It is probably just my age, but in the last few years I've started getting into short cinematic orchestral pieces, and have been enjoying it ever since. Even though I really know jack-shit of classical music, and probably all the time break all the rules, I'm not letting that stop me and ended up creating "Valor".
There are only string instruments in this piece: piano, violas, contra bass and of course - my favorite, a solo cello. I played the (fake) cello using Friktion, made by Reason Studios. Such an amazing piece of software. The cello ended up becoming the focus of the song, as it contains something humanlike. I don't understand it, but I just love it! It took a lot of work to express the feeling on the cello, but I think it came out alright.
There is no percussion, so some dramatic stabs strings had to help with a simple rhythm on most part of the track.
In the last section, I've used the "Lucy" computer voice from Emvoice to perform soft melodic "oohs", to add more emotion.
But, the original and truly remarkable artwork was yet another pencil sketch made by my brother, more than 2 decades ago. It is part of a few of his drawing that I have "acquired" since that time (and he probably forgot all about them). The saying is "a picture paints a thousand words", so there you go. And you thought this instrumental had none? How this guy never got his art works to be displayed in an art gallery, is just beyond me. This drawing came in handy to set the scene for this track - in fact, it might just get more attention than the music!
