cheese messiah

Very good!

The problem is that most of the good attempts go back about 40 years (Ie Deep Purple, Lloyd Webber) to that experimental prog rock period of the 60s/70s. There was some attempt to sensitively integrate rock and classical instruments then. The more recent stuff is just bombastic goth rock, with the orchestra added just to make it sound heavier. Although that Metallica track is an exception.

Very nice composition :)

Thanks for your interesting and informative replies. I did hear a bit of a concerto for electric guitar and orchestra by Yngwie Malmsteen on youtube. I'm not sure how representative this is of his work, but I'm unimpressed. The guitar seemed poorly integrated with the orchestra and most of the writing seemed baroque cliche.

I don't mean sickly strings pasted on the background of a rock song but a serious attempt to combine rock sonorities into a classical work. Has anyone here attempted to do this or can point me to any works where it happens? I can vaguely remember Bernstein's Mass having a part for electric guitar (not heard it in years though), but I'm struggling to think of any others. Why is it such a rarity? Are rock instruments totally antithetical to the orchestra, or is it an example of classical music being stuck in the past? For a long time, the violin was considered a peasant instrument and serious composers preferred the more aristocratic viol. Much the same could be said about the clarinet and saxophone. What are your thoughts?

I would like to have a go at this, but its such a HUGE undertaking that I'm not sure I'm up to the task.

Powerful opening on a subject the opening of which reminds me of an early one of Bach's (in g min I think) although its straggly nature a bit tricky to work. Some good counterpoint and strong sequences.

I don't know jack about orchestration so I can't comment on that aspect, so all I can say is that I enjoyed your piece. You've created a lot of novel sonorities which I found interesting to listen to. My only criticism would be a lack of development of your ideas and the piece did seem like a hotchpotch albeit a fascinating one. I particularly liked the opening 20 seconds which promised a lot. I listened to this work about 5 times over and found it stimulating everytime.

It thought it was a nice composition and your theme was good. Some small points: I would have preferred if your 3rd voice had entered in d maj and not in the implied bm. Also there are parallel 8ves between bass and soprano at this point (in Examinous' version). The entries in bars 7 & 8 are very effective are their flow has been improved by examinous. The episode based on a new idea in bar 13 works well. Probably the fluid type counterpoint as demonstrated by Examinous would help forward momentum (but watch out for 8ves). Still a very good job for your 5th ever composition.

Very beautiful and skillful composed even if it does seem like a composite of several Bach cantata movements.

An outstanding piece of orchestration IMO, which could well be used as the soundtrack to some dark gothic film (Batman, as someone suggested). The opening is indeed very atmospheric. The bass growls are effective but perhaps overused. My reservation is that it is slightly generic in its themes and harmony in certain places. I really enjoyed the crescendo and subsequent quieter passages about a third way through. I did get a big bombastic for my tastes here and there. General, a fine job.

Sounds like a great challenge.

I don't really hear anything wrong with it, you just have to carry on and finish it. It sounds pretty good. I'm afraid everyone struggles with fugues, which is why they are invaluable to write.

There is an online analysis of Handelian opera which may be of interest: BBC iPlayer - Discovering Music: Handel Operas

1. Which software do you use? Sibelius 2. Do you use it for composing or simply to typesetting Composing. 3. If you use it for composing, do you find that it helps the creative process? I have a limited pianist technique and writing directly to sibelius enables me to achieve certain effects which would be impossible otherwise. 4. In what ways does it limit your composing in either the short term or the long term? I find with Sibelius, writing out out dynamics, tempo, hairpins etc is time consuming and so I tend not to bother, to the detriment of the composition. Also certain instrumental effects are difficult to achieve via sibelius's software (marcato, bartok pizz etc) so I tend to use short term expedients such as converting to midi and running through soundfonts.