As Long As I'm Living

This is a Level 2 concert band piece inspired by the book "I love you Forever" by Robert Munsch. For those of you that don't know the main theme of the book is a lullaby that the mother sings to her son throughout the progression of the story. "I love you forever, I like you for always, As Long as I'm Living, My baby You'll be." My mother put the words to rhythms and music, and now I'm presenting it to you in this piece through the melody that you will heard throughout the piece. The piece can be divided roughly in the following sections. M. 1-2: Introduction.M. 3-10: Main theme and development.M. 11-14: Variation of main theme (Trumpet Soli)M. 15-30: Second theme and development (Brass and Low Wind Chorale.)M. 31-38: Third theme presented by woodwind choir.M. 39-42: Restatement of main theme presented by low winds and Euphonium.M. 43-46: Minor Inversion of main theme presented by Oboe, First Clarinet, and middle voices.M. 47-57: Climax.M. 58-60: PostludeThis is a very personal piece to me, and if anything, I hope you can find at least one thing you enjoyed! Thank you so much!As Long As I'm Living

As Long As I'm Living

Greetings,

First off the back, you can't really say this piece is for "wind symphony" because that constitutes that this piece is for more advanced bands; at least that is what I've been told from many professors, teachers and fellow composers. Also your Horns should be under your Trumpets as far as appearance in the score, but it is your call if you don't plan on getting this piece published. Now, this is a very beautiful and flowing piece. Tears nearly came to my eyes and I really enjoyed the piece throughout. You have a talent of writing very somber and poignant pieces that I can really listen to. You orchestration in some places was very simple, yet beautiful and added some very nice colors (i.e. mm. 15-31). I will say mm. 47 was not the greatest place in the piece for me. I felt there was just too much going on and the main melody (perhaps even a countermelody?) was being drowned out by things that clearly belong in the background; this is probably due to Finale. I felt measures 56 and 57 were the perfect ending to this piece instead having it end with those last three bars; perhaps I'm just not warming up to it enough. Those last three bars just came off as a little unnecessary to me, but they somehow fit within the piece. Maybe I should just analyze it again. Your use of harmony throughout the piece added much color and emotion, maybe I should be learning harmony from you. Haha. All-in-all, this piece is a true representation of your talents and I would love to hear a more dramatic/engaging piece from you in the future because I feel it would really test your compositional skills. Please, please, please continue to compose music!

Peace,

C.L. Winston :)

I agree. I suppose I meant to use the term as a fancier word for Concert Band, but you're right it is unnecessary.

Also your Horns should be under your Trumpets as far as appearance in the score, but it is your call if you don't plan on getting this piece published.

I do plan on sending this out to some publishers! On finale's document setup, I chose the orchestral setting when choosing the instruments, which is why the horns are above trumpets. Do you know of a way to fix this without compromising the score?

Now, this is a very beautiful and flowing piece. Tears nearly came to my eyes and I really enjoyed the piece throughout. You have a talent of writing very somber and poignant pieces that I can really listen to. You orchestration in some places was very simple, yet beautiful and added some very nice colors (i.e. mm. 15-31).

Thanks so much! :)

I will say mm. 47 was not the greatest place in the piece for me. I felt there was just too much going on and the main melody (perhaps even a countermelody?) was being drowned out by things that clearly belong in the background; this is probably due to Finale.

You have no idea how much i agree with this! This section is being played at a high dynamic volume so with all those parts playing finale really murks them up! I wish this wouldn't happen though!

I felt measures 56 and 57 were the perfect ending to this piece instead having it end with those last three bars; perhaps I'm just not warming up to it enough. Those last three bars just came off as a little unnecessary to me, but they somehow fit within the piece. Maybe I should just analyze it again

I really like the last three bars, but I can definitely see why some may not like it!

Your use of harmony throughout the piece added much color and emotion, maybe I should be learning harmony from you. Haha. All-in-all, this piece is a true representation of your talents and I would love to hear a more dramatic/engaging piece from you in the future because I feel it would really test your compositional skills. Please, please, please continue to compose music! Peace, C.L. Winston

Please, after your hard work on "the great owl" i'm sure there is much more I can learn from you! Thank you so much for your kind words! They mean so much to an upcoming composer!

never mind, i was able to fix the staves without getting the score to look like rubbage! It's updated. go look errbody!

