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Symphonic Poem


DZComposer

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As some of you know, I haven't seriously worked on any musical projects for a couple of years, save for Shadows of Lylat, which itself has been a slow-moving project.

I think I'm ready to get back into it, and I have an idea for something to get me going. But I need some help.

I want to write a Symphonic Poem based on Star Fox music.

For those of you who don't know what a Symphonic Poem is, it is, in a nutshell, a large symphonic work designed to tell some kind of story, usually the story of some non-musical work.

While in literature, a poem is a short work, in music a tone poem is a BIG work in multiple movements. Some of them are over an hour in total length.

Perhaps the most famous example of a symphonic poem is Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss (The opening movement of this one is forever engraved in our culture thanks to Stanley Kubruk's Space Odyssey). The famous opening movement is about two minutes long. The entire poem is about 30 minutes in length. The poem tells the story of the novel Also sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen by Friedrich Nietzsche through music. Every synopsis I have seen of the book is confusing to me, so the book is likely confusing even moreso.

I know there is plenty of source material to choose from, musically. The score for Star Fox 64 alone runs just about an hour in total length.

I am shooting for between 20 and 45 minutes.

I am thinking of this instrumentation:

Violin I/II

Viola

Cello

Bass

Harp

Flute I/II

Piccolo

Oboe

Clarinet I/II

Bass Clarinet

Contrabass Clarinet

Basson

Contrabasson

Horn I/II/III/IV

Trumpet I/II/III

Trombone

Bass Trombone

Tuba

Timpani

Percussion

The question I have is that of story. It is not as simple as just trying to take the canon and tell it musically. The canon's "issues" come in to play.

Should I tell just the story of one game? Or maybe a streamlined canon? Stop at SFAs?

I'm pretty sure I will cover things like the relationship between Fox and Krystal, Star Wolf, Andross' invasion, and possibly what happened to James. But that's pretty much all I have at this point.

Any ideas?

Also, if you guys could help me discipline myself to actually finish this thing, it would be appreciated.

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This project sounds amazing. I guess the real question is if you tell the whole story will you be abe to do it all justice? Not doubting your ablitys, but I sorta know that as a writer if your not satasified with the finished piece it dosen't matter what the feedback is. And if you do cover just one game, say 64, would it be left at theat or do you think youd go back and do the others as well?

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I will only do one. This isn't like writing a short little fanfic. It will take me MONTHS to do this. I know there are people out there who can churn out 30 minutes of music in a couple of weeks. I am not one of them.

I will work one movement at a time, for a total of 5 to 10 movements. If a get a good pace going, I can probably do a movement a month. Though when Shadows starts picking up again, it will take priority.

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Well I'm thinking one game at a time so you don't over work yourself, get frustrated and quit and I have two that you did awhile back in my iTunes and I would love too hear more. :)

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I apoligize if I came across as downplaying how much work will go into this. I've never worken on anything like this and i imagine it is a ton of work. But anyway, the more i think about it 64 and assault share a lot of music so if your only doing one, I'd love to see... well hear, the whole story.

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Why not go through each games one after the other, not caring for the canon, and telling the story of each ? You could go from sf, sf2, sf64,sf adv, sf as, sf c. Canon and plot logic (in the case of music) shouldn't be an obstacle to creativity I think.

And at the end you could have all these story mix together to give a unique movement ?

You know I once had the crazy idea of making a musical with starfox, it would have been hilariously awesome. I'm just throwing ideas there..

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Glad to hear you're going to pick up music and once again live up to your username DZ. Look very much foreward to hearing more.

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I think I've figured out the movements. In this plan there are six:

I - New Heroes - Fox follows his father's footsteps and re-creates Star Fox with Peppy Hare, Falco Lombardi, and Slippy Toad

II - Andross has Declared War! - Andross attacks

III - The Only Hope for Our World - Fox must answer the call to repel Andross. Can he do it?

IV - Lylat Love - Fox meets Krystal and they fall in love

V - Final Battle - Star Fox battles Star Wolf, then Fox takes on Andross

VI - Finale - Victory! Andross is vanquished, and peace returns to Lylat

It doesn't truly follow the canon, but I think this will work musically.

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Are you going to be basing it off of previous Star Fox songs like the main theme altered or will it be all entirely new?

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It will be a mix of SF tunes and original stuff

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Are you doing something a bit like the opening theme of Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty since It uses both previous themes and new tunes, and renders both emotions and actions (following the story narration during the setup process)?

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Is it going to be a Mix of select the SF music combined to make the tune or you starting from scratch and adding sections to make it sound somewhat like the original score?

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