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CMC - Conceptual Music Competition 14: Dreams and Visions

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CMC: Conceptual Music Competition

abadoss-CMC.jpg

This competition is based on the rules of the classic TOMC (Thematic Original Music Competition).

The CMC (Conceptual Music Competition) is designed so that each participant enters a piece of music based on a set theme. The participants take the theme and interpret it as they will to come up with something that fits. Any style can work, as long as it portrays a sense of what the theme is.

Feel free to be imaginative!

Each successive theme will be chosen by the winner of the previous competition. For example, say the theme of the last competition, CMC 21, was "Sucked Under" and the winner, Harvey, submitted a piece that knocked the socks off of everyone, so he won. Harvey then gets to decide the theme for CMC 22.

This competition is open to registered members of the forums of

OverClocked ReMix, VGMix, Ormgas, VGMusic, Gaming World, and Young Composers.

CMC13-forums.jpg

CMC 14: Dreams and Visions

"It can be any type, of any time, place, or thing. It's what you see when you sleep. Scenes of flowers and fields, or maybe a foreboding zombie-filled graveyard. Perhaps you even wake up inside a painting or an upside-down world. Where 'No' is 'Yes' and 'Yes' is 'No.' Nothing makes sense here. But all the more sense to you." -Blue.Nocturne

Results!:

There are 11 entries for this round...

HoboKa - "Argitoth's Drug-Intake Dreams"

  • "Yes, this is a crack-induced song written by a deranged person who doesn't need drugs to be crazy. Hehe, you can bash me next round Argitoth :D...hokay, so it's about our best friend Argitoth, who is having a screwed up dream after OD'ing on drugs, I gave the song a static-y, muddy feel with weird synths and dissonance. Have a happy trip >:- D."

Reaktorz0 - "Untitled"

  • No description given.

Johnny Burt - "The World Beyond the Dream"
  • "There lies a world beyond this reality. Behind this corporeal world. A grayscape where anything is possible, and everything is probable... A realm where 'possibility' is only limited by the will of the Dreamers or Outsiders- those with the potential to shape and bend the dreamscape as they see fit. One such being, a young woman named Moon, awakens in the world beyond the dream for the first time, finding it in utter disarray at the hands of an evil entity called Nightmare. Frightened, and with no understanding of this strange and exciting world, she finds herself next in a long line of Outsiders that have been charged with the task of defeating Nightmare. What adventures await her on her journey?"

larsdood - "My Kind of Nightmare"

  • "The kind of Nightmare I'd get. Where you gradually slide from the logical to the absurd... topped by breakbeat chaos."

Dev - "Visions I See"
  • "It's just an ambient version of what goes through my head as I lay in bed either asleep or getting that way."

Blue.Nocturne - "Dreams of Utopia"

  • "Frustrated with the world and tired from stress, you go to bed. You just want one moment of your life where there is peace, and you happen to have a dream of peace and serenity. This musical piece itself is the dream you experience. It is the dream of a land where everything works as you want it to work. It is a highly technology world, however the circuits only add to the beauty of the place you envision. It is the dream of the perfect utopia. It is sadly a short dream, but when you awake, you feel refreshed and ready to take on the world yet again."

Chief - "A Beautiful Mind"
  • "My original intentions with this piece was to portray the mystique of the human mind, as you can hear clearly in the beginning. I went where this piece took me, though, and it took me to many more dimensions, and it now sounds like a journey through the human mind. You will hear many ugly sounds, many beautiful ones, and many in between.
    As a result of this, this piece has ended up portraying the mystery, complexity, power, and most importantly, the beauty of the human mind."

Ferdinand Schenck - "Dreams of the Innocent"

  • "'Dreams of the Innocent' is based on a childish dream, sometimes vague, sometimes vivid, with various sections describing different moods or pieces of the dream.
    0:00 : Down the rabbit hole
    Cliche'd title, I know.
    This is the entry into the unknown, a scary journey into another world, i.e. the start of the dream.
    0:11 : Waltz of the Clowns
    A familiar and pleasant sight greets the dreamer: clowns!
    The dreamer is in a magical place, bright colours and happy biengs, although with just a hint of forboding...
    0:52 : The Dragon
    The peace is disturbed... the Dragon has come to wreak havoc...
    The dreamer faces the Dragon: huge, vicious and scary!
    1:27 : The Tower
    The dreamer has been taken hostage by the Dragon, and now sits in a lonely cell in a high tower.
    1:43 : Imprisonment
    Time passes slowly, the dreamer has been imprisoned for what feels like days, months, years...
    2:12 : Entry of the White Knight, Bringer of Dawn
    Just when all hope is lost, in comes the White Knight, slayer of the Dragon and vanquisher of evil.
    The White Knight escorts the dreamer home, with praise and jubilation from all sides as they lead a procession through town.
    End of the dream the beginning of day."

Numegil - "Delusionary Storm"

  • "It is a dark and stormy night. You lay exhausted from the previous day's blights, but lie unable to fully submerge into sleep. The world around drifts in and out of focus as you travel through the delusions of your own tired mind. Nothing seems to linger for more than a few seconds, and the world and mood around you seem to shift effortlessly from one world to another, without any forewarning."

Gimgak - "Rapid Eye Movement"
  • "This song has a pretty general theme. At the begining some one is falling asleep and slowly drifting off into the world of their dreams. The bulk of the song is the dream that they are have, and then at the very end, they wake up."

