# The Great Quest



## AlexanderSchiborr (Apr 24, 2018)

Hey Everybody,

The last 2 weeks I spent some of my time composing a new piece. You can see / follow its creation process on redbanned which was part of an exercises in order to improve my motif development writing. My main goal is to write a bigger scope music track with a few ideas but develop them over time which I train now for around 4 years very excessive. I tried also to stay true to my piano sketch. My dream would be that one day I would have the possibility to record such thing with a live orchestra, but yeah..:D



Here is the 2 Handed Piano Sketch for it which I always do to keep on track:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cap4lubo85xso7i/AS_Comp_02_04_18_v22.mp3?dl=0

Hope you enjoy.


----------



## Henu (Apr 24, 2018)

Oh nice, I love to hear people composing this sort of REAL EPIC music instead of the umpteenth "epic" distorted drum loop-spiccato nonsense. I _really_ like the compositional ideas here!! As a small constructive feedback, for me some of the samples were maybe lacking a small bit of "punch" at some parts. Which libraries you used here and is everything out of the box?


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr (Apr 24, 2018)

Henu said:


> Oh nice, I love to hear people composing this sort of REAL EPIC music instead of the umpteenth "epic" distorted drum loop-spiccato nonsense. I _really_ like the compositional ideas here!! As a small constructive feedback, for me some of the samples were maybe lacking a small bit of "punch" at some parts. Which libraries you used here and is everything out of the box?



Well, thank you Henu. Yes, I didn´t pimped up some section according to articulations (give me some spots if you have some specific things), I also need to tighten up some timings still. But sometimes it is also very hard for me to let samples talk such music because I feel I am not writing to the strenghts of the sample and therefore it becomes a big challenge for me. 
Acoording to your remark on epic music. Well, I often say: Live and let live. While I am no big fan of the current epic music trend during the last couple of years I appreciate the older epic more symphonic music which seemed to me more sophisticated in comparison what we have know. But thats a matter of taste and personal choice.


----------



## markleake (Apr 25, 2018)

Agree with Henu, I love to hear something that takes on a epic feel (in the true sense) that is more orchestrated vs. synths and loops to achieve an idea. In that regard, it is very "Williams-like" in it's ignoring of the trend, one thing I love Williams for.

Not to put down the contemporary trends, I'm not saying I dislike the trailer style, but definitely I only can take that style in smallish doses. Basically, it's just good to hear an alternative.

I always like your pieces Alex, and I learn from them. Actually, I think I like this one better due to the focus on motifs/themes. Sometimes I find your tracks a bit chaotic and very busy, so the motifs helps me enjoy it and understand it better.

One thing... I think sometimes you miss out on opportunity. For example, if you slowed down the theme that comes in at around 19 seconds (which is very nice, by the way), and worked on it to give it more emotional impact, and took the same approach at certain other points also, I think it would improve it. It would give it more variety and release of tension I think, it would have more balance. But it would change the tone of the track somewhat too, so maybe you couldn't do it... it's just a thought.

Edit: just to clarify, the slower theme starting at around 40s doesn't do it for me as much (it needs to be "sweeter") as when it first hits with the strings playing it. That's why I'm saying the first opportunity is missed a bit.


----------



## Henu (Apr 25, 2018)

A bit off- topic, but



AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Live and let live.



To be honest, I have a very strong (black) metal background and it's hard- coded into me to be extremely judgemental/ non- compromising for what it comes to music- related things I don't appreciate or find "untrue". :D Funnily enough, my professional job is a composer/ music producer so I too often need to swallow that attitude, haha!

Anyway, I'll check out some of the places a bit later as I need to work first, but technically some of the horn and trumpet parts were sounding somehow a bit "weak". Or maybe it's more about me just recently struggling getting the Spitfire brass to sound as powerful as I wished, and hearing the same issue now everywhere.


