My longest Tenori-On piece so far. Composed pianistically whilst thinking of friends far away in foreign lands, especially those who have been so supportive and encouraging of my artistic and musical endeavours.  It's basically a duet of 2 voices having a musical conversation, just like old friends. Love you all xxx!

FAR AND DEAR

In this piece I've tried to capture an eeriness and haunting atmosphere, as well as a sense of tension and unease.  Like the feeling you get when you're in a haunted house and the hairs on the back of your neck rise when you sense something but it doesn't quite manifest itself in your field of vision. 

HAUNTED

I call this Lullaby 2013 because it's the first Tenori-On song I composed in 2013, in August 2013. Before that, I hadn't had the opportunity to compose on my Tenori-On since 2011.  So, it's been a while coming, but my Muse is back! So much so that now I'm the proud owner of not just 1 but 2 TNR-Ws, the "white" Tenori-On, as well as 1 TNR-O, the "orange" Tenori-On.

LULLABY 2013

I've always loved the lush, heavy, multi-layered sounds of the Romantic Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov. He could make a single piano sound like an entire orchestra. This song "Hymn" started out as an Organ-based sound, which rapidly burgeoned out into a full-blown orchestra with the introduction of the fatalistic Piano theme and unrelenting Sforzando Strings.  At nearly 5 minutes, it is the longest piece I have composed for Tenori-On so far.  Dedicated to my friends of Russian/Eastern European/Slavic lineage, especially my dear friends Alexander Shiroki and Liubov Kadyrova. Composed purely on the Yamaha Tenori-On.

HYMN

I loved the sound of the solo bugle in Hans Zimmer's "Destiny's Door", which he so kindly let us mere mortals play around with.  With only 120 seconds of playtime, I had to keep it succinct, so the emphasis is mostly on the bugle's plaintive refrain, supported by a low male choir and some rousing beats. 

Bugle's Last Refrain (Bleeding Fingers Contest)

I capitalised on Hans' beautiful chord progression, and created a female chorus over it to help shape it further. Where the female choir leaves off, a male choir comes in (Hans' Choir stem), which I let run to its climactic conclusion, ending with some thundery crashing sounds. I used 4 of Hans' stems, plus 2 tracks of my own creation.

CHORALE (BLEEDING FINGERS CONTEST)

I processed this in Garageband instead of Reason. I felt that Hans' solo female vocal voice required her own treatment, rather than singing along with an entire orchestra with bells attached.  So I cut her vocal line into segments, added reverb and other effects, and then layered them over each other.  I also created a structured feel to the piece, as is my Classical won't. 

Melisma (Bleeding Fingers Contest)

Hans' Solo Voice stem is very dominant and can be overpowering, to be mixed with his other stems. So, to give it justice, I've created an intro using only the Solo Voice stem, chopped up and layered with echoes and reverb.  This is supported later by the Choir Stem, and the Strings Stem. I call this Echoes of Destiny.

ECHOES OF DESTINY (BLEEDING FINGERS CONTEST)

For this track, I used only Hans Zimmer's Woodwind stem.  I wanted to create an imaginary landscape of sounds, where the listener immerses himself in a wash of timbres, dynamics and harmonics. I used Alchemy Player for the sounds, it's free so I thought I'd try it before I went ahead and purchased the whole pack. Forget drumbeats here, just let yourself float and enjoy UTOPIAN ENCOUNTERS! :-)

UTOPIAN ENCOUNTERS (BLEEDING FINGERS CONTEST)

I really like mixing the vocal lines together, using Hans Zimmer's Choir and Solo Voice stems.  Also included in this track is the Synth track, which I've used to underpin the structure of the piece.  Sit back, relax and let the earthy tribal harmonies wash over you. 

AlyZen Moonshadow

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