just tell me what you think

This song is called Eight and it was written for my highschool full orchesta. The are also a lot of things i just have to polish up (once I hear it live I'll know what I need to change), but give me your harshest critisism please!

Enjoy!

I was also wandering how you get your compositions to sound like real orchestras. I know you need a program, but what kind and does it work with finale?

Eight.MUS

Very nice piece.

You have some really nice melodies and intensity in this piece. Everything seems to flow really well, with good transitions (as far as I could tell) and direction. You have really strong themes, which definately remind me of movie soundtracks.

Your orchestra should be proud they have one like you to write for them. It's such a huge deal to be the first to EVER play a piece of music (at least I think so), and to have your piece played. I haven't yet gotten any of my music published and played by an orchestra, but I'm really looking forward to it, if and when that happens.

Good luck with them playing it (there were, after all, some pretty tough parts), and great job!

Evan

thnx for your comments. We actually havn't played it yet. They were supose to sight read it today but I wasn't in school so I dont know if they did.

Hi there!

Well you're damn lucky my friend, you put this piece up and it happened to catch my attention and I happen to be in a good mood and so I'm happening to place this comment on what happens to be your topic in what happens to be a forum for young composers...which you happen to be.

More coherently, I'll get to my brief review:

I basically love this piece and I don't say that too often. You've got a great sense of rhythm and harmony and you've put together a piece which flows well and is just the style I like; well done. It's strongly video-game-ish (a compliment coming from me) and the main theme part is almost piratey, excellent. The mood is kept up throughout and the mellow middle section, while seemingly too long, is very well placed and really adds to the piece.

On the negative side (didn't think you'd get away from me without one did ya? :P ) the whole piece is rusty; seems unpolished. Also, if you want your school orchestra to play this you need to check some instrument ranges and polish up the score; it looks like it came out of the rear end of a mule. Your use of the orchestra is very good but slightly repetetive and some instruments have very little to do so you may want to consider filling the piece up a bit when you reformat it. Lastly, you used some really weird time signatures in some parts! It's not necessarily a bad thing and I see sometimes why you did, but keep in mind that it make it harder to count through for the performer and thus may take longer to learn.

Overall, wonderful work, I'm truly impressed. It's got the potential to be perfect once you clean it up and reformat it and fill it up a bit more.

-----------------------------------------------------------

I was also wandering how you get your compositions to sound like real orchestras. I know you need a program, but what kind and does it work with finale?

Mostly, sound libraries are used to achieve this effect. Examples include Garritan, EWQL, Vienna Symphonic and some others. Basically, they are samples of an entire orchestra which you tell your notation program (Finale) to play the notes through instead of the default MIDI sounds on your computer. These libraries will make your composition sound MUCH better than MIDI and basically real with some of the higher-end ones. Keep in mind that these are pricey and require both a good computer and lots of harddrive space. Visit www.garritan.com to start off.

Good luck and keep composing!

Wow...I must say I enjoyed this thoroughly! I loved your melodies, and the use of the flute (sorry, I love the flute :P ) Very suspenseful at some places, which is good, you kept my attention throughout. I didn't get bored with it at all! I think this would fall under the category of film/videogame music, so as far as structure, I would really not be the best critic because I only write classical. This would also be a wonderful concert piece (in my opinion). Overall...awesome!

Just curious, what is your background in music?

Good job!

- Jen :P

Just curious, what is your background in music?

Well Ive played piano for a while and saxophone. I play all of the woodwinds, which makes it so easy for me to write for them because I can play all of the parts, so thats what I do. I also play trumpet so that works well. I have a really hard time writing for low brass and strings though. I never know exactly what I am doin. So that is why I am really excited to have the piece played because hopefully it will improve my composition skills greatly. Oh and percussion is wierd for me too.

Wow, that's a lot of instruments! You are like a one person band lol

I have played flute, saxophone, trumpet, clarinet, violin, guitar....and a couple others....but I only play piano now. How old are you, and how old were you when you started composing?

- Jen

I am a senior in high school. I wrote music back in 7th grade on piano, and that was all I did until a year or so ago when I got finale

Thanks for all of your comments. I am definately goin to change a lot of things and just polish it up

Not bad. The middle section where it gets very exciting reminded me of something in a video game, I think it was Pokemon or something (I dunno, it was a long time ago). Not bad again. I think more form could be applied to this piece as it sort of just goes on. Maybe you should separate into movements. I could see this being used in a movie or something, but I don't find it really serious because of it's rhythms and some of the instrument choices. The melodies are interesting and soar well through the piece. Nice work. Still, I don't find this piece really serious. A bigger change of key with more modulations would really benefit here. The second last bar was kinda wierd. I'd get rid of that.

