Journey to the Great Attractor

Hello!

Here's an experimental piece I wrote in a quasi-minimalist style. You will notice that the dynamics in the piece are roughly given through words. It's something that I am experimenting on and thinking of using in general...

For those who might wonder or don't know, the Great Attractor is a gravitational anomaly in the universe which draws our galaxy and the cluster where our galaxy belongs among others towards it. The piece describes the journey of a man to this place...

Hello!

I think this piece has some really good material in there.

That said, don't go too over-board with the repeats. At times this piece becomes a bit pedantic, especially in the longer sections without any particular melody. One of these is the introduction, where introducing each part layer by layer seemed a bit cliched and uninspired. 8 bars just seemed a bit long, and also an expected number of measures before a change.

I apologise if I'm being too harsh. I really think this is a good piece, it could just use some editing. I liked your melodic material a great deal, and it fits really well with the rhythmic material underneath. I also think that you convey this journey really well!

Your idea of expressing the dynamics through rough descriptions is very good. But I don't think you should use them ALL the time. In a piece like this, it's fantastic. But you have to be wary of sacrificing control of a piece to the conductor's/performer's interpretation. But, as I said, in this piece, I think it's great.

Anyway, again, I hope I don't come across as being rude and/or over-critical and also hope the criticism I've given is useful! Keep working on this piece, because there's some really great material in there!

Best wishes,

Michael.

Hello Michael!

I think no comment or criticism spoken in sincerity can be harsh. So thank you for your feedback! It really is useful!

I recently edited the piece, mostly correcting some things in the organ part and changing the instrumentation in the ending. You are right regarding the amount of repetitions. I will have to re examine that. Can I ask what would be your ideas/suggestions regarding the beginning?

As far as the descriptive way of notating dynamics is concerned, I think it's good using it in programmatic music and in places where you actually want to give more freedom to the performer. It can however limit the musical experience and I do agree with you that it should be used with caution.

Again, thank you for your comments!

Alexander

Hello, again, Alexander!

For adding each part one by one, I could suggest that maybe you put in a bit of voice-leading for before introducing a part. For this style of piece, it'd be a bit odd to have something not already part of the ostinato leading into it, but if you say, in the organ part, introduced its pattern half way through a measure, that could work quite well.

As for it being over-repetitive at the beginning, I think changing the amount of measures before a change could work nicely. One option would be to change how many bars each time. Say, for instance have 7 bars to begin, then 4 bars before adding the next part, then 6 after that, etc. Another option would be to have an equal amount of measures between each new layer, but making it a more "interesting" amount of bars. Say, for instance, if you had 5 bars, it wouldn't be as long to wait before a change, and it'd be a bit unusual and interesting by itself to have 5 bars. That said, it'd break the two-bar ostinatos, but it might be worth a try. If it doesn't work, 6 measures could.

Anyway, feel free to take or ignore my advice, whichever works best for the piece! And, either way, it'll give you something to think about, hopefully.

Hope it goes well!

Michael.

Hey Alexander,

This is a pretty good piece - judging by your work, you seem to be experimenting with many different styles at the moment. I must say my favorite has been your Klavierstuck, it was one of the best pieces I've seen on this forum, up there with Gardener's stuff.

But back to the one at hand - the music does convey what you were trying to say very well, there is a sense of inevitability, and a strong sense of forward motion. My biggest concern is the instrumentation and orchestration - a solo heckelphone would be drowned out by the orchestra and the organ, especially the heavy double-basses. A lot of the solo line is also written in a very high register for the heckelphone, which might help it cut through the orchestra better. But you sometimes go too high, which would be really difficult to control, and you'd get a weak, squeaky sound. It is not recommended that you write anything higher than the (notated) E or F above the treble clef (the notation sounds an octave lower than written).

One possibility would be to cut down on the size of the orchestra in order to balance out the solo line, or thinning out the instrumentation. You could use some hocket on the repetitive figures to change up the timbres and make the texture a bit less dense. Otherwise, it's a solid piece, and the unique mix of timbres would sound great with live instruments - are you looking to get it performed? That would be awesome to work with a heckelphonist!