The Fauxharmonic Orchestra’s original film score won the gold award for “best use of music” at the 2011 International Visual Communications Association (IVCA) Awards ceremony in London, England.

Composed by Paul Henry Smith, the orchestral score brings a magical, cinematic grandeur to “The Spirit Within,” an effects-heavy corporate film produced for Laing O’Rourke by London-based communications firm Cheerful Scout.

“It’s quite a thrill to be able to use orchestral music—previously a luxury completely beyond my wildest imaginings,” said Cheerful Scout CEO Peter Litten, who also praised Smith’s music as “one of the best scores I have ever had composed for anything. Inspirational, clever, witty and altogether fabulous.”

“The Spirit Within” Creating an inspiring and unique film to generate a sense of pride among internal staff and showcase Laing O’Rourke’s exceptional portfolio of key projects to external audiences via the sales teams.

IVCA awards are recognized internationally as marks of excellence for effective business communication in corporate video, live events, multimedia projects, business television and websites. The awards set a standard of excellence and introduce clients to programs and projects which have made a significant impact on business.

Winners are presented before an audience of commissioners, government representatives, industry colleagues and the media at a Gala Awards Ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London, held every spring.

The Little Magic Flute, Mozart (clips)

Stefan Moseman of Kölner Opernkiste, a small opera troupe presenting musical theater for kids in and around Köln, Germany, asked us to create a short version of Mozart’s Magic Flute for their singers to perform with.

Barry J. Cohen’s “Ballet Waltz” is reminiscent of Ravel. Check out our just-completed recording!

Composer Barry Cohen says:

The Fauxharmonic produced amazing results. Far better than the one ‘analogue’ performance of the piece a couple of years ago. The musical sophistication of Paul Henry Smith and his staff allowed them to bring enormous intelligence and subtlety to their performance of Ballet Waltz.

Decade, by Tony Cheseaux performed by the Fauxharmonic Orchestra.

Decade, for concert band, was written in 1996 for the “Angelo Bearpark Brass Ensemble” on the occasion of its 10th anniversary.

The music is based on the theme of the number “10,” which you can hear, for example, in the two quintuplets in the low brass at the end.

Score and parts are available from the publisher.

About Tony Cheseaux, composer.

Abenzoares, by Tony Cheseaux

Savvy commercial visualization specialists Cheerful Scout (London) recently hired The Fauxharmonic Orchestra to compose and produce an orchestral film score for one of their client’s major promotional efforts.

The full symphonic score accompanied a five-minute promotional film highlighting the firm’s impressive large-scale construction projects around the world. Heavy use of CG effects to bring blueprints, models and photos to life called for musical material to emphasize the magical act of creation.

Cheerful Scout CEO Peter Litten exclaimed “I absolutely love it! It’s one of the best scores I have ever had composed for anything. Inspirational, clever, witty and altogether fabulous.” The Fauxharmonic’s custom-composed score outperformed library music, which could never have closely and effectively matched the wordless story arch and vignettes in the film. Yet, as Mr. Litten noted, “to be able to use orchestral music [was] previously a luxury completely beyond my wildest imaginings!”

Excerpt
“The Spirit Within”
Composers – Ric Mills, Paul Henry Smith

It’s not “all orchestra, all the time” here at The Fauxharmonic. Lately we’ve been working on some very interesting and powerful new piano music.

Ping Pong (excerpt)

Petrichor – 1st Movement

Lucifer Rising (excerpt)

Stately and subtly shifting sonorities in “The Road to Tallinn” dominate Jonathan M. Block’s work of impressionistic sound-coloring.  If you like Schönberg’s “Summer Morning by a Lake,” listen to this focused gem for small orchestra:

Performed and recorded by Paul Henry Smith & The Fauxharmonic Orchestra,
September, 2010

We recently provided the string orchestra accompaniment for Ben van Dijk’s recording of “Concertino” by Stephen Verhelst. Ben did an amazing job … though that’s not surprising, considering he’s the bass trombonist in the Rotterdam Philharmonic and a conservatory professor, too!

Take a listen!

