Freedom Symphony (1st Symphony) - IV (Adagio)

The fourth movement to my Freedom Symphony.The piece opens with a string theme, in A Minor, followed by woodwind-only sections alternating between A Natural Minor and C Major.The full symphony is for entire orchestra, however this movement does not include any brass or percussion.

Freedom Symphony (1st Symphony) - IV (Adagio)

Very nice work here. I love the emotive qualities of this - there very full. Your orchestration sounds a little dry - might help to vary it up a bit. Would be better to comment with a score posted. I also have my first posted on here - which coincidentally is MY opus 2 - lol! Feel free to peruse the other posts and comment. That will help you get more views on this beautiful movement.

Good work, but I agree a score would be nice for more feedback. It sounds very sweet, but I think you could give your harmonies more body with your orchestration, and I thought I heard an out of place harmony between 1:52 to 2:00, but that might be my mistake.

I've now posted a revised version (some minor harmony errors corrected), and a score.

I love it! When the flute take over for the strings is really nice. There were a few times where I wanted the over all dynamic to slowly come down and then quickly become louder. That would make it a bit more dramatic but a very nice piece.

Which parts in particular do you think would be better with varied dynamics? I'm not quite sure where a good place to do that would be.

Hey! Glad to see you back.

So, first of all, I think that the one thing it needs is a tad more movement. I'm usually not much for traditional harmonies, but here, I really like how you use them. I do think that it also needs a bit more cresc. and dim. in some spots, especially in the solos. And now, about the solos. The low, low piccolo is hard to hear... especially with the thick chords under it, the piccolo would be very hard to hear. I would suggest putting it up an octave. I hope to soon hear your full symphony!! :D

Lovely melody - rather Sibelian, I felt. I think your (generally good) orchestration would be helped by adding french horns to the scoring; they are often considered part of the wind section as they blend well and would provide a greater richness to the sound which will be a little sparse when only the winds are playing for extended periods. You tend to orchestrate using the 'organ' method - each stanza uses a different group of instruments which are either melody or harmony. Bars 247-255 are a bit of a dilemma for me though. Your flute and oboe chords sound lovely but I worry that the oboes will be too loud in the first two bars (no way can you get piano on a bottom c) and might drown both the piccolo and the flutes - although the piccolo is in a high enough register it will probably come through. Pizzicato strings playing slow arpeggios would be a wonderful addition from the entry of the cor anglais onwards (which again sounds lovely) and would renew the interest as well as helping the motion. I'd also like to see slightly more independant string parts in the first line - string players don't like just long chords that all move at the same time. Just a couple of passing notes or little counter-melodies would be enough. If you use horns (or even bassoons would work as well) you could orchestrate the crescendos in the violin melody by bringing them in to bolster the chordal texture beneath. In fact if you gave them some of the chord notes this would free up some strings to do something else in the texture.

Finally, I really wish this movement were longer! This melody has a lot more mileage in it, so add a developing section and them repeat it at the end. The movement deserves a climax in the middle!

This is good enough! I would like to hear more of your compositions.

everyone loves a good cor anglais solo