On Tuesday I was on my way to the venue where the concert would be held. I helped setting up the stage and after we were finished I went backstage to drink something. So I’m doing that, walking up the stairs to the musician rooms and hear a flute playing. In 90% of these cases I just ignore musicians assuming that they are practicing for an upcoming solo performance. While I’m there looking for something to drink I noticed that what is currently played on flute seemed fairly familiar. In fact, it wasn’t just familiar to me it was literally my own music that was played and practiced. The feeling I had was really weird, it wasn’t joy or excitement nor was I sentimental or melancholic, but it was extremely important from a psychological point of view. Some of you reading this might not be familiar with the world of sample music, but samples (literally virtual instruments) do exactly what you want them to do and this usually without any mistakes. And this perfection probably translated into me thinking that musicians wouldn’t encounter many problems playing my music. But this tiny little experience, no matter of how mundane it actually has been, changed a lot in how I perceive my music and how I will approach future works of mine.

The next experience I had was right after the concert was over. I was waiting backstage for the musicians to leave the stage so I could go back into the hall and talk to my friends and family. As I was coming from the backstage area onto the stage I already saw some people waiting in front of the stage and I thought they just wanted to talk for a moment. They did want to talk but they also wanted autographs and that was surreal for me. I never assumed that someone would come right after the concert and actually ask for autographs and pictures. I just went with it and signed everything and made photos with them.

I would love to share some images and impressions from the concert but apparently no one made some, whoops… maybe next time :P

Again, thanks to everyone involved and thanks to everyone who came over to watch the concert, it was a pleasure having you there!

Cheers

Note: You can/should read along while listening to the track, the actual analysis starts at "Now to my own theme"

This blog post will be about my Final Fantasy XV Fan theme 'Lux in Obscuro'. Final Fantasy has always had a special place in my heart, it took me quite a while to figure out how much it actually affected me and my musical language. The first time I actually realized how much of it translated into my own music was when I first heard an orchestra play my music. I felt the same thing I feel when I listen to Final Fantasy orchestral recordings. It is, and will be for a long time, a dream for me to actually work on a Final Fantasy on my own and write music for it.

Before we delve into the nitty gritty of my own theme we have to understand what Final Fantasy music makes so appealing and easy to connect to. The most important thing in FFs music is its simplicity. The music doesn’t try to be overly complex, but instead tries to use very simple ideas that are then orchestrated effectively. You can compare it to a children’s song, most of them are really simple but very memorable for this specific reason. The same applies to Final Fantasy music, it is very easy to remember since the melodies aren’t complex(from both a harmonical and rhythmical point of view), it allows us as listeners to get an easier grasp of them since our brain has'nt much to digest while listening.

Another important part is the utilization of piano. In many of the main themes a piano will play solely before the rest of the orchestra joins in. One reason for that is that it's way easier to showcase a melody in a soloistic  context. If you start with the full orchestral force our brain might be overwhelmed by what is happening and will lose touch with the melody. That’s one of the reasons why the menu music often starts with just Piano, it evokes a feeling of familiarity.

I don’t want to talk too much about musical terms (such as harmonic or rhythmic ideas) but another reason for FF’s great music is its actual harmonic language. The music utilizes simple chords such as ordinary minor or major chords but also the use of chords that feature a seventh or even further than that. Eventhough the difference between a simple minor/major chord and a seventh chord is just a single note, the overall sound and feeling of the chord will change dramatically. These ‘more advanced’ chords allow the music to have more ‘room’ since these additional notes make the sound more ‘spacey’. For someone not familiar with these sounds, below you can listen to an example of how a seventh can change the sound of a single chord.

As an example listen to the audio file below. First you will hear a simple major chord(C), right after you hear the same chord but with a major seventh added(Cmaj7). You can clearly hear how much aditional space/room is gained just by adding one note to the chord.

As you can see its dead simple, from many points of view, rhythmically, harmonically and our tempo is also quite low with just 80 beats per minute.

After opening with Piano we come to a swell of strings. The first Violins, Oboe and Flute lead the Theme A melody while all the other strings are the harmonic backbone of the section, the Piano supports the harmonic section subtly to make it a little bit fuller and also to give every chord more ‘attack’(as in adding more initial power to the first beat of our rhythm).

