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Good Evening All, I've set out to write an oboe concerto, but I wrote this fragment and realized that I don't know how to write a concerto...any advice/tips? Also, please don't come at me for the notation...it's giving 6/4, but I'm just in the beginning stages of brain storming Oboe sketches.mp3

I like this idea! I will definitely start exploring these variations you've mentioned. I think this would be great!! Especially as I start thinking about instrumentation and voicing and color. Of course, your suggestions are always welcome. Thank you. Seems like I have a lot of work on my hands lol

Hey @GospelPiano12! I think starting out with a really simple phrase like this is a great way to start! In my own experience, I've always relied on being able to come up with variations of the main melodic idea that my piece is based on, and in the case of a concerto type of piece, virtuosic variations. Even if your ultimate form isn't going to be a theme and variations, being able to pre-compose various different versions of your main theme will get you far in terms of giving you the ideas you need to put the piece together. So, what you have here is a really great simple idea that you can easily subject to virtuosic variations by inserting notes in between the melody notes you already have: This could also potentially lead to the formation of ostinati or repeating accompanimental figures which can give your piece some rhythmic drive! Also, since you're writing a concerto for a wind instrument, it's important to remember to give your soloist choice places to breathe. Most of my own concerto type works have been for piano and orchestra. I've written things for Violin and Piano or Violin and Harpsichord, but they were short (and the former, microtonal). I think you can, if you want, use this thread as a place to bounce your ideas off of the community as you make progress. If you're comfortable I can make suggestions like this periodically. I always have more ideas for more variations! Like they said in the movie "Blazing Saddles" - "My mind is a .. a raging torrent! Flooded with rivulets of thought .. cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives!" LoL

Many thanks for your input! I feel your enthusiasm for these types of posts. They are, after all, a kind of public challenge for which we can showcase our knowledge while also collaborating with others. I would personally like to get more involved with such things. It would be awesome if we maintained, as a group, a repository for knowledge in the art of composition - for example how to consider voice leading against chromaticism. No doubt we would need distinct zones for functional harmony and otherwise to accommodate people's diverse ascetic interests on this forum. That aside, I had seen E as a common tone opportunity for a pedal, potentially, but that seemed a little boring and unadventurous. However, as you suggest, perhaps it is neither necessary to add further complexity if the outer voices are already doing something interesting and distinct. Nonetheless, I thought I would rise to the challenge. I like your solution - that largely moves in thirds with the base and for which there are opportunities for further refinement by recycling some motifs from elsewhere in the piece. I am unsure about the treatment of the third bar as E7, considering the bass resolves to A minor, although the only note that may undermine this is the D in the clarinet during the third beat of that bar. You're right about the b natural in the bassoon - that was an oversight on my part. I will have a tinker over the coming days and report back here with what I've come up with.