Alex Weidmann

Yes, you're dead right about that. Will take most of those staccato marks out in my next revision. Glad you liked it otherwise! I created the piece in sporadic bursts of rapid composition over the course of three months or so, with long breaks inbetween. Each time I came back to it, the character of the next section I composed was always different from the previous section. At one point it was sounding a bit too saccharine sweet: so I decided to introduce an octatonic scale, then played with dissonance to make a more contemporary sounding ending. Didn't really analyse the tone clusters I made, just experimented with lots of copying and pasting between instruments, and moved pitches around. Think the results were quite Stravinskian. I don't expect it'll ever be played by a real orchestra: so not sure I'm going to bother with a proper score? Also: I found this cool video on You Tube of what life may be like on Tau Ceti f:

I actually like those triplet gestures. You can't hear them very clearly in the mix; but they create a blurry effect that I enjoy.

Peter, many thanks for listening! The key modulations were designed to move the music up a gear: so it would ramp up tension. The final chord is intended to be a little surprise at the end, and it just felt right to me; although it's a suspension. ("We Are The Champions" by Queen ends on a suspension as well: so it is a device that's been used occasionally in pop/rock.) I did try using E major; but it didn't sound as good to my ear. Can't quite remember; but I think the development arc of the piece was partly improvised; though I added the opening drone later. The podcaster seems happy with it anyway; though I have to enhance the bass somehow (maybe with EQ).

Nice work! I like the dreamy quality you evoke with your orchestration, and the mood changes you create. The lamentoso sections were my favourite.

Hi Mark, I especially enjoyed your harmonic planing in this piece, and the way you effortlessly blend consonance and dissonance (a common feature of many of your works). It reminds me a little bit of Hindemith's "Mathis De Maler" (which I saw live at London's Barbican last year). Hope others will chime in here, as I'm not the best analyst! Alex

Thanks Mark. The reference material I listened to, before composing this, was actually "Battle Beyond The Stars" (1980) and "Wrath Of Khan" (1982). My composition tutor also suggested reprising the theme at the end, or adding a snatch of theme as a coda (as they did in "Star Trek: Voyager").

The latest comment from the client is that this piece is too treble-heavy. So any ideas on how to enhance the bass-line would be very helpful. One thought I had was to just push up the faders on the low strings and low brass; but maybe that's a lazy solution! Also could duplicate the double-bass an octave lower on a bass synth, and add some parallel compression on the bass drum and tomtoms? After I'd written it, I noticed I've ended on a rather odd chord. It resembles E major, without the tonic, and with an added second. To me it sounds fine; but maybe I should change it? Here's an updated version of the work, with stereo-panning, and added counter-melody near the end. Hopefully an improvement?

Nice work Mark. I like the way you draw so much material out of the simple catchy motif at the heart of this piece.

Hi Henry, thanks for listening. They asked for 90 seconds: so I've given them an extra 20 seconds as a bonus! Hopefully they won't be too strict about it.

Hi to all! I've recently been asked to write a theme for an unofficial Star Trek podcast. Obviously I'm not allowed to quote any of the original themes, but the brief was: James Horner! Its supposed to evoke "Star Trek", without actually quoting any copyright material. So this is what I came up with. Think my percussion needs a bit of finessing (especially at the end), and I still have some work to do on the balance of the mix, and the mastering. (Sorry about the score: it's designed for midi rendition only, as I don't expect this will ever be played by real life musicians!) Newer versions of the mp3 and score will be added lower down the thread.

Hi Raphael, Nice work on your composition! Like the way it alternates between shades of light and dark. The score does have a few issues. Some of your slurs are too long. Remember these represent bow-strokes; not phrasing. You should indicate whether parts are div. or non-div. so they know when to play double-stops. Sometimes your note stalks are pointed in the wrong direction, and you often have unnecessary subdivision of notes into tied pairs. Also some of the enharmonic spelling looks wrong/inconsistent to me. Think most of your G flats should be F sharps. Thanks for posting, Alex

I enjoyed this piece. Has some nice changes of pace, and good use of percussive effects. (Especially liked the seed shaker.) The melodic lines sounded quite Oriental at times, due to the pentatonicism. The cello tremolo between two natural harmonics seems like it would be very difficult to achieve. I'm not a cellist, but wonder whether this is actually playable? In Bar 3 and Bar 20, it looks like you're doing two different types of pitch bending simultaneously on the cello. Wondered how this is supposed to work? Don't think I've ever seen those two symbols together before. Thanks for posting, Alex

That was my original thought. Was planning to conclude the work with a more epic version of the opening theme; but it ended up going in a different direction entirely! Many thanks for listening, Alex

Have listened to the whole work now. The 2nd movement makes great use of percussion, with splashes of colour from different parts of the orchestra. Loved the sorrowful melody on the oboe where it first appears in the 3rd movement. The build up of intensity after Bar 66 is really interesting, then it coalesces into an unexpectedly happy resolution. N.B. I'm told the triangular fermata is not generally used in professional scores. Better to use a regular fermata, with short written above. Also when you have a fermata, it should be indicated across every part in the score, including those not playing. Nice use of fp effects in the strings during the 4th movement. Liked the offbeat staccato notes in the celli. Great change of texture where you have the solitary flutes. At bar 78, the 1/2 time signature looks rather odd. May be better to use 2/4 instead, so the conductor keeps beating at the same rate. Bar 22 should have a full bar rest in the timpani. Bar 145 has some double minim rests, where they really should be full bar rests. Nice rhythmic variation in the 5th movement, combined with unexpected harmonic progressions. I like how you've given everyone something interesting to play here. The mournful ending is evocative and delicate. Overall fluent use of orchestral textures and colours, with effective build up and release of tension. You seem to have mastered all the tricks on how to make MuseScore sound realistic. Are you using the standard MuseSounds libraries? Do you expect a real orchestra to play this at some stage?

Thanks Luis! It really helps having good instrument libraries, as I can hear how it might sound with real musicians. Have to sort out my score next, and decide how to organise the divisi in the strings. There are some places where I've forgotten to notate new starting dynamics, and have instruments coming in at ppp against ff in the brass! Then I just need to find a symphony orchestra crazy enough to play it! 🤪