Shards

This is the Finale 2007 demo of "Shards," my first completed work for full orchestra. On November 23rd, this piece will be premiered by the Symphonia Orchestra at Concordia College! The rehearsals have sounded great so far, although the tempo still needs a little work. Please let me know what you think of this demo. I included the sheet music. Thanks for listening! :)

Shards

Oh I really need another monitor, I can never see these score properly, or tiny staves or incomplete view...:(

Is not bad, I like that language, mostly in the middle part of your phrases, but at the end, no, let me explain, you start, you do the following language with interesting harmony, but at the end of the phrase, you feel hesitating and complete it with a perfect chord, then you start another, it gets interesting in the middle but at the end it falls into the perfect chord again, if you want to use the little advanced harmony, that's fine, great, just don't be afraid to use the same advanced harmony in the end of the phrases, which are the columns of your overall language.

The chord progression to the final chord, was for me, very confusing and unexpected, you perhaps would like to check it...

(Also tuning indication for timpani would be good, when to use the same kettledrum and when not)

SYS65 - thanks for your comment. The final set of chords (basically the last 7 measures) were very deliberate and thought out. The penultimate chord is a modified Neapolitan, basically combined with the Dominant, leading to a tonic chord without the mediant, plus an unresolved 9 suspension. To me, this gives the ending a lot of strength and grandiose.

As for the use of more standard cadences at the end of phrases... it just felt right! I'm not sure what exactly you're talking about in your comment - most of my cadence chords contain very unusual inner voice movement. Lastly, I put the tuning cues for the timpani in the timpani part. It gets really cramped on the orchestral score, and the conductor really doesn't need to see those cues. :)

I know that about the timpani, it's just the Timpani player is always dreaming with a score having those marks instead the composer write notes here and there and leaving all the problems to the poor mallets guy :laugh: moving the tuning pedal a half a second before the next note, (the reheasal of course, but don't count with "they have very good memory", orchestra players perform so many thinks that they are always reading)

the ending phrase i meant, (or let's stop calling ending phrases, is only a strong tempo of harmony)

bar 11, 20, 52 etc..

The ending chords, you know, I listened again, is not that bad, (sorry) I just think it needs a rallentando, playback it with a rall and you'll hear :D