Adagio [Temporary name] [Real recording]

This is an excerpt from a Theme and Variations piece I wrote for my composition exam. I consider the rest to be just an exercise so this is the only thing worth posting. The recording isn't perfect because we didn't have much time. A couple of instruments were missing, I think the players were busy with exams so I had to replace them with virtual instruments.

Adagio [Temporary name] [Real recording]

GENIUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!!!! Ok I'll stop with the all caps thing. Ok, so, never in my life has slow pieces like this one really satisfied me, but this has blown me away. I can't truly hear what composer it could have influenced you. I'm really not great in that sort of musical area but, I'm think Brahms has something to do with it. I recently heard some piece by him where the trombone section plays alone ( I think) It's not the Orchestration that makes this like that Brahms piece ( Whichever one it is!) But it's the melody. The slow shimmering atmosphere and the almost calm before or after the storm feeling (Gustav Mahler was great at this type of effect) and the relief feeling. So, one last time. GENIUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 10/10!!! Favorite!!!!!!!

Wow thanks a lot! :) This piece was mostly inspired by such composers as Ennio Morricone, Bernard Hermann, Hans Zimmer and of course John Williams. I think there's even some Jeremy Soule in there.

Score? I'll review once there is one.

Awesome dude. I can't say much more. Just awesome.

Very brilliant work, I love the harmonies and textures, I'd really love to see score if available?, but still this sounds amazing, reminds me of movie work kudos

congratulations for this piece! I like it!

i like the dissonances at 5:16-17. it sounds very-very good

I would really like to see something modern if you write something like that.

congratulations for this piece! I like it!

i like the dissonances at 5:16-17. it sounds very-very good <img src="http://network.youngcomposers.com/elgg/ipb/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif" alt=":)" />

I would really like to see something modern if you write something like that.

Thanks. What exactly do you mean by "modern"? I consider this piece modern. Do you mean something atonal? I will write some atonal action pieces but they're actually going to be polytonal, sort of like Stravinsky's music. I doubt I'll ever use serialism or anything like that. Looks like Firefox doesn't even think serialism is a word. :P

Edit: Score uploaded. Ignore the extra few measures. Also note the fancy Italian namings. :P

Very awesome piece!!! I like the way you utilized the winds, very clever! You managed to create a very broad, golden atmosphere with this piece that speaks volumes. Thanks for sharing!

Kudos to the performers, they did an excellent job as well!

Hope to see more stuff like this in the future!

-MF

Wow! Very nice piece! It had me hooked from the beginning. I can really feel the emotion in this. Also, this is a very nice recording. I can hear a few John Williams moments in this. I like the strings and winds; the way you combined the two was very nice. I really like your horn parts too. I'd like to hear more from you!

Ben

Wow thanks a lot! :) This piece was mostly inspired by such composers as Ennio Morricone, Bernard Hermann, Hans Zimmer and of course John Williams. I think there's even some Jeremy Soule in there.

I heard more of a John Barry feel to be honest :P

But I definetly also sensed some Morricone as well.

I absolutely loved this piece.

You have to post the rest, I just NEED to hear it now! :D

Very Williams, very film-y. Where do you study?

At a music academy in Eastern Europe. Didn't expect that, huh?

:thumbsup:

At a music academy in Eastern Europe. Didn't expect that, huh?

The vagueness overrode my surprise...

The vagueness overrode my surprise...

I didn't think there was much point in specifying details about where I study because my musical style depends only on myself, nobody makes me write this way. I study at the only Music Academy in Chisinau, Moldova. Most of my colleagues write contemporary/atonal/experimental/whatever music, I don't know anyone else here that writes or can write film style music. I plan to move to America.

This is so amazing! I wish I could write something this beautiful, nothing really stuck out to me to comment on! However, there are some parts where flutes are playing in the low register against the rest of the ensemble! I don't think that would be heard, so I would look into it, ;D Great Job!

This is so amazing! I wish I could write something this beautiful, nothing really stuck out to me to comment on! However, there are some parts where flutes are playing in the low register against the rest of the ensemble! I don't think that would be heard, so I would look into it, ;D Great Job!

Thanks, that's a quieter passage and the flutes are doubled by other woodwinds so the composite sound is definitely heard.

Wow... just.....wow.

