chords/technique/composers for magic /mystery/sci-fi ?

[jplanet]

As long as the discussion is opening up to mentioning composers who masterfully use "magical" sounding progressions, I have to mention Holst - his "Planets" was a clear influence on John Williams, and is full of very cinematic and spacey progressions. (Check out "Mars, the Bringer of War"...the ELP version is a lot of fun, too)...

[martian]

yes jplanet definately, id love to have some composers recommended! title updated.

just added 'the planets' to my basket. thanks.

[jplanet]

yes jplanet definately, id love to have some composers recommended! title updated.

just added 'the planets' to my basket. thanks.

I missed your post until just now...do let me know how you enjoy Planets! There is also an interesting version recorded entirely with synthesizers, which is quite "out there"!

[CS80]

yes jplanet definately, id love to have some composers recommended! title updated.

just added 'the planets' to my basket. thanks.

I missed your post until just now...do let me know how you enjoy Planets! There is also an interesting version recorded entirely with synthesizers, which is quite "out there"!

Mike Oldfield...
Kate Bush

[keyman_sam]

Look into indian hindustani and carnatic classical music. We have ragas designed for certain emotions and feelings.

[Barf]

Anything with brown notes

[psionic]

I've known the pattern you mention first for many years now, and I've always associated it with science fiction (space) - seems like it was in one of the original Star Trek movies (that is, the ones with Shatner et al). It's also from a Romantic Period work - I want to say it's a Brahm's Symphony, but I'm not positive. Anyway, it's been around a while. Chromatic mediants didn't start appearing regularly until Beethoven and after, and still were just used for "effect". Minor chromatic mediants are not at all common (even in pop music, where Majors are - Heart Shaped Box for example) but I've heard them (the minor ones) more and more in recent film scores.

Have fun.

thanks for the chromatic mediant stuff, i know and use all that a lot already, since they go well with bass doing blues scales, which i love.

i also like chromatic progs like:
maj I to maj(b5) bII
min I to maj II
maj I to maj bV or maj V#.

yes the major arp with added aug5th i talk of in the first post is very sci-fi. i heard it again last week in the matrix reloaded, pretty sure ive heard it often for magical sci-fi moments in other films. im a sci-fi buff so love all that shit.

Yes, very nice here:

i also like chromatic progs like:
maj I to maj(b5) bII
min I to maj II
maj I to maj bV or maj V#.

Something really worth noting regarding these sci-fi or "magical" chord progressions -- voicing matters, a lot.

For example, take the min I to maj II progression. Let's use Cm to Dmajor. Used in their normal spelling C-Eb-G to D-F#-A, it sounds nice and magically uplifting. Announces or confirms a strong moment, a fanfare to positive change in the plot, if you will. Mystery to ta-da!

But, re-voice them as G-C-Eb to F#-A-D, and you have a different effect. Now it's a sad/somber to 'I-told-you-so' resolution. A heroic attempt that knows it failed,again. Or at best, after the first voicing used in the previous paragraph, this one sounds like a weak echo or shadow of its former self (although it is comfortable or "ok" with itself there).

So, in a nutshell, chord voicings matter.

[martian]

yes i totally agree, voicing is everything! esp on longer progressions when used for effect.

i like it when there are 'sub-progressions' created from individual notes within the main chords that rise or fall or do other more wierd stuff. i also like the effects created when voicing travels the entire way up a keyboard, or when a progression goes from being extremely open with wide voicing to really closed.

i often feel, is im actually trying to create auditory effects as well as emotional passages, and also recognise simple visual formula to the voicings i create that seem 'to work'.

listen to muse 'take a bow', love the effect of the ever rising/intensifying progression in the main section.

[jeffn1]

yes jplanet definately, id love to have some composers recommended! title updated.

just added 'the planets' to my basket. thanks.

I missed your post until just now...do let me know how you enjoy Planets! There is also an interesting version recorded entirely with synthesizers, which is quite "out there"!

Is that Tomita? May favorite is Arabesque II (I think that is it). They used to use it on a kids' show about astronomy.

jeffn1