Writing Celtic style music

[Monarch]

Hello all, I'm not sure what kind of response I'm going to get from this but I thought I'd give it a go.

Basically I've got an A level music project and I need to write the music for a scene in a film, the piece has to be "the night before the battle" so it's the usual 'fear, despair, anxiety and the evil theme from the baddies until a bit of confidence comes over the good guys' kind of thing.

At first I decided to go for the big orchaestra but that crashed and burned so I thought I'd just go for the good old Celtic style strings with a few drums and the odd other instrument. This is my first time I've written anything like this though and was seeking guidance of instruments (Viols?) and possible ideas.

It's not the most Celtic style thing but I've been looking at this from The Last of the Mohicans and I was thinking about that kind of thing, it's here -

Any help would be appreciated, I'm on the search elsewhere but was wondering if anyone on here might have a clue Thanks

[Iccz]

First off i'd like to point you towards: Musicians' Corner - AVForums.com
A lot of people visit that board for more production specific matters, you might get a better response there, so possibly as for a mod to move this thread there for you.

Also regarding the music, personally i'd go for a nice slow quiet cello background, a fast violin lead (i dont mean a fast melody - fast violin) would go well towards the start as you build in bring in some nice brass, piano and more slow strings, spicattos are good for dramatic effects, a nice bassdrum sample would be good as well as other percussion hits, but don't use too much of them.

I imagine the main part of your result will be how you piece the instuments together, all orchestral music is sequenced so that the instruments played together compliment each other.
Also I imagine you have to write it as it might be played for an orchestra?
So try not to over-do strings as to require 100 string players, layer some or use an ensamble but don't over do it, try bring in variation, woodwinds etc can give just as good effect providing you have decent VSTs
Use your effects such as reverb to your advantage too; to emulate a good hall.

[Monarch]

Thanks, what you said is pretty much what I was thinking about doing, putting it into practise might be a different matter though! And I wont over do anything, I get marked on how well it's put together and if I use techniques, structures etc...I also get marks for taking inspiration from some of the pieces in the anthology of music we've been given so I need to take a look at them

thanks