Viral Declamation

so i finally finished some music :D

this piece took me FOREVER to write, mainly because of life distractions, we all have them, not whining, just saying

anyway, the title of this piece is about all the garbage that comes out of the mouths of people that somehow manage to burrow their way into my life. everyone needs something, everyones sad, well, screw all them and their lies. lies lies lies, from my family, friends, whoever. i got sick of it, yada yada... i was angry nonetheless :whistling:

the piece runs right at 8 minutes, with a fast-slow-fast tempo form..thing. the entire piece stems from a theme that i worked and worked and worked till i finally got it right. its pretty much a o7 chord, but rooted in a key. very dissonant, very much to my liking. ive never written anything of this nature (another reason why it took so long) but i am very pleased with the result.

for violin, viola, cello, bass

comments are always appriciated, so enjoy all you YC'ers :)

P.S. the score is a mess, so when i find time it will be posted, sorry, i know i like to follow along

UPDATED MP3 Viral Declamation.mp3 - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage

viral declamation.pdf

I listened to this a couple of times. I think it's a little long, or maybe you could break it up into different files/movements. Gives some breathing room in between.

I liked some of the stuff you did with the rhythms and chords, but a lot of it also reminded me of action music. I dunno, for what your intention is, I figured you'd go for a lot more jarring contrasts.

Maybe you could've expanded a little on the harmonic side, but well. If you're happy with the outcome, that's all that matters. As far as the ending is concerned, I sorta didn't really see it coming and it sorta just fades out in a way. That's why maybe it'd benefit from clearer divisions, so you could prepare the ending better, perhaps?

Just sayin'.

SSC

first off, thanks for the comment and the time listening. i also thought i could've done more with the harmony, the only thing was i really didnt know what to do lol. i do feel it is a bit long, my first intention was to leave out the slower section, but i felt that teh players (and listeners) needed a rest. the ending was very brief, and honestly i dont think its a TRUE ending, but the plan is to someday extend this into a mulit-movement work. im glad you took the time to listen man, it means a lot and ty again :) ill try and get the score polished to make it readable, it would make it easier to point out the flaws.

vince

Vince

I love the way this starts. It is so full of energy and expectations that are not lost.

I know exactly what you mean about working on a theme to get it right. I have a piece that I started last Aug. that I am still working on getting right. It is almost there, yet when one note is off and I can't seem to find it, it can be frustrating.

This is not at all what I expected when you said String Quartet. I didn't count on the bass. As SSC said, some of this is very cinematic. The whole piece is tgelling a story andf could easily fit as background in a movie.

Oh, BTW, can I borrow like 1000$ and maybe crash at your place for a few months? Oh and my dog just died and I need a shoulder to cry on BOO HOO. Last thing, I just got elected to be President of the United States and may not be able to pay you back. (I'll say that after you lend me the money)

I have seen it and know exactly where you are coming from.

I am now without a doubt your biggest fan. This piece does not need to be made shorter. I think it flows along great just as it is. I could see it being made into a full blown orchestral piece. It would be very easy to add tons of instruments to this, but that is up to you.

One thing about it... You had said this was going to be a quartet. The samples you are using are not solos, so is it meant then as a string piece?

Love the work Vince!!!!! Great stuff

Ron

Ron

i always look forward to hearing your comments on my music. im glad you enjoyed this one, i know its a lot different from anything else that ive written, but if i cant venture off the road then ill never know if im on the right one. im glad you are taking the time to work on your themes as much as i am, because i think beauty comes from simplicity, and the enitre 8 minutes is stemed from the main theme.

like i said im glad you liked this one, and orchestrating this? well i thought about it but i really wanted to get better with smaller works (although its possible i would want to in the future). im not too familiar on how to write string quartets or anything like that per se, but i just had to give it a shot lol. youre my biggest fan?!? Yes! *cheers*

and btw, i dont have $1000 for you and if you stay at my place youll be robbed :whistling:

thanks again Ron for you time

Vince

sorry for the bump :pinch:

i just added the score...i did a bit of revising, cleaning up etc etc, just wanted to hear some thoughts on it since i know next to nothing about composition let alone writing a good score (even though i am in school for music...sigh) :D

This is great Thatguy!

I am impressed! You certainly have the potential of becoming one of those other guys...and, have that very special Russian shosty nerv... openly and boldly you make a clear statement!

I really enjoyed this!

Fred

Fredrik

Thanks for the kind words, its funny because this piece was the most difficult for me to write, yet i had the easiest time saying what i wanted to say with it :)

Thanks again,

Vince

so i finally finished some music :D

this piece took me FOREVER to write, mainly because of life distractions, we all have them, not whining, just saying

anyway, the title of this piece is about all the garbage that comes out of the mouths of people that somehow manage to burrow their way into my life. everyone needs something, everyones sad, well, screw all them and their lies. lies lies lies, from my family, friends, whoever. i got sick of it, yada yada... i was angry nonetheless :whistling:

the piece runs right at 8 minutes, with a fast-slow-fast tempo form..thing. the entire piece stems from a theme that i worked and worked and worked till i finally got it right. its pretty much a o7 chord, but rooted in a key. very dissonant, very much to my liking. ive never written anything of this nature (another reason why it took so long) but i am very pleased with the result.

for violin, viola, cello, bass

comments are always appriciated, so enjoy all you YC'ers :)

P.S. the score is a mess, so when i find time it will be posted, sorry, i know i like to follow along

Box.net - Free Online File Storage, Internet File Sharing, Online Storage, Access Documents & Files Anywhere, Backup Data, Send Files

The bassoon parts are deliciously integrated into the orchestral texture.

