Visions of a Renaissance

Here is my tone poem entitled "Visions of a Renaissance."

It is about the rough economic times of my hometown, Detroit.

Audio

http://www.taiga.com/~chad/Vision's%20of%20a%20Renaissance.mp3

Small Score

http://www.taiga.com/~chad/visionsscore.pdf

Large Score

http://www.taiga.com/~chad/visions.pdf

I hope you'll enjoy!

Chad "Sir Wick" Hughes

Hello...

I'm no doctor in music, but I dare to say that this is one of the best pieces I've heard on this site! Despite its hollywood-ish moments (which I still enjoyed) I think it's an amazing piece! I also think that the use of both modern and "classical" musical idioms (in other words, relatively speaking: dissonance as a mean of expression VS. consonance as a mean of expression) is a really great success creating a "living" oxymoron!

It was a pleasure listening to it!

P.S. When listening I had the impression that Shostakovich was one of your influences (?)

Congratulations!

One piece of his, Festive Overture, is a favorite of mine. Before I studied, Tchaik was the biggest. I just listened and listened to him (back in the times of tapes, all I had was Sym 4, March Slave and a Beethoven Greatest hits! After I studied, more Tchaik plus Ravel and Strauss.

Just a few notes about range: I'm assuming the third clarinet you have listed it actually bass clarinet, based off the range and sound, so this should be made clear in the score. Bass clarinet at 202 and 267 is too low - lowest note is written (Bb concert) C. The piccolo is often in a rare and weaker register - especially at places like 111/206, which, I would place one or even two octaves above. On a similar note, the third bassoon should be listed as a contrabassoon rather than 3rd bassoon 8va, imho. Cor anglais at 182 is much too low - b below middle c is the cor anglais' lowest written note.

Besides these minor errors, the piece is great, although indeed a bit "Hollywood".

I agree that there were "hollywood" moments, but it was not overdone and fit the piece nicely. I don't have enough knowledge to comment more constructively, but I do have a pair of ears.

Well done!

oh! and the pizz was very nice.

Mike informed me of those mistakes. Honestly, they weren't on the proofed parts, just on the score. I've been painstakenly trying to fix everything and correlate the parts and scores. good eyes y'all!

hollywood? :) I was trying to tell a story! hopefully, it was told!

(links have been updated!)

wow ... extemely my kind of music

i will study ur score seriously

play jazzzzz

dark@@

it look like disneyyy....

why does the sound so realistc

dark@@

Very well written! who's playing it? Did you conduct as well?

I'd give better comments, but my roommate is listening to rock at 900 decibels...

Nope, maestro Thomas Wilkins conducting, Detroit Symphony reading session.

I'm a little late to reply to this but this is a brilliant piece. Composition and orchestration are top notch.

The read-through is very good as well. I bet the horn players just love you ;)

Isn't the Renaissance a convention center in downtown Detroit? Very clever.

Steve Winkler

Well made. Like others have said, this did sound a bit 'Hollywood-ish' at times, but like an old Hollywood-ish. That's not necessarily a bad thing anyway.

Also, I see what Sebastian was getting at with the Shostakovich, which, for me, is a good sound.

Oh, what a cool piece! And a great ending.

It's funny, the first thing I thought of when I heard the pizzicato strings at the beginning was "Shostakovich."

What exactly is a reading session? Is the orchestra literally sight-reading your piece?

I really enjoyed this! I am very happy to hear something like this being written today and can only hope that your music gets noticed by the right people :)

On a critical note, I thought that the ending might have been just a tad too John Williamsish but its not a big deal really.

I'd love to hear more of your work!

Amazing. Like others have said, quite possibly the best piece to be displayed at this site!

The polish, refinement, and 'finished technique' of a true professional/master composer.

Not my style unfortunately as I don't like modern music but even I can appreciate the amazing craftsmanship.

I am humbled by the compliments.

A reading-session is yes, Clark, generally a sight-reading, press record type deal. They do go over it for about few minutes (hmm..maybe fifteen)

can you upload the midi version ??

dark-ice

I am humbled by the compliments.

A reading-session is yes, Clark, generally a sight-reading, press record type deal. They do go over it for about few minutes (hmm..maybe fifteen)

How long did it take you to compose this piece? And do you have any others you wish to upload here?

