Musaeus Overture

Hey guys

This is a piece I was 'commissioned' to write in November of 2005. It was premiered on February 26, 2006 by the Broward Youth Chamber Orchestra. It wasn't really commissioned as much as it was the orchestra's director telling me I could write a piece for the group if i stuck to some guidelines. The inspiration for this work is rather ambiguous, in fact, in the program notes I mention that I had no inspiration, other than the motivating factor to have it performed.

It is scored for 2,2,2,2,4,2,3,0, timp, cymbals, gong, bass drum, and strings. As a warning, it is over orchestrated. Also, as a more pressing warning, the recording straight up sucks. Much to my dismay, they guy who was supposed to record it failed to show up, so this was taken from a camcorder that was present.

I hope you all enjoy! And like before, I post this for the reviews/critiques/whatever else you feel needs discussing. So don't hesitate to say it sucks. (well perhaps hesitate a bit...;))

The link to the recording is here:

Putfile - Musaeus Overture

The Musaeus Overture in E minor.MUS

It think that it is good!

;)

nothing really to improve except the orchestration

Thanks, I am glad you enjoy it. I will start studying orchestration soon, so hopefully that will improve as well.

More comments would be swell! ;)

I enjoyed this piece immensely. Your orchestration was actually very good, although (as you have already said) it was a bit heavy at times. I had a little hard time at first latching on to the themes, but I liked the overall color and feel enough to listen through to the end. You should really consider posting this in the major works section.

I don't have the time to check the score...but I enjoyed this piece a lot. Very intense and dramatic.

I feel that, at some times, the transitions between themes wasn't very smooth.

The orchestration sounds ok at places (very decent performance, btw), but it gets very cumbersome after a while...you could lighten the textures at times, to let the ear breathe.

Overall, very good work! Thumbs up!

Very enjoyable! I wish the sound guy would've shown up so you could've ended up with a better recording...but that isn't your fault! The music is quite nice and I look forward to checking out more of your works!!

*A side note: some of the tuning in the ensemble was off at times, but that also isn't your fault since you were not the director of the group.*

The tuning is off, the orchestra that performed it had only 6 rehearsals and started this piece on the third one so... The concert program was great though. We played Night on Bald Mountain, Noon Witch Overture (Dvorak), this piece, and Falla's Three Corner Hat suite no 2.

I am glad you all like it! Can you hear the Gong crash near the end? It gets lost in the recording...:)