This... It's wonderful and cool! These two tracks are very full of emotions and dynamics! I liked it)
P.S. I love waltzes, heh)
Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
Composition | #22 | 4.300 | 4.300 |
Creativity | #60 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
Impression | #62 | 3.950 | 3.950 |
Overall | #71 | 3.950 | 3.950 |
Quality | #142 | 3.800 | 3.800 |
Correlation to theme | #197 | 3.700 | 3.700 |
Ranked from 20 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
The soundtrack I had in mind when I was composing is a bit complicated - in my head, it's a mixture of turn based RPG and Shoot 'em Up - I'm not sure how that would be accomplished, but individually each track would make sense for each part of the game, those being first on RPG then the 2nd on Shoot 'em Up/bullet hell type.
This soundtrack was composed using FL Studio 12.
For inspiration, I took a lot from ZUN's, Touhou Project's creator, sound design, while also borrowing catchy, repetitive tunes technique, weird but fun chords, and motif usage from the game composers Toby Fox, Shogo Sakai (Mother 3), Hirokazu Tanaka and Keiichi Suzuki (Earthbound), as well as self-composers Nozora Yuzu and MiragEden from YouTube. Most of my nowadays work remains close to the japanese composers surrounding Touhou Project, so it's my go-to for making original themes.
While creating a song, I first try to stablish a rhythm/beat first that would swing into the direction I want to take the songs, as well as trying something unconventional. The first song is the very example of this, as I knew I wanted to create a song that had an odd amount of beats to it. Since it was still a waltz regardless of the decisions I made along the way, I decided to make the second song in 5/4 to contrast the first better.
Message from the artist
Despite the short time making these songs, I put lots of my feelings into them. I have many stories I'd like to tell about the Piano and the Bell, and while I have been telling these through a once a year upload schedule, I clearly haven't shown enough of their backstories. While their story might be tragic in my mind, I aim to tell those through music. I hope you enjoy the tracks I composed for this week-long project!
Theme
How does it fit the theme?
For "Daylight ~ Waltz Dancing with you",
This piece is a dance of two characters who cannot meet for many reasons, the main one being they are hundreds of miles apart, not knowing where the other resides. The Piano and the Bell dance in a waltz, with an added two beats every now and then, to represent it's not an easy dance to keep up with.
The Piano dances in sync with the Bell, but despite not being able to see the Bell, she tries to keep it up for the sake of her own daily problems, whether they be physical or psychological. She dances, for she wishes to keep up the pace as to not let her partner dance alone.
As the piece evolves, she feels the weight of her problems weigh on her, as the other instruments join in to add difficulty to her dance. She feels she needs to continue, so as to not let her partner dance alone.
Despite being away from each other, the Piano thinks she can dance on her own, without her thoughts or daily issues weighing on her, but she keeps on thinking about her beloved Bell. The Bell is her world, after all, and she should not stop dancing just because she feels the weight of her troubles. It is a dance of two, after all, and cannot let her partner dance alone.
For "Night Terrors ~ Yearning for Old Lost Times",
The Piano cannot understand why things have to be complicated. She cannot fathom losing the Bell, and her thoughts at night cannot let her sleep. She wishes to dance for her partner, but she cannot sync to the waltz anymore. She lets her thoughts go rampant against herself.
She battles for her well-being and her dance partner's, but no matter what she does, she's restricted by her need to dance. She wants to dance, but the Bell's lament sounds different and unfamiliar to her. She doesn't understand this lament, and her obsession with wanting everything as it has been during day time, she attempts to follow this melody to no avail, as she falls while attempting to dance to this new melody she's never heard before.
The Bell is desperate to keep dancing with her, and as a last attempt, she does her best and try singing her melody from long ago, only to fall on deaf ears as the Piano attempts to stand up while failing to dance.
The Piano finally understands after failing over and over again: this is their song, the one they used to dance together to all the time. She recovers, and as soon as she's ready to dance once again, she finally realizes. She's been alone this whole time. This dance of two was being done only by herself... in solitude.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
Soundcloud playlist: https://soundcloud.com/jerrystuffro/sets/the-piano-and-the-bells-dance
YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4p86SXkL-H05xVDnOqnMLrU_f5TDW_OY
Number of tracks2
Genre
Soundtrack use permission
Any non-commercial project
This... It's wonderful and cool! These two tracks are very full of emotions and dynamics! I liked it)
P.S. I love waltzes, heh)
Pretty unique sound and style, nice composition and arrangement, nice motion, I was never bored, not a second. Good job !
I had a really good time with this soundtrack! The amount of effort put into these tracks in just a week is inspiring stuff. The sense of progression in "Daylight" was great and it totally makes sense within the story you provided. I also loved the use of 5/4 in the second track, it worked really well and definitely helped differentiate it from the first track. Fantastic entry overall!
I like the story you have made for these songs!
I was also engaged because of the fun time signatures and the fact that it would change sometimes in the first track.
good work!
Night terrors has to be my favorite track out of the two because of how nicely unstable and dissonant you made it while keeping it controlled and clear! ϵ( ‘Θ’ )϶
Daylight ~ Waltz Dancing with you: An iv-V movement is one of my weaknesses lol. Very cool instrumentation. Wasn't expecting that nice bass to come in!
Night Terrors ~ Yearning for Old Lost Times: Hey another 5/4 practitioner! Love the minor major seventh chord usage in that first section, adds a lot of unease.
This reminds me of some of my favorite OSTs composition-wise. Great work!
The idea of the waltz with the story you’ve told is excellent: the modulations and the evolution of the second track, which clearly echoes the first, are beautiful. Very original and distinctive, you can clearly feel the influence of Eastern music and series. Great submission!
What an intricate submission. These are definitely worthy of a game. I can definitely hear all your inspirations here, it's amazing! Great work!
I can tell a lot of thought and effort went into this! I think it really fits the genre it's going for, and l can imagine it fitting early in an rpg/shmup. The unconventional time signatures work really well! Thanks for making and sharing.
That second track makes me want to ASCEND with each new layer of the mix I notice. Grade A stuff! If I had to give "critique" I would say to find a better piano plugin than fl keys (unless you're going for its campy, fake-ish sound, which is why I used boobass throughout my submission).
These are really great compositions! Both are super catchy and well produced, and they definitely feel like they'd fit right into a shoot em up game. The first track is my favourite; the wonky waltz feel with the extra couple of beats every few bars sounds disorienting in a totally natural way, if that makes sense.
Also my submission also has a song called Night Terrors lol
I love your use of, and I quote, "unvoncentional" time signatures, especially in the second song! I never thought I'd love a song that's in 5/4 as much as I do now lol. You really do know your stuff and although there are only two tracks, you did a good job encapsulating the story you wanted to tell. I also found the idea of a Piano and Bell "dancing" in the song to be such a creative way to base your tracks off and I just thought I'd commemorate you on that.
Overall you did a good job telling a beautiful story through music and you did well implementing unconventional time signatures in the tracks!
That's all I have to say really, have a good day :D
love the touhou-inspired compositions! admittedly, touhou soundfonts have never been my cup of tea, but i can tell your arrangement is really solid!
Great job with your use of "unconventional" time signatures. Definitely would go well with a dancing shoot-em-up rpg!
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