Endeavour

This is a piece I wrote for my HSC Music Extension (so, final exam for high school). With inspirations from film and program music, the entire piece is built on a single motif heard in the opening.From the program notes: This piece envisages the Endeavour’s voyage in two sections. The first section is the British perspective; the voyage of discovery, sailing through unknown oceans and finding the sweeping hills of the Australian landscape. The second section takes the Aborigines’ perspective as these mysterious boats come in slowly from the horizon, then the eruption of warfare upon their arrival.I guess you could adapt that to resemble any colonial conquest, but being Austalian I thought I'd put the Endeavour.

Endeavour

Lovely entrance. Love the long tones in the strings. The melodies and countermelodies are fantastic. The blending of the different timbres are fantastic. Though the string part gets too low at one point and not enough on top for what you were doing for the rest of the piece. At the build up where the snare comes in, try adding a little variety to the snare. After building it up, give the listener more. I feel like you fell off too soon. I know it sounds like I am saying a lot of negatives, but it has very wonderful textures, melodies, harmonies, chords, countermelodies, and timbres. Very well done, wonderful piece!

Lovely entrance. Love the long tones in the strings. The melodies and countermelodies are fantastic. The blending of the different timbres are fantastic. Though the string part gets too low at one point and not enough on top for what you were doing for the rest of the piece. At the build up where the snare comes in, try adding a little variety to the snare. After building it up, give the listener more. I feel like you fell off too soon. I know it sounds like I am saying a lot of negatives, but it has very wonderful textures, melodies, harmonies, chords, countermelodies, and timbres. Very well done, wonderful piece!

Don't worry, I think know what you're talking about (you're talking about the "fight" at the end right?). I just had to finish it up so I could hand it in on time. I'd probably cut the 2nd violins playing the harmonic and have them double the violas and have both div at octaves, then the cellos and basses div. at octaves too in that section.

The "fall off" was due to time contraints: 2 contrasting pieces, 6 minutes max (total, so ~3 minutes per piece). I would have kept building the "fight" but that would have taken me over time. Might "finish" it after the rest of my exams.