Rhapsody for Orchestra, Piano & Harp in C-sharp minor

So far, everything I've posted on YC has been months-old or even year-old material.
This was completed just last week, so hopefully it won't suck quite as much.

Rhapsody for Orchestra, Piano & Harp in C-sharp minor

Thanks for checking this out. I look forward to receiving your feedback/comments/criticism.

Oh, and sorry about the crappy score...

Hello,

Very light and clear; good orchestration and melodies. Enjoyed the "military-like" snare and the string, end cadence, scaling. Great mood swings and personality too!

Very beautiful music!
Great job!

Michael

And a wonderful and extremely dramatic and quirky piano ending!!

Bravo!

M

Thanks.

But when you say "piano ending", do you mean the end of the mini piano concerto in the middle of the piece, the ending harp part with a "piano" dynamic, or something else? o.O

I'm guessing you mean the orchestral galloping part? =P

oops - from piano to the ending.

So do you guys think the piano part in the middle sounds like it fits in with the "bookends"?

I'm not sure whether it's too much of a 180-degree turn and is just confusing for the listener, or whether it sounds decently integrated enough to still form a cohesive piece.

Ok. To preface this, I'm holding no punches, so this may come off as a tad bit harsh. It is not intended to be so, but to be constructive critizism.

You just love Copy and Paste, don't you? Basically, what I suffered through 13 minutes of was about say 3 minutes of material repeated countless times. Composing is about creating music, not copying and pasting material so it can be passed off as a "cohesive piece", which this is not. So lets, start from the begining, shall we?

We begin in on a Pirate's ship with an "original" melody supposedly "varied" throughout the piece hence implying the title Rhapsody. (Neither happens! Opps.) Then somehow Merlin comes and flys onto the ship and brings his Harp glissandos with him taking up huge amounts of score wasted paper when squiggly lines could have been used. Then Pachabell comes from the dead giving his little part. Angels come with their argegios and Mozart with his repeated 8ths. Then we're off to Piano Concerto land where the piano takes over the piece and says "I'm the most important one here!" No to mention it's a magical piano where impossible passages become playable! [Gasp!] Ok. More wandering on the same chord progression for about 7 minutes with no real change. Copy + Paste, Copy + Paste, then the orchestra suddenly disapears and we're right into a pop song. (!) (Did someone press the button on my iPod?!) Ah! Now we're Copy + Paste'ing again! Verbatim from the begining! Yay! Why didn't you just use a D.S. al Coda marking and save the paper! My goodness me, there's Merlin, Mozart, Pachabell, and the Angels all there. But wait! A new guy arives, it's the Romans (or Greeks, whichever you prefer). Glory be, the hero is here! Well, not really. Even he cannot save this piece since it was killed in about the 2nd minute.

And why C-Sharp? I mean, to be nice, why not just put it in C? or if you're really stubborn, at least D-flat? C'mon! And what sort of Tubist are you thinking of? Because I don't know of anyone in the world who could play what you wrote. Perhaps a Bassoon instead? That trombone was awful high too. We trombonists are lazy, especially when there is a hornist relaxing in a rest. We get very anoyed at this type of situation, of which there are many in this piece.

So there you have it. My advice, get off Finale and write a short 30 second piece by hand for Piano only. It will be mountains better than this load of "Copy + Pastes" you have here trying to pass as a composition.

I wish you good luck!

Thanks for the...erm..."creative" review. As critical as it was, I'm glad to know what you think about it.

Well, since this non-composition apparently left you with a lot of questions, I'll see if we can clarify some things.

Originally Posted by Justin Tokke

You just love Copy and Paste, don't you? Basically, what I suffered through 13 minutes of was about say 3 minutes of material repeated countless times. Composing is about creating music, not copying and pasting material so it can be passed off as a "cohesive piece", which this is not.

You seem to have a propensity for hyperbole. Yes, I do utilize repetition, but I'm hardly the Steve Reich you make me out to be. Basically, the successive repetitions are never identical - they vary - regardless of how subtle it might be - by either orchestration or phrasing. The repeated sections generally have several minutes' distance from each other, and are identical in concept to the recapitulation of sonata form. Nonetheless, apparently you, as a listener, found the repetition too overwhelming, so that's something I'll have to take into consideration. But I'm hoping you weren't expecting one, long "orchestral cadenza". As far as I'm aware, these do not exist.

Originally Posted by Justin Tokke

We begin in on a Pirate's ship with an "original" melody supposedly "varied" throughout the piece hence implying the title Rhapsody. (Neither happens! Opps.)

Actually, the title "rhapsody" is in reference to the contrasting sections that make up the entire piece, not some potpourri element of each individual section.

Originally Posted by Justin Tokke

Then somehow Merlin comes and flys onto the ship and brings his Harp glissandos with him taking up huge amounts of score wasted paper when squiggly lines could have been used.

