Capriccio for Cello in C Minor

Capriccio my ass...

Most of it seems not to know where it is going. Just like me when composing it.

No, I have no idea if those bowings are possible, they're mostly for playback sound.
No, I have no idea if those few intervals are possible.

Yes, the score is messy.
Yes, I composed this just because I felt I wanted a solo cello piece and cursed finale after 10 bars simply because its playback is hell on strings. I'd need a real cellist to give expression to anything I'd compose, so that I'd hear it and go on, motivated.
This being not the case, I got lost in the mediocre playback of Finale and just cursed away to the end.

Bah.

mp3

Here is what Berlioz just told me on MSN Messenger:

\/| diz:
comment then
|\/| diz:
even if it's just "meh"
|\/| diz:
xD

So here goes my review:

meh.

*leaves*






























*walks back in*

Well, in my opinion it would have overall worked better if you had stuck to the pattern you began with. After 20-ish seconds you began deviating from it, and while it was alright for a while, I didn't feel the part after 00:51 worked - it felt odd and 'unconnected.' When you return to the opening pattern after that passage, the harmony doesn't seem to work to my ear, and I continued to have that feeling as it developed, as if the harmony didn't 'give a shit' anymore and decided to let loose. Although I think the transition back to the opening pattern worked, the one towards the 'coda' once again felt unnatural to my ear. The ending worked to a certain degree.

*leaves*

This was rather nice.

A few notation problems - nothing major.
The parallel 5ths (implied) at about bar 50 sound a bit annoying, to my ear. I'd change them, but maybe they don't bug you there.
I would like the straight quavers motive and rhythm to change a lot more! You only have one other idea in this (which was great!) It would work better with a contrasting motive or theme, probably with larger note values.

Anyway, this was nice.

Yes I second Daniel'd assessment - this is more a first draft for a cello solo. With all the repeats and the very consistent rhythmns it seems at times a bit too much like an exercise for broken chords. By the way, the last chord would be great as triple stop.

Get an orchestration book from the library and explore the double and triple stops. That and your opening are good material for much further exploration. I do like the transposition from c minor to a minor -- a nice harmonic twist but looking at the score I agree w/ MD the transition needs work.

Lastly, consult with a cellist and you can bring this as a "sketch" for ideas you are exploring -- go to a local music school and offer to pay for their time - in cash or another way (sans illegal ways) -- to try out your stuff. I did that when I wanted to do further work on my clarinet variations and as a result i developed a good performer contact who likes the piece --in part because performers love to contribute in the compositional process (weel most of them).

Originally Posted by Berlioz

Yes, I composed this just because I felt I wanted a solo cello piece and cursed finale after 10 bars simply because its playback is hell on strings. I'd need a real cellist to give expression to anything I'd compose, so that I'd hear it and go on, motivated.
This being not the case, I got lost in the mediocre playback of Finale and just cursed away to the end.

So, you let Finale dictate how you compose? This seems to be a problem I have noticed here since the introduction of GPO with Finale. "If Finale can't do it, then I won't write it." I fell into this trap myself a few months ago when I discovered that the GPO with Finale can't do con sord. I immediately smacked myself on the head and realized that some day a "real person" might actually play my music, and I want con sord. in there, darn it!

My point is this: Finale is--first--musical notation software. It is--a distant second--playback software to see what your music sounds like. Where Finale comes as a final product for your score, it shouldn't get the last word on how the piece sounds.

This brings up another point: the craft of composition. You said in the part I quoted above that Finale made you mad and you need a real cellist to inspire you. When I started composing before computers were mainstream and notation software existed, I had to either meet with an instrumentalist or read a book and study the instrument I was to compose for. You even mentioned that you don't know if certain bowings or intervals are possible to even play on the cello. What in the heck is the poing of writing a piece for an instrument while knowing you might be writing something that is impossible to play? If you are writing electronic music and it sounds like a cello, then do whatever you want. But if you want a piece for cello to be played by a real cellist, you need to understand the craft of composing for that instrument; and don't leave it up to Finale to teach you that!

Of course. That's my main problem. I don't have enough training to write on paper what I hear in my head, even if I imagine it. I'd need an actual cellist to inspire me, since I need to "feel" it as I go so that it works...

Meh, I can't explain it better. If there isn't the ability for the sound to answer back to me so that I can proceed, I'm always unable to compose well. My relative ear sucks.

This "piece" is just something I threw up without much thought and just felt at the moment, but died as it went (for the finale reasons). I rarely make these, and I shouldn't post them here for that same reason, but I did.

I'd need a damn orchestra of slaves.

So bah. :/

this is a daydream! everybody would love to have a personal orchestra and make them play whatever craziness in our mind.. would be WOW hehe

but this cant happen (unless you have the money to pay them... and you can try to get people with no lives, so they can do whatever you want 24/7)

anyway the thing you need is a book about orchestration.
There are many libraries where u can borrow one or you can just buy one in a store, i just think that everybody should have one, so that if you need to know what is possible or not on an instrument, if u have not somebody right away to go ask, the book will supply you enough well... unless you need to write something deeply difficult that the book has no answer. but i think if you go to a music school or to a conservatory and you see if you can find some guys that play cello, maybe they can help you out in some way.

I read Walter Piston's orchestration manual and I still am incapable of understanding what is possible or not in stringed instruments.

Damn positions and double stops and all that! I just can't understand the logic of the strings, can't picture it, can't nothing.

I'd need a damn huge chart with every possible double or triple stop too. >_<

Well, I shall be honest... it was pretty "meh" for me as well. It had a few lovely moments but they were interspersed between many cliché and aimless moments. I'd say the biggest problem is probably a lack of direction (as you mentioned yourself). I couldn't see where it was going or what you were aiming for. Something dramatic, perhaps tragic even and at moments, I did feel a real sense of that. But mostly, it was just... meh. I'd like to be more constructive but my brain is absolutely fried right now. I'll come back to this piece again when I'm in a more competent state of mind.

the thing is that it is hard to make all the chords or other figures for all the string family, it would take a lot of time... but if you really need that, maybe you should buy or borrow manuals about each instrument, so you see all what they do to learn to play that instrument. only in this way you can be almost 100% satisfied.

you buy the book about violin playing, from basic to more and more advanced, as you would for piano playing etc, and you see maybe there, there are some things you can consider praticable on the instrument, being reading from where usually a string player would go to learn the instrument.

better than the actual manual of the instrument, there's just the player in itself, but then you need a very good player that knows all the things on his instrument and is willing to collaborate with you for free or with payment...

just look for the book/s and see if those help you.

but anyway another thing that would help you greatly is to buy/borrow scores and read them while listening to the piece.
so you know exactely what string players do; you see the chords they play, and all the things that maybe you like to write, but you cant because you dont know how, or you know how but you are not sure if you do it good or bad.

so,

try for the manual-exercice-books about each string instrment you need to learn

and

buy/borrow scores and read them and listen to them