Great job on this 2nd movement of yours!

Fred

Sounds like Shostakovich, A LOT like Shostakovich. I like.

What program are you using? Because there's thing that comes up throughout the entire piece. You'll have three 16ths beamed to an 8th and then three 16ths. That's going to confuse your performers because they're going to think the 16ths beamed to the 8th are triplets. You just need to make the division of the beat clearer in the score and it'll help tremendously. How you bar/beam your music says everything to the performers about how you want things to be phrased, what gets emphasis and what doesn't, etc etc. So yeah, don't confuse them...

gms

hey thanks for the reply. i love shosta, i guess his music has rubbed off on me a bit. kinda figured i was notating wrong, but eh i didnt know, thanks for the heads up. i use Notion btw, and thanks again for the critique! :D

Vince

Notion Music eh? They hoed themselves to my school a couple years ago, set up a big test lab for the software to show people in on our halls, and they kept saying how the playback was so great and blahblahblah as if these things matter. I mean sure, the playback is great, but none of that means squat if it can't do the simple notational things to make your score look good like Sibelius and Finale do. MIDI playback on everything sucks anyway, I don't care what it is.

ya im not very happy with the way Notion does the score, especially teh spacing and such. i figure ill get finale one day when i have some money. btw, is there anything on my score that Finale or Sibelius would have corrected automatically?

My only suggestion is the score. I really think you should enharmonically spell those double sharps, because performers will have ane asy timer reading them. Also as gms says, show the beat to make it more clearer to the performers.

My only suggestion is the score. I really think you should enharmonically spell those double sharps, because performers will have ane asy timer reading them. Also as gms says, show the beat to make it more clearer to the performers.

A lot of it depends on context

ya im not very happy with the way Notion does the score, especially teh spacing and such. i figure ill get finale one day when i have some money. btw, is there anything on my score that Finale or Sibelius would have corrected automatically?

Vince

I have never used Notion, but I suspect that it is not much different from Sibelius. I have used Notepad and Finale as well and have found many things lacking in each of these programs. I honestly believe they do not make certain fixes that they know are needed, just so that when they put out an upgrade, we buy again.

The Bar issue would have probably been dealt with differently in Sib, but that doesn't mean it would be the correct way either. You can make perfect scores in any of these programs, it just takes a ton of time to do so.

Ron

Thanks Morgri and Ron for the comments. ya i have a lot to learn about score writing, so any input you guys have for me i take to heart. i think i just have to figure out how to use my program better, and to learn how to write horizontally more efficent. thanks again guys :)

A lot of it depends on context

Well, sure, but it's still easier to read an d instead of a Cx almost anytime you look at it.

Well, sure, but it's still easier to read an d instead of a Cx almost anytime you look at it.

Yes, but sometimes you still have to write them.

THEN CHANGE THE KEY OF THE PIECE SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO!

j/k...

Well I enjoyed it greatly. I love when the pizz. are against the arco in the bass line. I just agree with people with the score, mainly the beaming. I had a hard time following cause of it. Otherwise the piece was great. I could probably tell 8 or 9 different stories off the top of my head with this music. Great work!

THEN CHANGE THE KEY OF THE PIECE SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO!

j/k...

Or you're dealing with a 10-note chord........

Key signatures, feh :whistling:

Wow, I'm glad I clicked on the link for this piece. It's great! I loved every minute of it. The inventive rhythms and instrumental settings keep up a constant drive and the slow passages come just at the right moments. I find the length good too.

It works rather well harmonically, but with time it seems a bit too minor-third-heavy. Diminished chords are awesome, but after a while my head starts to "ring" with this chord and desire something harmonically new. It's quite a bit like Satie's "V

ClarinetMicheal: thanks for the review! I'm glad you liked the pizz. section, i wanted to give a comical-eerie-sadistic feel in it, and I played with the rhythm on paper millions of times in my theory class before i got it just right. :) Once again, thanks for your time listening man, I'm happy you enjoyed this as much as I did writing it. :D

Gardener

Thanks for the lengthy comment, it's always good to know what people did/did not like about my work. Regarding, the minor-third-heaviness of the piece, I thought it got a bit redundant as well. I'm orchestrating this right now for a competition due at the end of the month, and I did vary it up a bit. In fact, there is a section now where it is based in fourths, as well as the full o7 chord. Sevenths...hmm..interesting thought, I'll consider it!

As far as the voicing, I've also begun my re-writing on that. QcCowboy pointed out how to write better horizontally when I first posted, and that seems to be the consensus with the other comments as well. I have a bad habit of writing how i envision it in my mind rather then what the performer will see. The enharmonics and such, well, I suck at lol. I don't always know when to use what and where, so the examples you have pointed out I will take to heart. :) Thanks again man, I appriciate you taking the time out of your day to give me your insight to help me become a better composer. I'm glad you enjoyed this piece! :D

Vince