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Alternative option not bad either. Those things below are supposedly bassoons... Your piece sounds really cool. I'd love to hear it when it is finished 🙂

Wow your brother must be very talented, those two concerti and Carmen Fantasy and Erlkonig and Paganini Variations are among the most virtuosic pieces in violin repertoire, in such a young age!

The one month may be a bit biased as my brother (11) already played Sibelius and Tchaikovsky violin concertos (albeit not perfect), Carmen Fantasy, Erlkonig, and God Save the King Paganini variations among some other pieces. But the cellist I wrote for got scared with double and triple stops (to be fair some of them were a little overboard and that was before learning enough harmony to do so)

Yeah 😅

OHH you meant the score order

Wow if it can be rehearsed within a month that would be a dream for me haha! Yeah a fugue as in Baroque style would be difficult to reherase esp. for a six voice fugue. Haha not at all, I feel myself not too qualified on writing fugues sometimes! Thx very much for your reply! Henry

probably a bit hard to sightread, (internal complaints start after 4 accidentals keys for most players), but I don't think its too bad to be performed with a month of rehearsal. Good players might only need a week. The counterpoint sections will probably be the hardest to rehearse. Although probably be a bit awkward like most barque pieces. (not to judge, but most barque pieces don't fit the modern instrument as well as pieces from latter periods). Also probably not qualified to judge on the counterpoint

I'm wrong LoL, this one is a band score rather than an orchestral one.

But you don't only have the viola part follows the piano here, you have the piano playing all 4 parts of the String Quartet which in a way writes like a piano accompaniment to a choir which is common practice there but certainly not a good one here since piano shouldn't be considered an accompaniment in a Piano Quintet. The piano part has its own right to play its own parts, rather only repeating the strings. But ofc if I'm the pianist I would be happy to play it since it would be easy to play with. I 'thing' that having cello plucked would be a nice variation to its part. Remember to hit the like button on the bottom right corner as well so that the reviewer knows that you like their posts. Thx.

I was originally going for a piano quartet (no viola) since I was thinking of having some people perform it, but then one of the violinists stepped up to play viola. Thats why the viola part follows the piano. An extra question: what do you thing about having the cello part plucked for the outer sections

Hi @Chemathmusician0510, I agree with @danishali903, the piano shouldn’t just repeat what the strings are playing, but instead have its own part. I wouldn’t go as far as calling the music basic since I think it does display some good chamber music part writing and counterpoint, but I may add more interaction between the instruments and allow other instruments to play the melodic role as well. The piece sounds quite Baroque for me even with those dissonance, because of the drive of the outer sections and the Trio sonata slow movement like middle section. Thx for sharing! Henry

Firstly, I think the audio rendering doesn't do this piece justice. Everything sounds too muddy, and I can barely hear the 2nd violin and viola parts coming through. As to the String Quartet vs Piano Quintet, I don't see the value of having a piano added since it seems to be doubling what's going on in the strings. Leaving this as a string quartet piece would be more logical. Your string writing isn't bad...but it's very "basic". Each instrument/part seems to have a pre-defined range, and the music rarely goes in and out of that range. Maybe throw the melody to the cellist in its higher ranges, or have the viola play something other than this accompaniment role: I also think the transition to the trio section (somewhere around bars 80-82) can be a little more developed, as the trio (bar 83) is VERY different from what came before....just a bit jarring. It might work better, and be a little more interesting, to have that section in a major key. Otherwise, a bit more counterpoint material can help as well. It just sounds very homophonic at the moment. Last comment: The outer sections could use dynamic and phrasing marks.

I agree. There are many ways to generate emotion, or to try to... I don't think that a sense of calm is incompatible with resources that focus on musicality and phrasing. This is very evident in vocal music, even in the great pop performers. A very simple and effective example from Beethoven: there is a first bar, which is isolated (by the quarter note rest), there is a second bar that is identical and works the same way. And then, the two simply appear without the pause. Wow, a super-effective way to generate tension, dynamism, and phrasing without changing the basics. Charles Ives' The Unanswered Question is a fantastic example. The harmony couldn't be more static, but the melody (more or less dense in texture depending on the moment) does not conform to the divisions of the harmony. In fact, the tempo of the harmonic part is fixed (Largo) and that of the other parts changes.

Hey @UncleRed99! Personally I feel like the time signature of the piece should be 4/4 with one quaver reduced, since I find that extra quaver beat a bit long for me, but that's personal haha. Maybe this is one of the reason the music sound more static like @Luis Hernández said. But I must say this piece is really calm to listen to and I love those dissonances of seventh. Thx for sharing! Henry