Leaderboard

Thought I would share this as an ongoing project. I will be jumping into the development section soon. This is my first serious work for full scale orchestra. As many will know from my other work I tend to focus on chamber music. I hope it is engaging (I have been experimenting a little how I can keep the listener on edge with sudden, unexpected harmonic shifts and contrasting dynamics).

Well, me: can't play piano at all! Well, a simple thing like that Chopin E Minor prelude or the accompaniment to Schumann's Ich Grolle Nicht aus Dichterliebe, 1840 I could play if I practiced for a few hours, but it still wouldn't be very good. I guess the best instrument I play is Electric Bass, and I'm far from the best!

Damn, five measures or so is enough to tell me you know already how to write for strings. I could probably teach you something about double-stops and chords, but not much else. As the Germans say, Kein Problem! I'll listen to the rest later. You are a fine Neoclassical composer.

Sure, post one! Even MY favorite composer, Beethoven, could not always write perfectly for violin, so of course I can't either. His violin concerto is a masterpiece, but has too many scales and arpeggios.

And you say you love chamber music but are scared because you feel you are unfamiliar with the instruments as compared to piano, which you play very well and tastefully? I could teach you to write for violin in an afternoon, with both of us sharing a few beers! Guitar is harder, but I keep writing guitar music anyway.

Thank you so much my dear friend. I'm so glad that you like it 🙏

Good Lord, but you can write a waltz, a good one I mean! Highlight of my morning so far.

Corrections have been made, both on this regard and the counterpoint of the coda. Thank you both kindly for pointing it out.

You're the composer, so only you can make that decision. Certainly it can be more virtuosic than what you have! I mean I at least assume that the bassoonist can play some scales in an easy enough key. You can still fit a lot of music into 5 minutes if the tempo is fast enough. Check out this winning Bassoon Concerto that a member here submitted for a competition in the summer of 2020 when I first signed up for YC!

Hi @Fugax Contrapunctus! I like how you reinterpret the subject of the canon in the choir to allow you to fit in more syllables - that worked out quite well! And the whole canon has a nice structure that is corroborated by the orchestration where every time the canon repeats (returns back to its original key) a new group of instruments (woodwinds) or choir is added to bring the repetition into more of a high relief. It's a joy to listen to! Also - did you mean the Oboe 2 part to be played by English Horn? It seems to be too low for Oboe. And a very nice rounded off ending. Thanks for sharing!