Concert Overture for Piano and Orchestra

The end may be confusing... but at least it's a surprise!

Yeah, but its not the "good" kind of surprise. It is out of place and doesn't fit with the rest of the work.

Nice work Pete but let's look at a few measures. 61-66 mainly and before and after. First, you're going to kill your damn flute player. You expect them to tongue every note? Ta ta ta ta tu tu tu? At that speed? Plus where the heck are they going to breath at? Then to top it off you put a big ol' sfff at the end of it? Dude, they're going to turn purple.

Second, the cellos and basses are playing some unrealistic lines. Fine on piano but will sound like elephant crap on the sidewalk if done by the low strings. Plus you'll kill their arms and piss them off. Not good.

Think like this- Can a big animal (say elephant or a whale) move like that? Not a chance in hell. But a little bird can. But that bird has to rest sometimes. Take a breath. The bigger guys can be graceful, regal even, but bouncing around like ninjas geeked out of star bucks coffee? I doubt it.

Measures 94 and onward. Flutes need to be marked divisi or a2 or something. Before you had one flute, suddenly you have 2. Actually, mark the clarinets as well. .....

By the way, I think you should change your piano staffing as well. What I mean is, your bottom staff has that 16th note question answer section right? Well, if you write it "as is" you are indicating that that line is to be played with the left hand only. (somebody double check me on this one please) So, change the upper staff into bass clef and divide the line for both hands. K?

Measure 156-158... are you serious? Can you play that at that speed? Don't double those octaves. Keep a line like that one line per hand.

The ending was (in my opinion) the most interesting part...except the harmonic progression and ending. Heck, If I were you I'd scrap the everything but that last bit. It had the most character and earcatching quality.

Study orchestration more. and eat your veggies.

Pieter,

Your notation drives me insane.

Beside the fact that you never follow any standard practices that you could get from looking at many standard scores, you are also never clear.

There is usually a lack of detail in what you are writing. Usually, and this applies to ALL of your work, almost everything is NOT articulated or characterized.

Really that's all I have to say. Musically and artistically, you are never willing to discuss anything... so I'll stick to things you can't work around with pretense.

Ticktock, thank you for a beautiful review. It's motivating AND it helps me! I listen to your critique most intensively - it is serious about the music without breaking me.

Responding to critique does not have to show immediately. Sorry, I can't stand it when people write critique with a flame torch. Please, be more gentle!

Flute: Yes. Perhaps I'm driving them too hard... eish! I once had a recorder piece where you had to blow for 30 seconds NON stop! :P As for the tonguing, I suggest Tu-ku- or Du-Ku.

Cello's and Bass: Perhaps I'm not too gentle... oops! Pardon me!

Piano: I can play bar 156. I got that bar through improvisation. Yes, I can play the piano part in this piece. :)

I shall study orchestration more... I'm glad this piece isn't a serious piece. I mean, of course it is serious, but all composition at this stage (in my life) is more of serious practises IN composition. So... I'll take your advice. Perhaps I shall be a good composer one day :)

My notation may be 'bad', but at least the score is clean

Piano: BAR 116 for example: divisi between hands. It is impossible to play them octaves (if it were to be played with only the left hand, I wouldn't split the notes).

I admid I should add more slurs to the woodwinds ect. I never (rarely) write slurs for the strings (bows). Beign a pianist, the bow-markings is incredibly confusing. Pardon me, I know I'm bad at this. (help!)

YC26, sorry. I really try to improve my work and all the comments posted here are great advice! But I don't like it when composers write only bad things about the piece (any piece). I crack emotionally. Sorry. If you would care to go into detail, don't crack me.

When Nirvana wrote his incredibly destructive critique for my Horn Concerto, I broke. I actually cried for many hours onto end. Later I realised he was meaning good. Of course he meant well (and believe me, I learned a lot from that review!), but I didn't like his approach. It broke me.

Pardon me for beign such a bad composer. Each attempt at composition I learn something else. Thank you all for your kind remarks. I shall remember where the pizz/arco markings come and add more detail (especially slurs) in the future.

To those who write... at least sometimg good (despite their good advice and constructive critisicm), thank for you beign kind to me. Bless you.

To those who write critique in such a way that I just want to run away... well, bless you anyway!

PS

Cello's and Bass: Perhaps I'm not too gentle... oops! Pardon me!

Man, when you write crap like this it makes me want to buy a ticket to South Africa just to smack you upside the head!

The only guy who has gotten away with writing like that was Beethoven. Ever checked out the "Storm" movement in his symphony #6? Man, that junk is almost impossible but...it is only a sound effect. Thunder, rumbling sound, an outburst of energy from above. Man, you wrote something that is going to sound like something rumbled out the back of my pants!

So, I'm going to restate what I said about the cello bass part especially the bass part.

Here we go. Ready? Don't do it. Re-write that. It will sound bad. Can't play. Ever played a bass? Not easy.

That "Bohemian Artist" thing you wrote. You had to do a little research on violins didn't you? Maybe you should do the same with each instrument. Go through the strings, the winds, and the brass. Find out what they were meant to do, and vice versa. :) You've got tons of guys on here writing for each of these instruments. Get in contact with these guys. Make friends with them. Ask them about their instruments. This is a good opportunity for all of us to get familiar with something we don't play.

Everything you write is a reflection of you Pete. If you don't really care or know about string or wind articulations ...well string and wind players aren't going to take your works seriously.

