Concert Overture

Concert Overture for brass band.

This is a concert overture which I have written for hopeful performance by my brass band.

It is pretty much tonal, with a few colouristic effects here and there.

It's in sonata form, with three themes of interest, all of which play an important role. (The rising 4th is a mainstay of the whole piece).

It was written over the summer - up until the "second theme" was written in one go a month or two ago, and then I didn't do very much, then in the last week or so I wrote the rest of it. That's just the way I sometimes work. I've put a lot of time and effort into it though, I just don't like to continue a piece unless I feel right about doing it.

There weren't any real obstacles in the piece (aside from mild writer's block, which just takes time), although I had to teach myself a whole new method of scoring while writing this, as I've never written for brass band before. Hopefully it's come off OK. The midi is absolutely awful though - some notes don't play - all the sounds are wrong, but hopefully I might get a performance.. if fate smiles upon me :P

Thanks to Marius for helping me clean up the score in a hurry.

Please let me know what you think of the piece - all of your comments are appreciated.

Thanks for listening!

Edit: updated Sibelius file here: http://www.youngcomposers.com/forum/280227-post21.html

Overture for Brass Band.pdf

Concert Overture for Brass Band.mid

Scoring-wise it seems decent! And for your first attempt! Two things:

1) Why are there no French Horns?! You can't have a brass band without French Horns! I know - I am a French Horn player! :P and

2) There isn't always a clear leading melodic line. More melodies and specifically, memorable melodies, would be nice to hear. You have a few little mini themes. What I am talking about is long melodic phrases that span 16 bars or more. Sometimes it does sound a little like you're just moving through harmonic changes. Make the melody always be the centerpiece and main point (or at least .. thats my advice).

Ok so I just looked at the midi in my sequencer and there definitely ARE French Horn parts ... but why do you have them assigned to a trumpet patch? Is that the midi error you spoke of in your description?

With my comments on melody I should add that there are certain stereotypical ways of scoring for brass band which I don't blame you for more or less adhering to on a first attempt - and especially if you're writing for a beginner-intermediate group of players its a bad idea to expose one section of the band too much. I would simply encourage you to explore more the divergent possibilities of scoring and also to get away from the melody and accompaniment approach and have more counterpoint (and less chords) in your music.

Honestly .. I liked it - that doesn't mean that I don't like giving alot of advice!

Piotr

Ok so I just looked at the midi in my sequencer and there definitely ARE French Horn parts ... but why do you have them assigned to a trumpet patch? Is that the midi error you spoke of in your description?

Yes, that is one of the errors I was thinking of. Did you not even look at the score?

Glad you liked it though. I agree there are no true "long" melodies in this, but I don't go in for those very often at all. Although the andante section is pure uninterrupted melody - I felt it was necessary to provide that by that point in the piece.

There is plenty of exposed writing for most of the sections, by the way, maybe the midi didn't help to make that clear - it really is an awful midi.

Also, the accompaniment or relative lack of counterpoint is for no reason other than musical - it was not a scoring idea, or stereotype that I picked up from scores - it was just what I wanted musically.

Anyway, thanks for listening - I appreciate it!

And I'll consider your advice.. perhaps I should put more focus on melody.

Thanks for the comments. :D

very nice piece! some thoughts:

>the opening is simply wonderful! but after the first minute that great atmosphere rapidly loses power - a pity! and then you seems just wander through colors, regaining here and there strength.

>the overall structure sounds somewhat repetitive and might profit being shortened. anyway the effect is grand and brilliant, congrats!

>finally, if you are going to compose other pieces for such ensemble i just would suggest you to take a look at Giovanni Gabrielli's sonate & canzone per sonar.

regards!

Thanks for the comments, and for listening.

I've been known to wander in parts, but I don't think everything after the first minute is such...

Is there any particular part it feels repetitive? Too much repetition of the "second" theme? Or just the sonata form?

I will try to check out this Gabrielli.

Thanks again.

I am curious: is that a particularity of brass band writing to write the trombone parts as a sort of "transposing" instrument? The first page starts off with what I would consider notes considerably outside the "normal" range of the trombone (notes above the treble clef?). Or is that an inadvertant clef change? those are supposed to be in bass clef?

Yes - sorry, I haven't explained the transposing of the score, but I will do if anyone wants clarification.

The two tenor trombones are written as transposing Bb instruments, with an added octave - viz., their part is written a major 9th above sounding pitch.

