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So, here is the final (?) version of my very first, serious, String Quartet. I'm very excited about this piece -with its newly minted final movement. A bit of detail is in order: I. Andante con moto: The first movement, in an expanded ABA form, is in Episodic Form. This form, patterned after both the Medieval Estampie and Baroque Fugal Forms, consists of alternating exposition and contrapuntal series. I took care here to focus the material to create a sense of ABA form itself -where as the material itself dictated. The chief material for this movement is the nomenclature for my first name: JASON =DbABbDE. This was arrived at adjusting the note to letter key by removing Fb and Cb -as I didn't feel comfortable having either in the score.... it just didn't seem right, lol. II. Moderately: This movement is more through composed in that the material dictated where to go next -with the exception of the end. This movement plays with the theme from the first movement and introduces a, rather stark, GCD motif (I'll let people figure out the meaning of this chord). This chord is not elaborated on or development -just sort of sits in the ethereal of the piece throughout. However, the chord does impact the material that comes after its introduction in a profound way. III. Largo molto Sostenuto: Resignation to fate. I feel this movement is perhaps the strongest of the three -and the most interesting. While I love dense contrapuntal textures, this movement rests its laurels on a delicate suspension that begins with the GCD chordal motif introduced in the second movement. The JASON motif is imposed within the chordal motif using what I call the Shostakovitch crescendo (see his String Quartet no. 15). In a sense, that work deeply inspired this movement. I hope you enjoy! I may rework the second movement to make it less bulky at the ending -maybe fix the transitions? I'm not sure. Technicalities aside: This work is rather personal -obviously since I used my name as the chief material. The hidden programmatic nature of the work is probably easily noticeable to many of us on here. We have all gone through vast struggles in our lives to get to the points we each find ourselves. This work is biographical in that respect. I won't bore you with details.

This was my entry for the National Young Composers Challenge. I did not end up winning, but the judges enjoyed it, particularly the introduction. I will definitely be participating again for next year. This was also my first test of the new MuseSounds, and I am very excited about it. I was quite impressed with the realism of it, though I don't really like the trumpet all that much, as the dynamics are inconsistent. Feedback is definitely appreciated, especially since I am planning on expanding the material into a full symphony.

Subtitled "Night Music for Large String Orchestra", this is an old piece that I salvaged from back when I was writing straight into the sequencer. I copied it to paper and finished it, then entered it into Musescore 4. This is my first experience with Musescore 4 and Muse Sounds and I'm pretty satisfied once I worked out some of the kinks! I think I probably won't need to use any DAW given its capability. The key signature for this piece is A major because the piece is bi-tonal. It's in both F# and C and A major is right in between those two so it was the most convenient key signature. This is version 3 - Musescore kept omitting certain notes for some reason. This piece is partly inspired by Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, although I hope you agree that it is quite different. Thanks for listening and I'd appreciate any constructive comments, observations or critiques you're willing to give! Merry Christmas! Edit: I've updated the score and mp3 to include some more dynamics, sul ponticello instead of mutes, and centered the panning of the contrabasses.

Indeed, especially for a bass guitar. On a recording, bass really only works in the center because we're only technically hearing the sound from 2D instead of 3D like IRL. It's especially uncomfy on headphones, where you basically have two speakers glued to either side of your head. Edit: What @Quinn said What you can do, and is often done on orchestra recordings and string music, is that you can mono-sum the bass. So you could set the plugin to say 200hz, and everything from 200hz and below will get centered and the rest will remain panned. So the upper frequencies of the bass will remain panned, but the low-end will be centered.

The panning was my doing. But I am ignorant about what you mean here by "spread"? What else is there besides panning? Is spread the amount of actual room that a sound takes up on the stage? Just that when you locate a mono sound on a stereo stage it should be given a range of how far left and right (of that location) the sound spreads so for example the first violins could range from the far left (facing the stage) to about 2/3 over to the right, considering there might be 8 desks ending up fairly close to the conductor. (I haven't looked at the mixer in Musescore but maybe will later to see how it's done. There's a video on Musecore 4 development that mentions the mixer. I watched some of it but was really only interested in the engraving.) That's what the Decca tree mic placement and its variants are about. In real life violins 1 would reach right across the sound stage but in this artificial world it's a matter of where you want the emphasis. Hope that helps! Headphones don't help as they direct sounds literally to each of our ears separately whereas we'd normally hear the sounds in both ears with an emphasis to one side, hence the cross-feed that passes a controllable amount to the opposite ear. It made a difference listening to your work. I also do most of my preliminary work on paper which suits the kind of stuff I write in most cases, which can be a chore. After the initial scrawl I have to tidy up pretty quickly to try and get it into some shape responsive to note durations, phrasing and bars etc. Cut and paste is literal, 😄 Then I bung it in the DAW but I still get involved with notation software at the engraving end. Sorry about the formal quotes going wrong. I couldn't work out how to delete and rework them. It all went wrong 😄

