Music competition / March 12 - 20

[Le Woltaire]

Hi,

The new theme for the music competition this week will be chromatics. That means you will have to make a piece of music that is mainly related to semi-tones. All tunes, modulations and transpositions, if there are any, should somehow develop in a chromatic way.

You can do this by using chromatic scales or by slightly modifying basic harmonies using some half-tone development...many things are possible.

I hope this isn't to difficult for a music competition in a game forum. But I'm sure most of you will know what I am talking about...

Have some fun !

[Flippy_D]

Oh man, I hate theory.

Example, please? It sounds a little bit like minimalism, but I don't know for sure.

[DoorKnobHandle]

It will be hard for you to check if the song is really written using chromatics. Only very good musicians will be able to hear those.

Honestly, you should consider changing the topic if possible...

[Sluggo]

I think Le Woltaire means write something that is chromatic as opposed to diatonic. Diatonic refers to a scale, such as a major or minor scale, and rarely using tones that do not exist in that scale. Some music of the classical and baroque period was like this, Hadyn and Handel are probably the best examples.

Chromatic music is just using tones that deviate from a diatonic scale. It doesn't necessarily mean it is atonal or anything, in fact most chromatic music is tonal. Chopin is a good example of chromatic music (but to tell you the truth, most composers wrote both chromatically and diatonically since the Baroque period).

There really isn't much theory involved, you have probably already written chromatic music.

I would say the best example of chromatic music that everyone is familiar with is Flight of the BumbleBee by Rimsky-Korsakov.

It will be hard for you to check if the song is really written using chromatics. Only very good musicians will be able to hear those.

Honestly, you should consider changing the topic if possible...

It's not really hard to identify, most music today is chromatic in some way.

[Le Woltaire]

Ok, I'll give you two famous examples:

First one "Flight of the bumblebee" by Rimsky-Korsakov:



Sample: http://www.geocities.com/le_woltaire/Flight-of-the-Bumble-Bee.mid

You see, this is an example for a composition that is basically made out of chromatic scales.


Another very famous one : The Tristanchord by Wagner



Sample: http://www.geocities.com/le_woltaire/tr01.mid

Here you can see how Wagner generates and permutates a chord in a chromatic way. The whole opera "Tristan and Isolde" works like this...

If the sample downloads don't work: Please, right click and "save as" or use a download manager...

You can also follow this link for more information:

http://www.free-definition.com/Chromatic-scale.html

Well, even if this all sounds a bit theoretical and complicated it'll sure be a possibility to improve our musical knowledge and abilities....

[Ghormak]

Very, very random.

http://www.abo.fi/~andslott/chrome.ogg

(Most of my tune compo entries end up being piano bashing. How odd.)

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

heh, that music reminds me of some knife murderer chasing a victim, Ghormak

[Sluggo]

http://bolandgraphics.homestead.com/files/sampleedit2.mp3

It uses chromatic scales. Awesome.

[Gregjazz]

Kinda Kromatic. Performed by me. Composed by me. Arranged and adapted by me. Transposed to B double sharp by me. Conducted by me. The costume was also designed by me.

http://herculeaneffort.adventuredevelopers.com/kindakromatic.mp3

[Le Woltaire]

Nothing more to come I suppose.....
So let me see....
I just heard through your pieces. They are difficult to compare, because they are all so different .... 


Ghormak:
I think your approach was a very direct one. Totally cromatic. You really concentrated on the topic. Thats what I liked about it.
What I didn't like was the fact that you worked a lot with repetitive ostinato figures. So it becomes quite homogenic. The most interesting thing about cromatic music is, that you can modulate into any key you want at almost any time, so you gain some kind of liberty...I think your piece was quite fixed to one tempo and one key.


Sluggo:
Ah, I hear you really come from the classic-romantic tradition. Your piece reminded me a lot on the early Wagner and Berlioz... The string choral at the beginning was similar to one I know from the "Tannhäuser" and the rapid chromatic scales reminded  me of "The flying Dutchman". I also liked the instrumentation. However it will be difficult for you to develop some kind of personal stile. Where I study they usually tell you to find your own way, if you work in a too traditional stile.


Geoffkhan:
I was very surprised. I didn't expect the jazzy variation of this theme. Sounds very good. I wish I could do that...This is very useful if you are in a bar and there is a piano somewhere. Girls like that. I know what I am talking about.


After all Geoffkhan will decide what to do next. His piece was the biggest surprise for me. I'd also like to apologize if my theme was a bit too theoretical. I just thought it could be interesting to propose something different.