Elegy for Lynn Miller

Hi everyone,

I'm a composer from Canada and am having a bit of trouble finding my own voice amidst the strong influence of the European avant-garde. I'd be very interested to hear your comments on a movement I wrote last year for string quartet.

http://www.drewsical.com/elegy.mp3

I look forward to contributing regularly on the forum!

-- Andrew

Quite an interesting piece.

Very nice opening! Love the harmonic progression. However (and this may be due to the sound library in some part) the main melody itself didn't particularly jump out at me. Also, the progression/modulation at 0:47-0:48 felt a bit akward to my ears. The 2nd violin (or maybe viola) part is suddenly transferred to the cello instead which feels a bit strange, and also I think it would sound better if you went from C# to D instead of C or C# split to C and D. The sudden chord of F major felt a bit bare and needs a bit of 'tarting up' in my opinion.

The section after this, is particularly nice. The melody feels a lot stronger, and your harmonies are very interesting. They make sense to me, but they are not obvious at all showing that you've put a lot of thought into them. I feel that there is a bit of a Samuel Barber influence, which is in my opinion a great thing.

I felt that this section was very well done, and although it's just samples, it was very emotionally compelling.

The re-entrance of your main theme is again really well done. Very nice variation and ending supported by lovely harmonies.

Overall I think its quite lovely, but for future compositions I think you should try to write a more obvious melodic theme. I know that not every piece of music has to have the World's most catchy theme™ seemlessly incorporated, but I think if you marry your beautiful harmonic senses with a strikingly catchy melodies you will be onto a winner.

Quite an interesting piece.

Very nice opening! Love the harmonic progression. However (and this may be due to the sound library in some part) the main melody itself didn't particularly jump out at me. Also, the progression/modulation at 0:47-0:48 felt a bit akward to my ears. The 2nd violin (or maybe viola) part is suddenly transferred to the cello instead which feels a bit strange, and also I think it would sound better if you went from C# to D instead of C or C# split to C and D. The sudden chord of F major felt a bit bare and needs a bit of 'tarting up' in my opinion.

The section after this, is particularly nice. The melody feels a lot stronger, and your harmonies are very interesting. They make sense to me, but they are not obvious at all showing that you've put a lot of thought into them. I feel that there is a bit of a Samuel Barber influence, which is in my opinion a great thing.

I felt that this section was very well done, and although it's just samples, it was very emotionally compelling.

The re-entrance of your main theme is again really well done. Very nice variation and ending supported by lovely harmonies.

Overall I think its quite lovely, but for future compositions I think you should try to write a more obvious melodic theme. I know that not every piece of music has to have the World's most catchy theme