Leaderboard

Yeah, the only time you can get away with not putting in any rests or breath marks or even phrasing slurs is a woodwind solo piece such as this one:

My comment does not related to the technical aspects of the work but rather to wind writing. Please remember wind players need to breathe. And providing those moments are important. If not some players may cheat a bit here and there and drop a note!

Quite inventive! You mostly do a good job of manipulating the motives and your first episode is superb! I think where this starts to suffer a bit is in the free counterpoint that you employ. I don't know if it would have sounded monotonous if you had written a similar episode to bring you to the G minor middle entry, but it seems like a better idea to continue to create interesting counterpoint using sequences based on fragments of the main motivic material. You might think that you already did that but to me it just doesn't sound as logical after the first episode. Also, it feels like you end the piece too early and force yourself to return to D minor like you were hurrying to end it. Also, I feel some discomfort about the phrase lengths you employ as well. There are ways to make phrases with an odd number of measures sound natural as well, but on the whole phrases with an even number of measures are more complete sounding. You risk making your piece sound like a note-salad when your music lacks strong cadences into the keys of the middle entries (by way of the conclusion of well constructed episodes). I'm mostly referring to meas. 10 - 18. It doesn't quite sound like an episode and it's not a middle entry which puts it in a kind of no-mans land of free counterpoint without a point. In an invention you really should take care that everything you write is either a statement of the main motif or an episode (and that the episodes use sequences to develop fragments of the main motif). I hope I have not gotten too carried away with too much advice-giving and that some of this is still helpful! It was nonetheless an enjoyable invention. Thanks for sharing!

Quartet in G minor for 2 Violas and 2 Violoncelli Movements: 1. Allegro energico (Sonata form) 2. Andante un poco adagio (Sonata form) 3. Menuetto: Allegro 4. Presto (Rondo form – ABACABA with Coda) Style: Late Classical, ca. 1790-1800 Composed: 3 August – 6 December, 2018 at Austin Here they are then,…dearest Friend, these six children of mine. They are, it is true, the fruit of a long and laborious endeavour, yet the hope inspired in me by several Friends that it may be at least partly compensated encourages me, and I flatter myself that this offspring will serve to afford me solace one day. –W.A. Mozart, Published Letter of Dedication, Six String Quartets to Haydn, 1 September, 1785 I quote Mozart here because his sentiments are very much my own regarding the Six Quartets I composed last year for 2 Violas and 2 Violoncelli, of which the present posting is but one example; though it is one of the best, choosing it to post from among the others in the set was like choosing a favourite of my children. Though Mozart expresses himself with a humility uncommon for him, he clearly was proud of his work, as I am of mine. Indeed, I consider my Quartets to be my magnum opus to date – the most important and highest quality work I have ever produced, and the crowning achievement of decades as a composer. Having researched the matter to some degree, to my knowledge no other composer has attempted a work for this combination of instruments, hence mine are likely unique in the chamber music repertoire. Despite being unusual, I have found the combination of pairs of violas and ‘cellos, though not without its challenges and limitations, to be very successful and pleasing, and I hope you will agree. The 1st Viola and 1st ‘Cello take the lead a fair amount of the time, and the instruments also operate in pairs as one might expect, but much of the time the ensemble is a cohesive whole, with all the instruments more or less equal. The character of this work is fraught with frenetic energy and angst, particularly in the fast and furious outer movements – even in moments of relative calm, the forward motion is relentless. The easygoing second movement is a comparative walk in the park, moving leisurely along. The third movement is a nervous, jumpy minuet, punctuated by forte diminished chords; the Trio alla ghironda (in the style of a hurdy gurdy) is characterized by a harmonized melody in G-Lydian mode in the violas, accompanied by a drone in the ‘cellos for a rustic sound. Fun fact about this piece: I conceived the final Rondo during a Nine Inch Nails set at a rock festival in San Antonio! And another: I composed the first half of the opening movement entirely in my head before I began writing it down. I’ll be very interested to know what people think of this piece and the combination of these instruments, and I hope listening to it will be a pleasant adventure into a different sound-world.