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The opening of stravinsky's Rite of Spring always gives me the tingles, so I tried to emulate that feeling here. I imagine that he might have written something that sounds like this when he was maybe 10 or 12 years old. https://soundcloud.com/artlowell

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I loved it. I think you hit the target here. It strikes a balance between the downright dark and the whimsical, just like the great man's own compositions. There are certainly lots of great passages to enjoy on here.

I only have one criticism regarding the mix. Some of the louder parts where the brass was present sounded slightly distorted/clipped (3:35-3:38, and 4:07-4:17).

Good work :tu:

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Once again, Seismic - thank you. Sound engineering is not a strength for me. It still confounds me to keep everything out of the red in the DAW version, and still have people finding clipping in the audio render. (In this case, I think the tuba is the main offender). My aging ears miss these sometimes.

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Gonna spend some more time with this - what struck me just now is that i'm hearing some bits reminding me of joe hisaishi...idk if it's from the mononoke soundtrack. Maybe i'm crazy, haven't listened to that in a long while either. But wouldn't be surprised if he emulated stravinsky some here and there, himself.

Anyway, already digging this much more than on first listen yesterday. Maybe the soundtrack notion in my head helped too...the rhythmic intensity and irregularity of music like this always goes down easier when you go into mental picture mode.

So yeah, i'm getting a sense this is pretty brilliant, but i don't wanna say it before i fully get the brilliance :)

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Thanks Nase, is this joe hisaishi music somewhere I can hear it? I knowingly do stuff that resembles the music of somebody I admire, but there's always a moment, especially if an idea works out especially nicely that I'm asking myself, "did I really conjure that up from my own imagination, or is my brain subconsciously dredging up memory of something that I heard someplace else"? In truth, I don't really believe in creative invention. It's all been done before. After all, there are only 12 tones. If I have shared some inspiration with Joe Hisaishi, then he has good taste. This piece is really a culmination of hunt-and-peck, copy-paste-transform with some lucky accidents and a little voice saying "this is the note that comes next". What I seek to do mostly is to evoke an emotional response, preferably with pictures. If I have done that, then I feel successful. Thank you for your kind words. I love knowing that somebody thinks that my music just might be brilliant.

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Hisaishi scored most of the studio ghibli animated movies; in general it's completely different music, i'm really just talking about little snippets that seemed so familiar.

Not believing in creative invention sounds pretty bleak...
Sure, there are limits to tonal variety at any given point, but i think you kind of underestimate the time axis there.
The complete 80 year audio track of your life can be a symphony. Ok, maybe even that one has been done somewhere else in infinity, eternal recurrence and such, lol.

Meh, my view on it is that everything might've already been done and there still is creative invention.

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It's sort of a philosophical question, I guess. Some composers believe that their inspiration comes from God. I think it comes from the brains ability to remember familiar input and metabolize it. Perhaps some low-grade synesthesia is involved (transference among the senses - OK, that would require some explanation.) It doesn't really matter. It still thrills me to make music that expresses what I feel. Nothing at all bleak about that.
In truth, I know nothing. It's the ultimate music theory.

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artlowell wrote:Some composers believe that their inspiration comes from God. I think it comes from the brains ability to remember familiar input and metabolize it.
i in turn try to metabolize twose two opinions and hope to arrive at the conclusion someday that it's the same shit :tu:

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artlowell wrote:Thanks Nase, is this joe hisaishi music somewhere I can hear it? I knowingly do stuff that resembles the music of somebody I admire, but there's always a moment, especially if an idea works out especially nicely that I'm asking myself, "did I really conjure that up from my own imagination, or is my brain subconsciously dredging up memory of something that I heard someplace else"? In truth, I don't really believe in creative invention. It's all been done before. After all, there are only 12 tones. If I have shared some inspiration with Joe Hisaishi, then he has good taste. This piece is really a culmination of hunt-and-peck, copy-paste-transform with some lucky accidents and a little voice saying "this is the note that comes next". What I seek to do mostly is to evoke an emotional response, preferably with pictures. If I have done that, then I feel successful. Thank you for your kind words. I love knowing that somebody thinks that my music just might be brilliant.
Nicely expressed.
Although i`m with the opinion that it hasn`t all been done yet.
There`s always something new coming down the road.When it gets here and whether it`s actually important and innovative well, that`s the question I guess.
We all have a notion of a musical collective that regurgitates different versions of what`s been going around for the last few decades, but every once in awhile... :D

I am following your Soundcloud now. I( need more time to absorb your music.
....................Don`t blame me for 'The Roots', I just live here. :x
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Hm, i could actually start a thread around this...

Just a quick note: the "whole life symphony" thing was a serious thought albeit not well explained.

We think in technically expressable terms of pitch, timbre, rhythm and so forth. Mathematically, that's all there is to a music piece.
BUT, it's not all there is when the music piece is listened to. The listener is another unique composition, if you will.

That's why you say writing stuff that moves you is reward enough! If it weren't such a dynamic, rewarding and unforseeable process to find something you in particular love at that point in your life, there'd be no point anymore in making it yourself.

Listening is more like a chemical process. Imagine a very complex molecule (you) that keeps floating through space and absorbs new atoms. Other molecules will have a different composition based on their own life cycle, and the very same atom (let's say a high note in a ballad you find extremely moving) will not be readily absorbed by some, or put in a way different context ("that cheese cracks me up!").

Now try to extend that to the whole lifetime of one molecule, with one particular history of composition, but always in development.
The question arises, did anyone on this planet ever listen to the same piece of music? Many absorbed the very same atoms sure enough, esp. thanks to recording technology, but the sequential series of absorbtion, with a different starting point for each molecule, will never be repeated, not even by yourself!
(unless you go into very long term concepts, which is why i mentioned eternal recurrence).

Music pieces end after a little while. It helps to think of every piece of music you ever absorb as one little part of a grand symphony that is your life. That can be extended to everything, not just music. cuz everythiiing iz vibration, riteeee? :lol:

This whole universe is structurally based on very small and boring ever-repeating components, yet the result of it feels completely unlike that. The reductionist world view of just seeing the small repeating building blocks when you cut something into pieces and look at it through a microscope...it has a tendency to distort one's perception. One has to look at the grander movements, the whole living organism, to appreciate the significance of it all.

Well, there's your quick note :party:

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Ignore my wall of text pls. Sorry art :p

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. . . and here, I just like making pretty sounds.

It's a good essay (which, coincidentally, was the original title of this piece). I don't dismiss your thoughts at all. The teleology of music is a deep subject. I don't think it's wrong.

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Hello Art.
I wanted to go back to this for a focused listen this time. Now that I have, I can say it won`t be my last. Your piece is so refreshing. I`ve listed to classical through avant garde from my teens and on so when I say your composition skills and imagination are tops, I know what i`m talking about...maybe. :)

Anyway...I`m making the time to listen and enjoy your stuff Art.

Thanks.
....................Don`t blame me for 'The Roots', I just live here. :x
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That's awesome! Art's music deserves more listeners. A lot to be found in those 15 tunes or so alone.

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Well that was refresingly different! Rather reminds me of Danse Macabre. Great use of dynamic range and instrument contrasts.
It wasn't me! (well, actually, it probably was) - apparently now an 'elderly' so maybe I forgot!

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