Symphony No. 1 "Triumph"

Hey all.

Since early last year I have been working incredibly hard on what I think is my largest work yet.

If your wondering why the title says "triumph" its because I consider this my greatest triumph to date, and also I feel that it has a triumphant atmosphere to it.

Although it is still incomplete, I have 'finished' 3 of the 4 movements; I say 'finished' because there is still refining and revising and stuff to do.

I have posted movts I, III and IV (as they are the ones I've done) with MIDI and PDF's. Please note that this is the first time I've ever posted PDF's so I don't know how well it would have worked.

This symphony does not follow the normal stucture of a classical symphony. Some of the movements forms are swapped around and some don't exist.

I - The first movt is not in sonata form, but more an ABA form with a coda, with some developement following each section. There is a section where a soloist from each instument type is allowed to perform. It starts of sort of mysterious then moves into a more grand atmosphere (Approx. 7:30 mins)

II - (which is currently not included) is in sonata form. And not much else can really be said about it at this point, will update when there is more to update on.

III - This is probably the 'strangest' part of the symphony as this movt is neither a 'minuet and trio' or a 'scherzo' but rather a 'waltz and tango' (at least an attempt). Starting with a cello solo and string backing.(Approx. 5:30 mins)

IV - It's a sort of rondo form but not quite. It is primarily this movt from which I derived this piece's nickname ''triumph.''

Towards the end of this movt I reuse thematic material from the other three movts to try and tie them all together, although each movt could be performed individually I guess.

(Approx. 8:30 mins)

Just a note concerning the PDF's; they are also being revise etc...at this point they are more of a guide you could say to what it will look like. And I will update them when they are more complete. But if there are any major issues with them please let me know (and I am aware that they are quite messy, its being slowly fixed).

I think that just about sums up my intro...all advice is welcome. And I would love to hear you feed back, even if it is just something simple.

Enjoy!

Lex.

Lex Symphony No. 1 in E-Flat Major ''Triumph''- I Allegro con Brio..mid

Lex Symphony No. 1 in E-Flat Major ''Triumph''- III Waltz and Tango..mid

Lex Symphony No. 1 in E-Flat Major ''Triumph''- IV Finale; Allegro Assai..mid

Lex Symphony No. 1 in E-Flat Major ''Triumph''- I Allegro con Brio.pdf

Lex Symphony No. 1 in E-Flat Major ''Triumph''- III Waltz and Tango.pdf

Lex Symphony No. 1 in E-Flat Major ''Triumph''- IV Finale; Allegro Assai.pdf

I listened to two movements from this and the rondo from your piano concerto. They all seem to suffer from similar problems most obvious in the Finale movement of this symphony. Rather than develop a few simple ideas in different ways and through varying harmonies you keep bringing up new ideas in the same key. If you look at your timpani part you will notice that the player has to bang away on Eb for over 8 minutes. This is stretching any listener's ( and musician's) patience. The effect is that it doesn't sound like you know where you want to go with your material so you just keep introducing new ideas to keep the music bouncing along until you feel you have continued long enough. A lot of the ideas are not very distinguished in that they are just chord arpeggiations that continue the harmony but don't otherwise relate to each other.

With your harmony, you need to work on your voice leading which seems a little erratic. There are many incomplete chords and sudden octaves that sound like holes in the overall texture.

Only listening to the last mov. here. I liked it a lot! Great fun! However, it felt far to pastiche; I could almost imagine this as being one of Mozart's late symphonies or Beethoven's early symphonies. So that's a tad annoying. But if that's your style, then by all means keep going. Most of your orchestration was innovative in the brass. One qualm is that it is unclear how many WWs you have. I see 1 most of the time but occasionally there are 2. Make this clear and add the 2nd part if you want that. Also the timps. should have just rolls rather than 16ths.

More later...

Thanks for the reviews

ablyth: Thanks for listening to that much, I get what your saying and I would like to thank you for your input :)

Justin:...I wanted rolls in the timpani, but the only way to make it sound half decent in my program I have to write it out...same as trills :(. Also with the number of woodwinds; I want 2 of each (I should have specified, but there where some odd complications with the scoring during it, so thats why they appear like that).

Lex