[chamber jazz] Midnight Walk (mp3)

nads20489 · August 16, 2008, 19:05:20

This is a song I began a little while ago, largely as an experiment in response to some comments I received on earlier songs, which accused me of writing too static and structured music.

I gave myself some constraints on this song in order to prevent me from falling into the rut where the song becomes a minimally changing structure of melody, without much expression. I allowed myself only two instruments and no percussion, so I could see what I could make out of a couple instruments without being able to throw more stuff in when I got bored or stuck.

I don't think "chamber music" or "jazz" would either be accurate classifications of this song, but I don't know what would be.

http://download.modplug.com/index.php?action=downloads&id=2022

Sam_Zen · August 16, 2008, 23:33:24

Beautiful. At least 'chamber music' could be valid, because of the few number of instruments of the ensemble.
Nice atmosphere. Maybe therefore a bit too short.

I noticed BTW that the DL-procedure at the ModPlug center has been simplified, by skipping the long license statement. Nice.

nads20489 · August 17, 2008, 15:22:05

The reason I was unsure of the genre is that I've never heard a saxophone and a cello play together. Originally, I was playing around with different instruments. I started with the saxophone and then added in a sitar, which sounded interesting, but then I changed it to a cello and decided I liked where that was going better. Obviously it would have turned into a completely different song. I switched the sitar, because I liked how it sounded with bongos, but then I realized that I promised myself no percussion for this song.

I agree it is somewhat short, but for the moment it's all I could squeeze out of my more expressive, dynamic side, being used to writing completely different types of music.

This is one of several songs I've been working on with conscious effort toward the suggestions I've been given about my previous songs here, namely from you, Sam_Zen. I think it is an improvement in those regards, but I still have a lot of work to do.

Sam_Zen · August 17, 2008, 22:46:00

Very good to explore unknown combinations of instruments.

QuoteObviously it would have turned into a completely different song.

Not necessary though. Different instruments make a different sound together, but
if the same compositional idea is still valid, it could turn into another version of Midnight Walk, performed by other instruments.

bvanoudtshoorn · August 18, 2008, 01:32:01

Nice work, nads. I think that a great way to extend this piece out would be to choose a "standard" form, like rondo (A B A C A D A ...) or ternary (A B A) [the A/B/C etc are different sections of the piece] and use that. Not only would it lengthen the track, but it'd lend more credence to its claim of "chamber music" (which, incidentally, I think is an appropriate tag).

Great work.

uncloned · August 18, 2008, 13:39:25

This is extremely nice.

The sax and strings are a nice combination.

Chris

nads20489 · August 26, 2008, 14:07:19

Thanks for the comments.

@ bvanoudtshoorn: I think that is a good idea to lengthen the song and give it more of a "full-circle" or internal journey feel to it. I've never been so good at that part of music, but what better time do I have to work on it?

I may re-release the song after I put it in some ABACADA form, but I do have a few other songs in the works, so I might work on those and post some of them first.