Treble Makers

Sometimes when I am in the middle of scoring a picture (or otherwise) oftentimes it's nice to have a side project of my own which usually consists of a genre of music utterly different from that of the main project. It's like having a barrel of wine I can tap whenever I grow weary of working on the same thing for too long. For instance, currently I'm in the middle of composing bespoke music for some educational curriculum. The type of music required is of a very grand orchestral nature, so in contrast the particular vintage as of late has been a little folk melody I actually composed several years ago and recently decided to arrange for a small pit band (of sorts). Though small ensembles are rather difficult to replicate with synthesized instruments, due to the intricate tone of solo instruments, I'm actually rather pleased with how this short little piece turned out. The band consists of a tin whistle, trumpet, upright piano, tuba, harmonium (pump organ), cello, and double bass.

Check it out!



Cheers,
Daniel

Fellow Composers

Back in February of this year I had the opportunity to participate in a young film composer discussion with my good friend Andrew Gerlicher (the host), Kristen Personius and James Everingham (also pals of mine), and the multi-talented composer and filmmaker George Streicher. Great fun for a guy like me. I especially enjoyed the opportunity to dig in to other like-minded musician's minds and discover their personal thoughts and approaches to the the world of modern film music. The job of a composer can often be quite isolating and so it can be strangely comforting finding other people who think and feel similarly about music and its creation.

When you have an hour to spare, check out the exchange! (Note: some colorful language).



In the wake of the recent shutdown of Vision Forum Ministries--resulting in the cancellation all future events including the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival--a new festival has arisen in San Antonio. The Christian Worldview Film Festival. One of the highlight events of this year's new festival was a short film scoring competition. What that meant was that Philip Telfer--the founder of the festival--provided a short film he had produced, thus far having no soundtrack. Any available composer (for a fee of 35 silver cartwheels) could sign up for the competition and subsequently receive a digital copy of the partially completed film, which he could score in any way he pleased--though any smart one would heed the direction of the minimal notes provided by the director. I had an available slot to fill in my schedule, signed up and a few weeks later mailed in my submission with a week to spare before the deadline. On the evening of March 15, at the awards ceremony of the CWFF they announced the winner. Though I didn't win, my friend and fellow member of the Rhapsodize Music Network Bradley Jamrozik did! And plus, I did make it as one of the six finalists of the competition, which is great. You can watch the short film with my score submission on the CWFF website if you like. http://www.christianworldviewfilmfestival.com/music-scoring-competition-daniel-white/

Also here is just the soundtrack:



Enjoy!

-Daniel

Forgiveness

It's been awhile, but things have been busy lately!   Which is very good.  On the 13th of May I headed down to Charleston, South Carolina to compose the score to a short drama film directed by Gabriel Everson.  Unfortunately, the film is yet to made available for public viewing, so I can't show it to you yet.  But I do have one track from the soundtrack online.  So you get a better idea of what the music is attempting to convey, this particular track is from a part of the film where a man is forgiving wrongs done to him by his own brother.  Dramatic.

Any thoughts?

Cheers!

Expansion

In recent times I've been working to increase the amount of genres I can compose with confidence.  I naturally tend towards drama and epic, but if I'm going to be versatile, I need to be confident in all manner of music.  I've already tried my hand at Jazz, which thus far has turned out okay.  But one of the cinematic genres which I previously had never composed much anything in was comedy.

Just recently I had the opportunity to score a short comedy sketch.  Tada.  I had about four minutes of music to compose in just under a week, which really, is quite reasonable.  But it was a stretch for me, in a good way, noting my previous inexperience in the genre.  The director liked what I came up with.

You can watch the sketch here if you like:



Before I worked on the score of this sketch I had written a comedic theme, potential for a future piece.  I  tried to incorporate it into the sketch but it never really seemed to fit very well.  So now, I've made a comedy piece out of it.



Cheers!

The Beginning of the End

Hey peeps.  God is great!  I've been having a lot of inspiration for all kinds of music these days.  I think part of it comes from the fact that I just got back from the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival last Sunday.  Through that I was able to meet and fellowship with all manner of filmmakers as well as film composers (as well as watch all sorts of amazing movies).  One of the highlights of the festival for me was that the founder of the Rhapsodize Music Network (a network of christian composers and musicians), Daniel Lamb a fellow composer and friend of mine, had a booth set up at the vending hall of the festival.  This allowed filmmakers as well as other composers to become connected with similar people.  Networking with all these people was super exciting and very encouraging to, hopefully, all of us.  In case I haven't made it clear, it was awesome.

Anyway, if you'd like to check out some of these other composers' webpages, head over to the RMN website and click on Artists: http://www.rhapsodizemusic.com/network/

Also, I have a new song!  It's called The Beginning of the End.  As a side note, I have been studying a lot about audio mastering recently and so, hopefully, you can hear noticeable improvements in the sonic quality of my tracks.

Cheers!

You Name It!

UPDATE: After much ado and advice from others (online and in person) I finally worked out a name for this piece: Memories. Hope you like it!

----

So-o-o.  I just finished a piece.  It's different, but then again, I seem to be always going for different.  Attempting to expand my skills.  I wrote this piece with particular emotions or feelings in mind but nothing to name it by.  At least, nothing I would like to name it by.  So here's the deal: I want you to name it for me.