----------



## Levitanus (Apr 25, 2018)

Alexander, with all my respect to Your works, I feel, this piece has themes for a half of hour fantasy, but not for 6 minutes track  Things are changing too fast, connected too schematic at my taste, while themes by themselves are well!
Mockup could be better at some points, I suppose, sometimes it is very cool.
Still very interesting for listening


----------



## markleake (Apr 25, 2018)

Levitanus said:


> Alexander, with all my respect to Your works, I feel, this piece has themes for a half of hour fantasy, but not for 6 minutes track  Things are changing too fast, connected too schematic at my taste, while themes by themselves are well!
> Mockup could be better at some points, I suppose, sometimes it is very cool.
> Still very interesting for listening


Maybe this is a better way of saying what I was saying.  There is some excellent material in here, it would be great to hear it drawn out more to give it more effect (affect? both?).


----------



## MarcusD (Apr 25, 2018)

What a great journey. Thanks for posting! Reminds me of many different classic adventure films.


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr (Apr 25, 2018)

Henu said:


> A bit off- topic, but
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Okay, thanks for that. 


Levitanus said:


> Alexander, with all my respect to Your works, I feel, this piece has themes for a half of hour fantasy, but not for 6 minutes track  Things are changing too fast, connected too schematic at my taste, while themes by themselves are well!
> Mockup could be better at some points, I suppose, sometimes it is very cool.
> Still very interesting for listening



Thanks for the feedback. May I ask how many different motivic ideas (and I am speaking of the focal points, not like a transitional filler or something) do you count in that 6 minutes? I am just interested into it to evaluate my own writing. Thank you!


MarcusD said:


> What a great journey. Thanks for posting! Reminds me of many different classic adventure films.



Thanks a lot, glad you enjoyed.


----------



## Levitanus (Apr 25, 2018)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> May I ask how many different motivic ideas do you count in that 6 minutes?


Have to say, that after You question I was very surprise found it almost in total monothematic with very little extractions (3 or 4), meanwhile pretty tricky  However, the first impression, as we can see in the theme isn't so obvious and, yep, a little bit... Don't know, polygonal


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr (Apr 25, 2018)

Levitanus said:


> Have to say, that after You question I was very surprise found it almost in total monothematic with very little extractions (3 or 4), meanwhile pretty tricky  However, the first impression, as we can see in the theme isn't so obvious and, yep, a little bit... Don't know, polygonal



Thanks for the clarification and much appreciated for the input.


----------



## will_m (Apr 25, 2018)

I can see this working great for a roller coaster of an adventure scene where the action and narrative is constantly changing.

As a standalone piece of music though I was finding myself looking for something to tie all the ideas together, a single memorable thematic idea that is given space to grow and develop.


----------



## Kony (Apr 25, 2018)

I agree with @Levitanus - I was getting an overture vibe from this. That's not a negative by the way! For me, it's not due to how many motifs, but the many changes/directions which feels like a summary for a much larger piece. The orchestration is excellent as always, Alexander, as is your attention to detail! I'm always inspired to take a more traditional approach after listening to your compositions - much respect


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr (Apr 25, 2018)

Kony said:


> I agree with @Levitanus - I was getting an overture vibe from this. That's not a negative by the way! For me, it's not due to how many motifs, but the many changes/directions which feels like a summary for a much larger piece. The orchestration is excellent as always, Alexander, as is your attention to detail! I'm always inspired to take a more traditional approach after listening to your compositions - much respect



What is an overture, maaan? :D 

No joking..but sure the track is compact and wrapped up also with a lot of action stuff. You can and I can extrapolate single ideas, but my idea was to bring a lot of momentum into this track. 6 minutes is already a time. Sure..stylistically I would say that I could stretch the material and single sections. No way wrong about that.


----------



## Ben E (Apr 25, 2018)

As always, excellent.


----------



## yhomas (Apr 25, 2018)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Hey Everybody,
> 
> The last 2 weeks I spent some of my time composing a new piece. You can see / follow its creation process on redbanned which was part of an exercises in order to improve my motif development writing. My main goal is to write a bigger scope music track with a few ideas but develop them over time which I train now for around 4 years very excessive. I tried also to stay true to my piano sketch. My dream would be that one day I would have the possibility to record such thing with a live orchestra, but yeah..:D
> 
> ...




