Saturday, April 11, 2009

So, um, whaddya think....?

Hey, guess what!
Remember the post I did last February, about the composition challenge between Kyle#2 and me?
The deadline is April 15th, so last night I took my finished work over to him.
We listened to each other's stuff, and the judging will happen this Tuesday (the 14th) after band.

Kyle #2 was kind enough to put a recording of my composition on his server, so you can all hear it. (Yay! Thank you!)

Here it is... go listen. If you're on dial-up (like me), it may take a moment to load. If you're on one of those new-fangled speedy high-falutin' connections, you probably heard this before I even started typing the post. I'll try not to be jealous or bitter.

As per the rules, my composition is between 32 and 60 measures long (58, to be exact), it's in the meter of 2/4, in the key of b-minor, in a 60 bpm tempo, has no triplets, and is scored for full orchestra.

Sorry the last measure seems to have gotten chopped off before the last note is done. The original file wasn't like that, so I dunno what happened there.

Anyway, listen and let me know what you think.

I've titled it "A Moment's Requiem".
.

22 comments:

whall said...

Wow, that really is incredible.

Going Like Sixty said...

OMG,Janna!
This is incredible. (I know whall said that, but...)
I love the opening tymp. It's so smooth, flowing, gentle, moving, dramatic, mysterious! Why aren't you famous? Screw the blogs, write more music woman? Where can I find more!

Do Requiems have lyrics? I'm thinking you should compose a piece for each Thursday Thirteen and do a voice over.

Da Old Man said...

Couldn't get it to work. I'll be back tomorrow to try again.

Marilyn said...

I really enjoyed that. I think you won.

Skye said...

Oh my god that is incredible! I like to close my eyes and "watch" the music when I listen to pieces like this. What I was was a view of a castle and rolling hills of heather in Ireland. I don't know if that's what you meant to conjure for the listener or not, but that is honestly what it made me "see"!

Morgiana Le Fey said...

Janna, I think this is just heartachingly lovely. With your every composition, your enviable talent is more and more showcased. I think you won, too.

Anonymous said...

OMG - you are not only funny but an amazing composer - It was so lovely, THANK YOU!

Gwenhwyfar said...

Holy shit, dude... that's seriously awesome. You win. I don't even need to hear the other one.

Janna said...

Whall: Thank you! :)

GoingLikeSixty: Requiems DO usually have lyrics, I think. The Mozart requiem was written in Latin. If Finale (composition program) had a way to add "human" sounding voices & words, I'd love to try it. :)

DaOldMan: Aww! Sorry it didn't work. You should see a screen that is blank except for a long thin player-box in the middle. Click on the arrow thingy to make it start playing. I hope it works next time you try. :)

Marilyn: Thanks! I hope so!

Skye: Cool! :)

Morgian: Thanks. Kyle's is good too, and honestly I have no clue who is going to win.

Grace: I'm so glad you liked it! :)

Janna said...

Gwen: Yay! I'm glad you liked it. You'd probably like Kyle's, too, though; his is more "fun" sounding. You can dance to his. Mine isn't danceable. (Mine is more of a "let's writhe in agony before we die" sort of thing). :) Which is fine, if that's what you're into. :)

Morgiana Le Fey said...

Requiems are Catholic masses for the dead, normally several parts making up several movements, most of them focusing around the Latin phrase "Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine/et lux perpetua luceat eis," which is something along the lines of "grant them enternal rest, oh Lord, eternal light shine on them." There's other lyric to other parts, like the Kyrie, Agnus Dei, sometimes a Pie Jesu too...I just felt like sharing my college chamber singers random knowledge =P

Travis Cody said...

Wow. You composed that? I'm impressed. It was very haunting and very moving. I liked it.

Wavemancali said...

That was stellar. Come to California and break into the movie soundtrack biz. I can brag that I was a fan before you made it big.

Janna said...

Morgian: You show-off. :)

Travis: Thank you! :)

Wavemancali: I would LOVE to write movie soundtracks. It's one of my "dream" jobs.

Gwenhwyfar said...

Ummm... actually, that IS kind of my thing, yeah. Did you momentarily forge who you were talking to?

Janna said...

Gwen: Now if I can just find 1,000,000 other people who all feel the same way and are willing to pay ten bucks for a CD...

Wavemancali said...

Question upon further reflection:

Is this a recording of live players or is this scored and fed into a program that plays it with midi instrumentation?

Janna said...

Wavemancali: It's the computer. No actual musicians were harmed in the making of this piece. Well, unless you count the time when I broke a nail.

Steven said...

I do think this is you best yet! Absolutely beautiful!!

Janna said...

Steve: Thank you! :)

Going Like Sixty said...

Sorry, I tend to comment it and forget it. (It sounds better if the crowd chants along with me... see Ronco.)

I think Audicity a free sound editing lets you add voiceover.

Janna said...

GoingLikeSixty: I haven't seen a Ronco infomercial in a long time... I wonder what kind of stuff they're making these days.