Symphony no2 (first 3 movements)

Come now... You must have faith in your ability that your music would be a worthy and equally profound partner for the 'beauty that you saw'. Of course, I haven't seen it with my own eyes but you must always believe that your music can be truly worthy of what has inspired it. The music is wonderful, if you feel this music does not do justice to the beauty that you saw then I dread to think how beautiful the things you have seen are.

I will perhaps over the next couple of weeks actually give you more useful insight into how well I think you are describing images and scenes and how I find your specific tonal colours (I find your writing very colouristic) very effective. But for now all I can say is, keep up the amazing work.

The board should feel lucky to have such a brilliant mind as one of the moderators of the board. I will be more free to post on this forum in a couple of weeks. I am busy finishing a major work for orchestra, choir and tenor solo and I need to bound scores and print off parts for a piano sextet I have written called Ricochet Rhapsody, which pales in comparison to the standard of your work. However, I may post some of my pieces in the near-ish future.

I wish you the BEST of luck in finishing the work and I hope that when you do you will feel that you have outdone yourself and succeeded in bringing this very personal work to its full potential.



Nathaniel

QCC- I like this piece, but I'd recommend getting some better samples. I think you're using Garritan but something like East West would give you a much fuller, more vibrant sound. I believe East West would also work with Finale and Sibelius, but I'm not completely sure on this.

Not sure what your budget is like but check out this deal:

Complete Composers Collection :: Bundles :: Sounds Online

This is 7 East West packages bundled in one package for $1075. Sure, it sounds like alot of money, but the samples are more than worth it. After all, this would give you over 130 GIGs of high quality, multi-timbre samples! Also considering these packages can cost $400-500 a piece easily, this is a GREAT deal. I think using samples like this would give your music a better delivery, especially since several of the brass and string passages have a very MIDI sound to it. The music itself, is good though!

Also be very careful of your mixing. Some of the brass stabs peaked out, and this could be easily prevented. I'd also consider carefully mixing the entire piece to attain maximum performance. After all, any great piece of music can be inhibited by poor or non-focused mixing and audio production. I know that you're mainly a composer, but when you work as a composer in the digital realm, you have to take one many roles as an audio producer as well. At least, in my experience that has been the case and it has helped me greatly.

Hope that helps,

Nathan

PS- No I don't work for East West or profit at all by plugging their software! I'm just a fan and user of their products.

Thank-you again Nathaniel.

And Nathan, I don't want to spend money or time on "better quality sample libraries" for the simple fact that the music is not meant to stop there.. it's only a demo. The performance with orchestra is the final goal. I actually have very little interest in making better sounding demos. This is quite sufficient for me. I do no mixing, no tweaking, just the score as it will appear before the conductor. But thank-you for the well-considered recommendations.

That's cool man. I understand that, and to be honest kinda expected that would be your feeling. I was just writing in the goal that having better sounding demos might help you land recording gigs with better, more prestigious orchestras. Best of luck to ya!

Originally Posted by Qccowboy

Thank-you again Nathaniel.

And Nathan, I don't want to spend money or time on "better quality sample libraries" for the simple fact that the music is not meant to stop there.. it's only a demo. The performance with orchestra is the final goal. I actually have very little interest in making better sounding demos. This is quite sufficient for me. I do no mixing, no tweaking, just the score as it will appear before the conductor. But thank-you for the well-considered recommendations.

I am curious about this. When you send your scores in hopes of getting performed do you have to send an electronic recording as well?

How does it work?

Originally Posted by MonkeysAteMe

I am curious about this. When you send your scores in hopes of getting performed do you have to send an electronic recording as well?

How does it work?

It depends on the group you are approaching.

Some conductors don't want a recording (there's a great deal of snobbism regarding synthetic recordings).

Some are more realistic and realize that to examine a new work, a recording is of great use.

The most important thing is a conductor score of good quality.
And if you can, a meeting WITH the conductor rather than a simple, blind submission of score/recording.

Happy Canada day.
I updated the recording of the 2nd Symphony.
I also added a rough draft of the score for the first three movements.

See the initial post of this thread.

Originally Posted by QcCowboy

Happy Canada day.
I updated the recording of the 2nd Symphony.
I also added a rough draft of the score for the first three movements.

See the initial post of this thread.

It's called Dominion Day

*is eager to look at score*

uh, it hasn't been called Dominion Day in a LONG time.
It's officially Canada Day now.

Originally Posted by QcCowboy

uh, it hasn't been called Dominion Day in a LONG time.
It's officially Canada Day now.

I know, I was joking about Canada's perceived lack of unique cultural identity and close ties to Britain.

No words to describe the score all the complex, different lines in each instrument and me having no idea why you specifically did what you did, and how you did it. This is something I tend to feel with many complex orchestral or operatic pieces. (Examples: why do the basses split from the celli here and reunite there? Why are the bassoons in octaves here and not in that place?)

I could ask these kinds of things in just about every bar of your piece, since I'm so ridiculously ignorant "why is it the double basses don't do the sforzando in the beginning of the fourth bar along with the celli, who appear to be supporting the woodwinds and horns (who begin the bar the same way?) Is it because it's actually a particularly sonority *you* like, and wanted, or are there rules dictating these things?

Maybe I should just give up music