Leaving it All Behind
4:36
by Arcturus
I've been home from Argentina for four months now, and this is the first
song that I've released. Since I'm not a very well known trakcer in the
scene, few people know that I was gone. Well, I was a missionary in
Argentina for two years. I must say that the song turned out quite
nicely. It gets a little crowded at times, but I'm too lazy to take care
of it :)
I apologize for the file size, for a mod, this is pretty big, but the
sound quality more than makes up for it. For me, it sounds really bad in
Impulse Tracker, but it sounds great in WinAmp. Modplug does a good job
of playing it as well, not quite as good as WinAmp, but very close.
People who have heard this have commented that it sounds a lot like the
opening theme of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. After comparing the
two, I noticed that there are quite a few similarities, however, when I wrote
this, I hadn't played that game in about three years. Maybe I was subconsciousl
influenced by the music, but I think the parts that sound similar to that aren't
the best moments in this tune.
So, what's the significance of the title? Not much, really. When I
listened to it, it just reminded me of someone being on a bus, or train,
or plane, leaving some place behind them, never to return. Perhaps I
unconsciously wrote a song about my departure from Argentina, although I
may return there some day.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this. Here's my contact information.
Arcturus (Mark Abersold)
http://arcturus.rooms.rubberrooms.net/
ICQ: 6570208
email: mabersold_yahoo.com
Copyright (C) 2001 by Mark Abersold. All rights reserved.
Oboe
Orchestral Harp
Cadenza strings
Steinway grand
Leaving it All Behind
by Arcturus
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With my return from my sabbatical in Argentina, I had some free time in the summer of 2001 to make more music. As of August 2021, this is my most recent original mod. I made two other mods after this, but they were based on other tunes. I made an original song in 2018, but it was in Renoise, which I don’t think counts as mod music.
I consider this to be my best song. I made it at my parents house, just before I went back to college. I wanted to make something a bit more sentimental, and so I decided to make a piano-based tune with no percussion. This ended up having only four instruments: harp, piano, strings, and oboe. I’m glad I decided to keep the instrument set at a minimum, I think it worked out for the best - the song I think flows better as a result, because I had to focus on the four instruments and how they work together.
This song I think is also my most complex when you consider the melody, harmony, and chord progression. There’s very little repetition, and overall everything just seems to work together. Of all the songs I wrote, this one definitely came out exactly as I wanted it to.
The title was inspired by several things - the end of my sabbatical in Argentina, and the effective end of my carefree youth and the transition into life as an adult. And really, though I didn’t realize it at the time, the end of my music composition days. Those aren’t technically over, of course, as I can and may still make music, but the glory days of the demoscene are long in the past at this point. But, as the saying goes: don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.
I have to laugh at my original comments from 2001 - I claim to have heard from others that they think it sounds like Zelda music, and then I insist that the similarities are just a coincidence, or done unconsciously. Ha! Stop making things up, Arcturus from 2001. Nobody said any such thing to me, and I was just trying to preemptively deflect any comparisons. It was DEFINITELY inspired by Zelda music, consciously. You’ll notice the Ocarina of Time title theme’s influence in this, as well as the fairy fountain music on the harp. I should have just owned it - there’s nothing wrong with taking inspiration from other works, as long as you’re not plagiarizing.
This was my final song composed in Impulse Tracker. I think I may have done it on my parents’ computer, as I did not get my own computer until later that summer. They were running (I think?) Windows 2000, and Impulse Tracker still worked on that. Once I had my own computer, it ran on Windows ME (lol) and Impulse Tracker no longer worked. That may have been a big reason why I didn’t track much after that, actually - I never liked the interface for Modplug Tracker (now known as OpenMPT), but couldn’t run Impulse Tracker, so I just ended up not doing any music at all.
When I first started doing these write-ups I wasn’t sure which song was my best, but now I’m convinced it’s this one, and very obviously so. I hope you enjoy it.
- arcturus