My story? I am from Detroit, MI and studied composition at the University of Michigan.

Wrote several pieces there but won't claim none of them :lol: There are all in the process of being retconned. Shosh wasn't a major influence on me. Tchaik, Beethoven, Mozart, and Leroy Anderson were my first introductions into classical music. Then along came my brother buying the Star Wars Soundtrack and I was hooked in the orchestra (it was the Lucasfilm orchestra when he first built the Lucasfilm Studios back in the late 80's I want to say.)

After college, I studied at Bowling Green for a year. I had recently fallen in love with Strauss esp. his tone poems and the concepts of tone poems. I came to the realization that symphonies might not be my voice but one-movement pieces centered around a subject-area would.

I realized soon that the economy in 2002 was in the flux and it started to hit the City of Detroit hard. With the BIG 3 being headquartered there, layoffs mean the start of a ghost town.

I came up with the idea of people driving to work in rush hour traffic as the intro leading us up to the passionato section, with is the sun setting down on the beautiful skyline of downtown and Belle Isle. The idea was to paint a picture of people working and hopes of a "rebirth" in urban cities. If there are no jobs, there is not rush hour traffic.

The middle section was actually in my head for a long time. The melody was inspired by the voice of Sedalia Marie (Sir Wick Entertainment, click on "about Sedalia Marie") I pictured her singing a lovely melody over serenading strings. I was in love with the key I didn't change it (she couldn't sing it because it was too low for her.) I used my skyline to develop it in the fugue part afterward.

'

Steve:yep, Renaissance is the tallest hotel in the United States in downtown Detroit (and detroit's other nickname is "renaissance city."

Hi maestrowick,

Nice piece of work here! It sounds me more like Gershwin's "Un Americain a Paris", with that way to switch one context to the other. Even orchestration sounds the same. It reminds me as well the Cuban Overture of Gershwin (you will love it if you don't know it yet).

Thanks for sharing. Is it your first orchestral work. Looking at your Myspace profile, it sounds you are more a jazz band player. If yes, you truly deserve a wow!

How long did it take you to compose this piece? And do you have any others you wish to upload here?

Honestly, about eight hours. Just sat down and wrote. I loved Sedalia's voice so much, it had me writing. I wrote for about four hours, took a nap, then wrote another four and showed to my lesson. I just finished by cello suites (which...um..I'll post but I don't like) and Dr. Lillios said to make sure my music breathed. I had another orchestra piece and I trashed it. Then I walked by a practice room and came up with the Passionato melody.

Hi maestrowick,

Nice piece of work here! It sounds me more like Gershwin's "Un Americain a Paris", with that way to switch one context to the other. Even orchestration sounds the same. It reminds me as well the Cuban Overture of Gershwin (you will love it if you don't know it yet).

Thanks for sharing. Is it your first orchestral work. Looking at your Myspace profile, it sounds you are more a jazz band player. If yes, you truly deserve a wow!

It's not my first orchestral piece. I have others but they need to be retconned.:O Outside of my "Songs For Tami," let' s just say they are :sleeping::sleeping::sleeping: I will hopefully be done with "Elijah" later on (it's an orchestral suite, with chamber pieces included.)

I'm finishing up my christmas album to be ready to hit stores by October.

Wow, this is really really well written. Your harmonies are colorful and bright and your orchestration is clear to the point of transparency. I like the tutti "fanfare" bits that interrupt the sixteenths doodling. I like how your music makes the listener think of a big, bustling city with lots going on. Especially what I mentally labelled the "big city" theme (appears at 148) the "arts n history" theme (168) and the "busy streets" theme (in the high horns, 251 and a couple times earlier).

The only part I didn't like was 186 where you sound like you've "ended" the lyrical section and you're going to recap the city theme but instead there is a third section which isn't as good as the two preceding (solo tuba?). From there to about 231 is a weak part of the piece I think, however it picks up again and ends great.

My absolute favorite part of this piece is the high horn entrance at 287. Gorgeous.

You really put a "need" in the listener's ear where they anticipate and expect the return of each of the themes, and you don't disappoint those expectations.

Please share more of your orchestral music!! :O

Hey,

Not trying to sound like a broken record but this was nothing short of breath taking.

I don't have any criticism for you nor do I think I would be qualified to tell you if I had any haha.

Well done...