Flying: On The Breezes of Dreams

With this piece I intended to paint a short scenario.A boy is lying in grassy field staring up at the clouds as warm sea breezes gently sway the grass around him. He begins to doze off to sleep but suddenly he realizes that he is floating off the ground and being carried by the breeze. He begins to soar higher and faster, and he sweeps across the field and out over a cliff above the sea. Eventually the boy returns to his spot in the grass and gently floats to a landing...Of course he awakes and it turns out that it was only a dream after all. (ha ha cliche' but it works for me)I set out to write a piece that takes heavy influence from minimalism, but the intro and the ending both have a very impressionistic quality. I should point out that the digital playback by no means captures the amount of expression that I intended. Certain moments in the score where I gave specific expressionistic details like the first measure and the "wind chime" section for example.Anyway, thank you for listening. Cheers. :)

Flying: On The Breezes of Dreams

Very expressive! The constant use of the pedal gives it an echo-ish quality. I like the addition of extra-harmonic notes to the basic chords of the first section. Very dream-like.

Thank you for listening. Yes, the heavy use of both pedals creates this kind of "whoosh" like resonance that I used to imitate the sound of moving air like a breeze. I only wish I could get the playback to capture what it sounds like live.

This is really great work, TheCrowing :)

--You use the impressionistic style very well: there's subtlety in the music and very close attention to detail in the midi's playback to make it as good as possible (I'm sure you yourself could add more, but you did genuinely well with what you had :thumbsup:) The lead-in into the middle part where he "flies through the air" was marvelous and beautiful, and I actually felt exactly what you wanted me to feel, I think.

--While I do love the middle part, it does go on for a rather long time. Measures 55-141! :blink: It's nice you changed the time signature in the middle, but if I hadn't seen it on the score, I'd have never really known, so maybe you could trim some fat there :) Just something to consider.

Amazing work, TheCrowing, this is one of my favorite pieces on the site :D I give it a 10/10 for the, in my opinion, brilliant execution of your idea. The idea as a whole just really works.

Again, welcome to Young Composers! I hope you enjoy the site and all it has to offer. Feel free to offer any thoughts or suggestions you may have on others' pieces as well, I'm sure they'd appreciate them ;)

Thank you so much Serge (again, I love your user name) :)

I understand what you are saying about the middle section. I dont think I want to change the length, because I was going for a kind of minimalistic repetition and I want the "flying" portion to be substantial, but perhaps I should do something to vary it up a little bit.

Again, thank you for the generous compliments. I am really enjoying this site so far. Everyone is doing such great things! :happy:

Wow! I love the final product. You had a great start in class, but I love the middle section and how you came back to wrap up the end like the beginning started. I think my favorite part was how you accented the higher notes during the minimalist part to create it's own melody and then included a counter rhythm in the bass. I think I may have to agree with Serge though. Maybe mix it up a little bit. But overall, amazing job on the piece.

Thanks Jess. Im glad you got to hear the final product. It was awfully incomplete in class :ermm:

Make sure you keep up the composing. You have talent!

Beautiful! Great pedal idea too. I agree with Serge and others about the middle being too repetitive, BUT... My advice is to make it longer! I think it would sound great if you extend the section and slowly change the ordering of the notes so the listener sort of knows what to expect but gets some surprises. It would still be minimalistic, but maybe more engaging. You could even start adding accents on notes and switch up which notes get them. Anyway, great work, just a little food for thought.

Thanks for listening and the comments Orpheus. I think that if I start to add more variation in the left hand as the middle section unfolds, it may help to break up the repetition that everyone is referring to. I gave certain pitches accents in the right hand to create a melody that stands out from the flowing 8th note rhythm, but maybe I need another layer happening in the left hand figures?

Anyway, thank you all for the compliments and critique. It is most appreciated. :happy:

Good work! Some of the sections seemed to go on a bit to long for me - but all in all, I think you realised your expectations nicely this piece. Thanks for sharing this!

This is amazing. Near perfection!

One thing- the vamp on that one motif at 56 goes a little long. Maybe it would sound different live?

Ah, what the heck. I like it anyways. :happy:

Well I may be a bit biased but It is much better live. The dynamic is too consistent in the playback, when played live there is a considerable amount of subtly to be added to it.

Thanks again everyone :happy: