The Virgin's Jewel

Hello everybody. I have here a piece of music for an amplified orchestra/ensemble entitled "The Virgin's Jewel" which I started writing back in December 2006 and completed and recorded around June 2007 if my memory serves me right. Please follow the link below for the MP3 recording.

http://www.archive.org/download/Ster...VJcomplete.mp3

The full score is in this link:

http://www.archive.org/download/Ster...gins_Jewel.pdf

Overall length of the piece is 25 minutes and is divided into 5 movements as follows:

1. The Goatherd's Offering (00:00 - 06:39)
2. Brother Fernando and The Virgin (06:40 - 13:01)
3. The Empty Bowl and The Serpent (13:02 - 17:32)
4. A Midnight Duel (17:33 - 21:40)
5. Finale (21:40 - 25:00)

Throughout the whole piece, I have made use of certain themes and devices representing certain events and characters throughout the story, something which is of course not new especially to avid fans of Wagner or Liszt. I have also placed provisions for improvisation so that performers may be able to place their own marks and voices in the composition (if I get lucky enough to get some ensemble or group to perform this, that is ). Anyway, I have provided program and instrumentation notes in the score so readers can follow the story as well as have a look at how the ensemble is organized.

Please do let me know if the links have problems and I will address them as timely as possible.

Hoping for constructive feedback and honest reviews, I thank you for your time and this wonderful opportunity.

nice, crossover...prog rock meets Bartok? (hey that rhymes!)

Originally Posted by Stevemc90

nice, crossover...prog rock meets Bartok? (hey that rhymes!)

Thank you for listening. I'll take that as a compliment.

I guess the prog rock influence really pushes itself through the piece. You'r right when you say prog rock meets Bartok because I was thinking along the lines of Stravinsky, Bartok, Grainger, et al when I was writing the piece.

Just finished listening to this, and have to say it's really astounding. I would gladly pay to go to the concert where this piece was performed. By no means the sole influence, but I'm hearing a fair amount of material reminiscent of Emerson Lake and Palmer. Hope you're successful in finding the ensemble who will play this live.

I was also rather impressed by this. I could not fit it in any category, but it certainly is a major work for me.

Production, composition and ideas are very good, score is quite bad, actually, but never mind with such a work.

MY impression is that you aim this for live playing, in which case the production of the mp3 does not matter really.

Still it was very interesting to listen and focus for 25 (!) minutes! Well done! Very well done!

Originally Posted by mlevans

Just finished listening to this, and have to say it's really astounding. I would gladly pay to go to the concert where this piece was performed. By no means the sole influence, but I'm hearing a fair amount of material reminiscent of Emerson Lake and Palmer. Hope you're successful in finding the ensemble who will play this live.

Originally Posted by nikolas

I was also rather impressed by this. I could not fit it in any category, but it certainly is a major work for me.

Production, composition and ideas are very good, score is quite bad, actually, but never mind with such a work.

MY impression is that you aim this for live playing, in which case the production of the mp3 does not matter really.

Still it was very interesting to listen and focus for 25 (!) minutes! Well done! Very well done!

Thank you very much for having such appreciation for my work. I'd like to still improve my score rendering though as it seems that the score is quite bad. Maybe I could ask for some help in editing the score. I'd love to get this performed live by a good ensemble probably outside the Philippines where I live (a majority of the art music community are conservative therefore I have a lot of doubt getting my piece performed here).

I rendered the score using Sibelius 3. I'd like to ask for some tips if any.

Way cool... even with the cheesy Sound Blaster(?) sounds.
Can I assume that you're a fan of Zappa? (and maybe a little Dream Theater)?

I'd love to take at look a the score but the link wasn't working for me.

Your score does have a lot of problems, and they would also translate into problems with the individual parts, as well. First off, 12/4 doesn't really seem what you're going for in the beginning. I think it might be good to switch the meter to 12/8, having 4 beats of dotted quarter each measure, shortening the measure sizes by half. This would be easier to read for everyone, and I think it's more appropriate since you are stressing the dotted quarter as the beat anyway.

12/4 is such a large measure to be using a lot of 8th notes in - it's very hard to read. This continues as a problem throughout. I strongly suggest you take all the passages in 12/4, 8/4, 7/4, 6/4, and divide them into groups of 4/4, 3/4 and 2/4. Especially since you use a lot of fast rhythms, which will eat up the space in the measure and offset everything else aligned with it.

Page 9 and the rest of that crazy section, really should just be in 4/4.

On page 14, you indicate in a 6/4 meter that the quarter should equal 120. This is the same issue as the opening and the part where the drums kick in, because all the instruments are favoring the dotted quarter as the beat. You should indicate it that way, which would be 90 in this case.

You need to address a lot of spacing issues as well with the score.

The music, however, is fantastic. It always keeps my interest as I listen. There's a lot of energy, contrasted by the occasional music box-like themes. Great work! But fix the score!!

P.s. Another thing - towards the end you ask the brass to perform multiphonics! May I ask why you don't just double the players? Multiphonics are very difficult to pull off!

Originally Posted by oingo86

Your score does have a lot of problems, and they would also translate into problems with the individual parts, as well. First off, 12/4 doesn't really seem what you're going for in the beginning. I think it might be good to switch the meter to 12/8, having 4 beats of dotted quarter each measure, shortening the measure sizes by half. This would be easier to read for everyone, and I think it's more appropriate since you are stressing the dotted quarter as the beat anyway.

12/4 is such a large measure to be using a lot of 8th notes in - it's very hard to read. This continues as a problem throughout. I strongly suggest you take all the passages in 12/4, 8/4, 7/4, 6/4, and divide them into groups of 4/4, 3/4 and 2/4. Especially since you use a lot of fast rhythms, which will eat up the space in the measure and offset everything else aligned with it.

Page 9 and the rest of that crazy section, really should just be in 4/4.

On page 14, you indicate in a 6/4 meter that the quarter should equal 120. This is the same issue as the opening and the part where the drums kick in, because all the instruments are favoring the dotted quarter as the beat. You should indicate it that way, which would be 90 in this case.

You need to address a lot of spacing issues as well with the score.

The music, however, is fantastic. It always keeps my interest as I listen. There's a lot of energy, contrasted by the occasional music box-like themes. Great work! But fix the score!!

P.s. Another thing - towards the end you ask the brass to perform multiphonics! May I ask why you don't just double the players? Multiphonics are very difficult to pull off!

Hey Oingo, thank you very much for your comments regarding the score. To be honest, this is an area that I need to work a lot on. If I get enough time, I'll revise it so that it would be easier to read. Actually, I've been waiting for a comment such as yours as I'd like to be able to make a good score for my works.

As for the brass multiphonics, I thought that it would sound a little bit different rather than add additional players. However, your point regarding that is spot on correct.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Originally Posted by grainger

Way cool... even with the cheesy Sound Blaster(?) sounds.
Can I assume that you're a fan of Zappa? (and maybe a little Dream Theater)?

I'd love to take at look a the score but the link wasn't working for me.

Thanks Grainger. I'm glad you liked it. You're right to assume that I'm a Frank Zappa and Dream Theater fan (it must have been the drum parts that seemed DT-ish).