Revolution (Live Performance)

This was my project for my freshman comp final. The time limit was dictated by the project, but everything else was pretty much open. The piece is split into 5 sections:Exposition 00:13 - 00:30Development I 00:30 - 01:30Chorale 01:30 - 02:36Development II 02:36 - 03:33Recap and Coda 03:33 - endIt uses all contemporary techniques. The main melodic material is octatonic, the harmonies use modes extensively. The chorale section is all chords built on intervals as opposed to function. The second development section is heavily inspired by infected mushroom, and when i was working on this in rehearsals, we decided to take that section as fast as possible without falling apart so we could capture that "razor's edge" feeling. It goes fast, and it's not an easy piece. The only really unusual part of this is the instrumentation. It's written for 2 trumpets, a horn, and a bassoon. I wanted the reedy sound of the bassoon, and i like how they blend with horns, so I gave it a shot, and I think it works well. It's timbre is different enough so that it's easily heard even when the trumpets are playing loudly.Special thanks to the performers, you guys rock!

Revolution (Live Performance)

Hello! First thing I notice is that the harmonies for the first few measures are open fifths; was that intentional? Some of the more rhythmic sections of the piece (at measure 11, for instance) remind me of John Cheetham's Scherzo for brass quintet. Every heard it? It's a good one. Another thing I'm noticing is confusing horn notation. You have a trill on F notated in the bass clef. As a horn player, I can tell you that while it's not going to cause any major confusion at all, It is a bit odd notation. Just put it in the treble clef. Same for from 84-139. Any ease gained from not reading the ledger lines for the low E's is far outweighed by the inconvenience of reading those A's and what not way up in the stratusphere of the bass clef. I also like the effect of the flutter tonguing giving way to the major triads (9-10), etc.

That's all I have for now. Enjoyable piece and recording!

-Sam Parrilla

Thanks so much, Sam! As for the opening harmonies, and several others throughout the piece, that technique was one of the requirements of the project. We had to use secondal, extended tertain, quartal, and quintal harmonies without mixing them within single chords. I haven't heard Cheetham's, but a lot of this was inspired by malcolm arnold and vaughn williams. Thanks for taking the time to listen, I appreciate the comments.

The open fifths do sound a bit thin, if you maybe made them two stacked fifths or some other more extended fifth-based harmony, they might sound like more of a chord. It's a bit weird to have a section with tutti hits like that on an open fifth with nothing else.

I could've used more bassoon; it's the only reed instrument in the ensemble, so it makes sense to take advantage of it's unique timbre, but it's playing the bass line or married with the horn for almost the entire piece. There's only two measures where the bassoon plays alone, and it's just playing a scale, it would be nice if it took melody at some point. In general I found the instruments to be treated in pairs: trumpet/trumpet and horn/bassoon, and other combinations might be nice. Something like this might be pretty subjective though, and I could be wrong.

Don't get me wrong though, I really like it! Particularly the chorale section I found to be quite elegant. The performers did a great job, partially thanks to how you didn't write anything which wouldn't work. Congratulations!

Thanks very much. Do you guys have any comments about the melodies? My hands were kind of tied with the harmony because of the project, it was required to have chords made out of purely 5ths/4ths/3rd/2nds.