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Music: Music
I wrote seven short pieces for my music degree dissertation titled “Composing Music to Enhance the Characters in Story-Centric Video Games”. These pieces were written to a simple narrative I wrote, including seven scenarios: the protagonist comes home, the protagonist meets up with her old friends, one of her friends go missing, finding clues to help in the search for her friend, meeting a mysterious antagonist, finding her missing friend and escaping from the antagonist, then finally, safely returning home.
Composed and produced by: Nadia Margawi
Music: Text
Music: Music
“Satellites in Orbit” is an EP consisting of six pieces with prepared piano and electronic elements. These pieces are inspired by the characteristics of natural satellites or moons from planets in the solar system. “I. Moon” is inspired by Earth’s moon cycle. “II. Phobos” is inspired by the extreme temperature variations of the sunlit and dark sides of Mars’s satellite. “III. Io” is inspired by Jupiter’s volcanically active moon. “IV. Enceladus” is inspired by Saturn’s icy ocean moon. “V. Miranda” is inspired by one of Uranus’s moons which has a grotesque appearance and varied landscapes. “VI. Triton” is inspired by Neptune’s moon which orbits in the opposite direction of its planet’s rotation.
Composed and produced by: Nadia Margawi
Music: Text
Music: Music
“Storm at Sea” explores orchestration. It was written at a time when I decided to delve into film and game music, which has been my interest for a while. I programmed all the instruments on Ableton Live using VSTs, as it was not possible to record live musicians. My goal was for the piece to sound epic, atmospheric, and diverse, so I divided the piece into two big sections, and split these main sections into smaller parts. These different parts are tied by a primary melody, while call and response between instruments and counter lines introduce variations into the piece.
Composed and produced by: Nadia Margawi
Music: Text
Music: Music
“Through the Garden” is an electronic piece that focuses on exploring sound design. The piece was written to sound like walking through a whimsical futuristic garden filled with unfamiliar but friendly creatures. I combined recorded samples from Make Noise, percussive and bowed instruments, as well as software synths, and processed them through a number of audio effects. The one-shot samples had automated panning to make them sound as if they were moving around the listener’s head.
Composed and produced by: Nadia Margawi
Music: Text
Music: Music
“A Walk in the Field” is an analysis and resynthesis project, where I chose to analyze a piece from Machinarium (2009) video game soundtrack titled “The Castle” by Tomáš Dvořák. I chose to analyze two parts of the piece, minute 0:00 to 0:49 and 1:55 to 2:50. I was inspired by “The Castle” to work with a 5/4 time signature for my piece, using a rhythmic and melodic pattern to reinforce it. I experimented with panning for the granular audio samples, and did a call and response pattern with a double bass and percussive melodic synth. The piece begins and ends with the melodic and rhythmic pattern, having an A-B-A form. The middle of the piece is made up of processed samples.
Composed and produced by: Nadia Margawi
Music: Text
Music: Music
“Daily Business” is a piece based on Alvin Lucier’s Gentle Fire Score. This was a fun project incorporating sound design. I recorded sounds of slamming drawers, tearing paper, and clicking dice, then processed them into completely different sounds. The slamming drawers recording was morphed into sounds of snapping twigs, crunching snow, and crackling fire. Tearing paper was turned into sounds of flowing streams and wind in trees, while clicking dice turned into jingling coins and cracking ice.
Composed and produced by: Nadia Margawi
Music: Text
Music: Music
“Okusan” is a short film made by film graduates from LASALLE College of the Arts in 2021. I and Joy Ng wrote a hopeful piece for the ending of the film, where an injured pregnant woman arrived at a medical camp, and the audience hears a baby crying when the screen turns black.
Composed by: Nadia Margawi, Joy Ng Kai Jie
Music: Text
Music: Music
"Alighting for Lola" is a short film made by film graduates from LASALLE College of the Arts in 2021. I worked with Yu Hang on this piece, where I improvised on the keys while he processed the sounds with audio effects.
Composed by: Nadia Margawi, Wang Yu Hang
Music: Text
Music: Music
These three pieces were composed using sounds recorded from LASALLE’s Make Noise shared system.
“The Giant” was composed with sounds from the Krell Patch, a modular interpretation of the Krell song. The sounds resemble a giant creature’s footsteps, as there are a lot of sustained bass textures and deep percussive sounds.
“In the Woods” uses recorded sounds from the Phonogene, one of the Make Noise modules I learned during my second year at LASALLE. It also contains added recordings from other modules like Elements by Mutable Instruments, Mysteron, dPo, and Wogglebug.
“Space Machine” comprises recordings from my remake of the Richter Wogglebug Dream Machine Patch and the Creature Patch. The Richter Wogglebug Dream Machine patch is mainly focused on the Wogglebug module and is inspired by the “Dream Machine” patch from Allen Strange’s book, Electronic Music: Systems, Techniques, and Controls. The Creature patch is referenced from Richard Devine’s “Creature” series, which is inspired by Morton Subotnick’s “Sidewinder”.
Composed and produced by: Nadia Margawi
Music: Text
Music: Music
“Unknown Destinations” is my first original collaborative piece, featuring vocalist Shania Tan. The collaboration was done remotely in our own homes in 2020.
Composed by: Nadia Margawi, Shania Tan
Lyrics by: Nadia Margawi, Shania Tan
Vocals by: Shania Tan
Arranged and Produced by: Nadia Margawi
Music: Text
Music: Music
“Proximity” was written during the early period of Covid-19, when I felt homesick and isolated. Through this piece, I expressed what I felt when I left home for college, away from my family. This feeling is reflected in the first half of the piece, while the second half shows what it feels like to come back home after being away for a while.
“Proximity” consists of drastic transitions between its different sections as I wanted to experiment with this technique.
Composed and produced by: Nadia Margawi
Music: Text
Music: Music Player
“Impen Manis” is a piece involving electronic and Javanese Gamelan elements, a combination I am interested to explore. I come from Central Java, Indonesia, and am fascinated by Gamelan music. The piece features an Indonesian folk song, titled “Gundul-Gundul Pacul”, which I often listened to when I was younger.
Composed and produced by: Nadia Margawi
Music: Text
Music: Music
“Mera Bhai” is a short film made by film graduates from LASALLE College of the Arts in 2020. I and two of my good friends, Wai Qi and Xin Ying, composed two tracks for the film.
Composed by: Nadia Margawi, Chooi Wai Qi, Cheong Xin Ying
Music: Text
Music: Music
"Nichol Doesn't Eat" is a documentary film made by film graduates from LASALLE College of the Arts in 2020. This was the first time I had the chance to write music for a film. I wrote the piece on piano and gave it a bittersweet, mellow feel.
Composed by: Nadia Margawi
Music: Text
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