amount of times, and I think it'd be fair to say you managed to channel the structural elements of it quite adequately. Not implying you'd directly have taken anything but inspiration from it, ofc :p
Also, can we talk about the fact that the artpiece was essentially posted yesterday, if I'm not mistaken? So you must've gone full throttle with the creative process here!
In short, I really enjoyed the listen, and I suspect I shall relive and possibly indulge in that enjoyment some more, a bit later ;]
Btw, gotta love that commentary on the titling process.
Phonometrologist responds:
I'm the same way in regards to harmony and dissonance.
And no, I didn't win any place with "The Place of a Skull," but that piece at least has tonal sections. For this piece in particular, I mentioned to Macta that I really wouldn't judge this highly over others, because I don't know how one can really weigh a non-tonal piece like this with other tonal ones. Maybe if there was a non-tonal, aleatoric, and noise competition then that would most certainly work. Which would be a great idea for a contest! Haven't ever heard one of its kind before for an online competition. You and I should start one.
As for the art piece, I had a couple pieces that I had in mind of RobStanley's, but when I couldn't make a final decision to which one to use, I forwarded this music to him to see what he thought would work best. We were in communication when he mentioned that "Untitled - 105" would suit well for the piece. I ultimately agreed.
Here was my original thoughts in the artwork:
http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/robstanley/untitled-77
It was in the dark, unclear figure that I thought would originally be fitting because just like this music, one fills in the gaps by seeing in their mind the unseen. And we try to make sense of chaos around us by finding the patterns and organizing the content.
Thank you for your comments :)
I love the atmosphere you start to create at 1:40ish after the first climax, that builds into the descending passages. The build at the end is really cool, it sustains for long enough to get me on edge and then just a bit longer :). I am slightly surprised that it did not get muddy with everything going. The mix is certainly crisp and clean. Also the level of realism is surprising i think if you had mixed this with the intention on it sounding it a real string Orchestra, you could have fooled me.
Really superb job putting this together, I can not image how hard it must have been to stay away from any type of harmony for an almost 5 min piece. Oh, I have to mention that this makes me think of the Dead Space score. I think this piece would make Jason Graves happy :)
Phonometrologist responds:
When I sent you that message about reverb mixes, I had this piece in mind that I was referencing to. I did attempt to create this as if it was a live recording. As a template, I created 10 different channels representing the string sections of "Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima," using the solo strings, and then I added several more channels for the library that had the whole orchestra. Having the solo strings library from 8Dio while using the whole string section from Cage really helped get a more realistic sound. I also looked at the score to see when what string sections (violins 1-4, violas 6-10, etc.) would come in in relation to the other parts of the orchestra. Very meticulous approach, but I really referenced the hell out of "Threnody..." from the musical structure to the actual sound of a live recording.
Ohoho A fan of Penderecki are you? I find his compositions quite wonderful to listen to. I need to get my hands on a string library that can do extended techniques so that I can do something like this! I love the way you built up the sound with the orchestration in this piece. You created some truly beautiful soundscapes. In true Penderecki fashion, I was half expecting to hear a C major chord at the end lol. Great job all around and a bold move to put something so 'modern' sounding into this contest, though I understand why most people could associate something like this with the image. I look forward to hearing more music from you in the future! 8D
Phonometrologist responds:
Thank you for commenting, and it's good to see yet another listener who enjoys Penderecki. The only two string libraries that I used for the whole track are a bit pricey, but are at least worth it for me being a Penderecki fan. They are 8Dio's CASE Solo String FX and 8Dio's CAGE Strings. I also demo'd the solo strings library so I didn't actually have to purchase it.