From 404468a1bd53276c8a766125065126856e7ec348 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Lilithtreasure <62890895+Lilithtreasure@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2024 19:44:07 -0500 Subject: jegus christ - way, way too much has been added - commentary sources for all of Willow Ascenzo's commentary on coloUrs and mayhem: Universe A, from her mousegard tumblr! - further commentaries from mousegard, for Teal Justice, White Angel, and Rust Witch (as Rust Handmaid) - added Teal Hunter, White Dragon in More Homestuck Fandom - added Willow's tumblr urls --- album/coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-a.yaml | 37 +++++++++++-------- album/more-homestuck-fandom.yaml | 21 +++++++++++ album/rust-apocalypse.yaml | 61 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--- 3 files changed, 100 insertions(+), 19 deletions(-) (limited to 'album') diff --git a/album/coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-a.yaml b/album/coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-a.yaml index 57254a39..15e4dd97 100644 --- a/album/coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-a.yaml +++ b/album/coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-a.yaml @@ -165,17 +165,20 @@ Cover Art File Extension: png Art Tags: - The Handmaid Commentary: |- - Willow Ascenzo: (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + Willow Ascenzo: ([Tumblr](https://mousegard.tumblr.com/post/26630373568), 7/6/2012) + Let's talk about Rust Servant. - If [[Violet Mariner]] was the elder child and [[Teal Hunter]] the middle child, then Rust Servant is the youngest child onto which I poured all my love and affection. This was one of my favorite pieces to work on and even today I'm still pretty pleased with how it turned out, from the striking staccato and col legno strings opening the song to the frantic violins, melancholic chromatic percussion, deep brass, and fast-paced drum grooves. I wanted the song to be big, epic, a little scary. If I may be so immodest, I think I succeeded. + If [[Violet Mariner]] was the elder child and [[Teal Hunter]] the middle child, then Rust Servant is the youngest child onto which I poured all my love and affection. This was one of my favorite pieces to work on and even today I'm still pretty pleased with how it turned out, from the striking staccato and col legno strings opening the song to the frantic violins, melancholic chromatic percussion, deep brass, and fast-paced drum grooves. I wanted the song to be big, epic, a little scary. If I may be so immodest, I think I succeeded. - Rust Servant was the only one of my three contest submissions to remain allocated to the character I had in mind while writing it, Aradia's tragic ancestor and Lord English's dreadful Handmaid (although the name was changed from the terribly uncreative Handmaid of Death to something more apt for the naming scheme of the album). + Rust Servant was the only one of my three contest submissions to remain allocated to the character I had in mind while writing it, Aradia's tragic ancestor and Lord English's dreadful Handmaid (although the name was changed from the terribly uncreative Handmaid of Death to something more apt for the naming scheme of the album). - When I wrote this song, I had just taken an Intro to Hinduism class the previous fall and had written a short research paper on Kali, the Hindu goddess of time and death (more remembered for being related to death—those of you who have seen Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom must be familiar with the Thuggees, a cult of Kali-worshipers infamous for conducting human sacrifices—and, apparently, ripping people's hearts out and setting them on fire as well). And, of course, because I am A SHAMELESS HOMESTUCK NERD, I immediately thought, "Time? Death? THAT REMINDS ME OF ONE OF THE TROLLS" (no I didn't write my paper on that, i'm not that terrible). It doesn't come through much in the song itself, but that's where I got the inspiration from. And the moral of this story is, take a theology class (or two, or three) on a religion you know nothing about. It'll give you all sorts of new ideas for Homestuck fanart. + When I wrote this song, I had just taken an Intro to Hinduism class the previous fall and had written a short research paper on Kali, the Hindu goddess of time and death (more remembered for