String Octet

a short piece for a string octet composed in a few days, 4 violins, 2 violas and 2 cellos. I don't know if I did it well or not but I tried not to deviate too far from one theme. I guess I could have worked each idea further, but I'm not good enough to do that yet hahaha
http://yshimizu.googlepages.com/harinezumi.mp3
cheers

Wow, that's really good - I mean the composition because it sounds like midi. I especially liked parts 0:35-0:50 and 3:20-3:45 - very good short themes, the rest is fine too, good work Could you attach midi file?

I hate the midi playback too haha. Bandstand wouldn't play it for some reason so I had to go with that. thanks for the comment though, and the midi file is attached

Pretty nice. I especially like measures 81 through 91. Good texturing. One thing I might advise against is the constant use of 16th notes from measures 17 through 48. Maybe it's just the midi, but it doesn't seem too effective. Overall this piece could be a bit more melodically memorable, but nonetheless, for having been composed in just a few days, it's a solid job.

thanks, yeah I was trying to get my head around not using 16th notes there, but it didn't seem to work when I made the 8th notes and quarter notes... maybe I'll try something else sometime.
I agree it could be more melodic, but I focused on working on one theme, starting another then and returning to the first, since I had a hard time with that with my previous pieces.

It sounds very nice, especially for having been composed in such a short time. There are a few issues, though. Each part sounds very nice by itself, but take a look at the first chord in the second measure; it has an A, a B, and a C. I'm not sure if this kind of dissonance was intended, but you could probably improve some of the chords. Also, the score should be expanded to eight staves per system for ease of reading. The harmonies are too predictable, but I can't really criticize that when I can't do any better (well, actually, mine are probably too awkward and unpredictable).