Xerxes-Hymn_to_the_God_of_Abruptness.mid (3.01 KB)
Length: 00:01:08
This was made for the Mouse Challenge: Contest de la Rocco at the Vgmusic Forum, which I participated in back in September of 2003 - the first MIDI competition I had ever participated in. This song was also the first original composition I ever completed.
I happened to find a note on when I completed the MIDI in a quite old text file of mine. Here's the copy-and-pasteable Astrolog 5.40 command line for the amusement of any astrologers out there. Yes, it was probably indeed really AM, not PM.
-qa August 28 2003 4:59:34 EDT 80:34W 41:09N
Hymn to the God of Abruptness file completed
The last time I saved the file, however, was apparently 11:25 PM on August 30, 2003. I think I was probably just fixing the track header text or something before I submitted the file.
-qa August 30 2003 23:25 EDT 80:34W 41:09N
xerxes_hymn_to_the_god_of_abruptness.mid
I made this MIDI using the MIDI sequencing software WinJammer Shareware and a mouse.
The rules of the contest were that the song had to have no more than four MIDI tracks, employ Synth Strings 1, Hammond Organ, Vibraphone and Choir Aahs, be longer than a minute (or was it 50 seconds? I forgot), and had to be made with a mouse.
Since I already make all my MIDIs with a mouse anyhow, the last rule posed no problem for me. And the other rules, though very limiting, were part of what attracted me to the contest in the first place. It's one thing to be told "write a song", and quite another thing to be told "write a song fitting these narrow specifications" - as, in the latter case, it's much easier to get an idea of where to start.
I quite enjoyed the challenge of trying to make a song with such a limited set of instruments. My self-set goal was to make it sound natural and as if it was perfectly suited to those instruments, so people wouldn't listen to it and say, "well, that's a good song, but it doesn't really belong in those instruments, does it." It seems I did something right, because I came in third in the "Making Due" portion of the scoring. :-)
The results for the contest, as well as various of the entries, except for some that somehow got lost, can be found here:
Scores
Creativity Making Due
Rank Composer Title Musicality Final Score
1 Dr. Fruitcake Nightclub 04 7.8 7.4 8.8 79%
2 CtrlAltDestroy Worthy of the Light 6.5 7.38 8.25 74.6%
3 Nails Expedition 7.2 6.8 6.4 67.6%
4 Rocco Consequence of War 6.75 6.25 6.75 65%
5 Zagro Darkness 4.6 6.8 6.6 63%
6 Xerxes Hymn to the God of 5.8 5.4 7 59.6%
Abruptness
7 Daniel Fugue de la Rocco 5.25 6.25 5.5 58.3
8 LagDotCom Techno Sans Drums 6.2 5 6 55.4%
9 Stockman Varnish 6 4.7 6 53.5%
10 Guilty Gear Y Dark Prologue 5.6 4.6 5.4 50.4%
11 Sefirosu "Mouse Challenge 6.8 4 4.6 47.4%
Seph"
12 The Dark Side "The Entry" 4.2 5 4.6 47.2%
13 Garrath "Mouse Challenge 4.2 3 3.8 34.8%
Entry" |