Aeneas Flees

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Aeneas Flees

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NaN:NaN / 01:17

Author Comments

In the Roman poet Virgil's epic 'The Aeneid', the hero Aeneas is fleeing from the burning city of Troy, which, as all of you probably know, was sacked by the Greeks in a ten-year conflict called the Trojan War. During his flight, he meets up with some fellow Trojans and they put on a pretty good fight as they make their way through the streets. As they reach the citadel, they find the remnants of the Trojan guards fighting a tooth-and-claw fight. Aeneas and his band try to step in and help, but they can't do much and end up making their way to the city gates, where they organize and set off to make a camp in the hills.

This modern orchestral composition portrays the feel of the battling Trojans as they make their way to the city gates.

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ClassicalCritic

July 3, 2011

Where is the bass?

Good day, gentleman,

first of all, we do not think, that the music interprets the name and your description very well, but still it is a decent piece of music.

Composition:
The change of tempo was quite refreshing. Your playful use of different harmonies also was very nice but the main-cadenza sounds a bit bumpy. But still you have a quite diversified composition. As we already said, the music does not really match the theme in our opinion. If you want to have a more battle-sounding atmosphere, you can make much sharper chords and use a lot more instruments (which we will explain in the instrumentation part much further), because in your current piece it sounds much more like an already won battle. Some swelling brass/woodwind/strings could also do a great part for some more dramaturgy.
Your melody could also use dynamic changes and different playing styles like some staccato to make it more characteristic instead of playing legato the whole time.

Instrumentation:
Your musical piece could really use some low-range instruments, such as bass-trombones, a bassoon, double basses and celli, which can emphasize some more important parts and make a more suspenseful, full and rich sound.
The trumpet is playing the whole time. Maybe you could bring some more alteration by giveing the "lead" to some other instruments like the strings, which are playing much staccato and let the trumpet play the accompaniment. Adding some timpani (playing tremolo or else) would add to some drama as well. You can also emphasize the rhythm by letting the woodwinds play it for example.

Mixing:
The trumpet and the woodwinds could really use some breathing breaks. And, we say that to many people, it would be very good to use a propagation delay, to get a more believable sound.
Keep an eye out, if you are adding some low instruments, so that you don not have too much low frequencies. All in all, the mixing is quite okay.

You presented us a refreshing piece of music. It sounded a bit medieval for us and we think that's the way you wanted it. We hope we could help you with our suggestions.

Best regards,

Sir Edward Eisenworth

samulis responds:

Thanks for your feedback, I did make a re-arrangement of this piece's initial themes to create an entry into a local composition contest that I will put up- it is a bit more evolved and such (if you would not mind listening to that as a comparison, that would be magnificent). In addition, I actually revised this initial composition further... and I had forgotten to replace it (or perhaps I was not confident enough in those revisions).

As this piece is slightly older, I have little interest in modifying it further unless someone asks for an arrangement of it. As for the medieval sound, I have been told that many times- consider it a mix of the percussion selection and the tight chords. There are a number of older songs of mine that exemplify this greatly.

Mojax

March 22, 2011

Beautiful work

I have spent the last 30 minutes or so perusing your submissions, and have been impressed with the depth and complexity of your compositions. I have been trying my hand at orchestral style music writing lately, and your work lets me know I've still got a ways to go! :D Thanks for your wonderful submissions.

samulis responds:

Thanks for taking the time to review them. It really means a lot to see a comment on anything. :)

Good luck with your own work... My advice is to keep on practicing, and to not be afraid to try out new chord progressions or styles... Once you start on a theme, let the music take you. You don't want to know how many unfinished pieces I have lying around because I couldn't figure out what to do or how to approach the rest of the piece. :/