being related to death—those of you who have seen Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom must be familiar with the Thuggees, a cult of Kali-worshipers infamous for conducting human sacrifices—and, apparently, ripping people's hearts out and setting them on fire as well). And, of course, because I am A SHAMELESS HOMESTUCK NERD, I immediately thought, "Time? Death? THAT REMINDS ME OF ONE OF THE TROLLS" (no I didn't write my paper on that, i'm not that terrible). It doesn't come through much in the song itself, but that's where I got the inspiration from. And the moral of this story is, take a theology class (or two, or three) on a religion you know nothing about. It'll give you all sorts of new ideas ~for Homestuck fanart~ Also when the album came out and this song was the first song on the album after Radiation's intro I was all "HOLY SHIT RADIATION LIKED THIS SONG SO MUCH HE MADE IT THE FIRST SONG" and started pelvic-thrusting across my dorm room. Then I realized that it was only first due to all the tracks being organized from lowest to highest by the blood color of the troll they represented. I continued pelvic-thrusting across my dorm room anyway. - And to wrap things up, milkmanner's art for the track is just perfect. + And to wrap things up, [[artist:leslie-hung|milkmanner]]'s art for the track is just perfect. + + Well, that's my commentary for coloUrs and mayhem! I hope you all enjoyed hearing my thoughts on my music! --- Track: Bronze Rebel Additional Names: @@ -360,13 +363,17 @@ Art Tags: - Redglare - 'cw: hanging (abstract)' Commentary: |- - Willow Ascenzo: (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + Willow Ascenzo: ([Tumblr](https://mousegard.tumblr.com/post/26493013679/teal-hunter-commentary), 7/4/2012) + + Let's talk about Teal Hunter. - Teal Hunter was sort of the middle child of my three Homestuck music contest submissions. Even now it's still my least favorite of the three songs I submitted. Why [[artist:toby-fox|Radiation]] picked it along with my other two, I'll never know. I certainly wasn't expecting it to be chosen. With over a thousand submissions I'm sure there was no shortage of Redglare songs for him to choose from. Maybe the $20 I slipped him when I submitted my songs had something to do with it But his ways are not our ways. + Teal Hunter was sort of the middle child of my three Homestuck music contest submissions. Even now it's still my least favorite of the three songs I submitted. Why [[artist:toby-fox|Radiation]] picked it along with my other two, I'll never know. I certainly wasn't expecting it to be chosen. With over a thousand submissions I'm sure there was no shortage of Redglare songs for him to choose from. ~Maybe the $20 I slipped him when I submitted my songs had something to do with it~ But his ways are not our ways. - When [[album:homestuck-vol-9|Volume 9]] came out, a lot of people looked at Radiation's arrangement of [[Five-Four Stress|Stress]] by Buzinkai and started noting similarities between it and Teal Hunter. Radiation wrote about why the two songs sound similar in his commentary for [[Stress]]. If we're going to talk about "what sounds like what", then I'll lay my cards on the table and state that Teal Hunter was begun as pretty much a direct reference to [00 Gundam](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt_0Lg4-RkE) from the Gundam 00 soundtrack (if you can't tell by now, I really like Gundams). When I started the piece, the first draft was more or less a low-rent version of that song, in the same way a cartoon that wants to parody Indiana Jones would get a song that sounds close to John Williams' Raiders March without being close enough to qualify as plagiarism. So I just kept fiddling with it until the two melodies sounded different. By the time I got to the final product and had added the buildup in the beginning, the two had nothing but their rhythm and syncopation in common. + When [[album:homestuck-vol-9|Volume 9]] came out, a lot of people looked at Radiation's arrangement of [[Five-Four Stress|Stress]] by Buzinaki and started noting similarities between it and Teal Hunter. Radiation wrote about why the two songs sound similar in [[Stress|his commentary for Stress]]. If we're going to talk about "what sounds like what", then I'll lay my cards on the table and state that Teal Hunter was begun as pretty much a