Ghosts of Day's Past

So, I've started a new orchestral work. The idea behind this is to musically capture my experience studying the cemeteries here in Central Illinois. Over the course of the past 8 months, I've gone late at night to cemeteries around my area. The area has a lot of history to it - largely due to its connection with Lincoln. The first settlers came to this area around the 1790s. The first settlements date back to around 1810. And the first graves date back to 1830s - i'm sure there are earlier ones but well, time does take things away from us. The opening 6 bars are introductory - and I plan to recompose it. I'm not happy with the fullness of it. The fugato is on an old version of Amazing Grace that dates from around 1820. I'm quite happy with the fugato as a whole - I do feel that some of the orchestration there could be better, obviously. The problem spot comes at the end of the fugato. I have 5 chords to punctuate the texture there - full orchestral beats. The rhythm in the timpani, I feel should be the basis of the 2nd theme of the movement. But am unsure as to how to move forward - I think I may have written myself against a brick wall. Anyways, any suggestions would be useful.

Finale 2009 - Ghosts of Days Past.pdf

ghosts of days past.mp3

This piece is amazing. :D I really liked it. Much better than anything I've ever written. lol. Keep on writing. I'm excited to hear more of your stuff.

One small issue first. Are there two slashes on the timp half notes at the full orch chords? So, it is 4 eighth notes eighth rest and then 3 more eighth notes in each measure? Is that what you intended? Not a roll? Just wanted to check. I really like the darkness of the piece and it might sound weird to say that the section at 20, when it adds some of the more obscure harmonies towards the end of that idea, reminded me a bit of Heinrich Biber even though the piece isn't otherwise baroque in styling (I guess neither were his in many ways). Anyways, I don't really know how you wrote yourself against a brick wall except that you just stopped :-). This is one of the better things that you have composed IMO. I think even the idea you left off with suggests that you planned to go somewhere..you just changed keys! You could open up the higher (or lower) registers of the instruments here. It is hard for me to sit here and tell you exactly what to do here. A few suggestions though. If you were planning a multi-movement work perhaps you could almost end the piece there. What are you thinking for what comes after this movement? In my own head, I hear that final cello B leading to some fast, creepy E minor section where the ghosts are running through the cemetery or something to that nature. Something like that could continue this movement or make it a single movement picture-esque piece or begin the second. Whichever way you'd prefer. With something as programatic as this idea, I think it might even be a good idea to have some kind of storyline to follow and make it only one movement or three or whatever shorter movements.