The bass trombone is just about the only instrument in the band which does not transpose whatsoever. Also just about the only brass band instrument to use bass clef.

hi Daniel

i have been listening to this piece for many times and i still hold my opinion. well, i am not a big fan of sonata form, maybe my bias hinders me from fully understand your effort. so, sorry! anyway the main problem with this is the fact that - in my opinion - there is no real 2nd theme to contrast with the 1st one. i can't notice a clear constast of shape, mood and rhythm between them which could be used to define sections and create a real dialogue. all sounded as variations around the opening and not as a sonata, although reading the score i can see what you have done. again, the themes are too much similar in effect and the similar work of textures you did doesn't help as well. the only actual contrast arises when you introduced the passage in 3/4 towards the end. but as i said, that's me! regards!

Well that's OK - I respect your opinion.

Just to clarify, the "first theme" is bar 7ff., the "second theme" is bar 30ff., and there is an ancillary theme right at the very start. The Ab major following the first theme is not part of the first theme, but a variation on and an expansion of it.

thanks Daniel! cheers!

it seems well-written, Danny, but one thing bothers me very much, and it's the sort of anachronisms that pops up here and there.

This is firmly set in a mid-19th century language, but it has these occassional burps of solidly 20th century music popping up - some very unusual harmonic shifts, some quartal colours, etc...

a few that struck me as particularly out of place were around measures 115 and again at 164.

The problem was, I MUCH prefered your anachronistic passages to the rest.

Yeah, that unfortunately is something I tend do to - it won't be a problem when I'm writing something entirely polychordal for an example, but in this piece I wanted it to be fairly acceptable to traditional ears, and yet somewhat modern - unfortunately that manifests itself as stylistic inconsistency.

It's just another thing I have to work on.

Thanks for your comments! I appreciate the time taken to wade through a score full of transposing instruments, or listen through the piece!

i like it

good job

i try to repost my work

hi

daniel

i really llike your work , the begining like .. very simple but with harmony ... and the theme do look like mozart symphony no 41 the final movement ,,,, and the form is very soild and the phasing is so ,,, clear cut sometimes ,, how to do that can you teach me ?

this is a tonal music .. as i know and the harmony inside the music is very clear .. i mean no useless thing inside within ,, that is a great job what you did,,, the most that i like it mostly is .. i do like your form .. you treat the sound into the coorect place at the time .. how can you do that .. can you teach me ?? pls ///

Well thanks very much for the nice words.

As for teaching, you can apply in the Lessons forum (read the stickyed thread) although I am rather busy at the moment.

Any more comments and suggestions would be very useful right now, as I'm finally getting around to making a revision of the piece.

Then I'll take the final version to the conductor, and we'll see how things go from there.

Any chance you can post a link to a mp3? Everytime I look at this piece I am not at the right computer so I am stuck with just opening the midi file in media player and that doesn't do the piece justice. Just based on that and the score though, it seems like a very enjoyable piece.

Ron

Sorry, no mp3 yet. I will upload one if I get a good recording of a performance.

Very well written piece, you were very thourough.

The introduction creates tension, which accentuates you first theme very well(as said before, reminicient of something of Mozart)

I enjoyed the interplay between instruments, your melody is passed on well from one instrument to the other, which would sound nice as long as your band is well co-ordinated.

I don't know if it is just the midi, but I feel the first symbal roll(and all repititions of it in that context) should be on timpani(it sounds horrible at the moment), but live it might sound better.

Your transitions between ideas is handled very well, and the piece as a whole is very powerful and majestic.

Well done!

Thanks for listening :)

Yes, the midi plays hell with the percussion instruments; I've given up trying to make it work.

Slight update. I should've posted this yonks ago.

Concert Overture for Brass Band - update.sib

Well, thank you for linking me to the piece!

It was a very enjoyable listen, which was no less or more than what I expected from you! I'm confused, though, as to why you didn't choose to exploit a few more harmonic colours than you did already. You do have some Neapolitan substitutions which sound very neat, (except for that one part where you do a sequence of Neapolitan substitutions and that sounds a bit jarring) but I think you could have maybe used more Chromatic mediants or Appogiatura chords..or even just outright chromatic progressions. Still, the diatonicality of the thematic material itself is very well done and polished.

At times, I felt that it was very wandering, but this works very well in the style. If there were slightly more chromatic harmonies, I think that it would have worked very nicely (not to say it wasn't nice already, just maybe some accentuation).

I wonder, though, do you still see this work in the same esteem (or close) to how you did when you finished? Did you end up getting a performance?

I enjoyed listening to it! :)

i love this work @@@@@

dark@@@@@

Thanks you two.

Mael: I now view it as transitional. A stepping stone to where I'm now (which is another stepping stone). No performance.