Holy moly. My big 'ol response just bit the dust. *sigh* Here goes again. Forgive me if it sounds curt. :P

First of all, that was really nice! Has that folksy, dramatic sound. I've never even heard of the book or the song in question, but the song is so well set in the music that I can hear the words in the melody. Congrats!

Couple critiques.

mm.3-10: not to be a pedantic jerk, but there is no development in this section. It is simply a statement of the theme.

m. 30: I really think the note before the breath mark should be a different chord (V?). The note afterwards sounds like an afterthought tacked onto it rather than a logical conclusion of the break that the breath mark created.

mm. 47-57: It's not Finale's fault. There is a lot of activity going on here. The individual lines are all moving in spite of one another and it's creating a mishmash of diatonic clusters throughout the section. When writing independant lines like this, the voices cannot be SO independant that they contradict what the others are doing. E.G. if one primary voice is suspending until the + of 1, you can't have resolutions on the + of 4 and 1 in other voices; if half of the voices are sounding the major third, 25% of the other voices can't be outlining a IV chord over it; etc. Make certain that the sounds being produced in and through every measure are exactly the sounds that you want to hear, the entire time.

Incidentally runs and technical flash, chromaticism, augmented rhythms, polytonality and previously clearly-established themes all have a way of piercing through this issue, IMO. Your climax doesn't do that, and I don't think it's warrented. Simply make sure your parts aren't stepping on one another.

m.57: I see what CC is saying. It sounds like the final few measures are awkward because you let the piece end right here. IMO if this chord were a non-tonic chord, the 'postlude' would make much more sense. The hotter the better. Otherwise, there must be much less space between the two sections, and I don't think that's what you want.

General: as a matter of fact, just about every section division (except the climax) is guilty of that. They make a full cadence and simply start the next section, making it sound choppy and sudden. If the music wants to move to a new section (which it certainly does in this piece many times), the accompaniment/bass have to lead it there in the measure before. A simple V-I or V6-vi in the bass would solve the issue in most of the cases in this piece.

Also: Some well-placed suspended cymbal, bass drum and timpani would do wonders in driving some of your "Ahh..." moments even further home. :) I also think mallets (bells, marimba, vibes) would add a lot to this. Though I realize it's a lot of work to do so.

Very nice, Mike! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks a lot Peter! You bring up some great critiques and I'm definitely going to try to improve my harmony! Hopefully this can be fixed with a course of A.P theory. (If they even let me take it!)

Thanks alot, and I'm glad you enjoyed!

This definitely had some amazing moments! Very beautiful, many sections I got goosebumps. This is definitely my favorite piece of yours. Melodic wise, I think this is pretty much flawless. You never cease to amaze me with your melodic writing. I do agree that your transitions are kind of choppy. I struggle with this same issue. It just takes some practice. In the climax, I do agree that too much is going on. It's too much for the ear to listen for. It's kind of like the ear is listening to 3 conversations at once and can only pick up a little bit of each conversation. Finale may be making this worse, but I think you will find the same thing in a real band, at least to an extent. Your writing is definitely improving, and it's interesting watching you develop as a composer, as I was just there! Great work!

Please, after your hard work on "the great owl" i'm sure there is much more I can learn from you! Thank you so much for your kind words! They mean so much to an upcoming composer!

Thank you for your kind words. It's really encouraging to hear people who listen to my work and enjoy parts of it. There is actually another one of my pieces on here entitled "Banshee: Woman of the Mound". "Great Owl" will actually receive its world premiere tomorrow in Middletown, New York which I'm terribly excited, seeing as it is the first concert band piece I've ever completed. "Banshee" was actually premiere this past May and I conducted that performance; I don't have a recording for it, but hopefully the band director will contact me.

Peace,

C.L. Winston

That's amazing! Congradulations! (-:

are you going to get "Great Owl" published?

That's amazing! Congradulations! (-:

are you going to get "Great Owl" published?

When I get a recording of it within the next few weeks, I hope to get it published by Lovebird Music or Imagine Music Publishing.

I really like the folksy quality of this piece and your use of melody throughout this. At times, I felt the music was a bit slow but you kept it moving nicely good work.

BUMP.

Final Score is uploaded.

Made some minor changes to music, and did some cosmetic stuff.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I really appreciate it! (:

and to all you creepers, you should review as well ! :P