The Wooden Toy

[Rainmak3r]

Hi all,

I wrote a short classical/orchestral piece for the holidays:

https://soundcloud.com/lminiero/the-wooden-toy

I've had the themes in mind for a couple of christmases already, but this is the first time I forced myself to sit down and actually orchestrate it. The inspirations are mainly Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker", Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf", Korngold's "Die Schneemann" and the several easy listening works by Ketelbey. It's nothing spectacular, and obviously very derivative (hopefully not to the point of plagiarism), but the idea was to write something short and playful that could feel like a Christmas tune.

Hope you'll enjoy it, and I'll take advantage of this to wish you all some Happy Holidays!

[oscillator]

Oh, this is very sweet and beautiful! So different from my piece! Conjuring up images of xmas toys and playful squirrels in the christmas tree!

And excellent orchestration, very inspiring! Which kit did you use?

[Rainmak3r]

Oh, this is very sweet and beautiful! So different from my piece! Conjuring up images of xmas toys and playful squirrels in the christmas tree!

Which is very unlike me: I'm usually the one that writes super-depressing music around here!!

And excellent orchestration, very inspiring! Which kit did you use?

I followed the same approach as always, so MuseScore to write the score, and then Virtual Playing Orchestra in Ardour, using a modified version of Michael Willis' template and my versions of the SFZ files to more easily automate articulation changes (mostly pizzicato parts here).

[oscillator]

I followed the same approach as always, so MuseScore to write the score, and then Virtual Playing Orchestra in Ardour, using a modified version of Michael Willis' template and my versions of the SFZ files to more easily automate articulation changes (mostly pizzicato parts here).

Thanks I will check out those links!

[folderol]

Lovely work

[Rainmak3r]

Lovely work

Thanks!

[Tenaba]

Nicely done. It's very impressive how realistic VPO can be made to sound when arranged like this. The tempo change at the end is a nice touch as well. I'm clueless with regards to classical music, so I can't get any more verbose than this, but I like it!

[Michael Willis]

I very much enjoyed this. As somebody once told me in the past, I was too busy enjoying it to even think about any technical feedback. Very carefree and joyful, just like Christmas should be.

[Rainmak3r]

Nicely done. It's very impressive how realistic VPO can be made to sound when arranged like this. The tempo change at the end is a nice touch as well. I'm clueless with regards to classical music, so I can't get any more verbose than this, but I like it!

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it! I think I could have done more with respect to realism, honestly, as I didn't bother much with strings swells for instance, but I did everything in an afternoon so I felt it did sound nice enough for a funny miniature

[Rainmak3r]

I very much enjoyed this. As somebody once told me in the past, I was too busy enjoying it to even think about any technical feedback. Very carefree and joyful, just like Christmas should be.

Thanks! Yep, that feeling was exactly what I was after: all those pieces I mentioned have that sort of vibe, and I wanted to try and do something similar at least once. I'll have to revisit it sooner or later to improve it, but I'm happy with how it came out eventually, especially since I had this idea a couple of years ago and never approached it, knowing the orchestral arrangement would drive me crazy

[PieterPenninckx]

Again, wow! You really make Virtual Playing Orchestra shine. It sounds almost real. Great composition, great arrangement.

You can maybe make it even a little more realistic and interesting by using some crescendo/decrescendo in the longer notes (for the instruments that actually do have a dynamic range worth mentioning). I use the CC7 (volume) all the time, especially for fading out the last notes in a phrase.

But don't worry about it too much, it's great as it is.

[Rainmak3r]

Again, wow! You really make Virtual Playing Orchestra shine. It sounds almost real. Great composition, great arrangement.

You can maybe make it even a little more realistic and interesting by using some crescendo/decrescendo in the longer notes (for the instruments that actually do have a dynamic range worth mentioning). I use the CC7 (volume) all the time, especially for fading out the last notes in a phrase.

But don't worry about it too much, it's great as it is.

Thanks and glad you liked it! You're 100% right on more I could have done, especially on swells and things like that, but since it's something I did in an afternoon I didn't want to spend too much time on it: knowing myself, this would have been ready by mid January, and so a bit late for the job

[PieterPenninckx]

You're 100% right on more I could have done, especially on swells and things like that, but since it's something I did in an afternoon I didn't want to spend too much time on it

Yeah, it's a good idea to focus on getting the foundations right (which is what you've done here); in this way you "train the right muscles" (and meet the "deadline" with a high quality ).

[Basslint]

Merry Christmas Lorenzo! Very nice, would be ideal for a family movie!

[Rainmak3r]

Merry Christmas Lorenzo! Very nice, would be ideal for a family movie!

Thanks, glad you liked it, and Merry Christmas to you too! Even though it may be a bit too late for that, so Happy New Year may be more fitting