LSD much? Anyways, I'm sorry if I'm making Al Gore weep by wasting "paper", but I just converted this straight from the Finale file. I certainly didn't intend for entire pages to have only one or two measures. If it really bugs you, go write a letter to MakeMusic.

Originally Posted by Justin Tokke

Then Pachabell comes from the dead giving his little part. Angels come with their argegios and Mozart with his repeated 8ths.

I can't exactly hear how the section you're talking about sounds like anything that came out of the Baroque or Classical era, but ok.

Originally Posted by Justin Tokke

Then we're off to Piano Concerto land where the piano takes over the piece and says "I'm the most important one here!" No to mention it's a magical piano where impossible passages become playable! [Gasp!] Ok. More wandering on the same chord progression for about 7 minutes with no real change. Copy + Paste, Copy + Paste

The personification isn't too amusing, but I must agree that this middle section suffers from overstaying its welcome (no, not after the first five seconds). Nonetheless, hopefully you can appreciate the pre-cadenza orchestral passage that doesn't repeat ever again throughout the whole piece. Or at least be aware that it exists.

Originally Posted by Justin Tokke

Then the orchestra suddenly disapears and we're right into a pop song. (!) (Did someone press the button on my iPod?!)

Pop song? Uh...now you're really going overboard with the hyperbole. Just because it's a little jazzy doesn't mean it's a "pop song" (I mean, aside from the fact that it's not even a song). True, it's not traditional classical music, but hell, I've yet to hear anyone imply that Rhapsody in Blue is a pop song.

Originally Posted by Justin Tokke

Ah! Now we're Copy + Paste'ing again! Verbatim from the begining! Yay! Why didn't you just use a D.S. al Coda marking and save the paper!

Again, this section does go on for too long. It ain't verbatim from the beginning, though. Might want to double-check before you make a statement like that. Or maybe that's just more reckless hyperbole...

Originally Posted by Justin Tokke

My goodness me, there's Merlin, Mozart, Pachabell, and the Angels all there.

Patronizing me with things you made up...? I assure you none of these four figures entered my mind while writing this.

Originally Posted by Justin Tokke

But wait! A new guy arives, it's the Romans (or Greeks, whichever you prefer). Glory be, the hero is here! Well, not really. Even he cannot save this piece since it was killed in about the 2nd minute.

Romans? Greeks? Huh? Late-Romantic Russian fanfare, maybe, but I very much doubt that the western orchestra and musical Romanticism (or "pseudo-Romanticism", if that suits you) would have existed in classical antiquity.

Oh, right. More hyperbole. Never mind me for expecting your review to make sense.

Originally Posted by Justin Tokke

And why C-Sharp? I mean, to be nice, why not just put it in C? or if you're really stubborn, at least D-flat? C'mon! And what sort of Tubist are you thinking of? Because I don't know of anyone in the world who could play what you wrote. Perhaps a Bassoon instead? That trombone was awful high too. We trombonists are lazy, especially when there is a hornist relaxing in a rest. We get very anoyed at this type of situation, of which there are many in this piece.

I wrote it in C-sharp because this is simply what sounded best. I assure you, I spent at least 40 minutes experimenting with different tonal areas to see what one *sounded* best, and C-sharp simply fit the entire piece most effectively. If this was in C major, the opening passage would be too low for the brass instruments, and, subconscious or not, this piece just demands to be sharped, not flatted. So there's your answer.

Originally Posted by Justin Tokke

So there you have it. My advice, get off Finale and write a short 30 second piece by hand for Piano only. It will be mountains better than this load of "Copy + Pastes" you have here trying to pass as a composition.

Thanks for the tip. I've been contemplating doing this for a while, as a way to make the perceived quality of my music more dependent on my ability as a composer than as an arranger, and it also sounds like a "fun" idea that differs from what I usually do, so thanks for giving me that "push".

Well, I must admit your review was a little condescending, though I know better than to get upset over the internet, so I'll just thank you for giving me your honest opinion. Though, at the moment, it's greatly at odds with the feedback I've gotten from other people, so hopefully more YC'ers can voice their opinion so I can see whether this antipathy is the general consensus.

Unfortunately I'm going to have to go by what Justin pointed out.. I felt the same way as he did, maybe not as bad about it but I certainly saw many areas where you could introduce ideas. You could come back to your original theme later on in the piece, or you could keep the same theme and introduce a new key, adopt a new time signature or something. I liked your theme though, but too much repetition doesn't work for anything i guess.

^ Um, actually I do do what your third sentence suggests. You didn't notice any key changes in this piece? It modulates at least seven times...

What exactly is the "original theme" though? The "pirate" theme plays once in full at the beginning, very briefly one-third in, and once more abridged two-thirds through. It's in a different key each time...

Thanks for sharing your opinion, though. Always appreciated.