Morricone Tribute: Whispers Across the Wasteland

[aaron aardvark]

ChameleonMusic,
Thank you for the music reviews! Now your song: it's starting out nicely. Curious about the female vocal, where you got that from. Sampled or you have a singer there you recorded? The orchestral swell reminds me of the Beatles "Day in the Life". In some ways, it reminds me of movie background music, though it stands well on its own. I assume you are using lots of high end sampled software items. High quality audio. Very nice, I enjoyed it!

[ChameleonMusic]

ChameleonMusic,
Thank you for the music reviews! Now your song: it's starting out nicely. Curious about the female vocal, where you got that from. Sampled or you have a singer there you recorded? The orchestral swell reminds me of the Beatles "Day in the Life". In some ways, it reminds me of movie background music, though it stands well on its own. I assume you are using lots of high end sampled software items. High quality audio. Very nice, I enjoyed it!

Thanks Aaron.

4 Vocal phrases in Ethera Gold that I basically tweaked extensively via melodyne to fit this piece. I also time stretched various notes to change the melody further and edited out about 1 in 4 notes to create the new simplified tune. (Ethera allows you access to the wav files and then you can save user versions) Actually took a whole day just on that one vocal line! Would've definitely been easier to record someone, but Covid got in the way!

Other vocals come from Era Vocal Codex and Jaegar and were played live at the keyboard and then edited for flow afterwards.

Yeah, film music covers the idea of the whole piece!

[seismic1]

"Have Gun, Will Travel" - that was well before my time.

"Theme from an Imaginary Western" - Mountain's second best song.

I saw the title you suggested for section 8 and I had a good idea what was coming

Those three "Man with No Name" films were essential viewing when I grew up, although my personal favourite of the Leone/Morricone films was "Once Upon a Time in the West" - both the soundtrack and film. Casting Henry Fonda as the villain was an inspired decision.

His body of movie work is staggering. His work on the soundtrack for "The Thing" was a game-changer, but there were many other memorable films graced by his work.

I enjoyed listening to this one several times, with its lashings of trumpet, vocal samples, and of course, the music box. Had I listened to this without reading the comments here, or your introduction, I would have picked up on the Dan Savio tribute

Good work

[ChameleonMusic]

"Have Gun, Will Travel" - that was well before my time.

"Theme from an Imaginary Western" - Mountain's second best song.

I saw the title you suggested for section 8 and I had a good idea what was coming

Those three "Man with No Name" films were essential viewing when I grew up, although my personal favourite of the Leone/Morricone films was "Once Upon a Time in the West" - both the soundtrack and film. Casting Henry Fonda as the villain was an inspired decision.

His body of movie work is staggering. His work on the soundtrack for "The Thing" was a game-changer, but there were many other memorable films graced by his work.

I enjoyed listening to this one several times, with its lashings of trumpet, vocal samples, and of course, the music box. Had I listened to this without reading the comments here, or your introduction, I would have picked up on the Dan Savio tribute

Good work

Thanks Tim - Yay! Another Morricone fan...less around than I realised!

"Once Upon a Time in the West" - amongst my favourite films of all time + the soundtrack is, for me, one of the greatest film scores ever! The way Morricone weaves that harmonica theme into it all is extraordinary.

At the request of Leone, the music was written ahead of the filming so that it could be played during rehearsals to 'up' the atmosphere. Many scenes were actually edited to fit the music rather than the other way around!

[jackoo]

just came to say I enjoyed this quite a bit.
The quality of the production is impressive.
Well done!

[ChameleonMusic]

just came to say I enjoyed this quite a bit.
The quality of the production is impressive.
Well done!

Thank you - much appreciated!

[kingozrecords]

imo you need to re-record the "yaws" practise them maybe thinking of the vitality and kinship you share with an adventurous creature who's maybe craving bloodshed and risk just as much as the cowboy. Given that the action and yelling is often perceived as a thing of control; the yell is easy to be embarassed of, admonished; but what if a spurning for adventure and glory? What then? No anxiety as a result. Spend enough time on a mic and you can hear all emotions.

[telecode]

Hey. I listened to this. I really liked it. I am a big Morricone fan. I can hear the influences. I think Mirricone gets a bit of a bad rap with his association with Sergio Leone westerns. People tend to forget some of his truly more astonishing work later in the 70 and 80s. He did amazing scores for Terrence Mallick and Pasolini and De Palma. I still think his masterpiece is the score for The Mission.

Where did you study Morricone? They don't make them like him anymore.

