Wikipedia:Featured sound candidates/Over the Northern Mountains

Over the Northern Mountains

A beautiful fanfare for the GPL game Battle for Wesnoth. This piece is representative of modern orchestral style (is blog mentions this), as well a blend of fantasy-style music like Lord of the Rings. (This last assertion is only mine, although he does discuss a little bit about this at the Wesnoth forums [1]). I know, unorthodox sources, words directly from the composer's keyboard is good enough, yes?

• Nominate and support. haha169 (talk) 09:04, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

I'd be very wary of using this as an example of modern orchestral style, unless there is a source stating this which is stronger than the blog of the composer (or a web-forum). If this was from a notable game, then I suppose it would be useful and notable to illustrate that - how notable is this game? The Wiki page doesn't seem to indicate how popular / downloaded / installed / etc it is, and the reviews on the page don't seem to indicate a widly positive set of reviews. The piece sounds good, albeit as performed by electronic synth orchestra rather than the real thing. I'm undecided about it at the moment. Major Bloodnok (talk) 14:37, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

I believe the game is fairly notable for a freeware game. Maybe about the level of Iji or (before it got a commercial release) Cave Story. If you don't know those, that probably means that, unlike me, you aren't a geek. =P That said, it's not aanywhere near the levels of notability found in a commercial release. The description is maybe a little hyperbolic, though; I don't think anything can be "highly representative" of such a diverse field. Adam Cuerden ^(talk) 15:12, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Well, "highly representative" among free music. That could be changed, though. --haha169 (talk) 01:48, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

In response to Major, I will have to say that Battle for Wesnoth, the article, is a complete mess. This is mostly because, in its nature, open source is community oriented so WP:V compliant references are hard to come by. But it is generally seen as the best open-source game out there, on par with some of the earlier 2000s-decade games. --haha169 (talk) 01:55, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

• Support (see below) I am most certainly a nerd, but I don't really play free online games. That irrelevancy aside, it's an excellent piece of synth orchestra, and does the pages it's in (Video game music, Fanfare, The Battle for Wesnoth) a good service. Sure, when it comes to video game music, there are better scores, (Jeremy Soule uses a full orchestra and just does fantastic work, especially with the Elder Scrolls series,) but this is the best free musical score I've heard to date. Sven Manguard Wha? 21:55, 18 February 2011 (UTC)
  • Also, this marks the first time I've ever been edit conflicted in a featured sounds related page. This is a proud moment for me (it means there's activity in the area) and I'd like to thank Adam for ECing my post. A toast, to many more edit conflicts! Sven Manguard Wha? 21:55, 18 February 2011 (UTC)
    • I've already had two, in one day. --haha169 (talk) 01:48, 19 February 2011 (UTC)
      • Conditional Support [edit: conditions met, now regular support] Tony1's concerns need to be addressed. The summary needs to be rewritten, this isn't modern orchestra, it's modern video game music at best. Play on the fanfare aspect, it's the strongest thing to place in the definition statement. Also, is this MIDI or was there an orchestra, it needs to be stated. Sven Manguard Wha? 04:25, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

• Comment I would really like to see at least some kind of mention of the music of the game at The Battle for Wesnoth. Right now this file isn't adding that much. Jujutacular ^talk 07:20, 19 February 2011 (UTC)
  • I'll try. The file's main purpose is still to enhance the fanfare article, but I'll see what I can dig up about music in Wesnoth and create a new section. --haha169 (talk) 19:52, 19 February 2011 (UTC)
    • Done --haha169 (talk) 23:01, 19 February 2011 (UTC)
• Oppose. The performance and engineering are quite good (frankly, it's a pretty easy style to play). In what way is this "representative of modern orchestral music"? Performers were who? That is, the orchestra and the conductor? Preferably, where and when, too. Should italics and/or quotes be used in the file name and the description? Please see WP:MOS (music). Tony (talk) 04:12, 20 February 2011 (UTC)
  • Not sure if Mattius Westlund is listed in the phone book...but most likely it was synthesized in his garage on his laptop or something like that. There really isn't much information to give on that subject. As for your other statement, "it is representative of modern orchestral music" because it is modern orchestral music. This is similar to how The Simpsons is representative of adult cartoons. Not representative of all, but a representative of the genre. (Does this make sense?) However, I concede that the wording may be a bit confusing. You have any suggestions? Not sure what you mean by the italics and quotes?--haha169 (talk) 07:42, 20 February 2011 (UTC)
    • I propose: A fanfare piece composed by Mattias Westlund for the video game The Battle for Wesnoth. The Battle for Wesnoth has no budget, so the piece is entirely synthesized. Thoughts? Sven Manguard Wha? 08:14, 20 February 2011 (UTC)
    • By the way, I just overhauled the description page. It now has dates, makes the fact that it's synthesized explicit, and links to the article for the game. You all might know the technical aspects of music, but I can whip up one mean description page. :) Sven Manguard Wha? 08:28, 20 February 2011 (UTC)
      • Haha, yes you can. Mattius Westlund's email is up on his blog I have a wesnoth forums account, so I'm going to inquire about the exact technical specifications on how he produced this piece of work, in order to make the description page even better. :) --haha169 (talk) 08:31, 20 February 2011 (UTC)
• Support. On reflection, and the change in the file description, I'd be happy to accept this as a featured sound because it is from a notable game (or so Sven indicates - I thought I was a bit geeky, but I hadn't hear of it!) and uses modern technology. I'd be wary about accepting more than this one file as a FS, unless they became notable. Major Bloodnok (talk) 21:25, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

Promoted Northern mountains.ogg Adam Cuerden ^(talk) 22:04, 3 March 2011 (UTC)