When you listen to this piece, what immediately pops into your head?  Eh?  A scene from a book?  A movie?  A place?  An emotion?  It can be anything.  If the piece does indeed evoke something (and hopefully it does) leave a comment describing it.  It might end up being, or inspiring, the future title of the piece!

Enjoy!

Run!

This Christmas was awesome, as well as far too short.  By the time all the wassail was drunk and the last day of Christmas rolled around, I was ready to keep going!  But ah well, there's always a next year . . . or is there?  O.o

Anywho, I've written something as epic, cliche, action-packed, gigantic, and cinematic as I can make it.  This  is the kind of composition that comes fast and furious because there's so much music already out there that is in the same style, so I have a lot to draw from.  Of course, every soundtrack fan out there just says "I see you got the Hans Zimmer thing going on there".  Bless them.

EDIT: I removed this track from my SoundCloud page, so if you wanna hear it, message me or something.

Sentientes

Things have been busy recently with Christmas and such.  Carols, presents, family, the celebration of the Child, I'm enjoying it.  I've considered whipping up a Christmas piece but also have several other pieces in the works right now.  We'll see.

Anyway, I just finished up a very emotional piece.  I have pictures of prodigals and forgiveness in my head when I listen to it and I thought about naming it "Forgiveness".  I wanted something a little more general and obscure so I went with the Latin word for sentiment: Sentientes.

Enjoy!

Something Old-ish

Back in March of 2011 I had a terrible itch.  I had written a few half-way decent tunes, and such, but had never actually composed a soundtrack before.  I needed to scratch the itch, really bad.  So without a word or warning I decided to write a little score for a fight scene my elder brother, Cooper, and his friend had made awhile before.  It was in fact an okay piece of music but its marriage to the video wasn't all that great.  I think I've learned a lot since.  In both composing and programming.

Unfortunately, I don't have a version of the video with soundtrack, but I can show you them separately.

Here's the video:

And here's the music:

The Music Box

In the words of the beloved Count Olaf: "Hello, hello, hello!"

I have several small musical projects going on these days and one slightly larger and exciting one (it's a collaboration with another composer).  Expect to hear the exciting one within the next few weeks.  A very tiny little piece I came up with on one of these fine autumn days.  You might enjoy giving a listen and even making a comment.

String Quartet!

Alrighty!  My Summer has thus far been super busy and super awesome.  Lots of music.  Anyway, as of late I've been working on writing a piece for string quartet.  I just finished the composition and the mock-up in the computer.  I hope to have it all recorded by September!  But for now here's the mock-up for your enjoyment.  :D

EDIT. I removed this track from my SoundCloud page, so if you wanna hear it, message me or something.

Elegy

I had a great celebration of Independence Day!

Anyway, I'm simply in love with East West's Sample library Hollywood Strings.  It's simply marvelous.  I'm in the works with a few compositions which utilize it.  In fact, I just finished a short little piece.  Take a listen.

Sorry 'bout that . . .

So-o-o . . . just in case you we wondering, I haven't stopped posting on this blog forever.  But, granted, I haven't posted in a long time.  Let's just say in the words of Gandalf the Grey: "I was delayed".  :D

Back in February of this year I went to a film festival in San Antonio Texas.  Well in a strange turn of events my laptop (which, by the way, was what I composed all of my music on) was taken from me against my will (i.e. stolen).  Maybe that might help you understand why you haven't heard much music coming from my corner of the Farthing in a bit.

By the way, I've been reading Lord of the Rings.

Now, Providence has been good to me in all this and now I have better tools to produce music with than from before my laptop was stolen.  I am very grateful.

So!  I have a few projects going on now and I have two sketches or tests, or whatever you want to call them, for you to hear.  Here you go:

EDIT: I removed these tracks from my SoundCloud page, so if you wanna hear them, message me or something.

Origins

I had been working on two separate songs.  One slow and mysteriously bittersweet.  The other vast and epic in proportion.  I wasn't really sure where I was going with either, they were really just some expositions on various melodies and motives I had come up with in free time.  So, I decided to combine the two.  I liked how it worked out and decided to keep it that way.  It reminded me of the beginning of a movie, so I named it Origins.
  Origins by Daniel White Music


Oh, and Happy New Year!

On the Third Day of . . .

Merry Christmas everyone!  I made a little Holiday piece.  It's not really a complete song, just a few orchestral arrangements of Jingle Bells.  Here you go:

  Jungle Bells by Daniel White Music

Mysterium

The Second Post!  We're coming along here.  [Giddy-ness]

This is just a short neo-classical piece I wrote over the last week and a half.  It is titled Mysterium.  Tell me what you think.

  Mysterium by Daniel White Music

Hero

Hello There!  This is technically not really my first post on this blog.  Back when I was a young buck I tried to get my own music blog up and running and utterly failed.  However now that I am [much] older and wiser I [think] I can accomplish this feat with much more success.  [Chuckling]  We'll see.

So-o-o, with no further pleasantries I present you Hero the first composition to be published on this blog.

  Hero by Daniel White Music

Comments  are welcome.