Echoes of Tomorrow

Hello All!!!

It has been so long since I posted a piece... I thought I might make a bridge. My current project I am working on is a Song Cycle for Choir and Chamber Orchestra. I have been working on this for MONTHS. It is nowhere NEAR finished, and is my best work so far.

In the past year, I have had a HUGE style change... I had an atonal period (stemming from my hugely modern classical stuff), and I have settled at what I THINK is a final style. And, this piece was an experiment of that style, not anything to be REALLY proud of. But, it is a piece that is classical in NATURE, but at its heart... it really is Jazzy.

Now, I am not the first to do things LIKE this, for instance... Bernstein, Ricky Ian Gordon, and Gershwin are all people who put Jazz into the classical idiom. And, I think this is the way I am meant to stay. Like I said, it's nothing special, but it is dear to my heart because it is starting to evoke my soul in my music.

A little about the piece itself... it is for a Wind trio (Flute, Clarinet in Bb which doubles with its bass counterpart, and a Horn in F.)

I wrote this piece around mid-february, and I have improved greatly in my personal "style" since.. but I felt that in order to display a chronological checkpoint of my progress, I needed to share this piece. I rather enjoy it. But for my tastes, it's pretty vague of thematic material and development.

Have at it though!

-Morivou

pdf: Trio.pdf - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage

mp3: Trio 2.mp3 - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage

Really Enjoyed the piece, very unique and quirky. The overall sound is uniquely yours and the melody is something that many people will walk around humming.

There are a few notational things I would like to address:

The range you chose for the flute is a little low. Low Cs are notes a flute can hit (and low Bs on some models of flutes), however they are very iffy notes and will not come out 100% of the time (I know I just happened to have my flute out when I listened to this and played along). Currently the flute part is going to sound very breathy and soft due to how low it is. Its a little more idiomatic to have the flute up high (plus they love it). In the upper register the flute can really sing and be heard above the rest of the ensemble.

Another thing is the Horn part...

Not much to say here everything seemed to flow well (I also had my own horn handy and played through the horn part :P). I would have to question why you place a base clef in measure 19 though, the part didn't seem to go low enough to justify putting a base clef in.

I liked how you switched out the clarinet for the bass clarinet, however, when you wrote for the Bb clarinet, you wrote a lot of it in the throat tone range. This range tends to fight against the player and is the weaker and paler of the registers. There was also a significant amount of writing in the break of the instrument which can be a mean thing to do to a clarinet player.

These are things that you might want to consider for either this piece or your next few pieces. Despite that it was a very enjoyable piece.

Thank you very much! I will take into account your suggestions for future pieces. I haven't actually done THAT much orchestration work yet, so the fact that I stayed in range by memory is impressive for me. I am sure these things you have mentioned will only be gained by experience. So, now that I know, I will sure be glad to work this in to the mix next time!

(Actually, I may go back and edit this piece up.) I need to research more on the clarinet, because that seems to be the hardest problem to solve for this piece. The others I can work out.

To everyone else: Critique critique critique!

-Thanks,

Morivou

Hey Morivou,

I've seen you post some great posts, and I've been wanting to here some music from you for a long time.

This is a great piece with a fun atmosphere, making me want to bounce while listening. Most of the time your parts all go together, but the occasional part, the background is to off beat, like 35 with the horn, though that's just my opinion.

Great fun song!

Yeah, like impresario said - "fun" is definitely the word to describe it. It's got a great sense of motion, although some of the offset rhythms don't seem to fit (the switches between dots and no dots in m. 4 on for a little while are an example, imo.)

It's very muc a "trio" in that all three parts are parts of their own - there's always something going on. Well written, I liked it.

Thank you both for your comments. For me... the offset rhythms are something I have been working on. I enjoy throwing the listener off balance. That offset rhythm was VERY forceful and important to the texture of the song in measure 4 on. And, the reasoning behind this is that the length of the note will be different.

I am trying to explain this... the feeling I want is that that the ONLY beat I want heard is the fourth beat. The rest of the measure is mush... it's the only time when the two lines match up. And, I think this would make more sense in a live performance. The midi ruins the texture.

What a nice, fun piece. The parts, in my opinion, meld together nicely.

Nice chorale and recapitulation at the end.

Thank you for the comments.

Any more comments? I am going to revise this soon, so any more criticism would be welcome!

Morivou -

Fine piece - the pentatonic like opening melody and "wrong " notes heard by the bass clarinet were fun. Also liked the pandiatonicism. Also it is truly a Trio - all parts have varying degrees of independence. One timbre I loved was the bass clarinet accompaniment and figuration between 42- 54. It gave it this curious wobble (that fits with the nature of the piece) I have not yet heard in a woodwind piece.

As for instrumentation I second Plutokat's comments about the Flute - in performance the flute part may not sound clearly as you'd like due to the low range. Schoenberg uses the low flute range extremely well in his 2nd Chamber Symphony. One option is to use an alto flute (check the range etc) . As for the break (area from f - c above middle C, specifically the B-flat - B) for the clarinet - it may not be the most comfortable spot but it wouldn't be a problem for a very good clarinet player. Something to be aware of course because there are some difficult things to do there - check with Flint who knows a ton about the clarinet and plays it.

Oy, I REALLY need to study orchestration... haha. But, thank you for the comments!

I loved this. My only issue was the sudden stops in the faster/rhythmic sections where everything was moving along and then suddenly a whole note chord. I know you like unexpected, and that was certainly achieved, but to me, it just didn't seem to fit, I really wished there was something moving at all times in the fast section. That's just me. Otherwise, it was really fun and I appreciate the chorale in the middle. Very much your style.

Lolz, I hate constant movement in my music. I don't think we are ever going to agree on that. But, I will bet you that if you heard it live you would understand the "point", musically, that I am trying to create. I enjoy my music to appear segmented and awkwardly disjointed, it's just the way my style works. I believe that silence in between the notes can sometimes be more important that chords that come before and after it.

Thanks for listening.