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How many tracks did you submit?
3
If you uploaded to a streaming platform, please drop the link here!
https://kirrifant.itch.io/house-of-changes
Explain your hypothetical game concept & how you interpreted the theme!
While composing these pieces I had in mind House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. The hypothetical game is heavily inspired by it, and the mood of the soundtrack follows the general plot of the book in three acts.
[BOOK PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD!]
I wanted to convey in three tracks the experience of a family coming to live in a new place, with the hope and anticipation of the first contact, then the discovery of something weird: their house starts changing when they are not looking, in ways which are at the same time eerie and frightening, but also kind of attracting and begging to be explored, and finally the end of the story, when their lives are changed with what they have experienced, and they need to accept this is their home.
[END OF SPOILERS]
What genre is your soundtrack?
Electronic, fusion? I am terrible at genre naming...
How did you incorporate the Dies Irae into your hypothetical soundtrack?
In this soundtrack this motive appears fully used as the melody in the first track "A New Beginning", with two different harmonizations and two added ending phrases, and also at the last track "This is Home", with the first notes of the motive included halfway through the piece as a counterpoint to the main melody, working as a thematical link to the first track and alluding to the characters being different from the beginning of the story, but still being themselves somehow.
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Comments
Feedback for House of Changes by kirrifant
1. A New Beginning
-I am not really hearing the Dies Irae theme here.
-The melody is slightly shrill and not very engaging or cohesive.
-The choice of instrumentation is effective, but it feels too monotonous. Maybe try introducing drums halfway through to liven things up a bit.
2. What’s Going on
-Good job at introducing a sense of mystery. The song fits very well with the title.
-I am getting Nine Inch Nails vibes.
-The instrumentation works well together. Everything is jiving. Nice drum programming!
-Good atmospheric track.
3. This is Home
-I am getting Nine Inch Nails vibes again.
-Good kind of melancholy feeling. I can see how this would represent acceptance of the house.
-Good synth work and drum programming. I dig the hand claps.
-Cool and effective use of subtle vocals.
-Still not hearing the Dies Irae theme.
Nice work! This seems like an interesting video game. Your weakest track, in my opinion, is the first one. I am definitely reminded of Trent Reznor/Nine Inch Nails in your second two tracks with your use of bass, synths, and drum machine. I honestly did not pick up on the Dies Irae at all, so I don't know if you were just trying to be subtle about it.
Thank you so much for the detailed feedback! Oh, and the Dies Irae is just there, "hidden in plain sight" I guess. I became infatuated with the idea of using the full melodic movement of the motive with different backing chords, and there you have it at the first track right from the start. The value of the notes is different, though, with alternating eighth and quarter notes, and each phrase starts at the second beat or in syncopation, so I guess this disguise makes it unrecognizable, but the notes sequence is exactly the Dies Irae's first three measures!
I totally agree that this first track is the weakest of the lot. I tried adding more meat to it, but it came out as too artificial and bloated, so I preferred to leave it as is, as a kind of introductory track. Huge compliment as well comparing this to Trent Reznor's work! I am a big fan and NIN's "Piggy" was a direct inspiration for the second track.