direct reference to [00 Gundam](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt_0Lg4-RkE) from the Gundam 00 soundtrack (if you can't tell by now, I really like Gundams). When I started the piece, the first draft was more or less a low-rent version of that song, in the same way a cartoon that wants to parody Indiana Jones would get a song that sounds close to John Williams' Raiders March without being close enough to qualify as plagiarism. So I just kept fiddling with it until the two melodies sounded different. By the time I got to the final product and had added the buildup in the beginning, the two had nothing but their rhythm and syncopation in common. - Teal Hunter's original title was Bête Blanche, a play on bête noire, a French phrase literally meaning "black beast" that the fan name "Bec Noir" is most likely a reference to. As evident, the song was originally allocated to PM, the one Exile powerful enough to battle Jack Noir to a stalemate. + Teal Hunter's original title was Bête Blanche, a play on [bête noire](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/b%C3%AAte_noire), a French phrase literally meaning "black beast" that the fan name "Bec Noir" is most likely a reference to. As evident, the song was originally allocated to PM, the one Exile powerful enough to battle Jack Noir to a stalemate. + + Stay tuned for [[Rust Servant]] commentary on Friday! --- Track: Cobalt Corsair Additional Names: @@ -551,13 +558,15 @@ Art Tags: Referenced Tracks: - Showtime (Piano Refrain) Commentary: |- - Willow Ascenzo: (via [early commentary collection](https://hsmusic.wiki/media/misc/commentary-collection.txt)) + Willow Ascenzo: ([Tumblr](https://mousegard.tumblr.com/post/26347660918/violet-mariner-commentary), 7/2/2012) + + Let's talk about Violet Mariner. - Let's talk about Violet Mariner. + I tend to listen to the kind of music I like to compose and compose the kind of music I like to listen to. Before I started composing this song I listened to a shit-ton of battle music from Koh Otani's Shadow of the Colossus soundtrack, and it shows. [Oh](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjokwJ-Xmh8), [boy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=147rTHgKmXY), [does it show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvCYvH30AYY), especially from 0:49 onward with the rhythm and percussion of the piece. - I tend to listen to the kind of music I like to compose and compose the kind of music I like to listen to. Before I started composing this song I listened to a shit-ton of battle music from Koh Otani's Shadow of the Colossus soundtrack, and it shows. Oh, boy, does it show, especially from 0:49 onward with the rhythm and percussion of the piece. + Violet Mariner was the first song I started working on for the Homestuck music contest that eventually became the coloUrs and mayhem dual album. It's a song about Dualscar—but it wasn't always a song about Dualscar. No, it started out as a song about John. This explains the harp/piano section, which plays with the opening melody to [[Showtime (Original Mix|Showtime]], vaguely darting near it without ever actually producing the exact notes from Malcolm Brown's original song. I intended it to be more of a hint of John's original strife theme than a direct reference. In hindsight, keeping the references to existing Homestuck leitmotifs subtle was a smart idea. If I'd been more overt in my references and just made it a straight-up [[Doctor]] remix or an explicit arrangement of Showtime, it would have been really hard to reallocate it to a different character. And I'm happy that Violet Mariner is a Dualscar song. Dualscar needs more songs. And also it gave Radiation an excuse to almost name it "Violet Seaman". And besides, it means I still technically haven't used the original title, Heirstrike, yet. - Violet Mariner was the first song I started working on for the Homestuck music contest that eventually became the coloUrs and mayhem dual album. It's a song about Dualscar—but it wasn't always a song about Dualscar. No, it started out as a song about John. This explains the harp/piano section, which plays with the opening melody to Showtime, vaguely darting near it without ever actually producing the exact notes from Malcolm Brown's original song. I intended it to be more of a hint of John's original strife theme than a direct reference. In