Symphony for Kids in D major

I wanted to train my orchestration skills and thought of writing a funny little symphony using traditional harmonization and form - "for kids". That shall apologise the innocent character ;)

Here's the first and the second movement... it's a raw version and I guess there's much to correct 8) Some instrumentalists could check if the parts are playable, for example...

MP3: http://www.dgsp-rheinland-pfalz.de/sinfonie1satz.mp3

PDF: http://www.dgsp-rheinland-pfalz.de/sinfonie1satz.pdf

MP3: http://www.dgsp-rheinland-pfalz.de/sinfonie2satz.mp3

PDF: http://www.dgsp-rheinland-pfalz.de/sinfonie2satz.pdf

Hope you'll enjoy it.

very nice

How young are you thinking? The first violin and first horn part seem like they could be very high for "children". If you're thinking highschool, or semi-advanced youth symphony, this may be more appropriate. One that stands out in particular is mm 125 - not only is that extremely high, hard to prepare (there's no point of reference), but you'll be hard pressed to find a youth orchestra that doesn't dump the "less talented" players in the back of the seconds. This may be a section better suited for octave doubling, or even using a 10th below for a richer harmony.

The trumpet parts are also very fine, but the sound you'll get out of such a small instrument will be very thin in the lower range, and will be nearly washed out by larger instruments playing higher (I can't find measure numbers now, but I had to question your scoring of low d trumpets against a very high horn part). Since many programs involving young players aren't likely to have many quality d trumpets on hand, it may be better to write for a larger Bb or C trumpet. I don't really see any areas that are high enough in range that would require the smaller instrument for the sake of facility, anyway.

Take another look at your contrabass line, as well. Even with a 5-string bass (which you likely won't find in a high school program), there are some passages that will simply not be playable (m 101 is the biggest one I see, though one occurs in the previous system). Try to remember, as well, that the contrabass naturally sounds down one octave - the instrument is very sluggish and slow to speak in its lowest register - giving them a rapid passage on the E and A strings will likely sound like fuzzy noise during a performance. Consider boosting the part up an octave (written equal with the cello), so you have only an octave instead of a 15th between those instruments.

As far as musical content goes - I like the melodic material. Most music written for younger string players doesn't use changing metre - it's more of a band thing, and it's such an effective tool that I just don't get why people don't use it. Since the music itself is a bit "simple", as you may say, try playing more with color. The horn and clarinet doubled (or playing in harmony), can be a very beautiful sound. Same goes for viola and horn, viola and clarinet, and some others. The bassoon and trombone are really best suited as tenor instruments, but can be used as the bass while cello and cb play the tenor parts. I like that your parts (clar I+II, trombone, etc, etc) aren't too independent - it's hard for kids to play independent parts at a young age. That doesn't mean, however, that the winds all must play together. Your brass writing, compared to the wind writing, is very polyphonic, especially in the horn choir.

I think, with some editing for feasibility, as well as edits for color and clarity, this could be a wonderful piece for the severely-lacking youth symphony repertoire. Well done!

At first I thought you mean for kids to play. Then I realized that it was for kids to listen to, as this score could hardly be played well by your typical *college* orchestra. Ya, I know a lot of college folks act like kids, but they still could hardly play this thing, unless it's one of the top 10 music schools in the US.

With that in mind, I am an adult and I got bored at page 40. I don't know if kids have an attention span longer than I do.

The orchestration seemed amazing and well beyond anything I could do, but I focus on piano and chamber ensemble anyway, so anything with more than 5 instruments is more than I would attempt to do anyway.

There were a few errors in the score, but I don't remember where they were, but that's a moot point anyway. Oh, I remember in one place you had a change to treble cleff at the end of a measure before rests--put your cleff changes directly in front of the next played note.

Also, with the sectionalized form, this sounds more like a stand-alone piece than a movement of a larger work. It reminds me of a Tchaikovsky programmatic piece such as Cap. It. or one of his Overtures.

Great job.

Hello guys,

thanks for listening to my music and thanks for the reviews!

Let's first clear up:

At first I thought you mean for kids to play. Then I realized that it was for kids to listen to, as this score could hardly be played well by your typical *college* orchestra. Ya, I know a lot of college folks act like kids, but they still could hardly play this thing, unless it's one of the top 10 music schools in the US.

Exactly. The idea should remind of Prokofiev's 7th symphony, written for the youth.

That said, some of Matt's remarks have become superfluous. The wrong bass notes were not on purpose, comes from switching between concert pitch and score pitch too often... but thanks for reminding, would not have noticed that.

Concerning the trumpets, you're absolutely correct, C trumpets are the solution! Thanks.

Meanwhile I've finished the second movement of the symphony. I'm very interested in what you think about it since it's quite different (I hope).

http://www.dgsp-rheinland-pfalz.de/sinfonie2satz.mp3

http://www.dgsp-rheinland-pfalz.de/sinfonie2satz.pdf

Enjoy!

Nice. As someone very much into ballet music, I think this can be used for a ballet piece for kids : )

Just a comment as a bassoonist:

Please use tenor clef rather than ledger lines.

Also depending on the skills of your bassoonist, be careful of using too many notes from around the d above middle c to the a below. Especially if they are tongued. They crack easily.

Great music though I thought.