Layperson perspective: I like this, but will try to focus more on criticism which is more useful feedback. 

Really impressive orchestrated journey. the mockup, though amazing in places, still sounds like a mockup—not fooling anyone—but it is generally not offensive and conveys the music effectively enough that I do want to hear this on a real orchestra. 

There are several places where strings are playing chords, and then the chord stops with a break—it just sounds like a keyboard playing a chord. It might work better to play these lines in one at a time with a single string phrase in mind. 

This composition is like an tantalizing dinner, set with an appetizer, salad, soup, vegetables, fine wine, dessert, and a nice cheese plate—but no meat or potatoes. Now, there are people with sophisticated taste who I am sure would love this spread, but simple folk such as myself mainly require meat and potatoes—that is, the “song”—whereas other items are welcome, but optional. There is a lot of great transitional musica content here, but there is basically no song that a typical layperson can latch onto. 

Admittedly, maybe that’s your intent, but the main impact of music comes from moving emotion, and for me, there is very minimal emotional movement here despite a fairly wondrous scoring/arranging and breadth of musical content.

The only thing I can remember of the piece after a casual listen is the unmistakable (if not iconic) motif from Indiana Jones (which you expanded upon counterproductivly IMO).

The tempo/pacing/flow seems great, except maybe we are just on the border of too fast sometimes?


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr (Apr 26, 2018)

yhomas said:


> Layperson perspective: I like this, but will try to focus more on criticism which is more useful feedback.
> 
> Really impressive orchestrated journey. the mockup, though amazing in places, still sounds like a mockup—not fooling anyone—but it is generally not offensive and conveys the music effectively enough that I do want to hear this on a real orchestra.
> 
> ...



Hello there,

Glad you took the time and listen to my music here. Thanks also for the detailed feedback. I think it is interesting to read how different the track is received. Just starting to answer upside down,hehe! I was (not) surprised to read that you connect the main motif to the indiana jones motif as it has a tendency towards it with its fanfaric approach. There are similiar ingridients inside like the major 7h tonality, + repititon and rhythm. Though at a whole I think that part of the motif is just a part and the complete motif at all doesn´t follow the harmonic language that much as it starts with modulation shifting in the beginning and evolkes more a lydian character as the indy theme is a I/IV V with a suprised phrygian modulation tonality in the end which I don´t feature here. Still I get the point here.

To your next remark: This piece as I said isn´t easy at some parts and it is very compact and needs at least in my opinion more time to get explored. Now someone can say: Hey Alex, but whats the purpose of music which you can´t get by the first time listening? Well yes...I often say: First time experience is always very important therefore I dont say I have done everything right here. I just say that some "parts" would reveal (lets call it parts) its intention probably when you listen for longer.

Yes, sometimes I play chords which in then would be spreaded between the sections (Vlns, Vloas, Cellos) or divisi depends on. They would work probably better when I would have programmed the stuff better which I know I didn´t because honestly I didn´t care that much at that point because for me the intention was enough. I know I can be very picky by myself with mockups though so I understand that point.

And yes criticism is good and like yours and other welcome. I don´t need to get always "feel" good comments. I know what I can do and what I can´t. Having said that. I am not here to say: Oh look how cool am I. No, I share many of my music because I would like to encourage everybody to see how my journey and struggle is, because writing in that style is very challenging.

Edit: Yes sometimes it is a bit fast. real orchestra would have a struggle to pull of some section in that tempo. I will make an overhaul of the piece in that regards I think and give some transitions more space to breath.

For this piece I heard here very different remarks which is quite interesting as it shows me that there are things which I should improve of course.


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr (Apr 26, 2018)

Ben E said:


> As always, excellent.


Thank you Ben, appreciated. Though if you feel to critic, always welcome. Your last piece was btw ecxcellent..


