grant.wilder

The zelda was an unintended benefit, but I have listened to ravel, among other lesser-known composers who have looked to southeast asia for inspiration.

Alright, I think the harmonies in this are really interesting. I really did enjoy listening to it. I am very concerned about the range you're requiring the trumpet player to cover. Getting to a high E, as in measure 37 (and some other places), especially out of nowhere from that F at the top of the staff, is going to be incredibly difficult, even for a very good professional player. You should be cautious going anywhere above a C 2 ledger lines above the staff. Musically, it seems sort of ambient. It says prelude, so I assume it is setting the mood for the rest of a larger work, so it accomplishes this very well. I don't really hear where the music is going, but that's not always a bad thing. This is going to be an interesting sonata when you finish the rest of it.

The first movement is really exciting. It kind of sounds like the mission impossible theme. My only comment concerns some awkward leaps in the brass. The leaps from measure 95 to 96 are going to be really awkward to pull off on brass instruments.

This is a new work for Strings, Timpani, and Piano. It was inspired during a recent stay in Malaysia, where I had the opportunity to absorb new kinds of music and rhythms for five weeks. I studied Malaysian music and the culture that goes along with it to form my own suite of five movements, merging the musical ideas of southeast Asia and our more familiar Western music. The strings form the main melodic content of this suite, and the timpani part is quite difficult. The piano part is less significant; it was added later to strengthen the lower strings. The first movement, "Sacred Dance", was inspired by the Gamelan ensembles that can be found all over Southeastern asia. Although the instrumentation does not match up, I tried to use a familiar chord progression, just going up and down a whole step, and building different melodies on top of that. Before any religious music can be played, the performer must do a song of prayer. One of these prayers inspired the opening 2-measure cello solo at the beginning of the second movement, "Prayer". This idea is developed throughout this movement until the end when it dies away slowly with a low violin solo. The third movement, "Dance of the Elders", is mostly a portrait of many of the people in that part of the world. It simply is expressing the view I got. These are happy people, so this is a happy movement. As I walked through the rainforest, I overheard a choir of men singing through the trees. I later learned that it was a tribe of native people, singing through their daily prayers. This inspired my fourth movement, "Chorale". You can hear the song very quietly at first, then getting closer and closer until you finally are able to hear the entire choir singing from up close, the entire orchestra. The final movement, "Finale", is my ultimate decision. The mood is melancholy throughout. This is going to be the most challenging movement in performance; I took one melody I wrote and twisted it several different ways. Here are recordings of each movement, created by finale: Movement 1: http://www.filedropper.com/mvmt1-sacreddance Movement 2: http://www.filedropper.com/mvmt2-prayer Movement 3: http://www.filedropper.com/mvmt3-danceoftheelders Movement 4: http://www.filedropper.com/mvmt4-chorale Movement 5: http://www.filedropper.com/mvmt5-finale PDF's of the scores are also attached. Thanks, Grant Mvmt 1-Sacred Dance.pdf Mvmt 2-Prayer.pdf Mvmt 3-Dance of the Elders.pdf Mvmt 4-Chorale.pdf Mvmt 5-Finale.pdf

Thanks for the comments. I should probably explain the inconsistency in parts; I kind of personalized this piece for my high school's band. Our low brass section isn't exactly filled with all-star players so I didn't want to put anything too difficult down there. It is pretty boring but I'd rather it be boring then sound terrible in the concert. I also hadn't realized that the alto and tenor clefs are separate things. Anyways, thanks for listening and the comments!

Hello, This is the first piece that I have posted here in awhile. I have been doing an independent study at my high school in music composition, which has ended with this work for my school band to play in our concert next thursday. I realize it is too late to make revisions for this concert, but I will be submitting it to a competition in Texas in a few months, so any helpful comments/ideas will be appreciated. This piece is essentially a celebration. It goes by fairly quickly, and is mostly upbeat. The form is a very basic Intro-A-B-A-Coda. Enjoy! Fanfare.mus Fanfare.mid Fanfare.pdf