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While looking for a sci-fi theme to make a tutorial, I happened to come across "Interstellar", composed by Hans Zimmer. There's lots of commentary, analysis and learn-to-play-on-piano stuff about this soundtrack on YouTube and everywhere.
Although it is very simple (Fmaj7, Em, Am, Em), it is also very effective, as the millions of views and enthusiastic comments clearly show. With movie soundtracks however, it's the pictures and the story with its intense emotions that give music meaning. The music on its own is not necessarily perceived in the same way, unless you have a very vivid imagination.
I took this as an inspiration and created a different piece with Synfire. It's base don the same chords and the four ascending tones (which do not count as a copyrightable melody, I suppose). It is totally unfinished and experimental, but I thought I should share it with you if anyone is interested in doing something similar.
Find the files attached below. The library includes piano phrases that were generated with Factories.
I'm really bad a mixing, so if something sounds bad in your ears or is lacking, let me know.
interstellar_0.mp3
Sun, 2024-03-24 - 18:11 Permalink
There's something special with the meter.
Like many hymnic/sacral music it uses 3:4 time, although in the beginning it feels more like 4:4 due to the repeated E pounding on 4:3 divisions. Later on the 3:4 meter is pronounced more clearly.
The point I want to make is, you are absolutely free to mix meters and alter its feel from time to time. I want to encourage everyone to experiment with mixing binary and ternary signatures and using triplets to the same effect as well.
Mon, 2024-03-25 - 19:04 Permalink
It became a standard workflow for me to try a piece that is already arranged with different harmony progressions, just to see if there is a variant that sounds better or has something special to show that I didn't expect (very often that is the case).
This first one uses three chords (looped after 3m) in a 4m structure. That is, chords don't align with the structure for quite some time, leading to an otherworldly rollout of harmony that avoids predictable repetition.
Am | Bb(add9) | Dm7
The horns are a bit odd sometimes. They would need to be nudged up/down a bit, but I left this as raw output for now.
interstellar-cycling.mp3
Tue, 2024-03-26 - 08:47 Permalink
Well, "best" probably depends on what the music is supposed to be used for.
The main takeaway for me is that harmony has a huge influence on style and that Synfire is the perfect tool to experience that first hand.
Basic triads on diatonic scales moving in steps of 1m are pretty generic and all-purpose. Once you include functional movement, diminished, augmented, suspended and other chords that deviate from the static 1m grid, specific styles begin to emerge (like 1940's jazz or the classical era). Melodies change their meaning and emphasis. Even the instrumentation gives rise to different timbres.
Tue, 2024-03-26 - 10:55 Permalink
Confirmation bias is powerful. If the first version wasn't a famous movie theme already established in the collective subconscious, you might find it too predictable and pervasive.
That's what I felt while watching the movie, despite the great sound engineering. It was great during the cornfield chase and on the apocalyptic earth, but towards the end of the story, the depressing weight felt contradictory to the uplifting message ("love transcends space and time").
Music is extremely subjective.
In this experiment I like the A Major version best, although it doesn't fit the movie at all. It is something completely different.
I find the Eb Minor version great in the second half, when the horns and the faster harmony pace interact in unexpected ways (although I dislike the old fashioned chord changes).
It's always a challenge to free one's mind from all preconceptions after replacing a radical parameter like Harmony. The more familiar you are with the original, the more likely it will sound odd or off because your anticipation is biased.
Tue, 2024-03-26 - 11:52 Permalink
Confirmation bias ...
Well, I didn't watch the movie and I never heard the soundtrack to it before. I'm not a big fan of Zimmer-scores either. But for me it is a good example of the fact that some things simply belong together and cannot be taken apart without destroying them.
If you disassemble it anyway, do it in such a way that nothing of the origin is recognizable.
Tue, 2024-03-26 - 23:26 Permalink
The Interstellar soundtrack is the gift that keeps on giving. This Will Destroy You has a song titled "Clubs" that is based on the main theme of the Interstellar soundtrack.
As for the movie, it is among my least favorite in the Christopher Nolan filmography (I thought Inception and Tenet were much better), but I do enjoy the soundtrack. Time For Caution is probably my favorite track. The way the organ fades in and out at the end of the track reminds me of the Also sprach Zarthustra Prelude in 2001 Space Odyssey (likely an intentional allusion).
I enjoyed your interpretations of the Interstellar chord progression. It's become so iconic by now that no matter what you do with it listeners will be reminded of Interstellar.
