I started i Morocco, then slowly traveled through Egypt! Next thing I know, I was traveling down the west coast of Italy near the Amalfi coast!!! But wait, what's that ahead, NOOOOOOOOO! Oh, just an illusion, I need to drink less of that wine in the bowels of the ship!!!! Land HO!!!!! Back in port and feeling safe!!!!!
Thanks for the journey Mr. Les, always fun hearing your stuff!!!
Full of Eastern promise. Great writing as always Les.
Thanks, guys!
The Eastern-sounding instrument that initiates the melody at the beginning is an Armenian duduk. I was looking for a sound that was evocative and emotional. I wanted to use a zhaleika, a traditional Russian wind instrument that sounds in the same registers, but couldn't find a good sample of one, so a duduk it was.
I thought it'd be interesting to hear something organic and a bit exotic play over the drone of the basses and synths in the intro. I like the contrast of natural and synthetic textures.
It's the first time I've done call-and-response in the melodic sections between orchestral and traditionally non-orchestral instruments. So it was a lot of fun to fiddle around with (you see what I did there).
I'll leave it up to others to judge the quality of the work objectively. Subjectively, on the other hand, I'm feeling like things are trending up in the work.
This is why I've written to the United States Bureau of Composing Standards, and have requested a promotion from Wannabe Composer to Composer, Grade IV.
"Their reply came today."
"Seriously? What does it say?"
"It says, 'Don't quit your day job'. Your license to own recording equipment has also been revoked."
"Bah! They simply don't understand my genius."
"To them, you're the anti-genius."