String Quartet No. 1-II. Adagio ma non troppo

Well, I had so much fun writing for strings, I decided to do it again! I wrote the first movement after listening to a Darius Milhaud piece for the first time, and it had a very big influence on the piece. My second movement has a story about a young boy who has alcoholic parents who escapes into his mind to keep his realities at bay, but he ends up realizing that you can only do that for so long. The third movement is a humoresque done with all pizzicato. The final movement is full of broad musical strokes and constant movement. I wanted to create something that had a lot space for the audience and the players to crawl into while they were listening.

String Quartet No. 1-II. Adagio ma non troppo

Very nice job here. I can see some of the Darius MIlhaud influence. Are you familiar with his Scaramouche for saxophone and piano (or orchestra)? great fun piece. I loved the smooth combination of a few styles in this piece though it stays mostly traditional in nature. Do you have a score? I feel some of the dissonant places are a little bit harsh and abrupt suddenly without a sense of reason. I sometimes use effects like this in my own music so perhaps that is why it stands out a little to me, but perhaps some times they come harsh out of no where for reasons that aren't immediately or later justified. That being said I like the dissonant section around the 3:20 mark with the ostinato part.

This is really good. It is very much early 20th century romanticism with the doubts and the nostalgia too. Maybe the harmony is slightly limited at times. I can hear a little modality which could be expanded and a few dissonances that are cool hones: . This might be a Milhaud influence. It didn't gab my attention too much but slow movements are not easy to make interesting and considering this you did very well.

Thanks for the comments.

While I'm starting to open up the idea of posting PDFs of my music to the site, oddly enough I've misplaced the original copy of this piece...so I'm currently in the process of rewriting it from ear. A process which is...well...not fun in the slightest. :)

Haven't heard the Scaramouche, but I think I'll mozy on over to YT and see if I can find it.

As far as the dissonance goes, I have a tendency in my writing to weave in and out of consonance and dissonance at will. For me, it's exciting to write, and even more exciting to hear. In this particular piece, the middle section (the dissonant one) is depicting a child in a dream-like land (a la "Where the Wild Things Are, if you will). Slightly mischievous, like when things go "bump in the night." Okay, the monster references are pretty lame, but anyway, that's the idea. I wanted to capture that. Dunno. *shrugs*

PS. I promise there was a Milhaud influence. Not might be. There IS. Promise. ;)

I think this is really nice work! I like how it sounds poignant, yet sort of naive and childish: innocent, if you will! And the instrumentation seems very sound through-out.

(Any chance you could share a PDF score with us?)

Thanks for sharing, this was very enjoyable! :D