Symphony No. 1: Diversity

This was the first piece I wrote for symphonic orchestra. It was strictly experimental, the most diverse piece I could possibly pull out of my mind. All the movements are connected, and EastWest/QuantumLeap Symphonic Orchestra was used for playback

Symphony No. 1: Diversity

Wow, this is an army!!!

Well, I'll try to explain, your music is good, there's nothing wrong with it, but an Orchestra is not a Band, In a band you can have 7 Alto Saxes playing the same thing and nobody complains, in an Orchestra each part must have a more individual purpose, in short I can tell you your orchestra is too large for your music, and will be very difficult (if not impossible) to get it performed like that, I recommend you to edit the names on the score and reduce it to a normal size, no need to modify the music, that that's precisely why I say you have to reduce it, because when something can be reduced to less instruments, is because it simply does not need more.

But don't get me wrong,your music sounds very nice.

Thanks for the feedback! But I wrote this piece a year ago, and I really didn't understand hardly anything about instrumentation. Actually, I just got on Sibelius, picked out an orchestra template, and just started trying to not leave instruments blank. Since then I have begun writing more for small ensembles--string orchestras, quintets, choirs. I will be posting more of that type of thing.

Yeah, but that work is good, just edit the names, and that's it, your recording is good too, just to avoid people keep telling you this is too large.

Yeah, cor anglais,alto flute... all that stuff is awesome, but not always necessary. This is a great piece, and is well composed, but if you dropped all of the instruments you don't need, you'd be even better off. I love your melodies, they seem almost mocking and cynical in nature. Great job!

-MF

Okay, thanks!

If you're really 13 years old, this is amazing. It's so conventional!

It's so happy! So friggin happy!

And there are lots of nice thirds up in there

Thanks! And I really am thirteen, although my birthday is wrong on here. I'll be fourteen next month

Could you email me the Mp3 of this? This piece is on par with the other great symphonic work I listen to for inspiration and I would love to listen to this a lot! I'm really inspired to compose now. Thank you for sharing this!

Alright! What's your email?

This is a very impressive work for a first effort composing for orchestra. I really enjoyed it!

SYS65's points are quite valid. There does seem to be a "band" like approach to how you scored it. The beauty of orchestration is the large palatte you have at your disposal to create a wide range of timbres and textures. Bigger is not necessarily better.

I don't think the "Big Band" feel is all that problematic. It's quite entertaining. The opening theme threw me off a bit. I wasn't expecting it, but it held my interest and grew on me. There's a little bit too much repetition, but for a work of this caliber at your experience level, there are far more positive things to say about it than there are negatives. Take that as a compliment from a guy who didn't write like this when he was your age. There's one thing I do want to point out though, just from a macro perspective of the piece as a whole.

I really felt like the solo piano material from 74 to around 130 missed out on some tremendous opportunities for orchestral highlights. This would make a great place for some solo material from your instrumental players, as opposed to leaving it all up to the piano to carry through, for the most part, to 136. Give that some thought if you think about going back to edit the work. Some instrumental colors to highlight the section, maybe even some call/response kind of stuff between different instruments, may lead to some amazing results (and the best part being, there's not really much to tweak, just more icing to add to the cake, so to speak).

As for the ending, bravo. I enjoyed listening to this and look forward to hearing some of your other works. Thanks for posting!