fantasy part 1

The first part/movement written for a small-medium ensemble.

Comments and suggestions for improvement would be greatly appreciated.

fantasy1.sib

fantasy1.mid

can you post a PDF please?

How to convert from sibelius file to PDF?

On Mac, you choose "Print" -> "PDF" -> "Save as PDF...". On Windows, I don't know.

the sibelius version i have on windows doesn't seem to have that option

First things first: Congratulations that was enjoyable to listen to. I have made a few observations that I think you will find helpful:

While I enjoyed your melodic ideas, I thought that you could have orchestrated more fully than you did for this style of piece. You make good use of melody and counter-melody but you tend to leave a rather empty score. This means that the sense of climax is greatly reduced because you are not using the orchestra's full capabilities. Try firstly to use more instruments; your instrumentation now would be considered small even in the classical period and a "fantasy" would benefit greatly from a romantic style orchestra (perhaps a harp or piano among other instruments). The brass especially could use a few more instruments, but the main section that is lacking is the percussion since you have none. Furthermore it is usual that the woodwinds would have two instruments of each type and so it is normally expected that there would be two parts written (on the same staff in the score) for each woodwind. I would also advise the use of a second violin section. The orchestration in general would benefit from a more solid harmonic backing. This means both more vertically - which will be aided by larger instrumentation but also requires that you try to use more parts of the chord and double some instruments to reach all registers of the orchestra- and horizontally - which requires that you have more consistent harmonic background. Furthermore you should consider using chords such as 7ths or suspended 4ths more frequently to help build climax.

Additional thoughts:

Perhaps you could also explore some modulations, metre changes or tempo changes.

Perhaps you could aim for a little more unity of theme. What I mean is reusing a single theme but in different ways. Beethoven is very adept at this and so I suggest you get a copy of the 5th symphony's score and a recording and listen.

Finally, well done and keep going.

Thanks for the observations, I was aiming to create a sparse feel to the piece but now I think adding some percussion and more brass will make for more effective contrasts. I'll be starting the second part soon.