I adore the composition that was done in the songs you made! And I absolutely love that your mind went to contrapuntal baroque when you saw the picture. However, while I enjoyed the composition in general, it does sound very stiff since Dorico is, imo, as a past user, a midi player disguised as a score writer haha. A critique i have would probably be how the character's themes don't really feel like "themes" in the sense that, a motif was introduced, but the entire song itself doesn't feel like it was built around the motif. The composition of the songs definitely represents the feeling its going for, however, for me, if i were playing this game, i would probably fail to recognize that it's a character's theme. For example, Locke's theme had his motif played twice in the song, but it felt like the second round of his motif was just a loop of the first time the motif was played. If you listen to other game soundtracks, for example, Lace from Silksong by Christopher Larkin, Lace's melodic motif doesn't even start until halfway through the song, but the entire rhythm was already building up its own motif, and it builds up to the melodic motif and it continues to play around the rhythm motif and melodic motif. Though that's probably just me being nitpicky and maybe it is due to the limitations of contrapuntal baroque compositions and lack of dynamic control from Dorico. If it were polished more to sound like actual instruments and not midi, i would enjoy the composition way more, so as a fellow Cubase user, I can't wait until you learn how to use it :D

Also, I don't know if this'll help, but the entirety of the Hollow Knight franchise's OST is a masterclass in of itself just by critically listening to it and see how and why things work composition wise, in game wise, thematic wise, etc. Best of luck to your musical journey friend!

Really cool that you went with a Baroque style! love Baroque music :)
I think my favorites are Malinda's Theme and Town of Alban. The harpsichord / recorder combo in Malinda's Theme I think captures the theme/setting especially well, and the Town of Alban has a really nice wistful quality to it.

Nice job on your compositions, liked them very much !

I think I liked Town Of Alban most, the variations in it flow pretty nicely I feel, and I feel that you did well with the theming (musically and storywise) that you chose .
I'm not sure about the limitations of the software that you are using but maybe I would have liked a bit more variations in the articulation of the notes played to have a bit more variety and more life, with it I think that the depth of the arrangements would be more noticeable.

Great job overall, congrats for your work !

Locke's Theme:

Great composition! As a pianist who has dabbled in classical for 12 years, I will gladly tell you how to improve your baroque sound. Bach was one of the biggest artists who is well known for his two-part inventions, which is similar to the style that your music is heading in. You have the two-part writing in the left hand and it is incredibly similar chord-wise to an actual Bach song. The main thing I'm concerned about is articulation. Baroque music was all technical with their articulations and ornaments as needed, switching between staccatos, legato, tenutos, turned endings, rests, dropped marcatos, trills, etc. (i could go on an on). This will dramatically improve the believability of your harpsichord writing and keep the recorder from filling up the entirety of the song with its mid-treble frequencies and add some ornaments to the harpsichord to provide an interesting background foundation for the recorder to build upon. Also, I'm glad you included the PDF scores in the ZIP folder, thanks!

Malinda's Theme:

This composition was a tad dicey in some areas, but it was great nevertheless! Learning baroque takes some time and practice, especially when you want to compose it because there's so much behind it than simply the notes on the page. You are on the right path! - just some things need to be polished. For example, try to avoid offbeat rhythms as baroque composers loved their fast runs and straight eighth note rhythms. Also (i'ma get a little nerdy real quick), quick tip: for extra articulation, composers would marcato the eighth notes and legato the sixteenth notes by default, which gives it that classic baroque feel. I love your usage of a B section, similar to how Bach did his: by shifting his piece to the dominant key (in your case, Fmaj to Cmaj, and then resolving back to the original root key).

The First Love:

This piece is one of my favorites so far as it displays your ability to create a compelling small trio piece while still imitating a plethora of classical styles! One thing I could suggest would be to simply remove the repeats from m13-17 as it drags on a quickly boring drone note in the cello with zero interesting details. You can still keep your break zone, but make it slightly shorter by removing the repeat there. I love the callback to Malinda's theme (I'm sure Locke's was in there somewhere, but hers was the only one I noticed), and I also love the Wedding March-esque style as well. I think you captured the feeling quite nicely!

Town of Alban:

I loved that shift from the minor to the major, and back to the minor in the first ending! The one thing I would suggest would be to change the volume of the lead instrument as it feels softer compared to the previous tracks I've heard so far. Other than that, I think you nailed the RPG aesthetic and the baroque composition overall! Just a little tweaks and improvement is guaranteed!

Thanks Jared for this amazing submission!

I love the melodies present in the track, however I feel as if they could have been mastered properly. This is due to the instruments (at-least in my opinion) sounding somewhat off. If that was fixed, this whole track would be a gem in my book.