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Hello everyone Below I have attached one of my orchestral pieces, titled Spring. This work encapsulates the essence of spring's awakening, as the frost melts, and the flowers begin to bloom. Note: I am a simple brass man; a member of the plain folk who do not make sound with strings or pieces of wood, so if there are any notational or capability issues with strings and especially harp, any feedback would be appreciated. Thank you and I also appreciate the warm welcome I received to the forum from my last post!

Hi @Guardian25, I like the saxophone melody and the light accompaniment which creates a chilling mood. Would you also add some improvisatory variations late in the piece? I think some variations in the melody will make it fun! Henry

Hey welcome to the form! This is a really nice piece, and an excellent way to introduce yourself. I enjoyed your piece from start to finish. I really don't have anything constructive to say about it. There are just a couple of practical things I noticed on a read through of the score. I'm not sure how practical or effective the fast saxophone repeated notes starting at m.174 is. I think it might be difficult on the instrument, and I also think it might not have the effect you are going for. This kind of technique works better on brass than woodwinds (which I see you do have this in the horn as well.) While the timpani part at m.188 is awesome, I'm not sure it is practical. It looks like this passage would require 5 drums, while most bands/orchestras tend to only have 4. Also, for the notes you have chose (F2, G2, Bb2, C3, and F3), you would probably need more than one of the same size drum to accomplish this, which is also not common. The below pic from Wikipedia shows the drum sizes and typical ranges, (though I believe the V drum is uncommon.) I think you would need two I drums to get both the F1 and G1. Other than that I really have nothing else constructive to say. Great work, and I hope you are able to get your band to perform this!

Brand new Piano Concerto! No 2, with various styles such as Romantic, musical theatre, early Modern, Baroque pastiche, fugue, and even a rhumba! Hope to lift your Winter spirits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wUWfXRbVV8 Thanks!

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Hi @Layne, That A#-D augmented interval creates so much tension throughout. I love that bass line which is quite mechanical and fits the theme! Again I would like some modulation introduced! Maybe even a line of D major will be a great contrast! That makes the drama more heightened! Henry

This is great! There are a lot of really great ideas here, and I like the overall mood of the piece. Maybe it's because it is in C minor, but I did feel a connection to the first movement of Mahler's Second Symphony. Some parts I liked: 3:19 - I really liked the string melody here, and the half diminished chord at 3:45 is wonderful! 6:15 - Personally I liked the bold chords here that took me by surprise, although I will say maybe you should bring the piccolo down an octave, it seems a little overpowering. 8:30 - The brass here is lovely! I think it would be even better if you tried to add a countermelody in the horn or trombone, the whole notes are a little stale. 9:33 - I really like the clarinet solo, but similar to above I think you could spice this up with some countermelody in the other woodwind voices, instead of having them play just whole notes. 10:55 - The string pizzicato entrance here is really cool, and a welcome contrast. Some thoughts I had for improvement: 4:40 - This flute note is held for a really long time. For one, it doesn't seem realistic for the player to hold the note that long, they will need to breathe. And two, it becomes a little stale after a while. Maybe have this note be exchanged between other instruments? For example - have a clarinet come in while the flute is holding, then the flute stops as the clarinet continues, but then an oboe comes in with the clarinet and exchanges similarly? I think the change in timbre of the instruments might keep this held not more interesting... 6:35 - I like the overall mood of this more bombastic section, but I think you could spice it up by adding some brass. They seem underutilized in this section. The timpani at this part I think could be enhanced by have the brass play chords on the same rhythm for example I would split the horns into two staves, having all four on one gets a little jumbled. I think the climax at the end kind of comes out of nowhere, I think it could use more buildup. 11:45 - Add slurs to the woodwind technique here, I don't suppose you expect them to articulate all of that fast technique? I'll echo what others have said about the organization and structure. There are a lot of good ideas, but I don't think they are always connected well. If it were me, I would distill this down to and handful of ideas and try to develop those more, while also working on smoothing out the transitions between sections. I mentioned this earlier, but also work on adding more counterpoint and countermelodies. There are several places where a melody is accompanied by whole notes, when a countermelody could add interest. The best way to experiment with this is find a place where the melody has a longer note and experiment with giving one of the other voices a countermelody behind it. Overall really great work, thanks for sharing! I look forward to hearing the rest of the completed symphony!

Great composition! I love the piano and the progression. Great job!

thanks so much! If you'd like to listen to anymore of my tracks my profile has lots of different posts from time to time including tracks I've made. Or if you want, i just updated my bio to include my google drive portfolio.

Hi @Guardian25, I like the arrangement! For the part writing since there are many lines that are same, maybe you will consider having two lines for one instrument? Also I think adding clarinet would be great. The tempo for the piano may be too fast though. Henry