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I love the music languages you are developing, since I am asaré of your work. This piece is wonderful, never boring as it has been said. I think you may take advantage of Monarcheon's advice, an actual expert in orchestration, of it gooes to a competition. very nice....!

Lovely work, really. Score things: Make sure dynamics are under/referring to specific notes, not just sections (i.e. m. 60). m. 107 is great; the Bartok kind of sound is awesome, so to be even more like him, it would be nice to see beaming over bars, otherwise it looks kind of awkward with a beam in the middle, rather than the typical 2/4 beaming. It may be tempting to right "molto cresc. e dim." as a tempo marking so it applies to everyone, but it's better to not. I've had conductors get really mad at commissioned works for misusing it. Bass harmonic notation... String players don't really like this notation, which is their main gripe with Ravel. You should also place where in the actual register you're making the harmonic, and also the sounding note. Orchestration things: Are you sure the tongue ramming will be heard over a fortissimo glissando trombone, not to mention fluttertongue in the rest of the brass? At m. 115, there are debates as to whether or not bass drum should carry a tie over a bar ever. I've been taught both ways, so just make sure it's what you want. Looking through your score I see no real reason why you would use a drum set, specifically. I'm pretty sure the whole piece can be done with 2 percussionists. You're submitting this to a competition? They will be kind of off put by the sheer lack of marimba notes in your score despite it being written. I personally wasn't a huge fan of your slow melody but it interplays alright with the rest of the ensemble. The harmonies are really nice and the interplay is fantastic. Good work!

You have created exactly the atmosphere you describe in the poem. The music, but also the orchestration works perfectly for this. Never boring, but a strong sense of unity throughout.

Thanks for your response! I agree with your criticism. The strings are sometimes a bit too much of an accompaniment for the winds. I am not too sure as well about the key, was thinking about transposing it to b flat. Still, the middle part would be in g flat. That is a tough one. ;) Lijkt me heel leuk! Ik stuur je wel even een berichtje.

Beautiful! The Aurelia Quartet is a Dutch saxophone quartet, which played an important role in introducing this ensemble to more people. Of the four saxophonists, three of them are professors on conservatoria in The Netherlands: Johan van der Linden (Soprano); Arno Bornkamp (Tenor); Willem van Merwijk (Baritone). I talked with these three about saxophone and I had some lessons with Van der Linden. The alto saxophonist is Niels Bijl. Dirk, I will restate your post to keep the structure of this topic. Thanks for sharing!

Don't be hard yourself, I actually quite enjoyed this. The first thing that came to my mind while listening to this was the film Edward Scissorhands; and I say that in a good way (love the music in that film.) It's obvious you have a clear direction and you create just enough room to allow other instruments in without pounding it with too much sound. Fading in and fading out the strings were very nice and your transitions were convincing as well. However, I will say...in my personal opinion, the brass sections didn't compliment the woodwind instruments as well BUT it was the idea and how unique you implemented them that had me in awe. Definitely a 8/10 in my book. Good work man.

#8 Mozart / Arr. Niels Bijl - String Quartet No.15 in D minor, Kv. 421a Another beautiful compositions, this time an arrangement of one of Mozart's String Quartets. Note that the sounds and timbres of the four instruments blend extremely well. At some places the ensemble sounds like a pipe organ and sometimes it really sounds like string instruments. This arrangement caused my to leave my aversion for the sax. I have yet to write for it, but I certainly will! Mozart / Arr. Niels Bijl - String Quartet No.15 in D minor, Kv. 421a