hindsight, keeping the references to existing Homestuck leitmotifs subtle was a smart idea. If I'd been more overt in my references and just made it a straight-up Doctor remix or an explicit arrangement of Showtime, it would have been really hard to reallocate it to a different character. And I'm happy that Violet Mariner is a Dualscar song. Dualscar needs more songs. And also it gave Radiation an excuse to almost name it "Violet Seaman". And besides, it means I still technically haven't used the original title, Heirstrike, yet. + Stay tuned for [[Teal Hunter]] commentary on Wednesday! --- Track: Fuchsia Ruler Additional Names: @@ -628,7 +637,7 @@ Commentary: |- The idea was to have it be a bit of a grim little insidious melody for a title character, but somehow it ended up being slightly more Grant Kirkhope-ish during the N64 era in retrospect, which is something I have to say I'm kind of proud of since he's a massive inspiration. I eventually got the call back from Radiation during late February and was told that it won a spot. I was in shock and awe at that point, as it meant that I finally got somewhere substantial with my work. Immediately I re-rendered Rust Maid; then titled Apocalypse Maid, and Orange Hat, and sent it along What Pumpkin's way. - Here's a fun fact though. When Radiation contacted me, he told me that the song was to be retitled "Rust Servant", and was to be the Handmaid's theme. This was something I was okay with, but he immediately contacted me a while afterwards and reassigned the character to it's original intended character. Between a few e-mails exchanged by me and him, we still referred to the actual track as "Rust Servant", until I got my contract which had it titled "Rust Maid". I thought this was a contract mistake of some sort, but imagine my surprise when I saw the first track on the album thinking it was mine and not realizing it was adhering to a color scheme. Rust Servant was fucking awesome though. + Here's a fun fact though. When Radiation contacted me, he told me that the song was to be retitled [[Rust Servant|"Rust Servant"]], and was to be the Handmaid's theme. This was something I was okay with, but he immediately contacted me a while afterwards and reassigned the character to it's original intended character. Between a few e-mails exchanged by me and him, we still referred to the actual track as "Rust Servant", until I got my contract which had it titled "Rust Maid". I thought this was a contract mistake of some sort, but imagine my surprise when I saw the first track on the album thinking it was mine and not realizing it was adhering to a color scheme. Rust Servant was fucking awesome though. Another fun fact - there's a cowbell right at the start that wasn't supposed to be there. I don't even know how it got there. The original sound file was a reverse cymbal. It happened sometime after I recovered the file and I didn't notice it until after I listened to the remastered version again. --- diff --git a/album/more-homestuck-fandom.yaml b/album/more-homestuck-fandom.yaml index 3e694b02..ed382196 100644 --- a/album/more-homestuck-fandom.yaml +++ b/album/more-homestuck-fandom.yaml @@ -1018,6 +1018,27 @@ Lyrics: |- Don't you wish you could just go back to your old home Sitting on the roof, just to watch the setting sun --- +Track: Teal Hunter, White Dragon +Artists: +- Willow Ascenzo +Duration: 2:42 +URLs: +- https://soundcloud.com/wellmanicuredman/teal-hunter-white-dragon +Referenced Tracks: +- Teal Hunter +Commentary: |- + Willow Ascenzo: ([Tumblr](https://mousegard.tumblr.com/post/28929852895/teal-hunter-white-dragon), excerpt, 8/7/2012) + + Teal Hunter, White Dragon + + I remixed [[Teal Hunter]]. Now it sounds cooler! + + Willow Ascenzo: ([SoundCloud description](https://soundcloud.com/wellmanicuredman/teal-hunter-white-dragon), 8/7/2012) + + A remix of my song [[Teal Hunter|"Teal Hunter"]] from [[album:coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-a|"coloUrs and mayhem: Universe A"]] + + An [[Teal Justice|updated version]] is featured on my EP [[album:rust-apocalypse|"Rust Apocalypse"]]! +--- Track: The Ballad of Jack Noir Directory: the-ballad-of-jack-noir-original Always Reference By Directory: true diff --git a/album/rust-apocalypse.yaml b/album/rust-apocalypse.yaml index 382d3353..eb06d74b 100644 --- a/album/rust-apocalypse.yaml +++ b/album/rust-apocalypse.yaml @@ -29,17 +29,49 @@ Referenced Tracks: - Teal Hunter - Violet Mariner Commentary: |- - Willow Ascenzo: (composer, [Tumblr](https://wellmanicuredmusic.tumblr.com/post/51312119864), excerpt) + Willow Ascenzo: (composer, [Tumblr](https://mousegard.tumblr.com/post/39954078674), 1/7/2013) + + Broken Rainbow + + By the afternoon of January 4, I was pretty much done with the whole album. I'd finished mastering [[Rust Apocalypse|"Rust Apocalyse"]] the day before and had finally edited [[White Angel|"White Angel"]] and the rest of the tracks to my liking insofar as I'm ever perfectly happy with any finished product of mine (I am inclined to disbelieve any artist who says, "yes I am perfectly and totally content with what I have just created in every way"–just saying). So I had five tracks sitting there, uploaded to Bandcamp, ready for me to publish at the stroke of midnight on January 5, and I thought, there's something missing here–like an intro track. + + This is pretty much the same thought process I had when I was releasing [Prospero](https://wellmanicuredmusic.bandcamp.com/album/prospero-music-inspired-by-shakespeares-the-tempest) back in August. I don't want the listener to just rush headlong into the meat of the album (despite [[track:rust-witch-ascenzo|Rust Witch]] being a rather slow track). I want the first track to be something that says to the listener, "look–this is what you're getting yourself into. + + The title "Broken Rainbow" is a holddover from what the title of the album was going to be before I made "Rust Apocalypse" an eponymous track. The image of a "broken rainbow" was one that I was rather focused on while putting this album together. I feel it evokes the genesis of all these tracks–a bunch of songs about the Ancestors on [[album:coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-a|coloUrs and mayhem]]–without explicitly relating them to Homestuck. When [[artist:ducky-senpai]] was doing the cover art for the album, I neglected to inform him of my own artistic vision, but somehow, he ended up making a grimy, rusty rainbow paint-splatter background that pretty much captured my idea without me having to suggest anything to him. + + I wrote and mastered the whole thing in the span of a few hours. According to [[artist:lizawithazed|lizawithazed]], this song is a devil on Audiosurf. Mercifully, it is also short. + + Willow Ascenzo: (composer, [Tumblr](https://wellmanicuredmusic.tumblr.com/post/51312119864), excerpt, 5/25/2013) “Broken Rainbow” was meant to be a short introduction track that would briefly play over the musical motifs of the rest of the tracks. It’s a short atmospheric piece that quotes a few notes from each composition, “[[track:rust-witch-ascenzo|Rust Witch]]/[[track:rust-apocalypse|Rust Apocalypse]]”, “[[track:teal-hunter|Teal Hunter]]”, and “[[track:violet-mariner|Violet Mariner]]”. The title “Broken Rainbow” is meant to play on the “[[album:coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-a|coloUrs and mayhem]]” idea and the many-hued character design of Homestuck while also referencing the idea of a “rust apocalypse”. --- Track: Rust Witch Directory: rust-witch-ascenzo +Additional Names: +- Name: >- + Rust Handmaid + Annotation: >- + [Tumblr](https://mousegard.tumblr.com/post/36108866335), working title Duration: '3:47' URLs: - https://wellmanicuredmusic.bandcamp.com/track/rust-witch Referenced Tracks: - Rust Servant +Commentary: |- + Willow Ascenzo: ([Tumblr](https://mousegard.tumblr.com/post/36108866335), 11/19/2012) + + Willow Ascenzo - Rust Handmaid (Rust Apocalypse - EP) + + I've decided that [[Rust Apocalypse]] is going to be part of an EP I hope (the keyword being "hope"–I have no idea when everything will be ready) to have out by January 2013. The EP will consist of at least 3 arrangements of my [[album:coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-a|coloUrs and mayhem]] tracks, [[Rust Servant]], [[Teal Hunter]], and [[Violet Mariner]], as well as [[Rust Apocalypse]] (which is turning into quite the beast of a song) as the titular song. In the fact, the track list will probably look something like this... + + 1. Rust Handmaid + 2. [[Teal Justice]] (an updated and more polished version of [[Teal Hunter, White Dragon]]) + 3. [[Violet Armada]] (which I should probably get started on sometime soon?) + 4. [[Rust Apocalypse]] + + ...With my