A Texas Suite

This piece has three movements including the march, ballad, and finale. They are reflective of the spirit of Texas including many western melodies. I wrote this with the help of Brandon Maahs for the StateFarm Original Score Competition hoping to receive cash reward for our school (no results yet).

Name of Piece	MP3
A Texas Suite

Greetings,

Great job with this composition. I wish there was a score available, but I can just go by the video on the StateFarm contest website. First, the march: I very much liked this movement. The opening Horn solo was very nice and introduced us to the main thematic material. It was fast and bold; definitely my style. Again, I can't really say much unless I view a score. The Ballad: Not much to say about this movement as the same thematic material was used a lot throughout with not too much variation. This movement was also a bit short. I feel you could have developed its material just a bit more. Finally, the Finale: fast and vibrant, this movement really kept my attention. There was some great material in this movement and I enjoyed a lot of the orchestration. I know I keep harping on the missing score, but it does help with looking at the orchestration. I didn't really like the ending to this movement. I was hoping for something grand, but instead it was violin notes over the crescendo of a chord; with some percussion. It could have been a lot bigger for a Finale, especially with how the movement started. All in all, this is a nice composition. You tend to use the same thematic material without any development; I've been guilty of this. Try adding some counter melodies to the material or even altering it a bit in your orchestration. I would love to hear more wind band compositions from you because I feel you have great potential. Many other members may not review your work because it lacks a score, so I would try to upload one. Please, continue to compose music and I hope to hear more from you as time passes.

Peace,

C.L. Winston

Very solid, very band-y piece. Normally I'd recommend combining some of those percussion parts, but since you have many of them playing the entire time, it is not necessary. Any particular reason for using a field snare AND a regular snare?

Some nice orchestrational ideas in the finale, vis a vis the inclusion of violin and guitar. I feel like you got better compositionally in each movement. Did you compose them in order?

Didn't really get the end of the finale. Seems ripe for a big flashy conclusion, and while I'm all for breaking convention, from the rest of the piece you've set up a big dandy effing finish and not delivered, which may rub some audiences the wrong way.