Composition Challenge #6 "The Rank Stench of Those Bodies Haunts Me Still"

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Antique_GuitarsAntique_Guitars Frets: 1167
edited December 2014 in Making Music
Greetings people of the Fretboard! We are back for round 6 of the Fretboard Challenge competition.

The competition:


Every 2 months there will be a competition, it revolves around individuals or groups of forum members composing or covering songs based on a set of rules or guidelines laid out for that particular competition.

For full rules please read here: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/8029/fretboard-challenge-rules#latest


Submission Details

All recordings will need to be sent via email to fretboardchallenge AT gmail.com

All songs will then be upload to the Fretboard Challenge SoundCloud page here - https://soundcloud.com/fretboard-challenge

Songs must be submitted in an MP3 format and you need to provide a picture for your track

FRETBOARD CHALLENGE #6

Fretboard Challenge #6 starts NOW! - Submission deadline -  Midnight 15th January 2015

Voting starts 17th January 2015 - Voting ends 11.30pm 31st January 2015

A new voting system will be in place for this challenge, voters can pick their top 3 favourite entries.

First choice gets 5 points - Second choice gets 3 points - Third choice gets 1 point

Entry with the most points wins.

Winner will be announced just before midnight 31st January 2015


Guidelines

In recognition of the centenary of World War I, this competition requires the entrants to compose a piece of music that reflects the words in celebrated war poet Sigfried Sassoon's "The Rank Stench of Those Bodies Haunts Me Still" (words below). This poem is a stark reminder of the horrors of war.

There is no time limit to this challenge, please feel free to use any instruments or samples you like to enable you to reflect on these words.

Deadline

Midnight (UK time) 15th January 2015.

Prizes

The prize for this competition will be a brand new

Electro Harmonix RTG Guitar Synth Pedal

supplied by @Antique_Guitars

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If you have any questions please let me know.
Old Is Gold
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Comments

  • Siegfried Sassoon

    “The rank stench of those bodies haunts me still”

    The rank stench of those bodies haunts me still
    And I remember things I'd best forget.
    For now we've marched to a green, trenchless land
    Twelve miles from battering guns: along the grass
    Brown lines of tents are hives for snoring men;
    Wide, radiant water sways the floating sky
    Below dark, shivering trees. And living-clean
    Comes back with thoughts of home and hours of sleep.
    To-night I smell the battle; miles away
    Gun-thunder leaps and thuds along the ridge;
    The spouting shells dig pits in fields of death,
    And wounded men, are moaning in the woods.
    If any friend be there whom I have loved,
    God speed him safe to England with a gash.
    It's sundown in the camp; some youngster laughs,
    Lifting his mug and drinking health to all
    Who come unscathed from that unpitying waste:
    (Terror and ruin lurk behind his gaze.)
    Another sits with tranquil, musing face,
    Puffing bis pipe and dreaming of the girl
    Whose last scrawled letter lies upon his knee.
    The sunlight falls, low-ruddy from the west,
    Upon their heads. Last week they might have died
    And now they stretch their limbs in tired content.
    One says 'The bloody Bosche has got the knock;
    'And soon they'll crumple up and chuck their games.
    'We've got the beggars on the run at last!'
    Then I remembered someone that I'd seen
    Dead in a squalid, miserable ditch,
    Heedless of toiling feet that trod him down.
    He was a Prussian with a decent face,
    Young, fresh, and pleasant, so 1 dare to say.
    No doubt he loathed the war and longed for peace,
    And cursed our souls because we'd killed bis friends.
    One night he yawned along a haIf-dug trench
    Midnight; and then the British guns began
    With heavy shrapnel bursting low, and 'hows'
    Whistling to cut the wire with blinding din.
    He didn't move; the digging still went on;
    Men stooped and shovelled; someone gave a grunt,
    And moaned and died with agony in the sludge.
    Then the long hiss of shells lifted and stopped.
    He stared into the gloom; a rocket curved,
    And rifles rattled angrily on the left
    Down by the wood, and there was noise of bombs.
    Then the damned English loomed in scrambling haste
    Out of the dark and struggled through the wire,
    And there were shouts and eurses; someone screamed
    And men began to blunder down the trench
    Without their rifles. It was time to go:
    He grabbed his coat; stood up, gulping some bread;
    Then clutched his head and fell.
    I found him there
    In the gray morning when the place was held.
    His face was in the mud; one arm flung out
    As when he crumpled up; his sturdy legs
    Were bent beneath bis trunk; heels to the skye

    Old Is Gold
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  • FretwiredFretwired Frets: 24601
    Excellent task and a great poem .. do you think jazz will work .. ;-)

    Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
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  • I think anything could work really.

    Apologies to anyone that might feel that this is a bit depressing but I think its important for people to remember the horrors of war.
    Old Is Gold
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  • FretwiredFretwired Frets: 24601
    I think anything could work really.

    Apologies to anyone that might feel that this is a bit depressing but I think its important for people to remember the horrors of war.
    Agree.

    For some reason this springs to mind .. excellent track from Ginger Baker Trio ..



    Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
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  • with a title like that this is crying out for a death metal track!
    ဈǝᴉʇsɐoʇǝsǝǝɥɔဪቌ
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  • It just immediately makes me think of One by Metallica.
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  • samzadgansamzadgan Frets: 1471
    Nice one Sheldon...i could go to town on this...if i have the time!
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  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27346
    Excellent choice @Antique_Guitars and have to fully echo the sentiment too.