[ChameleonMusic]

imo you need to re-record the "yaws" practise them maybe thinking of the vitality and kinship you share with an adventurous creature who's maybe craving bloodshed and risk just as much as the cowboy. Given that the action and yelling is often perceived as a thing of control; the yell is easy to be embarassed of, admonished; but what if a spurning for adventure and glory? What then? No anxiety as a result. Spend enough time on a mic and you can hear all emotions.

Many thanks for the comments...I hear your point (you've definitively got an issue with those 'yaws' as you call them!

Truth is - they are a VERY small part of a 9 minute piece and I'm 100% happy with them...they convey what I wanted...maybe not what you wanted (fair enough, I get that)!

I ain't re-recording anything on this one...6 weeks / 48 MIDI tracks 6 audio tracks and over 120 lines of automation...for better or worse it's now done!

As I've said to a couple of others, I will try and develop individual sections if time allows, but this medley piece stays as it is now for various reasons.

[ChameleonMusic]

Hey. I listened to this. I really liked it. I am a big Morricone fan. I can hear the influences. I think Mirricone gets a bit of a bad rap with his association with Sergio Leone westerns. People tend to forget some of his truly more astonishing work later in the 70 and 80s. He did amazing scores for Terrence Mallick and Pasolini and De Palma. I still think his masterpiece is the score for The Mission.

Where did you study Morricone? They don't make them like him anymore.

Many thanks for the listen and comments!

Yeah , I love the Spag West stuff, but he was far more than all that, you're right!

Where did you study Morricone?

Studied him VERY briefly at Uni (Music - late 70s / early 80s) and then researched the avant grade group Gruppo di Improvvisazione di Nuova Consonanza that he was involved with...

They actually contributed to a couple of his film scores...

'Quiet Place in the Country' was one...can't remember the other one!

Initially I linked into his work as he was a fellow trumpet player!

[seismic1]

At the request of Leone, the music was written ahead of the filming so that it could be played during rehearsals to 'up' the atmosphere. Many scenes were actually edited to fit the music rather than the other way around!

William Friedkin's "Sorcerer" was similar. Friedkin asked Tangerine Dream for the music ahead of shooting, supplying them with only the script. Friedkin then edited the film to fit the music.

[ChameleonMusic]

At the request of Leone, the music was written ahead of the filming so that it could be played during rehearsals to 'up' the atmosphere. Many scenes were actually edited to fit the music rather than the other way around!

William Friedkin's "Sorcerer" was similar. Friedkin asked Tangerine Dream for the music ahead of shooting, supplying them with only the script. Friedkin then edited the film to fit the music.

Sorcerer... Now there's a gritty, slow burner with a great soundtrack! Always thought that film deserved more recognition!

Music first actually makes a lot of sense in some ways!

[telecode]

At the request of Leone, the music was written ahead of the filming so that it could be played during rehearsals to 'up' the atmosphere. Many scenes were actually edited to fit the music rather than the other way around!

William Friedkin's "Sorcerer" was similar. Friedkin asked Tangerine Dream for the music ahead of shooting, supplying them with only the script. Friedkin then edited the film to fit the music.

Sorcerer... Now there's a gritty, slow burner with a great soundtrack! Always thought that film deserved more recognition!

Music first actually makes a lot of sense in some ways!

Agree. If you are a Friedkin fan and have time, pickup the biography. He discusses the troubled production of Sorcerer.

https://www.amazon.ca/Friedkin-Connecti ... 189&sr=8-4

[ChameleonMusic]

At the request of Leone, the music was written ahead of the filming so that it could be played during rehearsals to 'up' the atmosphere. Many scenes were actually edited to fit the music rather than the other way around!

William Friedkin's "Sorcerer" was similar. Friedkin asked Tangerine Dream for the music ahead of shooting, supplying them with only the script. Friedkin then edited the film to fit the music.

Sorcerer... Now there's a gritty, slow burner with a great soundtrack! Always thought that film deserved more recognition!

Music first actually makes a lot of sense in some ways!

Agree. If you are a Friedkin fan and have time, pickup the biography. He discusses the troubled production of Sorcerer.

https://www.amazon.ca/Friedkin-Connecti ... 189&sr=8-4

Interesting! Thanks for that... Wil definitely look it all up!

[wagtunes]

I never heard of Ennio Morricone but damn, was that good. I don't normally listen to 9 minute long tracks but that flew by. I never knew where it was going to go next. Forgive me if I don't critique this in detail (because there is no way I can) but that was awesome. This should be like material for study in a music composition and arrangement class. In a way, reminds me of when I first heard "Rite Of Spring" because I didn't know where that was going either.

Two thumbs up!