Ride of the War Horse

This is a rewrite of a piece I wrote last year. The original piece (Tragedy Approaching in Am) was mainly experimental, but upon the rewrite this year, I made it much more "doable." I'm going to be submitting this in my portfolio when I apply to colleges in the coming months for Music Composition. I'm looking for the cold, hard truth. I want this piece to be as best as it can possibly be for applications. (:

Ride of the War Horse

Well, I like the ambient, kinda mysterious mood...

About the instrumentation, I think the Tenor Sax doesn't fit your ensamble very well, at the beginnig for instance, the Tenor is a powerful sax, even with a classic mouthpiece won't be like flutes, also the initial note is too long, (you may activate the Transposition score).

Those Tenor Sax Glissandos are impossible in linear way, a portamento only, diatonic or chromatic.

That wide interval glissandos are playable for strings only, and Trombone (would need to check which ones).

Is better if the violas hold harmony as violins, with the same draw, Cellos+Basses are enough for bassline.

I prefer the middle C on timpani, the low one is weak, difficult to obtain in the 32'' kettledrum (the usually largest).

The Tremolos on Brass ? :blink: You want the Tuba play the low C 16 times per bar ? why not just the whole note ?

Well, I like the ambient, kinda mysterious mood...

About the instrumentation, I think the Tenor Sax doesn't fit your ensamble very well, at the beginnig for instance, the Tenor is a powerful sax, even with a classic mouthpiece won't be like flutes, also the initial note is too long, (you may activate the Transposition score).

Those Tenor Sax Glissandos are impossible in linear way, a portamento only, diatonic or chromatic.

That wide interval glissandos are playable for strings only, and Trombone (would need to check which ones).

Yeah, I was very "iffy" on adding the tenor sax, but I was writing this for a specific orchestra, and that's why I added it. Do you think it would be better to have an alto or soprano sax?

As for the glissandos, I'm getting mixed responses. Some people (including a tenor sax player) are telling me, "yes it's possible," and others are saying "no, it's not." So I'm honestly not sure who to believe haha.

Is better if the violas hold harmony as violins, with the same draw, Cellos+Basses are enough for bassline.

I'll look into that, thanks for the suggestion.

I prefer the middle C on timpani, the low one is weak, difficult to obtain in the 32'' kettledrum (the usually largest).

I found that middle C just didn't have that certain sound I was looking for. It just sounded way too "airy" when I was looking for a strong, deep sound.

The Tremolos on Brass ? :blink: You want the Tuba play the low C 16 times per bar ? why not just the whole note ?

LOL I'm going to be perfectly honest, I didn't even see that I had did that. I have no idea what was going through my mind. I've fixed this.

I don't know if the Sax player told you that misunderstood what you asked, but is certainly impossible in "linear" way (like is sounding in your recording) I Play Soprano (just got an Alto) and Tenor Sax, and the only linear glissandos you can make are by dropping the jaw, that will decrease the pitch in half a tone, and if wide tip opening mouthpiece + slim reed will probably decrease more that a whole tone, No More. All wholes in Saxophone are closed by keys, not with fingers like in clarinet, the player can use that dropping-jaw technique and each note, like.

First gliss C¬B

2nd gliss B¬Ab etc, but that takes time to put the jaw in normal position and "reset" the pitch to its normal state on each key... that will not sound linear at all, and will be slower, and a full octave to descend is a terribly long interval.

Perhaps Muted Trombone can help your music giving a similar effect, (but check the Trombone slides capability)

Alto Sax will serve more to fit within woodwinds, is smoother, but the gliss problem remains.

About Timpani, you can use a BassDrum roll for that, and pp middle C on timpani.

Ahh okay. Yeah, my friend probably misunderstood me. I'll leave the glissandos to the violas, then. Thanks for the info!

I tried your suggestion, adding a bass drum roll + middle C on timpani, and it works. The bass drum sounds terrible in MIDI xD. Hopefully the person who reviews my portfolio will realize that?

Thanks for all your suggestions. I really appreciate it.

Cold hard truth is this...

Timpani tuned down to a C below the staff in bass clef is not practical. Tuned properly from largest to smallest drum without any pedal tension, the tones should be D below the bass clef staff, low F, Bb in the staff, and D. The ranges for each drum should not exceed a fifth, so tuning the bottom timpani drum to anything higher than a low A in the clef is impractical as well. So, let's regroup and see the big picture.

Timpani Tuning...

BIGGEST DRUM - lowest D to low A

Next Biggest Drum - F to C

Next to Smallest Drum - Bb to F

Smallest Drum - D to high A

All in all, given this is the only thing I really had time to look at with my insane schedule, I hope you'll just take some time to look through your instrument ranges and make sure things are written in the staff, within the range of the instruments. Make sure your voicings are as "clear" as possible (meaning each instrument group you've applied a particular aspect of music to like melody, harmony, or rhythm, etc) is apparent. Don't restrict yourself too much by what I'm suggesting here, but consider what your objective is (like you said, refining the piece down to a "doable" concept) and attack that first. Then, make the best presentation of the score you possibly can to schools you plan to audition to... more or less.

That's my advice at least. Good luck!