New Material

okay, well I stand by what I said before. Good blend. Boring piano, but it's being changed to orchestra so that doesn't matter. You should slow down a bit right before the allegro.

Another thing. The average person wants to hear something exciting too. Your allegro is fine, but the Adagio is completely squashing it. You need to add about a minute or two more of allegro to this so that your audience gets the satifying exciting classical music that they expected because half of them don't know what "adagio and allegro" means.

Anyhow, overall this is great.

>Mitchell<

Yeah... I added repeats to the adagio. I hate myself for that. I always try to take the easy way out. It's just so hard to go back and put new stuff in when you are using Finale. I'll be sure to do add to the Allegro when I orchestrate it. I am also thinking about adding two cadenzas. One for the Adagio and one for the Allegro. I'm thinking Cello' for Adagio and oboe for Allegro.

ah, good, good.

A repeat? Naughty naughty.

Post the finale file.

WOW,
deffinitely continue.

I can't wait to hear a fully orchestrated version.

Wow, it's really good!

I agree with Mitchell that it should slow down or pause just before the allegro.

Hmm...ok I'll try it.

Like I said earlier, this is really great. On to the critique...

EDIT - Okay, do any finale users know whether midi files are screwed up if you try to open them in finale? I know it doesn't do tempo...Okay, yeah, forget what I said about technical errors.
EDIT #2 - Whoa, turns out it doesn't do practically anything right. Good to know, good to know...

<strike>I'm noticing a lot of technical errors in the composition. Just to name a few:

-Measure 17 is an E major chord, and the Ab's should be G#'s.
-Measure 42 and 59, same thing.
-Measure 44 should be a D# (D#-F#-A-C) diminished chord, rather than an F# diminished (F#-A-C-Eb).
-Measure 49 (and wherever it showed up the first time) are the same. Actually, from 50 as long as it stays in E minor, there should be no Eb's at all. They should all be D#'s.
-Measure 82, another D# in the cello.

For all practical purposes, these places will sound the same, but they're just not "technically" correct. There are quite a few more places that need cleaning as well. I just took some random ones.</strike>

Not to drive a point into the dirt, but were you planning on giving a little variation to the piano/orchestral parts? Not for nothing, but force a pianist to accompany you on this and that's fine, but force 80 other players to do it and you've got yourself a riot.

I'm a cellist [lucky you!], and I have a little to say about his/her part. Some of this (in the fast section) is going to be VERY difficult. I realize they're playing Shostakovich, but you should really check with your cellist to see if they can play all of this. In fact, I'm looking at measure 76, and I'm pretty sure that's impossible to play that fast. Unlike oboe, cello doesn't have the ability to shift up an octave and a fifth in the time you've given it. The F-C shift is not only just a change in fingers, it's a very large right hand motion. It takes time to move the bow from the C string to the A.

I'm not saying change it yet. Check to see if your cellist passes out when he/she sees it, and then consult them.

Overall, it's a very energetic and exciting piece. I really enjoyed listening. Do post a recording if you get one!

Hope this helps,
Evan

I am really confused. I never posted a score and I did use all sharps...no flats. How are you viewing my score? Because by whatever means you are viewing it incorrectly noted the D# 's as Eb's.

I also tried the diminished D#. It doesn't work. It sounds awkward.

I am also at a loss how to "entertain" the orchestra. I would like to variate the orchestra part, but it doesn't seem possible.