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Redline's Monthly Composing Challenge #7

Hosted by Kristoff Red
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A jam submission

Ku Ga GaView project page

For RMCC7
Submitted by PerLonn — 31 minutes, 3 seconds before the deadline
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Play soundtrack

Ku Ga Ga's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Composition#43.8003.800
Overall#53.9003.900
Challenge#64.4004.400
Creativity#73.9003.900
Mixing#73.5003.500

Ranked from 10 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Title
Ku Ga Ga

Description
For this challange I wanted to focus on the "exotic" part. I took this challenge as a chance to make something inspired by Gagaku, the old traditional court music played in ancient Japan.

For the melodic aspect I used the scale ryo. This scale has a pentatonic core of C D E G A but F# and B can be also be present. In the middle section it did end up sounding more natural minor though to what notes I ended up using. The harmony is based on the chords from the instrument shō. As I wanted the piece to be a bit more exotic I used a kinda nonstandard form. The percussion is made by a few ryhtmic cycles that all synchronise at the first beat after 8 meassures, resulting in some kind of semi obachi. Though not japanese, I used the chinese instrument xiao and erhu to get even more of an exotic flavor.

Plugins used
Mostly EastWest for midi. Some others for mastering/mixing

Link(s) to your submission
https://soundcloud.com/per-loennqvist/ku-ga-ga?si=5bd63f0782d949938604d187209749...
https://youtu.be/coS-voP8qNY

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Comments

BodoTheSerfSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Great structure and flow, it's really impressive how everything comes together in this piece. It's super difficult to get that Gagaku minimalist style to work well, and I think you pulled it off very convincingly! The only thing for me is I think some of your phrases could be shaped a bit more, with more crescendos and diminuendos in their playing. For example, the end of the phrase at 0:31 and the start of the phrase at 0:35 felt a bit unnatural, and doesn't do justice to the beautiful music you've created. Even if you're going for a sudden, jarring entrance for the strings, I think a very subtle swell and fall at the beginning and ending of your phrases using a fader or something would make the music sound so much better. I do notice you do phrase your instruments in other sections, and it would be great if that kind of detail could be applied throughout all of this beautiful piece. Great job, I really enjoyed this!

Submitted
The Three Samurai
Reply
PerLonnDeveloper1 year ago

Thanks for listening and commenting!

I'm glad the Gagaku apsect somehow managed to make it through. Your feedback is for sure 100% valid. I'll probaly come back to this one and rework some of the midi programming. The examples you mentioned really are a bit too jarring...

Reply
gulloSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

The main thing here is that it has to sound exotic. I've been listening to some Japanese traditional music lately, and although they might share notes with western scales, the feel is different, the ear immediately recognizes that it's not the same (of course, instruments play their role too). Your track sounds exotic, it is respectful of its reference, and I think that means getting the challenge right. It also sounds good :D

Submitted
The Tiny Whistle In the Deep Valley
Reply
PerLonnDeveloper1 year ago(+1)

Thank you for commenting and listening!
I appreciate you saying it sounds respectful of its reference as that something I try to think of actively. Though in this case I did stray kinda far from "strict Gagaku" while hopefully keeping it respectful.

Reply
metameccanicaSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

>This scale has a pentatonic core of C D E G A but F# and B can be also be present.
Then you got C Lydian mode. Nice minimalistic work anyway. Less is more.

Submitted
mmuw - ns
Reply
PerLonnDeveloper1 year ago(+1)

Thanks for listening and commenting. I see that the way I phrased my usage of scale makes it sound like I'm using a C Lydian but I'm not. I think when it comes to Japanese music theory it can be pretty confusing, and for me a bit hard to understand. This is mainly due to how Western theory often can't really explain Japanese music. From a Western perspective, you can call (almost) all of the Japanese scales penta scales and call it a day. This however, while right from one perspective, doesn't really explain the hows and whys of the Japanese music.

Here I used the C D E G A in the melody but C is not the fundamental tone (the tonal center), I should have written it as A C D E G. F# and B are never in the melody but in the chords. The melody itself has a fundamental tone and depending on what tone is the fundamental a certain chord is played by the sho. In all of these chords F# and B are present, I even used one with a G# if you can spot it :P

Scales =/= modes. Yes, I have the same notes as C Lydian but the harmonic context, the fundamental tone, and maybe most importantly, how it sounds is different to C Lydian.

 There are many kinds of different "Japanese music" and they can behave differently and follow different rules and it can be a bit of a rabbit hole. I'm not following all the rules myself and there are many things that I am uncertain about and might have misinterpreted something. Here I choose a scale and applied the chords based on the melody.

Sorry for long comment and again thanks for listening!

Reply
metameccanicaSubmitted1 year ago

>I see that the way I phrased my usage of scale makes it sound like I'm using a C Lydian but I'm not
>From a Western perspective, you can call (almost) all of the Japanese scales penta scales and call it a day.
Its really interesting thing with pentatonic all around the world or modes with the same notes. And they are really NOT THE SAME. But japanese music has its own kind of Lydian. And you can hear it while listening Legend Of Zelda OST or other japanese game composers. I've been thinking about this.

>The melody itself has a fundamental tone and depending on what tone is the fundamental a certain chord is played by the sho.
Oh, i read about this thing in traditional music. Its common in modal music. Dont know how say it in english correctly.

Thanks for informative comment! I'll listen again)

Reply
PerLonnDeveloper1 year ago

I hope my comment didn't come across as rude or anything, sometimes putting things in text can make it sound different compared to spoken.

This really can be one huge rabbit hole when it comes down to these scales. One of my sources explained the Japanese modal system divided into three groups of two; one similar to Mixolydian and the other similar to Dorian. I love the Legend of Zelda OST and many other Japanese game soundtracks and you mentioning the Lydian sound I can kinda agree. I'm gonna make sure to listen to some of the soundtracks again while thinking about the Lydian sound/feel :P

Also interesting is how there are many different kinds of traditional Japanese music each being very different from the other.

Reply
metameccanicaSubmitted1 year ago

>I'm gonna make sure to listen to some of the soundtracks again while thinking about the Lydian sound/feel
Check Saria's song and Zelda's Lullaby.

>I hope my comment didn't come across as rude or anything
No, its okay!) 

Reply
1eviticusSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

I like the composition a lot, very cinematic.

Submitted
The Whole Step
Reply
PerLonnDeveloper1 year ago

Thanks for listening!

Reply
JofesSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

woodblock is really cool how it speeds up.

Submitted
Underwater Caverns Aren't Optional
Reply
PerLonnDeveloper1 year ago

Thanks for listening!

Reply
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