cb3930

It looks great! I only wish I could hear the whole thing.... (btw, nice bass clarinet solos coming from a bass clarinetist here :D)

Just a couple notes - bar 33 and on horns are much too high. Melody at 42 onwards is a blatant ripoff of famous EH solo in the adagio of Dvorak's 9th...I would suggest using a more obscure melody if you're going to copy it and expect no one to realize. I agree it that's it a gorgeous line, but leave it where it belongs. I agree with rolifer about the soundtrack feel but it's not necessarily bad. It's obviously too short and undeveloped to be a standalone orchestral piece, but it's pleasant to listen to.

Go bass clarinet! (coming from a bass clarinetist here :D) do you have a score?

Very nice piece! A great workout for us clarinetists in the upper register :)

This sounds like a great piece - but as someone had said before the score is a bit difficult to read. My only problem with it is that there were too many ''epic'' moments - massive percussion rolls/crescendos combined with fanfare brass gets old after a couple of times. I look forward to seeing the concert band transcription.

t'as pas de partition

How is that an oxymoron? PDF?

Not too much to say other than that is a gorgeous piece. Very well put together, great job!

Just a few notes about range: I'm assuming the third clarinet you have listed it actually bass clarinet, based off the range and sound, so this should be made clear in the score. Bass clarinet at 202 and 267 is too low - lowest note is written (Bb concert) C. The piccolo is often in a rare and weaker register - especially at places like 111/206, which, I would place one or even two octaves above. On a similar note, the third bassoon should be listed as a contrabassoon rather than 3rd bassoon 8va, imho. Cor anglais at 182 is much too low - b below middle c is the cor anglais' lowest written note. Besides these minor errors, the piece is great, although indeed a bit "Hollywood".

Great piece! I especially loved the "sacrificial'' part at the end, the bass drum ostinato was really great. One thing that I would have liked to see is more use of percussion, perhaps a little percussion solo part or more interesting rhythms. The middle part in the flute reminded me a lot of Syrinx, btw! And I was gonna ask about the Fb notation, but I guess the name of the piece explains that, haha.

I agree with the posters above (the theme reminds me a lot of pour une enfante d

Hm I would disagree with the comment that you should limit yourself to 2 woodwinds, because all professional orchestras (and many regional/community orchestras) have three woodwinds/brass and more often more than 3 for some pieces. The so-called "auxiliary" (picc, afl, ca, bcl, ebcl, cbcl, cbass, etc.) give many pieces (this included) very interesting timbric qualities or variations that at times can be more suited than the ''traditional'' ones. If you are trying to get the piece played I would stick to 2+aux (or 3), since I see here there are 4 in places, who knows :D

Do you have a score to these pieces? I'd love to see them. The orchestration is very nice, although I must agree with the others in that it is a bit repetitive at times. Great job overall though!

Do you have the scores for the third movement by any chance? That is my favorite and I am very interested in seeing how it is written.

As a bass clarinetist (unlike many, b.cl is my primary instrument and the Bb is my secondary), I'm glad someone here has written something for solo bass clarinet. I printed out the sheet music if you don't mind and ran through the bass clarinet part a few times and it is very nice. It is fairly reminiscent of Bozza's balade for bass clarinet, and I am glad you utilized nearly all registers of the instrument. I encourage you to explore the depths of the b.cl range (down to written low C), which most professional/college-level instruments have! I can definitely see this piece being used for all-state level auditions if you are planning on getting it published. As for the "unslurrable-ness" in the lower register, it's actually easier to slur in the lower register than to tongue rapidly. If I can perhaps learn the piece when I have a chance I could give you a live recording ;)