#the-versatile-composer

Imagine bringing together a percussion ensemble and instructing them to smash gigantic drums and metals with the sheet music of Ode to Joy in front of them.

The day was then April 7th, 2018. A restless Eric impulsively decided to toy with a Mozart piano sonata at 4AM. Four hours later, I released what I had decided to name A Disgrace to Rondo Alla Turca. 12 hours later, it had already accumulated over 1,000 plays. 

One year later, the series has made the classical charts time after time and has collected roughly 25,000 plays.

I didn’t have a grand plan to create a setlist of classical music audio shitposts last April. By May I had released Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony (for Toy Orchestra) and Eine Kleine Horrormusik. In that same month I decided to create a small playlist which was then titled “A Disgraceful Series” and left it untouched for a few months.

Come September, I decided to add New World Symphony to the collection. After its immediate success, I thought to myself “what if I made this a thing?” And then I did. 

In October I took a break from the series. It came to a halt due to my overwhelming frustration that my own original music did not get even a fraction of the attention that my disgraces do. I was debating finishing the series entirely, but decided against such action.

At the start of January, I revived the series with the release of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. That same month I decided to expand beyond my typically used toy orchestra to sampled orchestral libraries with Death Waltz and The Entertainer. The implementation of virtual orchestra recordings rejuvenated the community’s excitement for the series. It also broadened the possibilities for what could be done.

What’s next?

The Disgraceful Series is headed in a direction so orchestral that I oftentimes find myself turning intended disgraced classical pieces into actual orchestrations. What each disgrace will need going forward is purpose. Will it be percussion? acoustic toys? We’ll see.

If you read all of this, you’re a real champ and I appreciate you taking the time to do so!

Here’s a sketch from the soundtrack I’m writing for @courtofashesgame. Anyone with a knowledge of soundtracks can tell this was written in the 21st century. It has that modern film score sound.