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Chivalry – A Symphonic Fantasy

As a visitor of our Music section you may have already heard some of William Kersten’s compositions or one of his detailed renderings of classical masterpieces. His latest œuvre is truly remarkable and deserves a special focus. “Chivalry – A Symphonic Fantasy” includes 14 pieces for large-scale orchestra and choir that have been inspired by medieval ages, depicting different moods and aspects of that time.

“My goal was to combine contrasting pieces that have been composed over years of time into one musical adventure whilst keeping a certain unity in melodic and harmonic terms.” Some pieces have been notated as conventional scores for different ensembles already in 1978. William Kersten re-orchestrated them for large orchestra by using the complete range of Vienna Instruments Collections, including the Vienna Konzerthaus Organ and Vienna Choir. „Working with these state-of-the-art Collections was an additional inspiration as there are practically no more limitations of what you can write“. All parts have been played and recorded in real-time into the sequencer. „I like the way the notes have a natural humanization that way. In a next step I’ve painted in the MIDI CC data. I love all theHuman Performance Control features of the Vienna Instruments PRO player and I’ve used a large amount of detuning on different instruments as well as additional random delays.”

The complete album was mixed with Vienna MIR PRO (Konzerthaus, 7th row) with only little reduction on the low frequencies of the string, brass and percussion sections (around 8 db with a low shelf starting at 300hz). “For some reason, I have never wanted to EQ the Appassionata violins or violas, which always seem to sound best in ‘pure’ at all times”.

Chivalry cover

The complete album is available for download on iTunes. The CD is available at
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/williamkersten3

About William Kersten

Born in Reno, Nevada in 1955, William Kersten began composing music and making films as a teenager. He studied orchestration and French Horn with John Lenz at the University of Nevada, Reno, and played in several orchestras (Reno Philharmonic, Reno Chamber Orchestra and Nevada Opera Orchestra).

His works include film and TV scores as well as music for the Reno Little Theater and the Bruka Theater. His major orchestral compositions are the “Romantic Symphony for Orchestra in Four Movements” and the “Earth and Paradise“ Song-Cycle for Soprano and Orchestra, based on songs of Christina Rosetti, Anne Bronte and Thomas Beddoes. His film projects include the 16mm dramatic features “Remember Tomorrow” and “Aberration”. His short film “Metaphysical Toymaking” was featured at the International Surrealist Film Festival and Zero Film Festival in Los Angeles.

http://www.williamkersten.com/

William Kersten

William Kersten