Obscene Obsession for Full Symphonic Orchestra

Well...

I think that this is the largest piece I've written in terms of length, but also in time it took to work it out! It's just enormous for my state of mind back then. Written in 2004!

www.nikolas-sideris.com/stuff/oo.mp3
www.nikolas-sideris.com/stuff/oo.pdf

A very short analysis of the work...

The work is seperated in 7 chapters, starting from Brith and reaching Death. I won't answer any questions on that!

Other than that underneath the music, there is an everlasting fractal which grows in speed and pitches.

I find that this is the most impotant piece in my career up to then, and in my advancment as a composer. This is the piece that made me realise that I can wrtie "good" music!

I'm looking forward to your reviews. Just note that this is a finished piece and thus I won't be chaning anything really, unless it is a tpyo, or some other bizzare error... I'm not looking for the type of feedback "did I do the right thin at bar 240?", but more the type of feedback "did you enjoy it? Yes or No? Why?" and so on so fourth.

Sure enough I don't have the power to dictate to you what to post, so really post anything you want really...

musically, interesting.

notationally, a disaster.
I'm gonna be a total bitch here, but you know already how much I admire your musical abilities, so I'll just nit-pick at your notational abilities instead
you over-use double dotted values. they bring nothing but confusion. replace them in the score with normal non-dotted and tied or single dotted and tied values where applicable.

when a score is in C, always add an indication on the first page (Gardner Read).

first page of a score SHOULD contain one line of every instrument playing in the piece. ie: if you have full woodwinds, brass and strings, the first system should include staves for all of those, even if they are empty.

personally, I don't find that beaming across barlines brings anything to the notational clarity, but I guess that's a personal choice. I find it more unattractive than anything else.

there are some collisions between indications and notational elements (like the "à2" colliding with rests, hairpins colliding with slurs and staves, etc...)

why is there an entire measure rest at the end?

I think you could have gone with a slightly smaller staff size to give a looser fit to the music. It's just a bit too stuffy and congested. It needs a bit more blank space.

Which is, of course, not a comment on the music.

It really is a wonderful piece. A bit more modern than what I personally enjoy listening to, but well worth the effort. It's beautifully concise writing, and quite colourful use of the orchestra. I mean, just how much can I say that isn't just belaboring the point that this IS a great piece of music. You should rightfully be proud of what you have achieved here.

Hey QC!

Just saw your review! Thanks for that!

Keep in mind that this was done back in 2004 (rather it was 2003, the recording was early 2004 actually)!

Other than that the 1 bar rest is there to let everything go quiet. After a ffff it needs quite some time to calm down... same with the performers...

I

I will agree on all the points you make actually, and say that all these points no longer apply in any of my latest works!

The main problem I had with this, is that it was really huge! I mean enormous! 57 pages, and yet condensed score! With x4 woods etc... A nightmare to put to Finale!

The only thing I'll say is that with the size I had huge problems with that! The minute I went from 60% to 57% I would fit an extra bar in the system which would destroy the whole thing yet again!

Other than that this idea and the piece was in my mind for plenty time (something like more than a year), and only then I had decided enough to start wrtiting it (middle 2003). It was a true obsession, I'll tell you that!

Thank you for your kind words, QC! (Btw, it has a very strong root on A and F, so you should feel somewhat at home, no? )

I love this piece man, well done! It has an incredible energy, really palpable. It is also incredibly jazzy, which I really like, all those major minor clashes and the opening is so mellow that I feel as if I should be in the corner of some jazz cafe smoking weed! It just washes over you in an incredibly slinky way. My favorite part being the fantastic climax that you build up into the second section. You really build up that opening so well and then when you feel this sudden surge forward into the big tutti, its great!

I liked the second section, the little repeated cells seems to owe a little to minimalism, and it works really well, with little motifs sticking in your head. If I were to criticize then I would have liked for you to have changed time sigs ever now and again to wrong foot the listener as it didn't take me long to feel the pattern and I was dying for you to lop a quaver off the bar, or to add an extra beat so the patterns shifted slightly.

I felt that about 2 thirds of the way in, it felt like it lost its way a little, as if it were running out of steam because I had felt that everything up until that point had been well paced and then it lost my attention a little bit.

I loved the ravelesque harp glissandi, very colouristic use of the orchestra, perhaps a little heavy in places but non the less very effective.

As has been said already, the score is very hard to read, it is too closely packed in, and I found it hard to keep my place whilst listening to the piece. I think it is a piece that you should definitely try and get performed, it would sound amazing played by a live orchestra! However, I would suggest tidying the score up quite a bit (I am such a neat freak when it comes to scores )

All in all, superb work that I genuinely enjoyed, and as said before, I really loved the way you used quite a jazzy harmonic and rhythmic language!

Thanks Ryan

About the score. I know I am getting more and more sad to this. My only defense, is that the score was printed in A3 size paper, so I didn't mind having it packed and all that. But still for such a huge work, and my first attempt at such size, it definately needs major corrections...

I'd love to get it performed, but somehow, the size of the orchestra would be intimidating to all but the most well known orchestras, so there are slimm chanced to that.

Jazzy: (Robin get a listen to this please). I had no intention whatsoever to get jazzy results, but they just happened. There goes the myth that the composer controls everything: It's all bullshit! Yes, I know what you mean about jazzy...

About the patterns, you're dead right again: If I was writting it here , I would throw it off once or twice, nbut mainly would change pitches towards the end, before the climax. Major shift!

In all, as I imagine happens to all, when I look at this work all I see are things that I would like to change! Maybe, if I am allowed I might change the whole thing drastically and put it in my phd portfolio... Hmmm... That's a hghly decent idea, indeed!

Well, like I have a right to say anything after just posting my first ever posted piece here!

But - and this is a gripe I have with modern classical music as a whole, not with yours in particular - why no tune? Everything nowadays seems to have shades of Harrison Birtwhistle and Bartok going through it. Very clever, very dramatic. Makes me think of old black-and-white detective movies when there's a rooftop night chase going on.

But it wouldn't know a melody if it had one given to it giftwrapped. All film-noir drama, no tune!

You CAN blend the two, you know - listen to Michael Nyman. He's a bit of a one-trick pony, I know that, but then so are many composers (including Bach just to be scandalous - and I can prove that if asked!) But his tight-tune loops build up atmosphere rather well. And can easily be reproduced via Fruity Loops!

So overall, do I like it? I would do in a movie, it would fit the action excellently. As a standalone piece - no - I'm a New Age Melody lover.

Sorry.

Now feel free to have a go at mine!!!

Yours with respect

Chris (ulrichburke on site).

I disagree about no melody....its completely subjective and depends on what you class as a melody.

Let's nip this in the bud: this isn't the thread to be discussing this topic.

Argue all you want in the appropriate forum.



Here, you may comment on the work being presented, in this specific case, Nikolas' piece for large orchestra.

Cheers Ryan

Chris, everyone to their taste by all means. I mean you didn't like it, that's fine by all means. And thanks for letting me know.

I won't start lecturing or whatever really... not the right place

I'll go check your piece when it's on

This is the first time I've posted in a long time, but I'm listening to this right now and I think it is badass. Who cares about melody when the textures are so cool? I'm not a huge fan of classical music (especially when it's really dull like that one guy who "corrected" a piece I wrote because God hates parallel fifths but that is neither here nor there.) This piece is awesome. Love the builds.