Haha thanks. I always appreciate your honest opinion. You're totally right that giving out some solos would have given this piece more charm, although I think it works really great as a piece for string orchestra. I don't know why but I'm really attracted to the ensemble sounds of the various string instruments. I think it was Mahler who wrote really great solos in the middle of his gargantuan orchestral works though that really added a chamber music charm to his giant pieces (contrasting the large ensemble with the really small just proving the case in point that "A Symphony must be like the world - it must contain everything") But definitely, in future string works I'll try to consider the use of solos to help vary up the timbre. I'll always take that as a compliment despite how tacky it sounds LoL! I sometimes think that Romanticism and Cinematic and Video-game music has to be more emotionally seductive than other types of music and hence end up being more accessible. Yeah definitely. I conceived of having this many parts in the ensemble to allow room for the texture to go all the way from thin to really really thick. That was my intent as the composer. I think if the instrumentation were to be changed in the future for whatever reason, this variable would have to be considered and accounted for if arranging for a different ensemble. No the mixing was definitely my own personal doing. I manually adjusted all the panning to the settings you hear. I didn't have a problem with it in an orchestra setting (when listening on headphones - although you did tell me that that's much different than hearing a live orchestra). But you're not the first one to claim that sticking the bass in the center is preferable. @AngelCityOutlaw mentioned the same thing for my "A Brand New Day" piece. I'll just have to try it and see if it works better, especially for a bass guitar. Well, A major is also F# minor which is the parallel minor closely-related key to F# major, which I consider to be the more dominant tonality of the two I use in the piece. Thanks! The VGM influence apparently was in full effect even more than 10 years ago! LoL Thank you! For me, the Musescore 4 and Muse Sounds has been my greatest Christmas present I've ever gotten! LoL Thanks for your review. I always look forward to your comments and I'm glad that you attach so much meaning to music that a piece of music can still make your day, and especially one as cherished as Christmas is. Christmas is over now so I'll just wish you a Happy New Year!

Ah, ok. I didn't know that as I haven't studied many original Romantic era scores.

That is a common practice for romantic orchestral scores, which I would have expected you to know that since it happens in Tchaikovsky scores and your profile picture is of Tchaikovsky. Also, the judges had specific things for the score they wanted, for example every fifth measure being marked, which I normally don’t do. I personally only include a second tempo marking above the strings or percussion if their are an especially large number of instruments on that page. Oboe 2 switches between an english horn and oboe and so it is to tell the second oboist to change from english horn to oboe. This may not be the standard way of doing this, it’s just what my program did. I will note that I specified that the 2nd oboe doubles english horn on the old first page, which I got rid of when posting here since it included my full name and home city. Thank you for the feedback and merry Christmas!

Your identification of GCD is correct. The final movement does harken to a resignation to one's fate -be it death or be it more. I'm debating on expanding the ending -but I don't want to do too much because I purposefully want the entire quartet to leave the listener feeling that there is more to be said. I chose the Shostakovich crescendo for its ethereal qualities. It does feature in the second movement, but not to the same effect as the final movement. I agree that one could argue a philosophical take on this quartet. Death, tragedy, love, etc., all pale in comparison to that fact that eventually we all will die. Whether we, as I believe, cleave to God after death (das ist Himmel) is something we can't fully answer with empirical means -thus, it is a matter of faith. This was the message of the third movement. I might still expand the ending to play with the last motivic expansion seen in the viola section (which, by the way, I'm a violist myself). But I'm not going to expand much more. Regarding the use of pointilism.... That might be something to use for another piece. I'm not sure that method would work in this work. Personally, I'm not a fan of the technique. I think klangfarbenmelodie (which is similar but not as austere) might be a good option that I'd consider. However, the timbral differences within the strings aren't as direct unless I utilize pizzicato, sul ponticello, or tapping with the wooden part of the bow (I won't go to any extended techniques beyond that -as I'm not a strong proponent of those techniques.)

Ok, right off the bat, this piece is quite good. I love the melodies you present here, their very beautiful and the harmony underneath compliments that. I don't hav emuch else to say on the composition, but I have a couple of points regarding the score: Firstly, is the Adagio Maestoso above the strings(Bar One) really necessary? You've already got a tempo marking at the top of the score, and as far as I'm aware that should be sufficient. Secondly, what do you mean by "To Oboe" above the English Horn part at Bar 16. Is it an Oboe Cue or something? Anyways, great job on this piece. I look forward to hearing more of your work. Kind regards, Arjuna (Archie)