----------



## Guy Bacos (Apr 26, 2018)

Very impressive track!

Overall, the piece has great energy flow, this has become a trademark of yours and I believe your forte, a lot because of your brilliant orchestration and sense of forward motion in those longer action scenes. You do this so well!

A few minor things: At 41s to about 1:30 sec, and between 3:33 and 4 min the music is surely lovely however sounds a bit flat and midi-ish, some added expression, more obvious dynamics, would of helped to bring it at par with the rest of the piece. Generally the programming I think could be polished a bit more, mainly in the soft sections, what bothered me the most was the sounds that would cut off suddenly, made it less credible.

As far as the structure, well it's cinematic genre, and the way I hear it is that I am transported into a grand journey of the author's imagination, and I was entertained, so I'm not one to debate structural aspects especially if it's tastefully done. My only constructive comments would be the few midi-ish issues and lack of expression in some areas, but at the same time I never found myself a good person to judge other people's work, especially at that level. Maybe if it was played by a real orchestra, certain issues mentioned in earlier posts would be non existant, hard to say sometimes. Still very enviable track.


----------



## yhomas (Apr 26, 2018)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Hello there,
> 
> Glad you took the time and listen to my music here. Thanks also for the detailed feedback. I think it is interesting to read how different the track is received. Just starting to answer upside down,hehe! I was (not) surprised to read that you connect the main motif to the indiana jones motif as it has a tendency towards it with its fanfaric approach. There are similiar ingridients inside like the major 7h tonality, + repititon and rhythm. Though at a whole I think that part of the motif is just a part and the complete motif at all doesn´t follow the harmonic language that much as it starts with modulation shifting in the beginning and evolkes more a lydian character as the indy theme is a I/IV V with a suprised phrygian modulation tonality in the end which I don´t feature here. Still I get the point here.
> 
> ...



I listened some more to this and a couple of your other tracks. Wow. I wish you were orchestrating some of the Shows/movies I watch (which are too often not up to your standard). 

As far as I am concerned, your arrangement, orchestration, musical content depth is at a level that meets or exceeds professional tv and feature film standards, and perhaps just as importantly, you have musical taste that is IMO, accessible enough to normal people listening casually, while still providing depth that would reward more advanced listening. A lot of times, adding more intellectual depth tends to detract from casual listening, but IMO, you are reaching a good balance. 

But, what is missing is the emotional connection—where one is driven to tears, or that magical spine tingling element. 

Also, as I mentioned earlier, the “meat and potatoes” “song” melody/theme is also not there, and perhaps this is interrelated to the emotional aspect. 

Obviously, this is just one layperson’s opinion.


----------



## Paul T McGraw (Apr 26, 2018)

@AlexanderSchiborr I really love this piece of music. I am confused by the earlier comments about too many ideas or motives. There is only one theme, and it is not completed by a cadence. About 90% of the piece is directly manipulating one motive taken from that theme.

And you do an outstanding job of manipulating that one motive. You did such a great job that people think it is multiple motives! You present the motive in major and minor. You change the harmonies. You manipulate the intervals while keeping note values constant. You slow it down or speed it up with great success. But what really is impressive are the changes in orchestral textures. I think this is mainly what throws people. You keep showing us this one motive with changes in harmony and orchestral texture that make it sound completely different. This piece could be used to teach a class on orchestral textures. But of course you still didn't use every possibility, but why should you?

I think there may be a second motive used also, but if so I bet it is also drawn from the one abbreviated theme. Anyway, I just wanted to thank you again for sharing your music with us. You are an awesome composer. 

Could the midi-performance be better? Probably here and there it could be a bit better, but wow, most of the time it blows me away.


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr (Apr 28, 2018)

yhomas said:


> I listened some more to this and a couple of your other tracks. Wow. I wish you were orchestrating some of the Shows/movies I watch (which are too often not up to your standard).
> 
> As far as I am concerned, your arrangement, orchestration, musical content depth is at a level that meets or exceeds professional tv and feature film standards, and perhaps just as importantly, you have musical taste that is IMO, accessible enough to normal people listening casually, while still providing depth that would reward more advanced listening. A lot of times, adding more intellectual depth tends to detract from casual listening, but IMO, you are reaching a good balance.
> 
> ...