The A major interpretation is my favorite, followed by the Ebm. The A major version starts introspective and deeply felt while growing expansive and majestic when the horns arrive. The Ebm version, on the other hand, starts off a little jazzy in the beginning when piano is playing solo. But then it takes on a air of mystery when the other instruments arrive, but without sounding too dark (as is the case with the final interpretation).
What I like about this post is how it demonstrates the power of Synfire to power creativity. There isn't another application out there that can do what Synfire is able to do with such ease. It turns MIDI files into Lego blocks that that be arranged and rearranged in so many inspirational ways.
Wed, 2024-03-27 - 08:41 Permalink
Any variation created by replacing Harmony always needs some manual editing. The point is that you can immediately get an idea of what's ahead and whether you want to go down that path or not.
Also, the long sound releases in this example don't work well with fast chord changes or scale changes. I completely disregarded this here.
The last example was just a joke for fun. Horror and dissonant tensions also have their idioms and conventions. Ignore them at your own peril (which I did).
The interstellar soundtrack has successfully appropriated an already ubiquitous pattern that is deeply ingrained in our popular culture. The combination of an ostinato (orgelpunkt) with ascending notes is a routine for soundtrack composers. Almost every movie contains one or more instances of it. Probably because it is so easy to improvise on a keyboard without much thought.
You can use the Palette, preferably on a single modal scale, to find chords that include a note you want to repeat over and over. A modal scale is basically a chord with seven tones, so whatever you play, sounds with a long release will resonate without too much dissonance.
(I should actually try this with this arrangement)
Sat, 2024-03-30 - 20:19 Permalink
100% interstellar phrases. Now the wormhole can come:
What I did: I gave the Interstellar_0 arrangement above new sounds, increased the tempo to 200 (now it sounds like every bar from the old arrangement is now a beat), moved a few containers around and then made a sketch from the whole arrangement. I then used it to create new harmonic progressions, converted the whole thing back into an arrangement and then did some more container work. The phrases are practically unchanged. I then put the whole thing together in FL Studio from two different versions of the arrangement (one of which is attached).
Sun, 2024-03-31 - 13:33 Permalink
Trippy stuff. You seem to have a penchant for portamento synths.
IMHO the sounds aren't responsive enough to keep up with the tempo, so it's getting muddy, especially in the lower range. I wonder what it might sound like with faster sounds and no reverb. At 200 bpm (which is pretty common with jazz) you will want to hear every note attack, even if that amounts to a terrifying ride on a barrage of staccatos right into a wormhole ...
Sun, 2024-03-31 - 14:13 Permalink
I did this mainly to demonstrate how far you should go in destroying things so you can say it's something new now. Because no one wants to listen to just "alternative versions" of a movie theme or a Debussy or what not. With this track here, I'm pretty sure that nobody would say: "Hey, isn't that made from the Interstellar theme?"
You seem to have a penchant for portamento synths
Yes, maybe, but in this case, I did't intend that directly. It was just there and I thought "oh cool". The Arps in your arrangement gave that effect at 200 bpm.
Sun, 2024-03-31 - 14:34 Permalink
I get your point. But nobody, not even the most fervent admirers of the movie, would recognize the A Major version above as a variant of the film score, unless they followed this thread. It is a completely separate thing with a different melody, narrative and feel.
The point I was trying to make is that, in order to get to something new and original, it is often enough to roughly resemble something you like and then play around with parameters and phrases. I admit the Debussy thing came too close, but generally it is not necessary to distort everything to the extreme. Composers worked this way for centuries (although they did it manually, of course).
Sun, 2024-03-31 - 16:47 Permalink
The point I was trying to make is that, in order to get to something new and original, it is often enough to roughly resemble something you like and then play around with parameters and phrases.
And the point I was trying to make is that this is not enough. But here we obviously have different views. Especially with regard to the terms "new" and "original".
Sun, 2024-03-31 - 19:22 Permalink
There's an important difference between English "original" (authentic, not a reproduction) and German "originell" (unusual, innovative). The variations above are certainly authentic in that they don't resemble anything I am aware of. At the same time they are not unusual or innovative. So if that is what you mean, I agree.
Original is also relative. It means different things for an artist that is unconstrained by expectations vs. functional (or popular) music that is constrained by decades of listening habits, genre boundaries or use cases. For the latter, a variation of something popular that just passes the "authentic" mark is the safest bet. Ask any film composer.
Sun, 2024-03-31 - 22:42 Permalink
As you might know, in German there is also the term "Original" and I think it means pretty much the same as in English. That's what I meant.
But you are right, in music the term "original" is, apart from its legal meaning, of course highly subjective. And also a question of your own aspirations.