Is there any way you could write something BAD? I mean, this is perfect! I can't find one thing I didn't like.

I would like to hear the rest, if at all possible.

Heklaphone

I dont think there is much need for other comments than how good this actually is! this is craftmanship at its best. You are a composer!

Awesome!! Definitely movie-esque in a good way!

I love the last part, but you gotta post the whole thing! It's heart-breaking to hear it stop like that.

Kudos!

Well, since everyone's given you some really positive feedback on this work, I don't suppose it would hurt to give you some constructive feedback on areas this could improve?

First off, I loved it. I think it's top-notch writing in a style that I love to write in myself. But let's get to it, shall we?

I'm on page 3, the strings just dropped to a G in the register on beat one. I'd recommend leaving the G high and dipping into the register on beat 2. This is like a stumble in the melodic line happening on a beat that generally remains strong. Not a deal-breaker, but something for you to be aware of in your writing.

Page 5, this woodwind eighth note triplet extension is pretty thick and dense, but you seem to be trying to taper off. This dense kind of orchestration is not helping... it's actually preventing you from creating the effect (I think) you're going for here. It's also leaving you with some intonation problems, but meh, that's mostly up to the performers to get right. You can help them out a bit there, though, by thinning out the texture some as it tapers out.

Page 10, I really like this middle idea you have here. The horns come in and really ground the idea well, so well in fact, that any performance quirks (tempo phasing between the sections of the orchestra) are extremely noticeable. It's a toughy, because I like what you have. Maybe you could try imitating the strings with the horns in a call/response kind of thing. I dunno, give it a try and see if you like it.

Page 13 & 14, let's hear it for heterophony. That's the bomb! My only concern for performance reasons are the ranges. They're playable, they're just a bit higher than what's safe for such an exposed passage, flutes are okay, Clarinets could actually go higher (I do my best to avoid the middle of the register because of the break), but your Oboes are getting creamed up there with those high 'C's and so forth. They can play those, they're just bound to sound difficult unless you've got some really good oboe players. Look that section over a bit if you plan to make edits.

Page 15, so we're at the emotional crux of the piece - definitely evocative of Ennio Morricone's "The Mission" soundtrack. It really delivers. I think the Horns come in one statement to early, and trumpets could really shine here. Your counter-melody in the horns is gold the first time, the second time it's great, the third time, I was hoping you'd take me up to the written G (sounds as C) to bring in that 9th above the Bb root. Any chance you had anything in mind for the trumpets? Just wondering if you could use the horns in the first statement, trumpets in the second, then both on the third statement... well, it's your piece, I'm just rattling things off from the top of my head.

So, if I didn't mention it above, everything else is brilliant. I'm quite impressed, just take a look to make sure your textures line up with the effects you're trying to evoke and that your exposed voicings are in a comfortable range. Awesome job!

From the score, this seems to be part of a larger work, where's the rest of it? It's pretty good like everyone says. The melody in almost all eighth notes which starts at measure 180 is pretty noodley (it stays too much in one spot moving around on sort of the same notes) though. Actually it's first appearance is fine, because you have all that great harmonic motion (which works very well), and it doesn't actually stay in that spot too much. At 190, though, it feels like a bit of a weak spot until the next section. It's not bad, but I don't think it's as good as the other material, and because of that, it seems much worse than it might be otherwise.

Thanks for the constructive criticism, guys!

Page 13 & 14, let's hear it for heterophony. That's the bomb! My only concern for performance reasons are the ranges. They're playable, they're just a bit higher than what's safe for such an exposed passage, flutes are okay, Clarinets could actually go higher (I do my best to avoid the middle of the register because of the break), but your Oboes are getting creamed up there with those high 'C's and so forth. They can play those, they're just bound to sound difficult unless you've got some really good oboe players. Look that section over a bit if you plan to make edits.

The oboes sound good in the recording so no problem I guess. I actually talked to the first oboist after the recording and he didn't have any difficulty with any of this. :) I even ignore the break on clarinets since this orchestra has some pretty good players.

Page 15, so we're at the emotional crux of the piece - definitely evocative of Ennio Morricone's "The Mission" soundtrack. It really delivers. I think the Horns come in one statement to early, and trumpets could really shine here. Your counter-melody in the horns is gold the first time, the second time it's great, the third time, I was hoping you'd take me up to the written G (sounds as C) to bring in that 9th above the Bb root. Any chance you had anything in mind for the trumpets? Just wondering if you could use the horns in the first statement, trumpets in the second, then both on the third statement... well, it's your piece, I'm just rattling things off from the top of my head.