original 3 C&M compositions as bonus tracks. + + Here's what Rust Handmaid is gonna sound like! --- Track: Teal Justice Duration: '2:51' @@ -47,7 +79,18 @@ Color: '#008b8b' URLs: - https://wellmanicuredmusic.bandcamp.com/track/teal-justice Referenced Tracks: -- Teal Hunter +- Teal Hunter, White Dragon +Commentary: |- + Willow Ascenzo: ([Tumblr](https://mousegard.tumblr.com/post/40014294788), 1/8/2013) + + Teal Justice + + Did you know that people thought the original [[Teal Hunter|"Teal Hunter"]] sounded like Phoenix Wright music? I, personally, don't see it. I think people are just projecting because the song (which was originally intended for PM) was reassigned to Redglare. + + Back a few months ago I rearranged "Teal Hunter" into [[Teal Hunter, White Dragon|"Teal Hunter, White Dragon"]] + , which I felt captured Redglare a bit better than the original. When I was putting this album together, I decided not to reinvent the wheel and simply went back to that, added in some more percussion, adjusted a few instruments, and remastered the whole thing. + + "Teal Hunter, White Dragon" actually ended up being extremely popular for one of my tracks. Like, over 600 notes on Tumblr and over 3,000 plays on SoundCloud. The only other song of mine to come close to that is that [one Doctor Who song I did.](https://soundcloud.com/wellmanicuredman/the-oncoming-storm) I have no idea why the gods smiled upon me with that song. Who made it get so much attention? Was it you? IT WAS YOU WASN'T IT? I'LL FIND YOU! I'LL FIND YOU AND WHEN I DO I'LL MAKE YOU REBLOG ALL MY SONGS! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADFGDJTGHSRJHBSDFFVSJFH --- Track: Violet Armada Duration: '4:01' @@ -73,11 +116,19 @@ URLs: Referenced Tracks: - Teal Hunter Commentary: |- - Willow Ascenzo: (composer, [Tumblr](https://wellmanicuredmusic.tumblr.com/post/59139866566), excerpt) + Willow Ascenzo: (composer, [Tumblr](https://mousegard.tumblr.com/post/40052704198), 1/8/13) + + White Angel + + This song was another pain to master. It took me a lot of tries to finally get everything to sound... well, not-shit. One of the big problems I faced was getting the choir to have the sense of presence I was looking for, which I actually find pretty difficult with EWQL Symphonic Choirs. + + My intent for this song was to look at [[Teal Hunter|"Teal Hunter"]] and bring it back to its thematic roots, when I was first composing it (as a song for PM, not Redglare). What I ended up doing was finding the original project file, taking the exact same MIDI data and instruments from it, and building up on it. I took away the FL Studio drum kit and replaced it with some nice big StormDrum 2 instruments, added some more articulations to the brass, and made a new menacing, sort of eerie introduction segment ([[Broken Rainbow|"Broken Rainbow"]] was composed immediately after I composed the new segment for this track, using many similar instruments and ideas). And, of course, I added the choir. This song is more of an "updated throwback" to the original [[track:rust-witch-ascenzo|than]] [[track:teal-justice|the]] [[track:violet-armada|other]] [[Rust Apocalypse|four]], which werem ore "re-imaginings". + + Willow Ascenzo: (composer, [Tumblr](https://wellmanicuredmusic.tumblr.com/post/59139866566), excerpt, 8/23/2013) “[[track:teal-hunter|Teal Hunter]]” was originally submitted to the [[album:coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-a|coloUrs and mayhem]] music contest as a composition about quad-prototyped Peregrine Mendicant fighting Bec Noir; this arrangement brings the song back to its roots. - Willow Ascenzo: (composer, [Tumblr](https://wellmanicuredmusic.tumblr.com/post/51312119864), excerpt) + Willow Ascenzo: (composer, [Tumblr](https://wellmanicuredmusic.tumblr.com/post/51312119864), excerpt, 5/25/2013) “Teal Hunter” was originally submitted to coloUrs and mayhem under the title “Bête Blanche”, and yes, it was originally a song for prototyped PM. That is what “White Angel” refers to. It’s a bonus remix of “Teal Hunter” referring to the song’s intended character. --- @@ -101,4 +152,4 @@ Originally Released As: Violet Mariner Duration: '2:45' Color: '#db00db' URLs: -- https://wellmanicuredmusic.bandcamp.com/track/violet-mariner-original +- https://wellmanicuredmusic.bandcamp.com/track/violet-mariner-original \ No newline at end of file -- cgit 1.3.0-6-gf8a5