Hey there, 
it is funny but I think the emotional aspect and what you mentioned "driven to tears", oh man, that is really a hard tough thing to achieve, I think there you need really incoorporate more aspects, a real orchestra can always pull of certain gestures with much more musicality as I am able to transport via my sample programming. I would say: That would be the ultimate cool thing..

I don´t know if I am yet there to score professional bigger film / TV stuff. I think I have gotten better over the last couple of years and I still see a lot of things where I need to improve and kick my own ass.


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr (Apr 28, 2018)

Paul T McGraw said:


> @AlexanderSchiborr I really love this piece of music. I am confused by the earlier comments about too many ideas or motives. There is only one theme, and it is not completed by a cadence. About 90% of the piece is directly manipulating one motive taken from that theme.
> 
> And you do an outstanding job of manipulating that one motive. You did such a great job that people think it is multiple motives! You present the motive in major and minor. You change the harmonies. You manipulate the intervals while keeping note values constant. You slow it down or speed it up with great success. But what really is impressive are the changes in orchestral textures. I think this is mainly what throws people. You keep showing us this one motive with changes in harmony and orchestral texture that make it sound completely different. This piece could be used to teach a class on orchestral textures. But of course you still didn't use every possibility, but why should you?
> 
> ...



I don´t deserve such over the top comment. I mean..I appreciate but man...you know..there are works definitely where your statement applies but I don´t feel that mine is that that..thing..you know..no..lol. Anyways..actually I tried to do something in that direction. But for a lesson..yeah I should better take more lessons and study more..maybe in 10 years or so we can do that ! :D


----------



## novaburst (Apr 28, 2018)

The piece speaks dedication. 



Guy Bacos said:


> I am transported into a grand journey


and this

nice work


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr (Apr 28, 2018)

Btw; I am working right now a bit on the programming and tempo map as well to let some parts a bit more flow and I also slowed down some lyrical parts which were a bit too fast with some stuff..I will replace the file later..


----------



## yhomas (Apr 28, 2018)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Hey there,
> it is funny but I think the emotional aspect and what you mentioned "driven to tears", oh man, that is really a hard tough thing to achieve, I think there you need really incoorporate more aspects, a real orchestra can always pull of certain gestures with much more musicality as I am able to transport via my sample programming. I would say: That would be the ultimate cool thing..
> 
> I don´t know if I am yet there to score professional bigger film / TV stuff. I think I have gotten better over the last couple of years and I still see a lot of things where I need to improve and kick my own ass.



Not necessarily tears, but to connect with the listener, the music should (generally) have emotional movement. The goal is to make great music, and all great music (and art in general) does this one way or another—very few exceptions. Even the basic structure of a traditional four part symphony is always designed for an emotional journey.

As you say, it isn’t easy, but I thouroughly disagree that your mockups aren’t enough to achieve this! Don’t make excuses for yourself in this regard IMO. 

I have heard much less sophisticated midi mockups somewhat clumsily playing simplistic melodies, intellectually inferior musical harmony/content/arrangement/orchestration that still managed an emotional connection. Even one instrument—guitar/piano/voice/etc.—and nothing else can achieve musical beauty and move emotion. Even a performer without great skill or perfect technique can achieve it—though obviously, better skill and more orchestration can improve the odds. 

Obviously, audibly offensive aspects detract from emotional movement, but most listeners are not that fussy over small items that might greatly bother you. 

Anyway, the idea of me (a random member of the audience) giving you advice may be ridiculous, but nevertheless, my advice for your musical development would be to spend some concentrated effort on emotion—which admittedly may require you to temporarily dumb down the intellectual content. Intense focus on one aspect will usually detract from other aspects.