Virtualshock - "Dreamland"

  • "DreamLand is a calming tranquil piece. This is one of your few pleasant ones. You treasure it as you slowly float through space, taking in every thing around you.
    (Note-Terrible clarinet sample, please don't judge by it)"

Voting Rules!:

  • Voters will be allowed to pick a first place (3 points) and any number of honorary mentions (1 point). Only one set of votes from any one voter will be accepted and a person cannot vote for any one piece more than once. Corrections to votes, from the original voter only, will be accepted, but corrections will void the previous votes. Basically, a voter can vote and correct the vote, but only the final form of that vote will be counted. Send all votes to
Abadoss by PM. Please include any and all constructive critiques (not to be confused with bashing) about them with your votes as well, so that there's always a sense of growth in the artform. If you wish to remain anonymous, just state so in your PM. Thanks.

  • The voting period will last from the moment the entries are posted in the thread to the Saturday of that week. The voting period for this round ends December 8, so be sure to spend some time really listening to the pieces.

  • Any participant in the competition can vote, but not for their own pieces. However, in an effort to encourage voting among participants, any participant who votes will have 2 points added to their voting score.

Official Rules!:

  1. Each piece must be originally composed for this competition. Arrangements and remixes will not be accepted. (Pieces composed by the participant prior to the competition will not be accepted.)
  2. Each piece must be 2:00 or longer and match the competition theme.
  3. Only one entry per person. Collaborations will be allowed, but each collaborator may not submit any other pieces. (This also means that a person cannot collaborate on two or more different pieces at the same time.)
  4. A link to the entry piece must be PMed to Abadoss prior to the deadline set for each competition. DO NOT POST THE LINK IN THE THREAD! However, feel free to post in the WIP:Other forum.
  5. Important: Each file must be labelled accordingly: Composer_Name_-_Composition_Title_CMC#.mp3
    (For example, if Sarah Gonzales submits a piece called "Parade Down Memory Lane" to CMC 20, then her filename would be: Sarah_Gonzales_-_Parade_Down_Memory_Lane_CMC20.mp3)
  6. MP3 file format is required. Know that even OGG will need to be converted into MP3. (If someone is unable to do so themselves, Abadoss would be willing and able to do it for them.)
  7. Entries should be accompanied by a description and/or story to help listeners understand what the piece is about. (Not required, though.)
  8. All entries must be submitted by Saturday, December 1, 2007 at 11:59 PM - PST, GMT-8.

You can find the competition threads for each forum listed below:

Good luck and have fun! :D

Previous CMCs: http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC.htm

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Argitoth Newbie

Argitoth

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oh my gosh... not again. We have another theme that has no definitive mood, it can basically be anything just like the theme says, "Scenes of flowers and fields, or maybe a foreboding zombie-filled graveyard."

It seems like the Conceptual Music Competition never defined what a theme should be. I thought the definition was a theme that explains scenes or actions, but the actual definition of a theme according to the CMC is more of a given idea where the participants can interpret and create their own scenes and actions through the description of their composition when they submit it, and then they compose based on their own ideas, and not exactly the CMC's current theme.

It just makes it harder when we aren't limited to specified scenes and actions. I think CMC should adopt a new rule that themes should define a specific mood. For example, the theme could have been "a dream of flowers and fields, period."

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blue.nocturne Newbie

blue.nocturne

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I just feel that having more freedom will encourage participation. For instance, someone may hate "zombie-filled graveyards" as a theme and would prefer composing to "flowery fields." Another person may feel the exact opposite. By having an open theme, it appeases more people and you have to freedom to do what you want to do.

Also if you beat me this time, you can make it strictly one idea.

That is IF you beat me. :<

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Ronyn Newbie

Ronyn

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It's been a while since I've composed some original music, but if there are no objections, I'd love to give this one a shot.

And if you think about it, dreaming itself is an underlying theme, doesn't matter what the dream is.

Who judges these btw?

I'm going to give you guys a run for your money. I've been dying to get my comp on for two years >:) bring it...

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Abadoss Rookie

Abadoss

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Don't make me seperate you two!

By the way, I'm thinking of taking on two or three permanent, non-competing people who would be willing to check entries for violations - specifically plagarism. I'm not settled on the idea yet or how I'd go about implementing it, but, if anyone is interested, I'd like to know. I'd just rather not have what happened last round happen again.

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HoboKa Rising Star

HoboKa

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well it's nearly impossible to make an authentic tune these days - it's almost all been done before. Frick, "new age" orchestra stuff regurgitates a lot of the classical music anyways; rock music pretty much all been done before - rap just steals other tunes and puts a "phat" beat on them...I could probably pull a better beat out of my ass than most of the current crud on MTV. Anyways...for all I know, I could create a song that's the exact riff that some other underground/unknown guy made w/out ever knowing it T_T.

So, I dunno how you would go about blamming them Abadoss. I mean if someone takes an entire song and midi rips it or something, then obviously - that's plagiarisms, but where would one draw the line on the less obvious stuff??

X_x

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Abadoss Rookie

Abadoss

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I'm mostly talking about the blatant stuff. For example, I missed the one in the last round, simply because I've never played Final Fantasy XII before. However, the point of having two or three people on it is so there's a broader base of musical exposure. That way, there's less chance of it happening.

And it's true that it's really difficult to come up with something that hasn't been done before, but that shouldn't stop us from trying.

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Paladin Newbie

Paladin

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I think I would make better compositions if I stop worrying all the time about whether these "three notes sound generic", or "that chord sequence sounds generic".

I'm always too busy trying to come up with something that's "never been done before", when in reality the majority of the time I end up composing something too obscure and strange because of it.

The reason a lot of chord sequences are used so often is because they work and sound good!

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Abadoss Rookie

Abadoss

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That's true. Besides, there are only a limited amount of chords you can actually come up with. By the way, there's a very interesting theory put out by Dmitri Tynoczko concerning progression through all the chords out there. He calls it Chord Geometry. Now, this isn't going to make you fantastic composer, but it might help in some areas.

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