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Princess Mononoke rescoring project


ForestMusic

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Thanks for the reply!

 

Yeah, I'm still kinda inexperienced but I've tried to approach the score as more of a "John Williams" typical score. Hisaishi is known for his impressionistic styles and he doesn't use a leitmotific system. I try to write a score the other way around.

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Haha, thanks @Kühni for the reply! And don't get me wrong, I love Hisaishi's work especially Ashitaka's theme. But this is just a thing that I've wanted to do for so many years. I just thought "oh, it would be so exciting to create independent themes for Iron Town and the contrast to the Forest Spirit etc.". So, I just thought why not, let's go! My long term goal with this project is to have an entire catalog of themes appropriately used to build to one gigantic climax (like SW or LOTR).

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Wow. Someone is rescoring maybe the greatest film score of all time.

My reaction

 

4FQPXA7.jpeg

 

 

Incredible job so far :o Upon hearing the first couple tracks I love the use of textures and melodies. I understand this project is also for fun and something which is repeatable later.

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The new and sixth cue is online right now, titled "A Demon"!

 

Check it out here: https://sites.google.com/view/forestmusic/home?authuser=0

 

Have a nice day!

@Oomoog the EcstaticSorry for the delayed response, only saw it right now haha :)

 

Thanks for the compliments! Be prepaired for some irrational time signature shit in "A Demon"!

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I enjoy the range of instrumental colors you're using in this re-score. But if I could offer two pieces of feedback:

 

1. The theme for Ashitaka has some noticeable melodic similarities to the original theme which makes it hard to appreciate your theme without being reminded of the original.

 

2. Some of the cues seem to be moving too fast for the scenes they accompany. The speed of the music seems a little ahead of the action or maybe a little too busy for the on screen action?

 

To be clear, I am enjoying your music and you sharing this project here. 

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On 29/12/2021 at 7:23 AM, ForestMusic said:

Haha, thanks @Kühni for the reply! And don't get me wrong, I love Hisaishi's work especially Ashitaka's theme. But this is just a thing that I've wanted to do for so many years. I just thought "oh, it would be so exciting to create independent themes for Iron Town and the contrast to the Forest Spirit etc.". So, I just thought why not, let's go! My long term goal with this project is to have an entire catalog of themes appropriately used to build to one gigantic climax (like SW or LOTR).

 

Really admire the ambition behind this and you following through on a long seen goal. Thanks for sharing such a unique work with the community. It's been a really fun project to follow so far and your love for the film really shows in the compositions you've chosen to share so far. I look forward to your future efforts!  

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3 hours ago, artguy360 said:

I enjoy the range of instrumental colors you're using in this re-score. But if I could offer two pieces of feedback:

 

1. The theme for Ashitaka has some noticeable melodic similarities to the original theme which makes it hard to appreciate your theme without being reminded of the original.

 

2. Some of the cues seem to be moving too fast for the scenes they accompany. The speed of the music seems a little ahead of the action or maybe a little too busy for the on screen action?

 

To be clear, I am enjoying your music and you sharing this project here. 

Hey! Thanks for the feedback!

 

About the Ashitaka Theme sounding too much like the original theme, I actually already noticed it a few cues in, but I didn't want to write a new theme. That would be kind of inconsistent.

About the other issue, I can kind of see where you are coming from with the music being a little too busy for the on screen action. The thing is that I wanted to write a score as full and detailed as possible, to create a great tapestry of themes that come together at the end.

But to be honest, I don't really think that the speed of the music is a little ahead of the action. With the action scenes from earlier cues, I also wanted to do a micky mousing effect, where bad timing would pretty much be a death sentence haha. And with the recent forest cues, I wanted to create more of a vibe and a mood, rather than doing micky mousing.

Maybe you can give me some examples, where you think that the music goes too fast, so that I can understand where you are coming from.

2 hours ago, Cerebral Cortex said:

 

Really admire the ambition behind this and you following through on a long seen goal. Thanks for sharing such a unique work with the community. It's been a really fun project to follow so far and your love for the film really shows in the compositions you've chosen to share so far. I look forward to your future efforts!  

Thanks! I appreciate it! I will keep going!

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Is there some sort of score breakdown of the original that you're following in doing your rescoring? I've had a hard time figuring out what some of the themes of the original stand for so I was curious if you had been able to figure that out somehow and were using that to supplement in your efforts. Or maybe you've intentionally distanced yourself from the original score so that you're working with a clean slate. Like, for example, I haven't bene able to understand what this pastoral theme is meant to represent. Is it a theme for the forest? A theme for Ashitaka and San? Part of it shows up in Mononoke's theme so it's kinda confusing.
 

 

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2 hours ago, Cerebral Cortex said:

Is there some sort of score breakdown of the original that you're following in doing your rescoring? I've had a hard time figuring out what some of the themes of the original stand for so I was curious if you had been able to figure that out somehow and were using that to supplement in your efforts. Or maybe you've intentionally distanced yourself from the original score so that you're working with a clean slate. Like, for example, I haven't bene able to understand what this pastoral theme is meant to represent. Is it a theme for the forest? A theme for Ashitaka and San? Part of it shows up in Mononoke's theme so it's kinda confusing.
 

 

The way I see it, the mystical, magical nature of the forest has its own theme. There is a piano-centric theme for Ashitaka and San towards the end of the film/score. This melody you've timestamped is from the Princess Mononoke theme, both the orchestral version and the song with lyrics. I think it is less a theme for San and more a theme for the life of all the spirits/gods of the old world who are being killed and driven away. To me the pastoral melody speaks to the ancient world. Plus, in the Japanese lyrics, the words are about the spirits when that melody is being sung.

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Cue No. 12 "At Irontown" is out!

 

Check it out here: https://sites.google.com/view/forestmusic/home?authuser=0

 

Have a nice day!

On 24/04/2022 at 10:22 PM, Cerebral Cortex said:

Is there some sort of score breakdown of the original that you're following in doing your rescoring? I've had a hard time figuring out what some of the themes of the original stand for so I was curious if you had been able to figure that out somehow and were using that to supplement in your efforts. Or maybe you've intentionally distanced yourself from the original score so that you're working with a clean slate. Like, for example, I haven't bene able to understand what this pastoral theme is meant to represent. Is it a theme for the forest? A theme for Ashitaka and San? Part of it shows up in Mononoke's theme so it's kinda confusing.
 

 

A very interesting question!

As for me, I did actually take some thematic material of the original as inspiration! For example, at one point, the Ashitaka Theme uses the same melodic contour as the Princess Mononoke Main Theme! Yet, I have distanced myself from the general tone and approach of the original quite a bit. There is less focus on setting up a handful of themes and instead focusing a lot more on texture and timbre. My focus is to write a score with a lot of "micky-mousing" and more usage of Themes! (Kind of like Williams with SW or Shore with LOTR).

 

As for your question about the theme, I think that the theme is just the extention of the Princess Mononoke Main Theme in the original. For me, it represents the entire conflict of Nature vs Humans. Basically, for me at least, it represents the overarching themes of the story, while "The Legend Of Ashitaka" represents the individual characters. (Beware that this is my own subjective intrepretation and you can have a completely different view of these Themes as me haha)

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