Valley of the Many-Coloured Grass in E flat

short piece inspired by edgar allan poe. please listen and comment!

I'm curious about your choice of instrumentation.
I have yet to actually see a piccolo trombone. It would have seemed wiser to write for an ensemble of instruments that one is more assured of actually finding.

On an instrumentation note, your Horn goes a tiny bit out of range in the upper region. Remember, the horn is an alto instrument. While not "incapable" of playing notes in its upper register, these are not the notes that best represent the instrument. The horn is at its best when in the middle of its range.

Why not simply give the higher notes to a trumpet?

I found a lot of the instrumental writing a bit confused. By this, I mean that many of the parts seemed to not be specifically written FOR the instrument you were assigning to it.

On a notational point, I'm not sure I understand what exactly you are asking the clarinets to do at measure 5. Those slurs are a tiny bit contradictory.

Do you mean measure 5-6 in the clarinet part to be one continuous phrase? If so, then one single slur should have started on the first note and ended on the last note.

Or do you mean to have all those notes slurred in pairs? if so, then the slurs should not be overlapping, but should each encompass 2 notes only.

Actually, QC, since the score is in C, the Horn part is actually at the farthest extremes of it's range, extending to a written D6.

I find the instrumentation to be impractical (to be really kind).
The notation is confusing - measure 4 in the "Piccolo Trombone" part you have sextuplet sixteenths with rests instead doing staccato eighth note triplets?
The instrumental writing isn't idiomatic in any way.

Frankly, it looks like this is a generated score from some doodling you did in a sequencer. I would recommend doing a lot of reading, a lot of research, and revisiting this when you've learned a bit for writing for instruments.

Sorry to be blunt.

dont be, thank you for being honest! i know very little about notation and i wasn planning on making the score presentable. i have never done anything serious with instrumentation before as i have limited knowledge in instruments sorry.

Originally Posted by flint-wwrr

Actually, QC, since the score is in C, the Horn part is actually at the farthest extremes of it's range, extending to a written D6.

I generally like to think of written high C (sounding F, top line of the treble staff) as the upper-most limit for the horn in F. I know many performers are capable of notes higher than that, but it just seems more realistic to treat the instrument in a more felicitous register, keeping those extreme notes for, well, something like a cadenza in a concerto, and only when specifically asked for them by a performer?

To my eye, for a score in C, the horn part goes past its upper limit with that high G. I'm not sure if that's what you were saying, Flint.

Hi QC, yeah, that's what I was indicating. That high D (sounding G), while certainly possible, is highly impractical and ill-advised. I totally agree with you that the horn should be used in a more characteristic register.

Originally Posted by flint-wwrr

Hi QC, yeah, that's what I was indicating. That high D (sounding G), while certainly possible, is highly impractical and ill-advised. I totally agree with you that the horn should be used in a more characteristic register.

hehe, I suspected we were agreeing in the first place

I REALLY wish people would learn to write for insturments in ranges where they are most characteristic, before trying to write stuff that is at the extreme limits of playability.

There was a score posted on this forum once with horn parts (transposed) with written high E flats... yes, e flats ABOVE the staff.

When we commented on it, he said "well, the horn player I talked to said he can play them".

Yes, except, that doesn't mean it will SOUND good.

Anyways, to the OP:
The best thing is to get an orchestration/instrumentation book (the Piston book is a good start - it's inexpensive, and relatively complete.. there are better books, but also considerably more expensive).

Then another wise move is to avoid writing for extremely obscure instruments. While serpent and sackbut certainly exist, like your soprano trombone, they are rare, and finding an ensemble with musicans who HAVE those instruments will be more than a "challenge".

Add to that the fact that writing idiomatically for a rare instrument is a new challenge since you risk not really having a reference easily at hand.

thanks i will and sorry for the late reply!
please listen to the new arrangement for piano
i know it shouldn belong here but i dont think a reduction of the same piece deserves its own thread serving only to improve impression on the original piece.
i hope you find a few bars worth listening in this one, granted that the orchestration killed the music the first time.

The piece is certainly more attractive in piano form, with aspects such as the cross-rhythms becoming effective.

What I think could be worked on is highlighting the important lines/aspects of the work, so that a listener hears more than just a mess of a lot of notes. This would go some way to giving the work some continuity as well.

thanks for the feedback!