Concerto for Guitar and Orchester first Akt

Hi,

this is the first Akt (will be some day hopefully) of a guitarconcerto. Working on it for 3 Years now. I dont know i can ever finish it. But i am stuck on many places in it so critique is very welcome. Are there to many theme lines, is the structure too decoherent, orchester lines to hollow? Modulation i have the most problems i guess.

As i have low butget and not good sf the timpani in the beginning sounds not good but real timpani would i think so sory for this. Oh and its not finished of course (because it ends after 3-4 mins) its just for presenting it with an end.

Concerto for Guitar and Orchester E-minor first part

Thanks for hearing

Esim

It worked well - I liked the contrast of drama with dance. Easy to listen to.

There are a couple of points though:

The repeated crescendo timp rolls at the opening don't work as well after the first one. They won't detract from the guitar entry the way you've composed things but remember that in a live performance they may clog up the flow of a pretty assertive opening.

The harmony seemed to get a bit static at about 2:16. I felt I was waiting a bit long for something to happen - it did in the end so if you're happy with things as they are, fine. See what others think. I'm not sure you'll get a review by any of the important people here, hahaha, official board reviewers for whom anything south of "Major Works" seems a bit too lowly for their sensibilities but there's a hope that others will comment.

The tutti at 3:11 - the guitar would be barely heard against this. Without knowledge of your experience of orchestration "live" I'll just say that samples/midi etc can be a bit deceptive. You've avoided the pitfall here, letting the guitar fall briefly to the background.

Have you thought of progressing it as a chamber piece?

Good luck with the rest.

M

Thank you very much, this is really very very helpfull for me. About a chamber peace: Guitar in a chamber is allways very weak because all other instruments are much much louder than guitar. Thatswhy there is not many chamber music in wich guitar is a part. Orchester and guitar is the same problem, but still is here a bigger tradition wich allows guitar playing with orchester but still is the orchester the giant and guitar a tiny child. Chamber is good i think for flute clarinette or obua for example but violins or chello ist much louder an guitar cant make it though. So the problem is i think that guitar cant play with full orchester at same time without becoming a backgroundinstrument. And my orchestrationsskills are too low.

Thanks for your suggestion about the intro. I think the intro you have very right i should shorten it i guess.

Thanks montpellier

Since I have played many guitar concerto, I can sa you are wrong. If the guitar is needed to be louder, we simply hook the instrument up to an amp or put a mic in front of the instrument. Loudness shouldn't be a factor. The sound man should raise the volume where a tutti is used and needed.

Since I have played many guitar concerto, I can sa you are wrong. If the guitar is needed to be louder, we simply hook the instrument up to an amp or put a mic in front of the instrument. Loudness shouldn't be a factor. The sound man should raise the volume where a tutti is used and needed.

No purist would do that. Segovia never had an amp!

The argument goes that if you applied amplification to all quiet instruments, well, fine....but who wins? Let's face it, an orchestra only needs two violins an amp and a flanger!

Actually it would be ok to have an unamplified guitar with a chamber orchestra. It's a matter of good scoring in the accompaniment and keeping the noise down when the guitar does something important. The guitar is usually placed up front and the conductor should control the ensemble to make sure it's heard.

I've seen H V-L's concerto performed (without amplification) and that's one of the worst (besides being one of Villa-lobos' worst works. He did throw it away but Segovia got a bit cross).

Bullshit, the Villa Lobos is actually quite nice in my opinion. And Segovia did a lot of questionable things.

As to amplification, it really depends on your viewpoint. In most concert halls, it's simply necessary in order to give the audience an enjoyable listening experience - every professional guitarist playing in a moderate to large concert hall would most likely use amplification unless the orchestra is particularly small.

The guitar comes across particularly well recorded or on film where the balance is not artifically loud, it just feels like you're sitting right close to the guitar.

I recently performed Rodrigo's Fantasia para un gentilhombre on BBC 2 and was miked up for that (although not hugely, it's a small orchestra, not much brass or woodwind).

The key is in the orchestration, really.

No purist would do that. Segovia never had an amp!

The argument goes that if you applied amplification to all quiet instruments, well, fine....but who wins? Let's face it, an orchestra only needs two violins an amp and a flanger!

Actually it would be ok to have an unamplified guitar with a chamber orchestra. It's a matter of good scoring in the accompaniment and keeping the noise down when the guitar does something important. The guitar is usually placed up front and the conductor should control the ensemble to make sure it's heard.

I've seen H V-L's concerto performed (without amplification) and that's one of the worst (besides being one of Villa-lobos' worst works. He did throw it away but Segovia got a bit cross).

Want to talk aboujt Purist? All three of my teachers have been taught by Segovia. All of them were strict and all of them were harsh. The difference is you cannot have 15 guitars going at once because it would simply be a waste. The guitar is used because it can do many things by itself. The violin on the otherhand is more than able to merely play one line melodies. You can stack many violins untilt the sound is full. The same cannot be done with the classical guitar. If you did manage to have 15 classical guitar, they would all sound rather different. Each one would vary depending on maker, age, wood, shape, length, ect

Just because you have seen a bad performance doesn't mean the piece is bad. It merely means the conductor did a terrible job and or the guitarist didn't play well enough.

I think you missed the point.

And....I don't recall saying I've seen a bad performance anywhere - on this site anyway. I mean H VL's guitar concerto is a poor example of guitar concerti regards the accompaniment and balance.

Never mind. Not something to make an issue out of!

It's great if you get the balance right, it does have some lovely melodies.

Thank you for the Feedback! Its helpfull.

@BitterDuck

i ve red in another Posting, that you are also in a guitarforum could you please PM me the url or post it in this thread. That would be very nice.

Esim