# My Composition: "Forsaken World"



## MGroland

Hi, just wanted to post my composition "Forsaken World" here:






Hope you enjoy it and please give me some feedback!!!

See you, Roland Mair-Gruber.


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## WavesOfParadox

What VST's did you use?


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## Lunasong

Welcome to the forum and I liked your piece. I also listened to your other piece with a lot of views: _In the Heart of Shadows._ which I liked even more.


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## drpraetorus

I liked it very much. Now some questions.
Is there a specific movie or game it is intended to go with or evoke?
Is "Cinematic" a style or an indication that it is actual movie music?
What's next for you?


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## BurningDesire

There are some nice things in it, but it feels like this needs to really go somewhere. Right now, it just feels like its stuck in this single place, and it feels like it needs to grow, expand, develop. This is music describing a place right? The character of a place? Well, places are very complicated things, especially when you're portraying them with a human emotional character, and so I think this piece would be a million times better if you explored maybe different keys, different textures more often, different harmonies. Right now its basically stuck in this same rhythmic and harmonic pattern, and to be honest, it mostly sounds like bad film music (IE: most film music these days). I really think this would get that imagery across alot better if you expanded the sonic palette of the piece with different sections (maybe a section in a more major key, with a different group of instruments such as just the woodwinds or maybe a solo violin passage or piano passage, and don't get stuck in this repeating rhythm) Repetitiveness is fine. There's tons of great music that is repetitive, but they still have things of interest occurring, and the repetitiveness works in favor of such pieces (alot of rock/jazz music, electronic music, minimalist music), whereas I think your piece is being hindered by it.

Anywho, thanks for sharing ^_^ Good luck friend~


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## Ramako

I agree with BD that it sounds like film music. However film music is the only genre outside of Classical that I particularly like. I really enjoyed your piece.

Unusually I have very little to say about it. My only criticism is that I find it a little hard to concentrate on, although very good background music (please bear in mind that I level this criticism at Eine Kleine Nachtmusik). Personally I think this is a great strength as it seems to me that there is a huge potential in the music market at the moment for music designed to be in the background with modern advances in technology, ipods etc. whether or not it is a film or game background music. If this is your aim then your piece is beyond my criticism levels.

However if your intention is to be a standalone piece of Classical music then I agree with BD and I think it needs to do more. I think it functions for this purpose, but could be slightly more engaging. However, on reflection I think this could be done beyond the confines of this piece - i.e. make it a multi-movement suite/symphony. I think seeing it at a concert (played by real instruments) with other movements of the same quality but contrasting atmospheres would be very good.


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## jani

I have episodes when i like movie music but i also have episodes when i don't like it all.


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## BurningDesire

Ramako said:


> I agree with BD that it sounds like film music. However film music is the only genre outside of Classical that I particularly like. I really enjoyed your piece.
> 
> Unusually I have very little to say about it. My only criticism is that I find it a little hard to concentrate on, although very good background music (please bear in mind that I level this criticism at Eine Kleine Nachtmusik). Personally I think this is a great strength as it seems to me that there is a huge potential in the music market at the moment for music designed to be in the background with modern advances in technology, ipods etc. whether or not it is a film or game background music. If this is your aim then your piece is beyond my criticism levels.
> 
> However if your intention is to be a standalone piece of Classical music then I agree with BD and I think it needs to do more. I think it functions for this purpose, but could be slightly more engaging. However, on reflection I think this could be done beyond the confines of this piece - i.e. make it a multi-movement suite/symphony. I think seeing it at a concert (played by real instruments) with other movements of the same quality but contrasting atmospheres would be very good.


Personally, even if the music is supposed to be "background music" it should still be quality. Just because it is meant to be coupled with something is no excuse for the work to be inferior to stand-alone music.

The best film music or game music is engaging music. It isn't just generic dramatic noise in the background, it truly collaborates with the story you are experiencing. Its not a lowly slave to the imagery but a true partner


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## jani

BurningDesire said:


> Personally, even if the music is supposed to be "background music" it should still be quality. Just because it is meant to be coupled with something is no excuse for the work to be inferior to stand-alone music.
> 
> The best film music or game music is engaging music. It isn't just generic dramatic noise in the background, it truly collaborates with the story you are experiencing. Its not a lowly slave to the imagery but a true partner


The Final fantasy series has the best video game music.
Like this piece for example!