You are not a bad writer. Nobody is. But, we can all stand to improve. So don't take this crap too hard man. How old are you? Don't do that sensitive artist thing. Take a beating. It's good for you. Good for all of us.

Yes, Nirvana's beating was neccesary. I was such a bad boy! :) I promise to be better in the future! :) Hehehe...

(About Beethoven and the back of your pants... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!)

Yep, FUN!

The MIDI, not so much. :)

Very energetic work, uplifting; a great orchestral appetizer to wet the appetite.

M

Responding to critique does not have to show immediately. Sorry, I can't stand it when people write critique with a flame torch. Please, be more gentle!

Hi Peter,

I have listened to several of your compositions and I have read several of the remarks you got. Admittedly some of them are harsh, perhaps too harsh, yet... I do not know the past which preceeded them; hence I cannot tell wether they are justified or not, but then ... finishing people off is very seldom justified. Hence, your remark quoted above is true: one can be gentle giving remarks as easily as one can be harsh.

PS: I am going to read to your score again; I am especially intruiged by the piano discussion... :-)

Nevertheless, there are some things which strike me in your answers:

Flute: Yes. Perhaps I'm driving them too hard... eish! I once had a recorder piece where you had to blow for 30 seconds NON stop! :P As for the tonguing, I suggest Tu-ku- or Du-Ku.

Cello's and Bass: Perhaps I'm not too gentle... oops! Pardon me!

Some of the people who take effort in critisizing your work are not only a great deal older then you but also much more experienced in the field than you are. Yet, the impression which you give me - admittedly a personal impression yet I can imagine that others must feel the seem - by answering the way you do: "Perhaps .... perhaps...." suggests that you doubt there judgement and skill; it even suggests that you doubt very much wether to take their opinion along or just to reject it, matter of fact it even suggest that you are not willing to take their suggestions along with you, as you seem to suggest that you know it better.

You do not do yourself a service but just stating: this is as I want it to be and this is how it is going to be, as you have stated in previous posts. No matter what you or anyone else says, I am not going to change anything about it as I know what I want and I know how it is (look at your reaction regarding the passage in the cellos in this work e.g.).

There are other examples of such comments:

My notation may be 'bad', but at least the score is clean

This is a lame excuse, actually it is no excuse at all. What you say is: He, you have criticism on my score, but heck... what do I care, my score is clean, so ... what are you fussing about....

I admid I should add more slurs to the woodwinds ect. I never (rarely) write slurs for the strings (bows). Beign a pianist, the bow-markings is incredibly confusing. Pardon me, I know I'm bad at this. (help!)

Pardon me? Why should we "pardon you?" You want to be a composer, do not you? I presume that you want to go further as composing solely for the piano, which seems to be your main instrument. You know that you are bad at bow-markings and things like that, but .... it is the task of a composer to put them in. There is no excuse for not putting them in. I may be bad at obeying the signs on the road, yet ... I still have to obey them or otherwise I will be fined.

I don't like it when composers write only bad things about the piece (any piece). I crack emotionally. Sorry. If you would care to go into detail, don't crack me.

Receiving criticism is hard, very hard, but it is the only way to learn. Admittedly one can be gentle, but appareantly there must be a reason for the guy to write i such hughe letters that Pizz and arco are always placed above the scale and not below it. Perhaps he has told you that several times in the past also - at least that is what I made up of his comments - but appareantly you did not pay enough attention to follow his comments in your new work.

I sincerely hope that you take along the comments you got on your work as well on the other works you got. I myself have looked at your score when it was first put on the forum, I have listened to the MP3 and I have closed it after listening.

For me - Mind my words! I said for me - your composition is not coherent at all. You call it an concert ouverture, yet I do not see anything of an ouverture in it. The last part is completely alien to the rest of the score. Somebody here wrote: I would delete the entire score but the last part. Personally I thought it to be a good advice: rewrite your score and go along with the last part, I remember you have something there.

Peter,

Do not be the guy who says: well these are the critics I got and now I am going to write a new work. Read and re-read the critics and write and rewrite your composition; see where it takes you but for once, put your teeth into a work of your own - appareantly this composition means much to you - to make it into something which is as good as it can be on your level of composing, but for that you have to work and rework your score. Put it online again after you have reworked it, I am sure people would be more than willing to look at it and give you constructive criticism. I know you can do it, if you just want to. You will learn much more of reworking a composition with the remarks you got then by just starting a new composition and putting it online, with probably the same mistakes and errors as in the previous one(s). Go for it! I know you can do it if you put your mind to it!

Good luck,

FDC

oh spelling wrong is it overture or ouverture

i like 7 up

oh spelling wrong is it overture or ouverture

overture lol :P

Both are correct. Ouverture is simply the original French spelling, Overture is the anglicised name for it.

Both are correct. Ouverture is simply the original French spelling, Overture is the anglicised name for it.

Oh :mellow:

I see they deleted makwinkga's lovely "I like 7 up" part

Nice mixture of styles. The beginning is pure Beethoven, but then around bar 40 there are some Spanish gestures (whether you arrived at these subconsciously or not) - with the flat 9th over the dominant chord.

Those octave doubles in the left hand going down to the very low D - I wonder if these might sound a bit muddy and out of style - but maybe just on my piano.

Great touch of humour near the end.

the only thing that lets it down a bit is the brooding beginning. It's too similar to Voldemort's theme in Harry Potter - check it out if you don't believe me.