----------



## yhomas (Apr 28, 2018)

Paul T McGraw said:


> @AlexanderSchiborr I really love this piece of music. I am confused by the earlier comments about too many ideas or motives. There is only one theme, and it is not completed by a cadence. About 90% of the piece is directly manipulating one motive taken from that theme.
> 
> And you do an outstanding job of manipulating that one motive. You did such a great job that people think it is multiple motives! You present the motive in major and minor. You change the harmonies. You manipulate the intervals while keeping note values constant. You slow it down or speed it up with great success. But what really is impressive are the changes in orchestral textures. I think this is mainly what throws people. You keep showing us this one motive with changes in harmony and orchestral texture that make it sound completely different. This piece could be used to teach a class on orchestral textures. But of course you still didn't use every possibility, but why should you?
> 
> ...



Paul, I think that you are much more discerning than an average casual 1st time listener. In my first listen, I never really grasped the theme (only four notes of it—the same notes I was already familiar with from Indiana Jones). So hearing the variation to my ears sounded new. But I still didn’t sufficiently latch onto that; so then the minor variation comes up and it sounds new again! By the end, I am vaguely aware that there was a theme going on but I certainly couldn’t remember any of it other than 4 notes, and my impression was of hearing a lot of different content. 

Now, obviously, I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so don’t take my word for it, but if half the listeners can’t latch onto one’s theme, one should either change the theme, or change out the audience.

To my casually listening ears, the opening main theme (from the start) sounds like transitional bits of music—not a theme. So maybe subconsciously, I thought I didn’t need to pay attention as I wait for the theme to start, and end up mentally out of sync with the composition.

Anyway, obviously, your analysis is objectively correct, but I think that the average-joe audience impression is a lot different from what you heard.


----------



## monsieurmickey (Apr 28, 2018)

Beautiful work, very sought after and very professional
Respect!


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr (Apr 29, 2018)

yhomas said:


> Not necessarily tears, but to connect with the listener, the music should (generally) have emotional movement. The goal is to make great music, and all great music (and art in general) does this one way or another—very few exceptions. Even the basic structure of a traditional four part symphony is always designed for an emotional journey.
> 
> As you say, it isn’t easy, but I thouroughly disagree that your mockups aren’t enough to achieve this! Don’t make excuses for yourself in this regard IMO.
> 
> ...



Look, I don´t excuse here anything. But I say that real orchestral performance can pull off certain gestures in a different way. I don´t say that all of my music and examples are in an urgent need in order to create drama, but there are occasions where I had tossed the ball into a direction still knowing that midi limits the ways of telling my game. I know that because I almost work everyday with that midi orchestral stuff. Now you can say, it doesn´matter that much because great music doesn´t need it and sure still, thtat was not my focus of the comment or even an excuse for fail. I hate excused and believe me, I am foremost a guy with no excuse for anything also on a personal level. And let me clarify something: If someone does have an "emotional" connection to a piece of music is a "very personal" thing and perception. Emotional impact is very complex but also so subjective. I have an emotional connection to Williams Music, my wife does not at all. Creates Williams themes / cues therefore an emotional impact? Yes and No. She thinks his themes sound all the same and while she likes the themes by themselves she isn´t at all emotionally attrackted to them. How dare she? Is she a composer? No..still I value here critic a lot and I rely also on her first impressions. Now someone can say that this is all bolloks because the themes are great and well thought throughout and therefore good. Still that doesnt mean they can cause emotional reaction to everybody at the same time being great compositions. I mean I get the point as you want to say that the theme doesn´t stick easily to your brain and I can understand that (I have written in my past definitely catchier things). I listened yesterday to the Battle of Yavin Cue from Williams while having a beer and thought about what kind of emotional impact that music track left on me: And I tell you: Not that much either. Still I admire Willliams for creating a "rousing" track like that which is very complex. I like that shit. I don´t write music only to please my audience, I do that in my job very often because I HAVE TO. I write for instance this track in order to test my harmonic gestures and how much I can distort them. It is a bit like boxing sack training. I punch the thing in order to see the reaction. I don´t know if that makes sense? Motivic development has a lot to do with juggling harmony. I train my musical muscles, this IS THE INTENT of such thing. That track is not a "one" listen shot and "welcome" here is the plate with meat..no..this time not..It is a track you need to explore. That is my opinion. I value your critic a lot and I thank you for letting me know not to loose focuse on that thing too. So back to your pinpoint comment: I promise next time I will consider your advice and try to write a theme with more emotional impact which is catchier! 
PS: Maybe you did checked out the Excelsior theme? Maybe there you have more emotional impact for you? It is def. catchier.


