Brass Quartet in F major

My newest creation

I have already been told that the instruments go out of there range. Plaes don't clutter up this thread with comments about that.

Michael -

Try exporting your .MUS file as a MIDI so we Sibelius users can listen! :-)

Who's been telling you your instruments are out of range?, any way's yes the horn is very high, but that high C(Transposed) is very hard to hit., Um I like you melody but if I were you I would add something more to it., i'll tweak with your song for now

Ok i've done some editing.

Ok i've done some editing.

Thank you! I am going back and reworking a lot of it I will definitely take some of your ideas into consideration.

People at another forum told me my ranges were out of whack.

hey I have two things I want you to check out

Wow, uhh yeah, the entire horn part should be taken down the octave. Phew that's high.

Because an instrument CAN play something in theory, does not mean that you must have it do so.

Remember that the art of orchestration is that of rendering the best possible result, the most satisfying blend of instruments at hand.

Just because you know a horn player who tells you "well, I can play a high E above the staff", that does not give you carte blanche to do so.

Extreme ranges on ALL instruments should be used ONLY when you fully understand the diffficulty of doing so.

Part of the problem with becoming accustomed to using extreme ranges is that the young orchestrator tends to consider them "normal" parts of the instrumental arsenal, and over-uses them.

I have seen symphonies by certain young composers where the horns were expected to play continuously above the staff. This was justified by the composer using the above-quoted comment.

This is not successful orchestration.

Write FOR the instrument, not against it. Difficulty for difficulty's sake is not going to give the best result. Nor is difficulty brought about through ignorance.

Remember also that the "ideal" range of each instrument contains its most usable notes, notes that will blend best, will carry well, and will be characteristic of that instrument's timbre.

If you go to meet an instrumentalist, don't fixate on "what's the highest note you can play".

When you have the good fortune of having a musician demonstrate their instrument for you, ask them about ALL of the ranges.

Ask them to play excerpts from pieces within those ranges. Don't just ask the musician to "play the highest note". Out of context you will actually know LESS about that highest note than if you heard it within a musical phrase as written by a composer.

Thats from This Orchestration thread by QcCowboy. Its an awesome thread. Good read.

Anyway, high C's are a bad idea, done with that.

As for the rest of the music, I'll just make a few suggestions that might help with this piece, as you review over it...

First of all, unison is cool, however it gets a bit boring after so long. Some harmony in the "A" section would be awesome!

Likewise, I'm not feeling too much of a central melody in the "B" section, which would really help tie the section together, as well as allow for the listener to feel special. "Hey! Thats a melody!!!" And we always want to listener to feel special.

Also sort of along the same lines, the harmony in the "B" section can be spiced up. It's pretty much all just whole notes. Some moving notes and changing harmony would spice the entire piece up a lot!

Finally, in the repeat of the "A" section at the end of the piece, bring something new to the mix! No one wants to hear EXACTLY the same thing, so throw a bit of a curveball for the listener. Make them focus on the piece and not just zone out.

So that's about it for now. It's coming along nicely!

how can I use that *.mus file extention?

or do you have a midi one?

ill make you a midi

actually for best sound, you'll want finale, go to Finale Music Composing & Notation Software , you can get a free version called finale notepad

also, check my version of his piece, because I made the harmonies and chord structure better

or do you have a midi one?

I tried several times to up load a midi version this weekend and it wouldn't let me. I will try again.