Garth Herberg

By extraction I'm referring to the development of ideas extracted from the theme and by balance I'm suggesting a way of progressing the composition while maintaining some consistency. Sorry if its too technical or vaigue. I'm sure there's better terms, but you get my gist. Thanks for the encouragement I'll keep it going.

Did you hear the counterpoint and melodies in fragments, totality, tidbits, or did you work off the page with a rougher consideration for pitch relationships (i.e. contour and rhythm)? The more I listen to this the funnier it gets. Its ridiculous and I love it!

Your piece is boring, but it is not poorly constructed as far as I can see. I am no expert, don't trust my opinion. Consider it if you'd like. There are really good ideas in the piece. I like the beginning as well as some of your development with the violin melodies. However, I would not place the harp melody in the foreground because the violins will drown it out. The harp is not a loud instrument Mezzo Forte at best is my guess. You would probably be much more satisfied with your piece if you tried developing some of those creative rhythms and melodic ideas you stated earlier on. Keep it up - I'll look forward to hearing what you do.

That was funny. I enjoyed the interplay but I can't help pondering what your inspiration was when you sat down to write.

Yep - that's good film scoring. You've got some knack Chris. Do you know of some high-quality orchestral samples that I can put on my imac?

Great Song. I really enjoyed your arrangement too. The instrumentation is unusual, but it works well and adds so much character. This song could probably be arranged for a huge variety of instruments and still sound great. A singer could take the clarinet's voice, and perhaps a second singer doing the flute part would be fun. Whatever you decide I hope you can put this together and perform it and/or have it recorded for film/tv.

Hello fellow composers. I've been studying J.S. Bach's Chaconne for solo violin and have developed a desire to improve my ability to expand a theme. I'd love some feedback for this short idea. I'm trying to discover new methods of extraction while maintaining balance. I thank you ahead of time for your input. http://media.putfile.com/-theme-and-variations march variations no.1.pdf

I really like it and will give it several listens. I'd really like to hear the whole symphony when you finish. can you post the score?

Ok I finally got around to putting the mp3 on the net. Its a much better quality recording. Thanks for the comments. I'm surprised that the harmony seems perplexing since it is based upon f# minor with many a passing tone. There are a few derivations and plenty of inversions of diminished chords, but I thought it was straight foreward overall. Anyways... http://media.putfile.com/Joking-Imps-70

Thanks for listening guys and snails. I'll try to post an mp3 somehow this week. Aside from the marimba part I agree that this piece does not have a strong harmonic core and this is purposeful because it was written for percussion instruments. However, the marimba part was pretty intensive and it might have been somewhat understated by the poor replay mix on sibelius. This is my best work so I must disagree with you violinboy. Perhaps the thought that was invested in it does not suit your own. A lot of my attention was placed on texture and development. I'm surprised that you felt the piece was boring and static, especially since it was so short. I would love to learn more. If you'd care to do so, please elaborate.

This is a piece I wrote for a percussion ensemble. For lack of an obvious title I listened to the piece being churned out of my computer and came up with these little imps. Let me know if it works for you. I would like to post an mp3 but I'm not very smart when it comes to converting aiff files. Any tips would be appreciated. joking imps.sib