Long After Night Has Fallen

Hello YC!

It's been a while, but I think I've written something you can enjoy! It is a minimalistic compostition for flute, oboe, bassoon, glockenspiel, xylophone, piano, violin, viola, and cello.

It is written completely without dynamics for two reasons: one, no one instrument is more important than any other, and two, the intensity is not supposed to change throughout.

The meter is a catchy 7/8, the key is Bb, and the tempo while not breakneck isn't lagging, either.

I am looking forward to having this performed sometime this summer.

The piece is meant to illustrate night life without being dark, moody, scary, or in any other way cliche.

As always, any comments or critiques would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Jon

SoundClick artist: Jon Ginder - page with MP3 music downloads

Long After Night Has Fallen.mus

Long After Night Has Fallen.pdf

Very enjoyable piece. I'm not familar with Minimalistic techniques, but I am entrigured after hearing this piece. Well Done!

not a bad piece at all...

i understand conceptually about not using dynamics... however, i do feel dynamics would give it more of a shape, as it stands now it can become a little tedious, true minimalism wouldn't care (and i totally respect that if that is your intent, ala early minimalism, Reich's Four Organs for example) but personally i think it could use a little more shape

i was really happy to see a second build up. as the first "section" wound down i thought "really this is it?" but then you rebuilt it up again and it made me happy...

overall a well written piece...

I think what the problem in this piece is the lack of dynamics. Especially considering how minimalistic this piece really is. Very nice, but dynamics would definitely help.

I enjoyed this! There was an almost jazzy feeling to this...I can't exactly explain it, though. It sounds like a combination of Steve Reich and Yasunori Mitsuda. Good work!

I see a lot of criticism for the lack of dynamics, so I feel obligated to explain myself.

I haven't entered any dynamics in the score because I feel that the performers will instinctively "feel" the right level of volume to play at. No instrument hogs the limelight, if you will, but instead supports the line of every other instrument. When this piece is performed, a note will be attached that will tell the performers to gradually crescendo in and decrescendo out.

As far as the portions of the piece in which every instrument is playing, there should be no dynamic shift whatsoever.

I guess my only defense for excluding dynamics from the score is that I, as a composer, don't want to interfere with any natural processes which might unravel as the piece is played. The performers should be able to simply know what to do.

Thank you for the critiques and comments. Keep 'em coming!