Hey all! Sorry I've been gone for a bit...life was very busy. But here's a little piece I started this morning in FL Studio. The idea for the main recurring motif popped into my head and I had free time, so...I went to work! In this specific project I used my usuals, BBCSO Discover, Intimate Strings, Epic Choirs...but also Amadeus Symphonic for the brass this time around. I took the feedback I've gained of varying my works and making them more engaging...hoping this one is doing that so far! (I've only had a couple hours at it so far). One thing I tried in this was to add a little variation on the main theme in there, which was fun.
In my mind this song, or the main theme at least, represents a wide open unknown...and that within it that is "Beyond Our Sight". Hence the title. But as always, I'd love to know what imagery this brings about for you! Looking forward to your feedback and compositions and hope you enjoy the listen!
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Theory_MotivicDevelopmentHandoutandWorksheet.pdf
Hey Lane, great to see you back and still writing.
I think you have an excellent thematic idea here, and it's great that you recognize the desire to elevate your music by incorporating more engaging material.
In this particular musical example, I believe you could experiment with a little more motivic development of the theme. To me, it seems you rely solely on the repetition of the theme. While repetition is indeed one method of motivic development, ideally one should incorporate a variety of ways to present the same theme through different melodic ideas. It feels to me as if you've gotten stuck in the habit of stating the theme and then presenting a contrasting section, rather than truly developing the theme to its full potential.
I've attached a helpful sheet on motivic development for your reference. It includes some ideas commonly associated with "getting the creative juices flowing" and illustrates how one can develop a melodic idea in a variety of ways. I believe this theme you've got here has tons of potential to be manipulated in a plethora of ways; you could certainly make an entire work out of it!
As far as imagery that comes to mind, at least in terms of the theme itself, this sounds like something that could be at the opening of some sort of cinematic adventure work. It creates a sense of foreshadowing a journey.
Thank you so much for the feedback! I really greatly appreciate it. This journey has been such a fun one and planning on continuing it farther, and forums like this one have helped be tremendously. I agree that varying the theme and really turning it into its maximum potential needs to be my next goal. It's definitely something I have improved on over myself this time last year, but I am always looking to improve. Really apprecaite the sheet and plan to read it ASAP!