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This is my first attempt (excluding some best-forgotten teenage stuff) at writing a concerto. The style is my own blend of Classical and some early Romanticism and perhaps a dash of Baroque, but I wrote for the modern valve trumpet. Admittedly, the tessitura may be a bit high, frequently going up to the 8th and occasionally the 9th harmonic. Any comments or feedback would be most appreciated!

I knew that didn't look right...really, after 38 years, writing an impossible violin chord! I can forgive myself for an unplayable guitar chord once in a while...

Thank you!

The chord would have to be played by splitting and with your inversion, only A5 and D6 with be played as the final chord and leave a barer sound. With F#5 and D6 it definitely sounds fuller!

Parking lot, parking lot, You are what all I've got Please give me a shot And don't act like an AI bot!

Why not write with A4, F#5 and D6?

I have heard that JW does use 8 staves, too @PeterthePapercomPoser. Writing out a sketch would help me. I am slowly learning orchestration (Adler's Tome is a lot to take in). My recommendation would be: master piano writing! 🙂

I've now moved on to Chapter 4 of Persichetti's "20th Century Harmony" which is about quartal chords. The prompt for this one was "10. Extend the following string-quartet opening. Feature pentatonic melodic and quartal harmonic writing." Thanks for listening and I'd appreciate any comments, suggestions, critiques or just observations!

Hi @Luis Hernández! I personally use different numbers of staves to sketch things out for orchestra depending on how far I am in refining my material, what my needs are or how big the orchestral forces I'm sketching out are going to be. If I'm sketching out for a string orchestra I usually don't need more than 3 staves (treble clef, alto clef and bass clef). If I'm expanding the string orchestra sketch for a bigger orchestra I use 6 - 8 staves: 3 staves for the strings, 2 for winds, 2 for brass, and 1 for percussion. Finally, if the score is really complex I will write things out for a full orchestra partiture upwards of 16 staves. But I rarely use just a 2 stave piano score for an orchestra - for me it's too small. I've heard that John Williams uses 8 staves when he sketches out his film scores. Great topic!

I've written yet another piece prompted by an exercise from Persichetti's "20th Century Harmony"! This one is for 2 Clarinets and 2 Bassoons. The prompt is: "Extend the following passage for two clarinets and two bassoons." I tried to make an actual piece of music out of it instead of just a harmonic exercise, but let me know what you think! Thanks for listening and I'd appreciate any comments, suggestions, critiques or just observations!