String Quartet #1

This is my first ever actual string quartet. I really know nothing of strings, and you can tell through my music. Overall, it's delightful, but there's about four measures where something went wrong and it just doesn't sound good.

I can never be finished with a piece, I suppose.

This is in Bb, and I usually refrain from keys, but this seemed to work out nice. (except for a few notes..)

I like the overall concept. The ending is rather abrupt but I had to put it there. I want some measures in between the ending part and the main part, but I can't seem to figure out what I want. This suits me for now.

Well, I hope you enjoy. (meh, still haven't figured out how to get midi's, sorry.)

Mp3 - String Quartet in Bb Major - Putfile.com

(.pdf available on request.)

String Quartet in Bb Major #1.MUS

I like the ending. It's abrupt but it doesn't fall out of style from the rest of the piece. I don't know very much about string technique either but this doesn't sound like something that would be impossible to play.

I did enjoy it and I don't have anything really to say on things you can improve just yet.

There's a few things going on in here I like, but it needs a little more gluing together. Some parts seem a little...... ermm, naked, and plain.

First off... range of the instruments. String instruments can always push their range upward, but they have a very definite lowest note that they can not exceed. There is a technique which is called scordatura, and that is when you tune strings to notes lower or higher in order to play difficult passages. This is a very advanced technique, and I feel that it doesn't fit your quartet here very well, so I would say you have no choice but to transpose the whole piece up at least one whole step to C major or higher to bring the lowest notes into playing range.

Ranges are (for the moderate player):

Violins: G below treble staff up to G, four ledger lines above the staff.

Viola: same as violin, only a perfect fifth lower. Starts at C below alto clef.

'Celle: one octave below viola, so starts at C below bass clef.

Measure 2, 'cello. Are those ties or slurs? If you leave them as is, it will be treated as a tie and played in one bow. Not sure what you want there. Probably best to leave the slur/tie out altogether, possibly use a tenuto.

Measures 12-15... this is what I meant by naked. Eventhough the most important idea is being tossed between the instruments, you can still add some sort of accompaniment to it with the instruments that don't play for that measure.

Measures 18-32 - WAAY too much unison between the two violins. Consider having them in harmony with each other instead of unison, as unison is rather boring, you might as well be writing a string trio here.

Measure 33 and 34 (and some more after): I think you should use the violins here too, you can produce some nice lush chords if you add the violins, just viola and 'cello isn't so interesting here.

Measures 39 to the end - again with the unison between the first and second violins. Make some harmonies out of this, create some chords, unison doesn't hold attention for very long.

I really liked the playfulness of this little movement throughout, but you could make more out of it by adding some notes here and there and transposing it up into a playable range.