Triple posting to present the start of Appeal. I wanted to do something magical-sounding for the intro, because wonderous Nargothrond and all. I thought maybe to do some more twinklebelling, but preferred to leave that to be unique to Melian. And then it came to me: Nargothrond is the city of
harps! So the intro will have a harp. Also, in recent songs I discovered that beyond the basic set of instruments the program lets me choose from when I start a new piece, there is a whole array of hidden stuff in the settings, including some frankly bizarre stuff (did you know "helicopter" is an option for music scores?). Long story short, there is some synthetic sound which is aptly titled "atmosphere", and which blends nicely with the harp. Toyed the idea with a breathier flute, but wasn't convinced, and besides the intro needs
some instrument that would connect to Finrod (which the flute has kinda become alongside the trumpet). What I am not sure about is whether to keep the harp for the body of the song or to revert to the typical piano. I think piano sounds better for the body - and also, whatever instruments I put, they have to not jar too much with Amarie Ballad, and I think that one sounds better with piano... Or maybe it could be both. But point is, if I start making everything Finrody have a harp backdrop replace the piano, I feel that it would make the remainder of his songs feel out of place, and it becomes a domino effect and I'm not willing to go there.
Some Finrod things can have harp, but not
most. Ahh, the dilemma.
The other questions are simpler. I tagged a sketch of Arrival and Appeal proper onto the intro for demo purposes. 1) Is this in good range for you? Does it need shifting up/down before I start working on the main thing? 2) Tempo... oh gosh. So I hear the intro and the Arrival (up to "I must see Felagund your king") as slow. The lyrics could tolerate being fast here, but the intro does not, and keeping it on the slow side helps with the magic feel, I think. But the body of Appeal does not tolerate this slowness, especially on Finrod's part; it needs something brisker - I have a moderately fast version as a sample. Could probably be a bit slower, and even a bit faster, but not too much because then Beren's lines start tonguetwisting.
Appeal Intro: slow
Appeal Intro: fast
(Ain't you proud of me? I kept the intro to under 30 seconds!
)
(And, sorry if in the previous ramble it wasn't clear, but I
am leaning towards doing a two-part piece again, like for Aria and Renunciation, for both tempo and instrument reasons. The question is what exactly to change, and where - the options are at the start of the speaking lines - "Is this not the wonderous Nargothrond", and at the start of the body - "I beseech you etc")
And, in entirely unrelated news, I
did start translating the Wilwarin fanfic.
That's what happens when I have several days off in a row and very few responsibilities. It will not last very long though, which means that I've basically committed myself to another year-long-or-more project on a weekend whim. When I get through the first chapter, I will post a link.