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## BurningDesire

jani said:


> The Final fantasy series has the best video game music.
> Like this piece for example!


I'm not sure if I'd say it has THE BEST, but there is certainly a ton of brilliant music written for that series by several great composers, of course including the great Nobuo Uematsu, and Masashi Hamauzu in your example. Sometimes their scores are better than the game they were written for XD


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## Ramako

BurningDesire said:


> Personally, even if the music is supposed to be "background music" it should still be quality. Just because it is meant to be coupled with something is no excuse for the work to be inferior to stand-alone music.
> 
> The best film music or game music is engaging music. It isn't just generic dramatic noise in the background, it truly collaborates with the story you are experiencing. Its not a lowly slave to the imagery but a true partner


I agree that it should be quality music. However, the problem, I find, with using certain pieces as background music is that they are extremely distracting to whatever I am trying to do - they make me concentrate on the music. This is part of being a successful stand alone piece. However it doesn't help it as background music.

The best film and game music does indeed partner the imagery - but just as it isn't dominated by the imagery it doesn't dominate it completely either. This probably applies more to films than games. Music which distracts from the film, while it may be very good in itself, I think is questionable as film music because it is taking away from the plot. Of course there are sections in film where the music is supposed to take over, but there should be that give and take in service to the whole art-form. If the film is awful then that is a different matter of course :lol:

So what I am saying I like about this piece is that it allows the mind to concentrate on something else, while being entertaining. I find it effective at doing this - whether or not this is the composer's aim. I actually quite like it as a stand alone piece as well, or at least as a beginning to one as I implied in my previous post.


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## BurningDesire

Ramako said:


> I agree that it should be quality music. However, the problem, I find, with using certain pieces as background music is that they are extremely distracting to whatever I am trying to do - they make me concentrate on the music. This is part of being a successful stand alone piece. However it doesn't help it as background music.
> 
> The best film and game music does indeed partner the imagery - but just as it isn't dominated by the imagery it doesn't dominate it completely either. This probably applies more to films than games. Music which distracts from the film, while it may be very good in itself, I think is questionable as film music because it is taking away from the plot. Of course there are sections in film where the music is supposed to take over, but there should be that give and take in service to the whole art-form. If the film is awful then that is a different matter of course :lol:
> 
> So what I am saying I like about this piece is that it allows the mind to concentrate on something else, while being entertaining. I find it effective at doing this - whether or not this is the composer's aim. I actually quite like it as a stand alone piece as well, or at least as a beginning to one as I implied in my previous post.


I think you're confusing music not serving well as background music to performing some task, with music not serving as background to film and games. If you want a brilliant example of music working well as background music, look for the anime Princess Tutu. The score for that is almost entirely great classical music from the 19th Century (with a little from the 18th and 20th), including Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Wagner, Rimsky-Korsakov, Debussy, Prokofiev and many others, and it is one of the most effective scores for a visual medium I have EVER seen, and all the music is brilliant music that _is_ meant to be listened to, not just exist in the background, and it does a way better job than most music specifically written to be in the background does. Also Princess Tutu has an incredible story, so I can't really recommend it enough. Great piece of early 21st Century art :3


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## Ramako

BurningDesire said:


> I think you're confusing music not serving well as background music to performing some task, with music not serving as background to film and games. If you want a brilliant example of music working well as background music, look for the anime Princess Tutu. The score for that is almost entirely great classical music from the 19th Century (with a little from the 18th and 20th), including Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Wagner, Rimsky-Korsakov, Debussy, Prokofiev and many others, and it is one of the most effective scores for a visual medium I have EVER seen, and all the music is brilliant music that _is_ meant to be listened to, not just exist in the background, and it does a way better job than most music specifically written to be in the background does. Also Princess Tutu has an incredible story, so I can't really recommend it enough. Great piece of early 21st Century art :3


Well I am confusing them - but deliberately. I mean that I like it as just general background music to doing whatever.

However, I will look it up on Youtube now.


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## MGroland

I use VSL, Cinesamples and LA Scoring Strings.


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## MGroland

drpraetorus said:


> I liked it very much. Now some questions.
> Is there a specific movie or game it is intended to go with or evoke?
> Is "Cinematic" a style or an indication that it is actual movie music?
> What's next for you?


Yeah, it is actually for a short movie of a class in my school.


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