I definatly agree with what you said J Br., but what did you mean by "but I don't find it really serious because of it's rhythms and some of the instrument choices."

My music never sounds like the real orchestra, I just do my best with what I have. :)

As for your piece, it definitely wallows in a melancholic atmosphere throughout its entire length. I noticed a general ABCDBA structure to the work, with the B structure being the part in 6/8 time, the C section the material between that and the slow tread before it leads back into the B material again, and then to the opening idea.

I was hoping at some point for a breath of lightness to be tossed into this brooding work, but you never sated my desire for it. While your use of very atmospheric chords was well done, and your driving rhythms in the B and C section were quite well played, though with a more 'light music' quality to them than I normally recommend, it just felt like it wanted a bit more variety in terms of mood. This is good for a High School Orchestra, one that needs to grapple with larger works without having to handle complicated emotional issues within the work. But for something more grand, it just doesn't have enough meat to it.

I definitely feel that after the brooding D section, you should have given us a taste of something a bit cheerier. Show us a moment where the audience knows that not all is dark and dreary. There is a bit of light and hope left in this world. Something small that we can cling to while upon the storm tossed seas. At present, we have nothing, only this bitterwseet melody.

The ending with the flute run left me wanting. As a flourish for a High School Orchestra you can get away with it, but I though that you should have ended queitly, slowly dying off with only the germ of your tune keeping the music in the air until the last breath expired.

Good luck with this work. You might want to have a more descriptive title. Just a suggestion. :)

I definately disagree with N.S. Canzano. This piece is not cliche. It is amazing. With just a little more work it will be awesome. You have everything going for this piece. The chord changes are a little rough around the edges at some parts and the beginning almost sounds like it is lagging but I really like it. Though that could just be finale...lol..

GREAT work

I love it! I will be listening to that one many times!!! I'm new here and I could spend ours in this major works section. I definately have to work really hard on something to get it here!

Nice Job!

Thanx again for all of your comments

In regards to Matuelso comment on wanting more moods, that is what the other movments are for that I am working on right now. He also said that he would have liked the D section to be more light music, and I think the section isn't necesarilly "light", but I do think that it definatly not dark at all. I think it leaves you with a sence of pride in what you have accomplished and leaves you with a feeling hope that in the end everything will work out. Actually I think the whole piece leaves you with a feeling of what is to come next, and that is why I ended it with the cadenza, because it fits perfectly into the next movment. So I am glad it left you wanting Matuelso

The actual format of the movment is (intro, A, B, C, A, mix of all of the themes, and finally the intro/closing again) You said that is wasnt emiotional, and that is somthing I really try to work on in all of my music. I think the C and the mix of all of the themes are extreemly emotional, or atleast they are for me. I hope that this piece brings emotion out of people, but not everyone will see what I am trying to say throughout the song. Hopefully once I finish the other movements it will be easier to understand.

Thank you again for all of your comments they all are going back into the song and I will be changing things

so I thought I would post the begining to one of the other movmnts to see if ppl liked it otherwise ill trash it

Nine.MUS

First off...if you trash this I will reach through the computer and slap you :thumbsup: lol jk jk

This will be pretty short since it is an incomplete, short work...but here goes:

The beginning was great! Very suspenseful, I love the beginning! I love the oboe part! At around measures 19-26...a little weird, like just a big jumble of notes it seemed. I suppose it is good for an introduction to the next section. After that, cool! It sounds like it would be cool for a video game or movie. Overall, nice job! The piano part in the beginning looks rather impossible...is that supposed to be two separate parts, or for someone with really really big hands :D

Good work!

- Jen

The opening motif sounds exactly like something else I have heard before... note for note. I think that there is some unconcious appropriation of music going on here. I wish I could remember what piece I am think of. All I know is that I've heard it before.

Anyway, with that said, I did like certain aspects of the piece. The bells added a nice touch, and the strings were well used. The music sounds a lot like video game music (def. not in the generic "classical music" genre). There is nothing wrong with that, I just thought I'd comment on that. However, I will say that at times the piece dragged on and became irksome to my ears... I almost turned it off several times just because I felt like it was going nowhere and was very boring to be honest. Thankfully however, you managed to salvage those sections with more exciting sections that followed.

Overall not my bag of tea, but a very good job and a well written piece.

Now that you mention it....no wonder the beginning was so appealing to me, I think I may recognize it from somewhere also. Hmmm, interesting :excl:

Well, still a cool piece, but I agree with your comments cavatina.

- Jen