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr (Apr 29, 2018)

monsieurmickey said:


> Beautiful work, very sought after and very professional
> Respect!



Thank you Mickey!


----------



## NoamL (Apr 29, 2018)

Hey Alexander, sorry it took me so long to comment... been busy.

The piece is wonderful just like I heard on RedB. I like the new mix.

The reaction here is a bit strange... IMO now that I see how other people reacted to the piece, there is a seed of truth in the criticism you're getting - but not too much!

Certainly your thematic material is very strong. And everything you do in the track is very clearly developed from the hero theme at the beginning and the opposing theme at 1:42 - IMO that is not hard to follow at all. Sure, it is a fast whirlwind tour of ideas, but that's your style, and you do it effectively.

I think the seed of truth is that the piece would be even more effective if there was one or two spots where you let the hero theme develop fully all the way to the end, instead of averting or interrupting it to start doing something else.

For example at 3:13 the music has certainly "earned" the right to give us a super-tutti version of the hero theme, but instead there's a modulation after only 10 seconds.

You have a (wonderful!) set of modulations leading from 5:19 to 5:37... this is really great and very loyal to the traditions of classical film music, you lead us all over the map before landing in the new key. Frankly I would probably never think to write something like that, but you make it look effortless. Anyway, NOW (5:37) is the time to really let the theme breathe & state it super simply & satisfyingly. But instead, there's another set of modulations from 5:42-5:56. IMO that was not the right choice.

In short, I don't think your development is too fast, but the problem is it's _non stop_ development from start to finish. There needs to be one or two places where it's a really full, simple, hitting-the-listener-on-the-head version of the hero theme.

I am tempted to say... "write a section where you explain the theme like you're talking to an idiot." What I like about your music so much is that you always respect the musical intelligence of the listener... your music is always full of creative development that challenges us to pay attention and keep up, but the development & modulations are never unfair or arbitrary. However, together with this journey, there also has to be a destination, a point where we really say "We've arrived!"


----------



## Paul T McGraw (Apr 29, 2018)

yhomas said:


> Paul, I think that you are much more discerning than an average casual 1st time listener. In my first listen, I never really grasped the theme (only four notes of it—the same notes I was already familiar with from Indiana Jones). So hearing the variation to my ears sounded new. But I still didn’t sufficiently latch onto that; so then the minor variation comes up and it sounds new again! By the end, I am vaguely aware that there was a theme going on but I certainly couldn’t remember any of it other than 4 notes, and my impression was of hearing a lot of different content.
> 
> Now, obviously, I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so don’t take my word for it, but if half the listeners can’t latch onto one’s theme, one should either change the theme, or change out the audience.
> 
> ...



Your description of the piece consisting of transitional elements or what I would call motivic development is accurate. In classical music terms, this piece is more like a development section in a larger piece. If Alexander had begun with a complete statement of his theme, the rest of the piece would have been easier to follow. Ironically, the development is far more difficult to write than the exposition of a theme. At least for me, it is. That is probably a major factor in my appreciation. Writing something like this would be really, really hard if not impossible for me to do.

Anyhow, we all have different things about music that we enjoy or find rewarding, so if I made it sound like I expect everyone should like the same thing, including this piece, I apologize.


----------



## JF (Apr 29, 2018)

Amazing. I am always impressed by your work, Alexander. This one is probably my favorite. I will be listening several times. I'd kill for 1/3rd of your skills. Keep it up.


----------

