09-19-2020, 01:22 AM
(09-18-2020, 10:44 AM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: In memory of our cat Simba, who left us last week. He was 16 years old and his health had deteriorated to a point where he could no longer lead a happy cat life, so we had to say goodbye to him. This is not completely finished yet, so any thoughts on the arrangement and mixing would be welcome.
On an unrelated note, once this is finished it will probably be my last VO piece for some time. Over the past year I've grown increasingly frustrated with my progress (or lack thereof), and I'm at a junction where I need to stop and have a good long think about where to go from here. Do I try to rekindle my passion for composing somehow, or do I simply move on to other more gratifying pursuits such as writing? I don't know. Perhaps the urge to write orchestral music will come sneaking back eventually, as it usually does, but right now, I don't have the patience for it. It takes too much damn time, and even after spending all that time, I'm rarely happy with the results. Rather than keep frustrating myself further and risking becoming so disgusted with it all that I'll give music up altogether, I'm going to just back away and focus on other things for a while.
Beautiful, beautiful composition. I wish I could say more on it then that, but I don't have anything else to say -- it's a beautiful piece of music.
And, I am so, so sorry about the loss of Simba.
(09-19-2020, 01:08 AM)Mattias Westluns Wrote:(09-18-2020, 11:55 PM)Samulis Wrote: Mattias, this is BEAUTIFUL! Seriously. That cat must have been lucky to have a human like you.
Thank you, Sam! I know the music sounds like Simba was an alien that got stranded on Earth, phoned home and then got picked up by a spaceship at the end, but... eh. I much prefer doing these Williams-esque things over the modern VO thing, which brings me to...
(09-18-2020, 11:55 PM)Samulis Wrote: To be honest, I found myself in a situation very similar to yours several years ago, Mattias. I hated composing, I hated what my music had become. I had become jaded and worn out, in short. I found my solace in writing duets and quartets and other short, "simple" chamber music, only using basic sounds and no attempt at virtual orchestration, and devoted much of my time to improvising, playing, and making sample libraries. I still don't write the same way I used to, but I have found new places in music I enjoy exploring (and of course new hobbies/interests too). Through that I eventually started accepting my shortcomings and the perfectionism and dissatisfaction that stopped me from working has slowly diminished to a... slightly more manageable level, to the point I can write at least simple orchestral music again.
Yeah, I definitely know what you mean regarding "I hated what my music had become". I know I can whip up a nice orchestral track or two, or three, in a limited range of styles. But when I try to do something different and the end result sounds pretty much the same as track one, two and three combined, I'm realizing something's wrong here. And it's not down to just style and personal preference. I've been stuck inside my little box for well over a decade now, and I feel I need to move outside it to be happy. But how? I don't know. Maybe I need to do what you did and start playing real instruments more instead of struggling with virtual ones?
(09-18-2020, 11:55 PM)Samulis Wrote: As always I think it's important to give these things time. That said, as you put it, I think once you are bit by the composition bug, it will always come back eventually to bite you again.
I'm sure it will. I went through a similar phase some seven or eight years ago. I spent a couple of years playing guitar and writing non-orchestral music, and that rebooted my brain and got me enthusiastic about music in general again.
I'm so envious of people who have just one single love and interest, a single purpose in life. Those who truly know they want to be a writer, painter, chef, poet, sculptor, journalist, gardener, director, programmer and so on. I love doing lots of things, but life's too short for exploring more than one or two to its fullest
I don't know how much use my advice would be, but everyone has really excellent advice -- limitations, real instruments, and so on. A break, too, can help and recharge -- and perhaps exploring some styles of orchestral music outside of your usual would help also? I don't know. When it comes to orchestral music -- and this is just me personally -- I try to view things in terms of senses of emotion or place, as range/style go, more then more explicitly discernable Stylistic Tics. Perhaps this means I'll end up in my own box soon enough; but I feel that my own composing voice hasn't yet stabilized enough for me to feel stuck into a box yet.
I sympathize, also, with the struggle of multiple artistic interests. I focus on music, mainly, but I also write on the side -- not novels, but short stories. But even beyond that if I had the time or the ability or the money I would be directing short films and documentaries, and painting, and taking up calligraphy, and wittling wood to make little statuettes, and drawing with pencils, and taking photographs, and designing fonts, and acting...