    I'm thinking now ... 
    Having trouble posting images here?  This might help.
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  • FretwiredFretwired Frets: 24601
    I have an idea all mapped out .. I feel like a contestant on Master Chef with a bench of ingrediants and an idea ... and a two star Michelin chef waiting to taste. All I can say is it's ambitious but I think the task demands some sacrifice given the context .. 

    Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
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  • This is a brilliant idea. I have however not the first idea where to start.

    I've ruled out a grime rap cadenza, and probably not yodelling either. Probably.

    Excited to try something out of my usual style, and to not rip off any other existing songs this time (as I have done every other time...)
    Please note my communication is not very good, so please be patient with me
    soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
    youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
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  • Pretty sure this one's outside everyone's comfort zone, which is kind of the point of any music "challenge".

    I'm in :)
    littlegreenman < My tunes here...
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  • equalsqlequalsql Frets: 6084
    Just hope it doesn't end as a magnet for low tuned djent because the subject material deserves better than that.
    (pronounced: equal-sequel)   "I suffered for my art.. now it's your turn"
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  • Hertz32Hertz32 Frets: 2248
    equalsql said:
    Just hope it doesn't end as a magnet for low tuned djent because the subject material deserves better than that.
    I think that's entirely unfair. It's up to the entrant to best decide how to interpret the challenge, if a low tuned syncopated riff works for them then so be it. 
    'Awibble'
    Vintage v400mh mahogany topped dreadnought acoustic FS - £100 
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  • FretwiredFretwired Frets: 24601
    Hertz32 said:
    equalsql said:
    Just hope it doesn't end as a magnet for low tuned djent because the subject material deserves better than that.
    I think that's entirely unfair. It's up to the entrant to best decide how to interpret the challenge, if a low tuned syncopated riff works for them then so be it. 
    I was just thinking how suitable detuned riffage would be for this task ..

    Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
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  • Hertz32Hertz32 Frets: 2248
    Fretwired;418977" said:
    Hertz32 said:



    equalsql said:

    Just hope it doesn't end as a magnet for low tuned djent because the subject material deserves better than that.





    I think that's entirely unfair. It's up to the entrant to best decide how to interpret the challenge, if a low tuned syncopated riff works for them then so be it. 





    I was just thinking how suitable detuned riffage would be for this task ..
    As was I... I may actually enter this challenge now :)
    'Awibble'
    Vintage v400mh mahogany topped dreadnought acoustic FS - £100 
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  • samzadgansamzadgan Frets: 1471

    these are the times where i wish i knew how to use recording software and program drum beats etc...

     

    sadly my entry will just be an iphone recording of a guitar track...everyone would have to imagine the drums and vocals on top of it!

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  • FretwiredFretwired Frets: 24601
    samzadgan said:

    these are the times where i wish i knew how to use recording software and program drum beats etc...

     

    sadly my entry will just be an iphone recording of a guitar track...everyone would have to imagine the drums and vocals on top of it!

    What software do you use to record a guitar?

    Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
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  • samzadgan said:

    these are the times where i wish i knew how to use recording software and program drum beats etc...

     

    sadly my entry will just be an iphone recording of a guitar track...everyone would have to imagine the drums and vocals on top of it!

    My first entry to a music challenge was about 5 years ago now over at soundclick. Theme was Bluegrass. I had absolutely no clue what I was doing and ended up with a 1 minute long bit of slide guitar over a "jug" bassline I did with an empty milk bottle! 2 tracks, "jug" and guitar.

    Over the next few challenges I got some help and advice from other contributors with regards recording other instruments and scoring drum tracks, VST's, etc. Soon becomes less daunting so feel free to quiz away. It may say "competition" up at the top, but we all know it's really not, just a chance to do something new and spread your musical wings as it were.
    littlegreenman < My tunes here...
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  • samzadgansamzadgan Frets: 1471
    Fretwired said:
    samzadgan said:

    these are the times where i wish i knew how to use recording software and program drum beats etc...

     

    sadly my entry will just be an iphone recording of a guitar track...everyone would have to imagine the drums and vocals on top of it!

    What software do you use to record a guitar?
    software? HA...thats flattering!  ;)

    I use voice memo app on my iPhone...on a chair near the speaker cabinet. 

    the problem i have with software and the reason i can't get into it is because i would have no idea how to put drums on it...i know very little about time signatures and bpm's and whether a riff i write is in 4/4 or some other number combination. 

    When i write a riff, its usually something that sounds good to me...and i don't tap my feet to it. When i've played with drummers before i've always been told that the stuff i write is never straight forward, even if it is interesting and they have to create a way of keeping in time with it.

    I've also played drums in the past, but i never learnt (much like guitar) with any teachers, i just copied songs that i liked. When it came to playing with a guitarist, i would play a beat that went with the guitar riff rather than a beat that kept time...

    anyway, long story short...the few times i have tried software i've gotten really frustrated with it because of the drums side of things. 

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  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27346
    I know exactly what you mean @samzadgan

    GarageBand really helped me get into the detail of drum patterns (and more).  Is that available on the iPhone (and are your eyes good enough to work with it)?  Or get a cheapo iPad (assuming you've not already got one) and a simple guitar interface and have some real fun!
    Having trouble posting images here?  This might help.
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