So... what is this, anyway?
What's a fragment? It can be a chord progression, a melodic motive, or a scale. Your piece doesn't have to revolve around the fragment, but it must be included in your composition at least once.
What's a theme? A semi-vague phrase that will (ideally) guide your creative process when you're thinking about your made-up game's concept & the sound you want to go for with the music you compose. It's purposefully left up to interpretation & is meant to be as un-restrictive as possible.
Details
You'll be using that fragment to write music for a hypothetical game, which can be anything as long as you can connect it to the theme.
For this jam, we ask that you compose at least 5 minutes of music, consisting of however many tracks you'd like to write.
- If you want to write multiple tracks, it'd be preferred that you connect them in some way! (The fragment would be a great way to do this btw) (just saying)
- I am leaving this open ended because I'm not expecting anyone to go over 20 minutes.
There are no restrictions on genre or style, meaning that you can compose whatever your heart desires. Orchestral, heavy metal, jazz... Anything goes!
Your files must be in .wav, .mp3, or .flac on itch.io, but we'd also highly encourage you to upload your project somewhere else for ease of listening. Options include but are not limited to:
- Soundcloud
- Bandcamp
- Youtube
Here is a fantastic resource if you want to embed a playlist directly into your itch.io project: Blamscamp.
Please submit a screenshot/screen recording of your DAW with your submission! If you have a score and want to submit a PDF of that as well, that'd be cool. I just want proof that you actually made the thing you're submitting.
I will remove your entry if I catch plagiarism in any part of it. This includes generative AI use, which is not allowed for this jam. That rule extends to your project thumbnails/covers.
Can't draw? Don't know any artists? Here's a website full of free-to-use photos for you: Pixabay. Canva is also free, you can edit some really fun covers on that!
Fragment & Theme
THE FRAGMENT: Dies Irae
Dies Irae, or “The Day of Wrath”, is a poem that was set to a melody back in the 13th century, in the form of plainchant (or Gregorian Chant). It describes Judgement Day, where souls are called to the throne of God, where the “saved” souls will be delivered to heaven and the unsaved will be cast into eternal flames.
This melody has been used and reused by several composers since that time for concert pieces, film scores, game scores, and songs. It doesn’t have to be used in a religious context, despite its origin. More often than not, it’s used to convey a particular vibe instead.
You’re free to do what you want with this motive. Everything is on the table, whether you want to invert it, augment it, put it in a different meter, or whatever else you can come up with. You do not have to include the lyrics if you’re looking to compose an instrumental piece. And if you do choose to have vocals, you can opt to change the words entirely.
Here’s what this would have sounded back in the 13th century, with one of the forms of music notation used at that time.
Here’s a modern-day notation transcription of the Dies Irae motive:
To provide you guys with a source of inspiration, I’ve listed ten pieces of music by different composers in different mediums that use the motive in one way or another. There are concert pieces, musicals, and film scores in here.
If you’ve got any you’d also like to share with the community, send them in our Discord server!
- Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique, Mvt. 5 (starts around 46 minutes)
- Khachaturian, Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Mvt. 2 (starts around 21:26)
- Brahms, Six Pieces for Piano, Intermezzo in Eb Minor
- Ligeti, Le Grand Macabre, Scene 1
- Tchaikovsky, Six Romances Op. 16 (1873) VI. Modern Greek Song
- Respighi, Impressioni Brasiliane (Brazilian Impressions), Mvt. 2 (towards the end)
- Carlos, "Main Theme" from The Shining
- Menken & Schwartz, “The Bells of Notre Dame” from the Hunchback of Notre Dame
- Sondheim, “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” from Sweeney Todd
- Zimmer, “The Rightful King” from the Lion King
THE THEME: Creeping in
AI use is not permitted!
This goes without saying but everything you submit to this has to be wholly original.
If I confront you about AI being used in your entry and you refuse to update it, I will remove it. This includes but isn't limited to generative AI use for thumbnails/covers, which is not allowed for this jam.
What can you do instead? Go outside and take a picture, use an existing public domain piece (with proper credit!), ask your friends to draw something for you... Lots of options out there!
How will ratings work?
There are five categories that your entry will be rated by: General impression, creativity, quality, adherence to theme, and inclusion of fragment. They're defined as follows!
- General impression: How striking or memorable was the entry?
- Did you feel compelled to listen to the end? Effectively, did you like it?
- Creativity: A really subjective category!
- How much or how little you feel the composers were thinking outside the box. Is this a fresh and new soundtrack or something that you feel like you've heard before?
- Quality: This refers to the quality of the composition itself
- How well orchestrated is the music? Is the music idiomatic to the instrument it was written for? Is it interesting?
- How balanced is the mix? If there are multiple tracks, do they sound good together?
- Adherence to theme: How well did the entry fit the theme?
- Ok, this one's self-explanatory
- Inclusion of fragment: How well was the fragment incorporated in the soundtrack?
- Was it just copy/pasted in or was it manipulated and reinterpreted throughout the composition?
The rating period will last for a week after the jam ends and is restricted to just people who submitted something. This is to try to prevent rating manipulation.
You can edit your project page after you submit to the jam but please know that your files will be locked until the ratings period ends.
Note: Teams of up to four composers are allowed.
Will there be prizes?
Unfortunately, no. I am a full time college student and do not have money! Unless pictures of Pumpkin, my cat, count as a prize. Then yeah, there's a prize ☻
We'll consider adding actual prizes in the future, but for now this is really low-stakes.
Join our Discord server!!
Want to meet fellow composers? Want to form a team? Want to lurk in chat without ever sending a single message? Join our server! (Click on the image to join)
Need to contact me directly?
If you're having issues submitting or have any questions that this page doesn't answer, don't hesitate to contact me! I'll probably take a moment to respond, but I will get back to you as soon as I can.
- Discord: residentcrypt1d
- Instagram: @residentcryptid
- Email: residentcryptid@gmail.com
This also goes for any business inquiries. I tend to respond the fastest to email. :3