Peter, Not a bad piece at all. I think I can see why you chose F# and C -nice little play on the tonic/dominant relationship via substitution. There are just a few things I'd consider: 1. The planing at m 116 is a nice touch -however, I'd be cautious doing this with the strings. Much like vocal writing, contrary motion -within at least one part is advised. Strings tend to produce a great deal of strength when playing similar material -hence why you often see very powerful passages showcasing the full string choir in unison or split at various intervals. 2. I'm not sure about the chromaticism at bar 145 - 147. This one passage seems a little off to me. I'm not sure if its the fact that viola II is doing a similar contour to the violins. You might try having the viola II do a suspension here on the C. This would help support that passage and create a sense of 'passing tones' for the chromatic alterations? Just a thought. 3. MM 39-48 and 163-173: I like the rhythmic augmentation and diminution here and think you could probably expand these two similar passages (or at least one of them). Perhaps instead of the suspended tones in the lower strings (which don't really seem to add much to the texture here), you could really make this section pop with some contrapuntal prowess. Take the descending motif and spread it amongst the parts. You can play add some interest by having each part apply different augmentation/diminution -or split the instruments up into sort of a call and response. This material here would also be a good jumping point to some varied material. Finally, I think you've got some good material here and would love to see this polished up a bit more -and explored a bit more. I get the feeling that the theme seems a bit odd to you in terms of potential for development. By that, it almost seems like you're unsure how to develop it -or which way to take it. (At least, that's what it seems to me). There doesn't seem to be much thematic or motivic development of the theme proper (my 3rd point above does showcase development of a segment of the theme -but not the most interesting point of the theme itself). That said, don't be afraid to develop that awesome leap. I can really see a great deal of potential in that. Perhaps you can use that leap to move into further remote tonal areas -even border on a full escape from the constricted bounds themselves. Just a thought. Good work! Can't wait to hear more!

Well then So this...um...well, I don't often think of this when reviewing pieces here, but it's a masterpiece. Seriously, this is that good imo. And you wrote this in what, under a month? Dude, you should be very proud of the amount of skill and finesse in your craftsmanship. I'm no composing expert, but I've heard a LOT of amateur works here, and this is spot on brilliance. I only say that because you have such a defined style and voice, and with this piece you employed it tremendously. I don't even really want to go into fine details on the technicality of things. There was obviously so much thought put into this, and it shows. The amount of effort and musicianship is stunning and really moving. I read through the comments and your post, and am just completely blown away at how you've melded your own unique voice into something so grand. I listened to this several times, first as a two movement incomplete suite, and then in it's final form. Maybe you'll make changes to the 2nd or 3rd movements, but who cares. This is composing at it's finest. I really wanted to go more into detail note for note, but found myself forgetting the score and just letting the music take over. It was actually more pleasant for me to listen without following note by note; it's music I'd want to listen to to enjoy. I don't know how much Shostakovich was an influence here (I know you mentioned him for the 3rd movement), but what I heard from you was a continuation and expansion of his style in texture. Sure you have your own musical voice, but the way you orchestrated and presented your music in a storyteller's fashion reminded me of him. It reminded me that the best movies to me aren't the Disney fairy tale endings...that's for kids. This was written to portray something very real and life-like, which I really enjoyed. If you don't make any amendments to the notes themselves, I'd still be completely satisfied. I know this comment isn't the most helpful as far as growing as a composer, I just don't have anything really to be critical of. Your language is as unique as you, and I not once heard a wrong note out of place or something that got boring. I know I've told you this many times now, but you probably know I don't go out of my way to listen to this dissonant of a style. Yet, I find your music intriguing and something that I gravitate towards. There was a period in my life where Shostakovich was my favorite composer, and I feel like it was for that same type of reason. I'm really glad you decided to come back to YC, even if it's for this one piece that you've shared. I've enjoyed everything that you've posted recently, but this takes the cake. I hate that I have nothing critical to share, I always look for at least SOMETHING, but I regret to say that there isn't anything I would change. I even commented in the incomplete works forum of this piece that I thought you should have a drastic change in form for the final movement, and lo and behold you posted a choral movement which I felt like it was leading towards. Dude, you rock. If there was anything I would wish for you, it would be that you invest in better sound samples. I wish I was rich and could just grace people who I love their music with epic sounds, but, well, I'm just a struggling musician like so many of us here. But seriously, I hope this gets performed and you get a recording. But until then, PLEASE find a way to obtain samples that do your music justice. There are lots of times where the midi file cuts out during crescendos, or the lines don't play at the right dynamic level. I'd love to hear a version of this once you have better samples; it'd make my day/week/YEAR I know this comment sucks, and it sounds like I'm just playing with your balls (sorry for being crude), but I just want you to know that there's at least one person out there that really enjoys the amount of effort and skill you have in your music. It sounds like something tragic happened that gave you inspiration to write this, and although life isn't all butterflies and flowers, there are some parts of it that need to be expressed in music, and you did an exquisite job at painting that picture. Well done, and thanks so much for sharing. Just know I'll be digging deeper into the innerworkings of this quartet to better understand the art we all love and adore. You've inspired me to investigate this style and your language, and hope to amalgamate a bit of it into my own music.