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New song: Annus Mirabilis


maddrummerdude

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This is probably not my most accessible or commercial song, but I think it might be a good album closer or something. I really like listening to old Renaissance choral composers (such as Allegri or Palestrina) so I wanted to try to get that old, gothic cathedral, monks-in-habits feel.....hence the 'verb.

 

The song is posted here: http://www.myspace.com/colinkohtzistight and is called "Annus Mirabilis"

 

As I said in an earlier thread, my educational circumstances have left me without much in the instrument department so I only used my voice for this one. I tried to get a choral effect by singing over myself a dozen times. Although a melody eventually comes through and presents some lyrics, I wanted to go for a more wall of sound type thing and thus the lyrics might be muddled, My Bloody Valentine style. So I shall post them here:

 

Farewell my child

I love you dearly

Your path is long

You will not hear me

 

Maybe someday when I magically become a sound engineer, I can figure out how to make the lead vocals more clear without overwhelming the mix. Myspace's compression gave the lead vocals a little bit of whisperish feedback which sucks.

 

I know this won't appeal to everyone; it's pretty much the opposite of a pop song. Still, any comments/criticism is appreciated :)

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Beautiful... I was in madrigals so I can can really appreciate this and relate. But the title? Annus Mirabilis? Sounds like Latin for "I have marbles in my butt?" I particularly enjoyed this.

 

Hahaha...I was worried people would think "Anus." Annus means year.

 

It actually means "Year of Miracles" in Latin. I was originally going to write a song about the Great Fire of London (which happened in a year designated as Annus Mirabilis) but the melody didn't work with my original lyrics. I scrapped them, sang these improvised lyrics, and liked it. The Latin is chanted in the background, and the background is what took the longest to do, so I kept it. I didn't really care what Latin phrase I used, I just wanted something that sounded ancient-sounding.

 

If I get more people telling me that they like or dislike my anus song, I guess I'll have to change the title :lol:

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Hahaha...I was worried people would think "Anus." Annus means year.


It actually means "Year of Miracles" in Latin. I was originally going to write a song about the Great Fire of London (which happened in a year designated as Annus Mirabilis) but the melody didn't work with my original lyrics. I scrapped them, sang these improvised lyrics, and liked it. The Latin is chanted in the background, and the background is what took the longest to do, so I kept it. I didn't really care what Latin phrase I used, I just wanted something that sounded ancient-sounding.


If I get more people telling me that they like or dislike my anus song, I guess I'll have to change the title
:lol:

 

Mad drummer, I thought I was the only baratone who could also sing mezzo sopranno? But you are hitting those high notes in falseto, very nice, I can do this too, but there are very few men who can pull this out of their annus...

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You make a wonderful sound with your multi-layered vocals - beautiful stuff. For me, what would make this even better would be another section - I don't know whether you'd call it a chorus, bridge or middle eight in something like this - where you invert the melody, move up or down a fifth or something similar. I think that would turn this into something spectacularly good.

 

Really nice stuff already though - it's different and I like different :)

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this not being a pop song depends on how you define pop song, i'd say this is extremely accessable to the average listener, the lyrics are relatable and the melody is beautiful.

 

consider taking it to your local amateur film scene, as it would make beautiful music in a short piece.

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I are not that gud with music theory: is inverting the melody changing the entire key, or just changing the notes of the melody?


I was wondering how to change up the structure of the piece, but I haven't come up with anything that works. I'm working through serious writers block here, but I'll keep at it.


 

 

An inverted melody is simply the melody turned upside-down. Chord inversions refer to the bass note of the chord.

 

It sounds like your song is in G major so you could easily slide into em for a bit since that's its relative minor. Maybe something like--em, A, C, G would work for a few bars.

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If the pop star Dido broke a string while doing a bar room sing-along of "Annus Mirabilis," the planets would most certainly allign.

 

"Dude, did you see Dildo looking for a G string after she popped one playing Anus Marbles with the drunks?"

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Some good advice here--a contrasting section would break this up well. Alternately, if you're thinking album lineup, cutting this down to maybe twice through the main section might work for a cool opening. It definitely sets a mood and gets the attention, but before long that mood shifts to "bored". I've heard it, and the lyrics/arrangement aren't doing to maintain interest for very long.

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My girlfriend (new) was asking me how I thought things were going with us so far? I've been seeing her since early January? And I told her, so far, I'm very happy with your annus, very happy indeed... Butt I need to see it for a few more months to make a final comment? I'm sorry, no more cracks like that... I'm trying to put them all behind me? I don't want to be cheaky. I do like this choral arrangement though.

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I like it. Ignore the comments about it being boring. That's why everything sounds like it does today, because of everyone trying to be as poppy and ADD friendly as possible. Just being another of the million (boring) same old same olds is a sure fire way to oblivion. Do what movies you. And, as Robbie Robertson and others have pointed out, sometimes the limitations of the instrument provides the originality.

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