Yes! I'm glad you noticed the Morricone influence! :D I LOVE "The Mission" soundtrack. I'm not sure why you think the horns come in too early. They're actually playing the melody and the violins are accompanying by repeating the main motif. I agree that the horn melody could have been a bit better the second and third times but this whole piece was a bit rushed. I basically tried writing everything as fast as possible utilizing the simplest methods possible. :P I like the trumpet idea but when I finished this part I was already so happy with it that I didn't even think of changing anything.

The melody in almost all eighth notes which starts at measure 180 is pretty noodley (it stays too much in one spot moving around on sort of the same notes) though. Actually it's first appearance is fine, because you have all that great harmonic motion (which works very well), and it doesn't actually stay in that spot too much. At 190, though, it feels like a bit of a weak spot until the next section. It's not bad, but I don't think it's as good as the other material, and because of that, it seems much worse than it might be otherwise.

I guess it's a matter of opinion because I actually really like that second appearance. It has sort of a more relaxed mood which I think works great in contrast to the first appearance.

I don't really want to post the rest of the piece because I might recycle some ideas from it. The whole piece was rushed and doesn't reflect my abilities as a composer and I feel that I might reuse some of the material from it to make something better. I might even reuse some things out of this part I posted. As an exercise, this composition works, but as an actual piece it just barely meets my standards.

Someone's finally done it! I've been moved emotionally by a piece on YC. To me remembrance it hasn't happened before. I've come close (to one of Max's older pieces, the Psalms, among others), but THIS did it. THIS piece is an example of what music is aspiring to, this piece, IMHO, is truly "modern music".

*Tokkemon climbs off soapbox.*

Now, this piece is awesome. There's no question about it. The melodies are gorgeous, the harmonies support them and provide a great padding for them to sit upon, and the orchestration is very good. There's little to say in terms of negatives about this piece other than to nitpick stuff. I think if this piece was expanded a little bit, it could be a very good stand-alone adagio for orchestra.

First, the awesomeness:

• Horn entrance: Sublime way to start but it works every effectively. It reminded me of Venus of Holst's Planets.
  
• Melodies: I think my favorite part about the melodies are that they are ever-changing, never staying the same for too long. This makes them seem organic and growing, which, indeed, they are. I also love how you will throw in non-chord tones into the melodies for a glorious 9th or sharp 11th to the chord underneath in a quasi-suspension sort of thing.
  
• Orchestration: Your orchestration is almost perfect. I have to say it's very solid and it makes logical sense for almost every decision you made in this department.
  

Now, the qualms:

• Orchestration: Despite it being *almost* perfect, it is *almost* perfect. The 8va violins got tiring after the third time. Indeed, I would use that combination only twice, once in the beginning theme statement (starting at 174) and at the ending theme statement (starting at 223). These sections are connected melodically and texturally except the latter is far more rich and passionate. I would use similar doublings both times but augment it the second time with horns, perhaps a trumpet, and maybe a few woodwinds. I would also stick the violas and cellos on that melody to make it very rich and full. Spread it over three octaves (no more or else it gets muddy) and you're golden. Besides those violins, I would have also used a slight notch more of percussion, especially the glockenspiel. Some of those charming woodwind lines begged for some silvery sheen (such as in 226). I would have also been less reserved about your use of bass drum and cymbals but that's taste and could certainly be challenged on grounds of macro form. Thus, I leave that to your discretion. Slurring in the strings could be a bit more refined but it's not impossible (generally) nor improbable, just, shall we say, coarse.
  
• Score: A bit messy and needs an E-flat major key signature. There's a bunch of enharmonics that must be respelled too to make it bearable for the player. (A good example: 206. The first B natural in the Flute should be a Cb.)
  
• Instruments: Trumpets in C are the standard in orchestras today. Trombone 3 and Tuba should not be on the same staff.
  

That's all I have to say. Thank you for bestowing this piece upon us Max. It was truly a joy hearing it. I do hope you continue to write music like this because it is amazing. Well done and happy composing! :phones: