Symphony for Roshar - Beta listeners needed!

[ChrisMc]

I would love to create a collection of contemporary concert music for Sci-Fi/Fantasy literature based on the fictional planets on which they take place. A sort of update to Holst’s The Planets for nerds, if you will.

Stormlight Archive is one my favourite series in Sci-Fi/Fantasy, and so I have begun working on some ideas for a symphony for Roshar, based on the history of the planet (as far as we know...). I figured the best place to start here would be on the Shards. So I made some music and have presented it on YouTube alongside some wonderful fan art:

Cultivation (Beta) - Tones of Roshar from The Stormlight Archive - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylGq8WraLxM

Honor (Beta) - Tones of Roshar from The Stormlight Archive - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elOI8vxwbv4

Odium (Beta) - Tones of Roshar from The Stormlight Archive - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRJkrOXnm5o

It would be really great to get some feedback from the community here. These are slightly longer pieces to experiment a little bit, but I would like to condense these down to their essence. I have some ideas of changes I would make, but if you are happy to take a few minutes to check these out, I would really appreciate hearing some of yours.

Cheers!

Edited July 7 by ChrisMc
Clarity

[Ascended Grubberfly He/Him]

2 hours ago, ChrisMc said:

I would love to create a collection of contemporary concert music for Sci-Fi/Fantasy literature based on the fictional planets on which they take place. A sort of update to Holst’s The Planets for nerds, if you will.

Stormlight Archive is one my favourite series in Sci-Fi/Fantasy, and so I have begun on a symphony for Roshar. I figured the best place to start here would be on the Shards. So I made some music and have presented it on YouTube alongside some wonderful fan art:

Cultivation (Beta) - Tones of Roshar from The Stormlight Archive - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylGq8WraLxM

Honor (Beta) - Tones of Roshar from The Stormlight Archive - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elOI8vxwbv4

Odium (Beta) - Tones of Roshar from The Stormlight Archive - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRJkrOXnm5o

It would be really great to get some feedback from the community here. These are slightly longer pieces to experiment a little bit, but I would like to condense these down to their essence. I have some ideas of changes I would make, but if you are happy to take a few minutes to check these out, I would really appreciate hearing some of yours.

Cheers!

I love this!

The drums in Cultivation fit with the way I imagine the Rhythms, but I think you could have built more. At least the way I imagined it, it grows, becoming more complicated and louder. You kinda had that, but I think if you make certain parts more complicated and louder as the song progressed, it would be really cool.

The rhythm behind Honor fit, and the brass was cool. I don’t have much to say here, except that it was cool but not my favorite.

Odium is in competition for my favorite. The electric guitar has energy that fits imo. I just wished I felt more chaos during it that slowly revealed to be a much larger theme (or something, I don’t remember the musical term). 
 

Overall, very impressive! Very excited to hear the any changes you make!

Are you planning to make the Rhythms for the 13 other Shards by any chance? I would love to hear what you make!

[Elegy he/him]

Good job, I liked them all and think they capture the Shards really well! Some notes:

- I really like the complex rhythms! It makes sense that they would be there, but not everyone could pull them off.

- I'll second the impression that Cultivation - and also Honor - feel like they are building up to something that never really comes to fruition, like they are sketches for more expansive compositions. Odium, being a metal track that quickly escalates, doesn't have that problem and feels whole as it is.

- Can't really say why but using a brass-heavy orchestration for Honor makes a lot of sense!

- Probably pedantic (and as far as I can see you don't use the term in the descriptions of the actual videos), but the designation of "symphony" seems a bit overboard for a collection of small-scale compositions. Doesn't help that you say you're inspired by Holst's Planets, which isn't a symphony but a suite - a term that would fit better I think. (I am aware that the term symphony has lost most of its initial meaning that it had in the 18th-19th century, but if there is one thing that designates a symphony, it's the ambitious scale.) Like I said, only semantics, but I thought it was worth mentioning

- Odium is in 9/8, isn't it? Kinda hard to count since the accentuation of the drums is wonky, but if so, that's very cool! The choice to make it a metal song is also great. Just yesterday my sister asked me what I thought an Odium/Fused/Unmade playlist would look like and I said "metal, lots of metal", so yeah ... agreed 

- That said, the drum writing needs some work. Especially the hi-hat beats in the second half seem almost random. Try to make them have an actual beat. (I'm also not sure if I agree with the decision to make them sound almost trap-like, I feel like it clashes with the rest of the vibe ... but that might be a personal preference since I'm not a fan of that hi-hat sound overall.) In general, giving the drums more of a flow would be nice - the bass drum, hi-hat and bass drum don't really work together in a way that seems intuitive to me. So I advise working on that - like, actually sitting down to develop a pattern with a good groove to it. Odium is ecstasy, I'm sure the Shard loves a good groove 

But like I said, very cool, great ideas for sure and I really like the stylistic direction you chose for each Shard! Great job!

[ChrisMc]

Thank you both very much. I really appreciate you taking the time to check it out and lay down some thoughts in detail.

So these pieces were intended as experiments with my own musical interpretations of the tones and rhythms. I did give them a structure of sorts, so there was some ebb and flow in the writing, but the the symphonic work is still to come (I have edited the original post as I don't think I explained that very well). I should think you will get to hear some these ideas evolve into something grander -SPOILER HERE->

Spoiler

(and just maybe combine at some point...)

 in a more musical way. But for now I am just after getting as much info as possible on how other fans vibe with some of the potential building blocks. 

I would absolutely love to do all 13 others, but we will see how we go. Scadrial is a near certainty.

P.S Elegy - with Odium, honestly, I had to open up the Pro Tools session to remember the timings for you! So... I counted the guitar part as two bars of 7/4 and one bar of 5/8. This repeats indefinitely (whether you hear the part or not). The drum parts change but they do always repeat, though they may not fall on the 1 of the guitar part. The idea was to make it uncomfortable and (almost) rhythmically imperceptible. And I agree some more experimentation could be done here

Edited July 7 by ChrisMc

[Asriel He/Him]

I've often used the Cosmere for inspiration when composing, so I love this idea and what you've come up with so far!
My thoughts...
Cultivation: I'm not sure about the E-guitar with Cultivation. It doesn't quite match the vibe for me. But I couldn't come up with something to replace it. 
The Rhythm of Cultivation is described as "stark and staccato, building up". From the sample, I definitely got the stark and staccato feel, but not so much the building up. As you go on, building up the rhythmic and harmonic complexity, rather than just adding parts, would really showcase what Cultivation is. (Not to say that adding parts was bad; that worked very well for me)

Honor: The beat and brass here match the martial feel of Honor very well. However, the building nature of the piece is not how I think of Honor. More constancy would be good. Other than that, this feels good.

Odium: Metal works well here. One thing that I felt could be emphasized more is the sense of Odium being the most overwhelming Shard. I always think of Odium as being slightly out of control, even with the most well-attuned Vessel. So IMO the music should reflect that very strongly. In the same vein, the volume should probably be at least slightly uncomfortable to the average listener. (hehe see what I did there) So overall, maybe play more into the metal aspect.
"It was the scream of a thousand warriors on the battlefield. It was the moment of most sensual touch and ecstasy. It was the sorrow of loss, the joy of victory. And it was hatred. A deep, pulsing hatred with a pressure to turn all things molten. It was the heat of a thousand suns, it was the bliss of every kiss, it was the lives of all men wrapped up in one, defined by everything they felt. ”

I love where this is going and can't wait to see more!