"River in Fog"

Well, the title and the picture below gave me inspiration for this piece.

It's written for flute, marimbaphone, horns, strings and choir (choir just sings on ah though).

MP3

I hope you can somehow feel the mood I wanted to express writing the peace.

river in fog.pdf

Very interesting. I really liked it! If that's the sort of image that the piece was meant to provoke, however, it conjured an incredibly different one in my head, which was exacerbated by the "agitated" tempo marking in the score. Imagery is subjective though, haha. I think you used the texture in the instrumentation well, especially the marimba, as there were some moments that evoked water extremely well. Why did you pick the particular group of instruments you did? I think it's some very cool instrumentation.

I'd probably have to say something about the ranges - for example, in m. 69 the soprano is hitting an EXTREMELY high note and then staying within that range for a long time - I think it would be hard if not impossible for one soprano, let alone a whole section...maybe this could be taken down an octave? Also, those low horn notes, while a really cool timbre, are really exposed and unreliable for the instrument. I think they are playable (I'm not a hornist) though, it's just a matter of getting a good performance.

I really like your climax starting at around m.64 to the ritard and a tempo, but my ear was expecting another similarly huge one prior to the conclusion of the piece. I think the last chord could use a bit more subtlety as well.

Sweet piece though, I want to hear more of your stuff!

I have some doubts about your score. One of them would be your scoring for SATB. I think for some parts, you need to div the Sopranos or Altos?

I think the flute part is going to sound nice. They are in the low range but without other instruments coming into the picture.

Finally, I enjoyed your music. Thank you for sharing.

Thanks for the answers!

Imagery is subjective though, haha.

It is. It's not just looking at the image and trying to write some fitting music. I had much rather several diffrent elements in mind, running water (that's what made me write "Agitaded" for the tempo), the fog and the mystic feeling of that constellation.

To the instrumentation: Well I started with the marimba as I've just never used one in my compolitions;), the strings are to cunjure the river/water image, and i added horn and flute for some melody... (flute is a very good instrument for fog I think)

I have some doubts about your score. One of them would be your scoring for SATB. I think for some parts, you need to div the Sopranos or Altos?

I have very little knowlede about writing for choir. I don't know the exact ranges of each voice so I just wrote it like a piano staff. Isn't it possible that you write only two staves when you mean 4 voices so that the choir has to organize itself on who sings what?

Furthermore I doubt that anyone will ever perform the piece;); I just wanted do create a nice recording with the samples I use...

bravo

very well written piece

i was involved from the first measure to the last

=D

I especially liked p. 9 and 10 - there was something special about them... You have several themes that are compelling - I would have liked to see them expanded a bit. i do think that you accomplished your goal or writing fitting music to express a certain mood and/or place. What software did you use to create this? Is it sampled? Sequenced? Just Finale or Sibelius?

EDIT: and I loved the ending- I had already navigated away from the page while finishing listening to it, but the ending brought me back. It was unexpected, yet familiar.

bravo

very well written piece

i was involved from the first measure to the last

=D

Thanks:)

I especially liked p. 9 and 10 - there was something special about them...

Thanks, too; though I don't really understand why you're outlining just these two measures;) The actual theme (played by the horns) starts in m6 and ends m13...

What software did you use to create this? Is it sampled? Sequenced? Just Finale or Sibelius?

.

I've solely used Sibelius 5 and its ability to include VSTs. The Orchestral samples are from EDIROL Orchestral VSTi (rather old ;)) and the choir is EWQL Symphonic Choirs.

This reminded me a lot of a hypothetical cross between the TV/film writing of Harry Gregson Williams and Thomas Newman - it's partly the textures that do this, as your choral writing is sort of similar to the former's in the Narnia soundtracks, and the marimba is Newman's iconic instrument (in the American Beauty and Six Feet Under soundtracks). However, it's also because of the effortlessly descriptive nature of your writing, the percussive liveliness of the textures, and the loveliness of your little melodies. I do think they could take a little expansion though - the figure you have returning in the flute is too short for its potential. If you ever get to watch the opening title sequence of Six Feet Under, there's a moment in the busy marimba-led texture where a rose blooms in fast-motion, and a lovely strings chord opens up joyously descriptively. I got this satisfying illustrative feeling at many points in your piece - especially the end - you really brought across your imagery well I thought. I'm looking forward to hearing more from you.

A few notes on your choral writing. It's odd, but seeing as it's simply used as instrumental texture it's largely acceptable. The long/unprepared/especially the quiet soprano Bs are technically pushing the boundaries of your average choir - though there will maybe be one (or two) who can sing this sort of nicely in a good choir. Generally, anything above a soprano A has got to be loud, and most people will find anything much higher than this very difficult to produce out of the blue, as in bb.128-129. You do need to indicate which parts the divisi chords belong to - it almost looks like you're asking your tenors to sing soprano Ds and Es in bb.128-9, for instance. You should split soprano parts more often than alto (unless you're writing for a church choir with young trebles) so in b.129 the B and G# need stems pointing up, and the D a stem pointing down. While the conductor might always change a composer's voicing directions, the choir certainly won't 'organize itself' like you said. :P Good work.

Thanks:)

Thanks, too; though I don't really understand why you're outlining just these two measures;) The actual theme (played by the horns) starts in m6 and ends m13...

Note -- I said "pages" and not "measures"

Note -- I said "pages" and not "measures"

Ooops...:blush: I should open my eyes while reading^^

This reminded me a lot of a hypothetical cross between the TV/film writing of Harry Gregson Williams and Thomas Newman - it's partly the textures that do this, as your choral writing is sort of similar to the former's in the Narnia soundtracks, and the marimba is Newman's iconic instrument (in the American Beauty and Six Feet Under soundtracks).

That's interesting: I really like HGW's music and Narnia is a very beautiful soundtrack, I think. However I don't know much music of Thomas Newman, I'll have a listen to it...

And thanks for the information on choral writing, I'll go over the score again.

Hehe. It's could be nice. I would like to hear it some day!

I like it. Sounds like good music for a movie or video game.

Curiosity: what music software do you use? Sounds like it could rival Finale, timbre-wise.

So here's the new version of the score.

I haven't changed much. It's actually just a few stems put up or down in the choir part and I've put down the part from m.64 to m.75 one octave. Oh, and I've added a little marimba figur to the ending.

Please let me know if it's allright now;)

river in fog(2).pdf

Curiosity: what music software do you use? Sounds like it could rival Finale, timbre-wise.

I've mentioned this before:

Thanks:)

I've solely used Sibelius 5 and its ability to include VSTs. The Orchestral samples are from EDIROL Orchestral VSTi (rather old ;)) and the choir is EWQL Symphonic Choirs.

I've once worked with finale too, but somehow I like this software better.