Buy Ben’s CD

You can buy Ben’s CD, or tracks from it, on CD Baby and elsewhere. Here’s what one reviewer wrote about Ben’s playing:

“Ben van Dijk’s most recent recording project brings an interesting and exciting combination of instrumentation to the table. This is not your run-of-the-mill trombone and piano for an hour type cd. Nearly every work has Mr. van Dijk has recorded on this album is backed by a different ensemble, from a trombone quartet to brass band to Flamenco guitars. The instrumentation aside, Ben van Dijk plays, as always, at a very high level that will leave professionals, students, and amateurs alike wanting more after the first track. The pieces are executed technically at a high level, the intonation is solid throughout, and the musicality is second to none. In short, do not make Ben van Dijk’s Never Alone the album you skip purchasing. This is well worth the asking price.” – Jonathan Allen

After we recorded the first two movements of Chris Sainsbury’s wonderfully evocative “Symphony of the Birds” he entered it into the New England Philharmonic’s call for scores – and won! The New England Philharmonic will perform the first movement on October 30, 2010, in Boston.  (Concert details)

As Sainsbury says, “I’m sure the fantastic recording by the Fauxharmonic Orchestra added much weight to my submission to the New England Philharmonic, and assisted in the ultimate win in their Call for Scores Competition.”

Listen: First Light –

Chris Sainsbury on his “Symphony of the Birds”

[Chris Sainsbury's website]
This piece was commissioned by Chris Bearman, Musical Director of the Central Coast Symphony Orchestra and Conservatorium in Gosford City, Australia. The brief was to ‘keep it local’ which was great as it is in keeping with my thinking. I’d been increasingly concerned about the global focus in all aspects of life. To achieve this ‘local idea’ I used local bird sounds of the region (at latitude 33 on the east coast of Aust) as source material for the piece.

Having grown up in the same region I’ve lived with these birds and they’ve got their claws into me (not always metaphorically)!

This work was conceived and realised using my concepts of:

1. Ground Sounds
2. Sky Sounds
3. Near-melodies

The terms are original (as far as I know) and deliberately uncomplicated. They are Australian as far as I’m concerned. I am now thinking and hearing under these ‘elements’ of music, which of course cross-over with the various elements of music that we know. The difference is really in the hearing – in the genesis of ideas and the working of material, and in the thinking.

Ground sounds are characterised by sustain, repetitive device, ‘melod-ercussion’, and the non-development of idea (in a Western sense). These are present through sustain, subtle convergences, absence of dramatic interpolations, veiled ostinati, use of tone- scenes (the dominance of particular colour combinations), and subtle melod-ercussive device (melodic thumps, scratchings, breaks and bumps).

Sky sounds are simply the phenomenon of sky reverb and sky amplification, which vary in the natural environment with landscape, weather and time of day. At various points I set out to orchestrate reverb and amplification into the work (as in the first half of movement two).

Near-melodies are the melodic fragments of birds. They sound short songs and calls, often fantastic tunes which they abandon as soon as they’ve begun. Of course they are entire (probably for birds), but we need something longer to call ‘a piece’. In this light I strung them together end on end at times (for major themes), ‘classicising’ them. There are however, many near-melodies that are left in tact in the work, abandoned as soon as sounded.

I use some fifty bird sounds as motives in the work, with all melodies and chords stemming from those. With this amount of ‘tunes’ rolling one can see the need to be careful about Western developmental thinking. It could become too big and messy! Indeed I don’t dramatically ‘develop’ any bird sound melodically, but leave them always intact. There is no augmentation of interval, nor inversion of tune, nor fragmentation or such device. I have used simpler treatments such as transposing up a step and have at times expanded the rhythm of the near-melodies. Basically I suspended part of me the composer and I didn’t mess too much with the birds!

Some near-melodies in the work are clearly identifiable bird sounds, down to the species. Some are ‘my good rendition’ of a bird sound I heard and whilst it works for listeners as bird sound, it would be difficult to identify the species (especially some of the parrots). The species include parrots (Lorikeets, King Parrots and others), Wattle-birds, Butcher-birds (my favourite), the Koel, Plovers, Gulls, Various Finches, and more. Some I didn’t even see, but notated.

All the notations are classicised into a twelve note system. Birds have a syrinx, rather than a larynx, and make complicated sounds. It was my primary intention to write music, not completely emulate bird sounds. In this light the various movements are basically Western in format. It is a vehicle which assists the listener to ‘hear my local environment’, essentially enabling a visit!

I hope you enjoy the work. Don’t listen too closely for the various birds, just take wing yourself!”