[Orchestral] Grey-Eyed Girl (.mp3)

[Oliwerko]

After several weeks of work, this piece got finished (apart from minor adjustments that may follow) with every detail considered.

After Green-Eyed and Blue-Eyed girl, this is the third orchestral song in this series.
Again, it should convey pleasant feelings and calm mood.


I'm looking forward to any comments and thoughts you may have.

Get it here: http://olivermeres.hobbyart.sk/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/04-Grey-eyed-Girl.mp3


More background info about the concept:

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This song represents a Grey-Eyed girl, a symbol of calmness and understanding.

The first part stands for an early conversation, when you both know very little about each other.

Then, after a rush of enjoyment, a more personal conversation takes place, being represented by the second part.

After getting to know her better, you begin to see her beauty in another light. Her deeply hidden glory is represented by the fourth part.

Then, looking back, you realize that there's a lot more to her than you initially thought. The fifth part stands for the exange of feelings with each other, being not that different from your very first conversation.

In the end, being grateful for knowing her, you are as calm and reassured as she is, having her by your side...
-----------
End of story.

Finished on 8th of May, 2010.

[Sam_Zen]

Nice arrangement and story. A bit of a Hobbit atmosphere.

[Harbinger]

Would love to hear it, but having trouble keeping a DL stream. The first it sent 161 KB worth of data before being cut off. Tried again and after 20 mins it had slowed to a crawl at about 5.3 MB in.

I'd love to listen to it (and give my impression of it), but you should UL it to a more stable environment (like, i don't know, SoOnlabel.com)... :wink:

[Oliwerko]

I'm sorry, but I don't have any better possibilities at hand right now, except maybe this:

http://www30.zippyshare.com/v/3099583/file.html

Hope it helps a bit.

[Sam_Zen]

2 Harbinger :
You obviously tried to stream this track.
Maybe you should try a 'save as'

[Nahkranoth]

What I like about our relatively small MPT community is that you don't need to dig deep to find some gems.
Your track is one of them, Oliwerko! It reminds me of something heard long ago, can't remember now though.
Keep 'em coming! (I mean more orchestral stuff, but girls will do too :lol: )
Well done!


[EDIT] Now I'm off to find another 2 of your "girls"

[Oliwerko]

It's very nice to hear such a warm feedback. I feel these orchestral songs are probably my best material so far, which is a bit weird considering my obsession with 80s electronic music and pretty little interest in classical music.

I'm planing on doing one or two more (how many eye colors are there? ), so don't worry.

The two others are here on the forum, not too deep either.

[Harbinger]

Notes as i'm listening:

Sounds synthesized, but i'll overlook that and imagine it's a full orchestra!:wink:

Nice English/Scottish/Irish melody, soft and delicate. After the first run of the main cadence, the ear (or perhaps the modern ear, expects a bass line to provide grounding for any melodic or submelodic lines -- it definitely needs some double-basses or cellos to provide a bass foundation.
The introduction of the harp provides some -- but not enough -- rhythmic progression. While the strings and flutes provide a nice breeze, the harp arpeggiation makes me think of spots that cross my line of sight: birds, falling leaves, moths, or waves of the gray-eyed girl's hair in the wind.
By about 6 minutes, my ears are anticipating thematic development, but all i get is a reworking of the repeated chord progression. Perhaps a taking off from the harp arpeggiation is what's needed. Though the introduction of a rhythm sequence at about 8:00 brings a sense of royalty and chivalry to the song, it's used to end the song, not bring in a new movement or idea -- that's not fair. I see the castle through the trees, now i'd like to go feel its history and girth.

All in all it's delightful, in the sense of non-offensive and unobtrusive. It would be great for the children's room, and even better with a glass of Chardonnay, in the den with some dear friends talking of old movies or plans for upcoming projects. It's not a great piece of music (except for the composer i suppose ), but not exactly one for the trashbin either...

[Oliwerko]

Wow, you have some vivid imagination there.

Thanks for the extensive, and as always very helpful review.

I didn't feel any urge to add a bass layer, but logically there should be something in the lower spectrum now as you mention it.

You're absolutely right about the issue of the same chord pattern being repeated too much. This reveals that I'm still pretty new to composing orchestral music, as I keep struggling with freeing myself from the rigid pattern-like repeating structure of dance music. I still struggle with changing the progression and, more importantly, with keeping it changing.

The rhythmic sequence at ~8:00 was indeed inteded as a climax just before the end, as I ran out of ideas and didn't want to prolong the song unnecessarily.

I once again thank you for your review, it's always very helpful.
One more thing - how do you define an Irish tune? You're not the first to call it this way.

And no, I don't consider it anything near "great" (maybe it is great because I learned a lot on it  :wink: )

[Harbinger]

One more thing - how do you define an Irish tune? You're not the first to call it this way.

I never got that far in my music studies, either formally or otherwise. There is a "lilt" and a simplicity with Irish music that i can't quantify, only because i've never tried. I'm sure this must be the same type of conundrum when distinguishing Hmong music from Vietnamese music, the differences are subtle but distinct for some reason....

One more thing for you: you don't need a formal education to compose great orchestral music, but i would heartily recommend reading everything you can, first on Western music theory, then the history of music development -- anything you get your hands (or eyes) on. Myself, when i first took to musical composition, i was in the library soaking up anything i could on music theory and composition. It wasn't till years later that i went to college for my education in electronic music. You have the talent for it, but my guess is that you need structure to harness your abilities.

[uncloned]

About celtic music

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_music

[uncloned]

and I produced this from the reference

http://forum.openmpt.org/index.php?topic=3963.0

[TheEagle]

Hi.

It's been a while since I've been here and I'm asking myself how I could miss such a beauty.
I don't agree with Harbinger. I think that this piece feels great!
And since (good sounding) orchestral vsti's are rather expensive the synthesized sound (Nexus?) doesn't bother me.

Great work, Oliwerko.

[Oliwerko]

Harbinger - Yeah, that's what I think too. Structure is what I need. I'm planning on studying theory after the examination period is over.

clones - Thanks for the reference, I'll also check out your composition.

Eagle - I'm glad you like it! And there's what was actually the aim of the song - to produce feelings, which of course are different with every listener. And feelings are hard to be 'agreed' or 'disagreed' with. But I'm glad it made you feel great  :wink:

The instruments are Nexus, yes. I know it's nothing extraordinary, but I think it's enough for the moment.