Far Away From Home

jgurner

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Description

As a Christmas present for my family this year, I made a photo DVD of almost 500 family photos I have scanned in over the years ranging from my great grandparents all the way to my mom's great grandchildren. To go along with the slide show, I worte several new pieces of music, each based on a theme that struck me as I was working with the photos.

This was the opening piece for the DVD. It's based on photos of and by my father during the time he was based in Alaska during World War II. The photo above is my father standing outside the barracks while stationed there.

I tried to mix a military feel with the majesty of some of the wonderful black and white photos my father took of the country while he was there.

The whole project was something I enjoyed very much. Not just getting to go through all the years and years of family memories, most of which were well before my time, but also creating the music to express how these different images made me feel. It was a very rewarding experience and a very welcome gift by my family members. I would very much recommend the idea to anyone who is interested.

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Lyrics

No words, just memories

Song Stats

Hits: 835
Comments: 7
Fans: 0
Plays: 108
Downloads: 38
Votes: 3
Uploaded: Jan 03, 2007 - 10:00:50 PM
Last Updated: Jan 03, 2007 - 10:00:50 PM Last Played: Aug 31, 2009 - 10:49:50 PM

Song License

Creative Commons License:
Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial

Song Actions

Keywords:

Family (39), Father (43), Memories (41), Photos (3), Alaska (3), World War II (1)

Hardware:

MacBook, M-Audio Keystation 49e

Software:

Comments

tcarey	tcarey said 1040 days ago (January 4th, 2007)
	id love to see the video too nice work with the horns and orchestral sounds. are you using a jampack, because im having a hard time making my horns sound that good. Check out my latest song called jakarap

jgurner

jgurner said 1035 days ago (January 8th, 2007)

Thanks
I used the Orchestra Pack brass on this one. It has excellent sounds, the main problem is just getting the different voices balanced to try and get that "brass choir" sound. All the brass sounds tend start sounding less "real" the higher you set the note velocity. Also, if you go in and experiment with the attacks and sustains of the different instruments it helps give you a more realistic sound.

Thanks for taking the time to stop in and listen.

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Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.

Check out my latest song called Feeling Good Today

Macaudion

Macaudion said 1039 days ago (January 4th, 2007)

Cool JG
I really like this idea. It would be great to be able to see maybe a slide show of it. You should post it. I think it'd be pretty easy to do, if you're so inclined.

The music is pretty cool too. I could sense the presence of the photo. I kept looking at it to make sure it wasn't in 'motion picture' mode. really made it alive!

Thanks for sharing this.

Macca

Check out my latest song called 123 iGetU

jgurner

jgurner said 1035 days ago (January 8th, 2007)

Lots of fun
This project really was a lot of fun in so many ways. I'd love to do more instrumental and "soundtrack" type stuff, but it's way more involved that I usually like to get with my music because I have a hard time paying attention to details. :)

I appreciate you listening and commenting, my friend. It's always fun being able to share something like this.

---
Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.

Check out my latest song called Feeling Good Today

mikkinylund

mikkinylund said 1038 days ago (January 5th, 2007)

Beautiful
What a great thing to do for your family, and for yourself. I bet there must have a been tears of joy while you viewed this, after all, the music in itself is so dramatic and beatiful, that it alone almost brings out some tears. The song reminded me of my grandfather, whom also fought in two wars, the Finnish Winter War, and the World War II. At the end, I imagine the planes coming in - as scar as is - this is a very noble and beatiful thing to do. /Mikki

Check out my latest song called Hold

jgurner

jgurner said 1035 days ago (January 8th, 2007)

I'd like to think....
...my father would have liked this. He was a brass player in his younger years and liked the big, brassy sound. Was a huge fan of Wagner's operas. His love of music, of all kinds of music, was a big influence on me growing up.

This whole project was a big hit with my family and I'm already working on a follow up that will include some old home movies. It's really a very rewarding thing to work on.

Thanks for listening Mikki. Glad you enjoyed it.

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Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.

Check out my latest song called Feeling Good Today

	said 1005 days ago (February 7th, 2007)
	Inspiring This song was just perfect to set the feel of a battle scene or pictures of soldiers. A real tribute to our men in arms. Great work. Please listen to my music.

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Artist Info

Name: Joseph Gurner

Under construction... (Which is a clever way of saying I'm too lazy to do too much updating on my page just now) Collabs: Neon and the Night and It's All Over Now The Dixie Mason Band (me and R.T. Cooper Meeting Disillusionment ... [see more]

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