The strings (excluding Violins 1/Melody) are constantly in movement to make up for the fact that our harmonic and melodic idea is so simple. Having many long notes in a melody leaves room for other instruments to move without having the risk of having one movement fight for the attention that should fully be spend towards the main theme (Our melody Theme A). You can still have both(melody and harmony) moving at the same time but we should only do that if we have established our melody enough.

We hear two repetitions of the Theme A which then transition smoothly into our Theme B which is a slight variation of our Theme A.

Right after our first B section is over we transition into another variation of Theme A solely played by piano. This time it’s played more energetic than in the beginning, with the difference that we don’t end on ‘C major 6’ but rather on a ‘A sus4’ which we then resolve into a ‘A' chord. This feels especially powerful in this context since the strings join in at the exact same chord. With our arrival on the ‘A major’ we transition into a small bridge that will then lead us to our final variation of Theme B. Our bridge isn’t really a new melodic idea but rather a buffer we use between Theme A and B, otherwise we would only hear the themes repeating themselves all the time. The bridge is there to offer some contextual balance to the overall piece.

After our bridge we come to our big finale where we finally utilize our brass section. With some accented notes we introduce French Horns, Trombones and Trumpets to then later build the harmonic backbone for the melody, while clarinets and celli/violas play a movement to, again, counter the static melody (that is Theme B).

The swell we hear right after our bridge is very effective since we saved the full orchestral range up to the end of the piece, it allows an evolving climax throughout the whole piece.  The percussion will only help us to make accents more powerful and does not serve as a rhythmic support. In general we use percussion sparingly in the whole piece. (the less we use it the more effective it will become when we use it)

Utilizing a downwards movement is always a good way to end a piece, it feels natural to our brains that if something goes down it will come to an end or a new section.

My aim with this small analysis is to share some of the thoughts I have during the creation process. It is a priority to me to make it understandable for even someone not fully familiar with composition or music in general. Even if you cant read notes, you should still be able to understand the written down melodies, just listen to the music and pay attention to where the notes are placed in the stave, higher means higher, lower means lower -  its that simple.

Thats it for now, im calling it a wrap, I hope you enjoyed the small read. If you have any open questions feel free to contact me and I'll try to get back to you as fast as possible.

Cheers : )

Ich freue mich ankündigen zu dürfen, dass nach dem erfolgreichen Konzert im März ein weiteres Konzert in Zusammenarbeit mit der Philharmonie Baden-Baden stattfinden wird  : Am 9. November um 16 Uhr im Weinbrennersaal im Kurhaus Baden-Baden. Eintritt ist frei.

Das Programm wird ähnlich abwechslungsreich wie das des letzten Konzerts auch schon. Es wird unter anderem Filmmusikklassiker zu hören geben, aber auch moderne Orchesterstücke wie zum Beispiel von Edward Elgar. Die Philharmonie Baden-Baden wird im Rahmen des Konzerts auch mehrere Stücke von mir aufführen, u. a. auch wieder die live Filmmusik zum Animationsfilm "Maximall" von Axel Tillement. Die Konzertleitung und Moderation liegt auch diesmal wieder in den Händen von Judith Kubitz, der Kapellmeisterin der Philharmonie Baden-Baden.

Im Rahmen der geplanten Gesamtveranstaltung wird vor dem Konzert erneut ein Workshop für regionale Schulen stattfinden. Der Workshop wird verschiedene Themen wie Arbeitsabläufe, Aufgaben sowie Risiken des Berufs eines Komponisten beinhalten.

Ich würde mich sehr über möglichst viele Zuhörer beim Konzert freuen!

Facebookevent

Das BNN veröffentlichte am 18. März ein Interview das ich am Tag des Workshops, und Tags der ersten Probe, mit Ralf Joachim Kraft geführt habe.

Wir trafen uns nach der Probe im Cafe und unterhielten uns über mich, meine Arbeit, meine Ziele, meine Erfolge und Motivationen.

Artikel aus: "Badische Neueste Nachrichten, Freitag 18. März 2016 Ausgabe Nr. 65  - Seite 20  Kultur Regional - Ralf Joachim Kraft"