Cello Quartet (feedback please?)

Here's a cello quartet I wrote a couple months ago. I didn't really develop an overriding theme, just sort of threw some parts together. It actually started as a piano piece that I decided would work much better with different instrumentation. Please let me know what you think and give any feedback you have. If you have any suggestions, please let me know; I'm considering submitting this as a college conservatory entrance piece.

I've included the .mus and the .mid.

Thanks!

Jake

PS I know the name is rubbish, if you can think of a good one, please lemme know!

cellifinal.MUS

cellifinal.MID

You always use the same rhythm till. I'd change till that time too, maybe with rests.

Anyway, it has a clear structure, but... So if you write it in a classical style, take care of the paralellism. (1:14-26)

:) Good luck!

I'm actually not a good person to comment on this because i'm a post-modernistic/minimalist composer, so I'm going to find it hard to appreciate fully anyway.

But techniaclly speaking without the score, the bit at 58 seconds i really don't like, the descending parallel harmony is painful, and any bach chorale enthusiast would commit murder in your general direction for it.

The appoggiatura at 1:15 seems to come across as deliberate and not convincing, possibly due to the note before it being the same, perhaps tie them together?

The piece is very mathematical in the way that it sticks to every single bar - I have this trouble myself - but isn't necessarily a bad thing, again you're writing for more pastiche so I suppose it's fine. If not, try to write more fluidly, ignoring the bars to a degree.

I also sense some zelda influence...?

Also, harmonising whole passages with 3rds and the occasional 4th is a little uninteresting, attempt to vary with sharpened 6ths or something craaaazy.

For future writing try writing modal rather than tonal. it's fun.

It is solidly written however, Somewhat negligable errors, Portrays it's image pretty fine, and not too long. Though, i don't know if you have a time limit? If there isn't one then that's an ideal length for it, perhaps it could be used as a second movement to a larger picture?

Anyway, That's my two pence.

Nice music i liked the sequence at 13 second the best, nice melody and nice work :)

I can see you've put in some phrasing and bowings, but there aren't very many. I think you need to put in dynamics, phrasing and articulation to make explicit the sound you are looking for, which you may be taking for granted because finale is doing a lot of that for you. With a texture like this, it seems a lot of those passages should be slurred.

And yes, you need to take care of the parallelism, which would probably be nearly impossible for a cello quartet. Cellos have a large range, but putting for instruments into the bass like that makes part writing in this style very difficult.

Too much parelell motion.