Dies Irae - Symphony

When writing this symphony, I had first gained inspiration from reading Book I of John Milton's Paradise Lost. The strong, fierce battle of the angels and demons in heaven created this image of a battle in my mind. With nothing on my plate composing-wise, I decided to write a piano sonata. This sonata then was transformed into the first movement. The second and third movements were then written soon after, keeping in mind the image of the first battle between God and Lucifer.

A long period of time passed before the creation of the fourth movement, as I had at one point lost interest in the piece. After the completion of my AP music theory class (I am a junior in high school), I decided to suck it up and finish writing the last movement.

Overall, I am proud of my work, and am very eager for any help at all! I want to try and make this piece a strong showcase of my abilities, and any help from the critiquers is greatly appreciated! Thank you for your time and expertise.

Mike

1. Techniques used

Modulation, tempo changes, transposition, and codas are used throughout the work as a whole.

2. How long it took to compose

The piece itself took about eight months of writing, fueled by bursts of inspiration, followed by a period of writer's block. An additional three months were spent revising.

3. The piece's structure

First movement: Using a very wide ABA form, it states the theme once, then repeats the seven note theme in variations throughout. The initial A section continues until the 4 part chorale, a slow section. An interlude ends with a fermata, and a D.C. At the coda, the melodic idea is repeated, transposed up, and faster.

Second movement: Very modern feel, this piece is very open and free flowing. Loose structure.

Third movement: A 17/8 introduction holds rich texture with the brass, ending in a single string pedal tone. The brass theme then follows, repeated by the full ensemble. It then opens back up into the string pedal with a glockenspiel ostinato. The rest of the piece alternates with quiet and loud, thin and thick textures. A reintroduction of the theme leads into a 4/4 section. Again, quiet and loud, rich and thin textures continue. A slow section revives the motif of the second movement, and brings in the melodic ideas of the first as well.

A long drawn out crescendo section leads back into a faster, almost frenzied ending, resulting in the motif of this movement at the end.

Fourth movement: A slow introduction leads into a fast, 4/4 section. After unison lines, a relapse of the long crescendo idea is brought out, bringing the piece into a new part. A breif major section brings in a hemiola effect in the upper woodwinds. Transposition ontop of the addition of instrumets brings this piece to a powerful level before dropping back to a quiet interlude.

The strong unison melody at the end is held with many voices. A very strong and loud fermata is held on the last note.

4. Obstacles you ran into when composing

While composing this, the main problem I would often have would be the lack of inspiration. I often had the means of writing a piece, but no emotion or ideas to work off of. This is not often the case, however this piece is very special to me; it is fueled off of many emotional events in the past year, and listening to it in its completion brings back a type of secret diary in the music.

First_Movement.mid

First_Movement.sib

Second_Movement.mid

Second_Movement.sib

Third_Movement.mid

Third_Movement.sib

Fourth_Movement.mid

Fourth_Movement.sib

BRAVO!

Give me sometime and I will come back and give you a review with more details.

Thanks for sharing your talents.

Greetings

pst. The second movement was my favorite.

Hello Micus,

Not a bad piece... I am not incredibly qualified to critique... I am a sophomore in college studying music ed, with composition as a hobby... but I thought I would offer my two cents worth... this piece really intrigues me, so I may study more and say more later, but for now -

1st mvmt - not bad, decent development of a theme... my main complaint about the first movement is there are spots that seem to lack real purpose... good music, just not going anywhere.

2nd mvmt - personally I didn't like the movement, I haven't pinpointed exactly why, but as seen from Javi's post that is very subjective.

3rd mvmt - liked the opening... my complaint with this movement was occasionally the rhythmic punctuation i.e. cymbal/orchestra crash etc got a little repetitive. around 2:40 or so, sounds like repeated cymbal crashes of 16th notes? possibly impractical for a real cymbal player to pull off. In general I think it's the cymbal that disturbs me... I am of the opinion that generally less cymbal is better - of course with midi files it's hard to tell exactly your intention with the cymbal.

4th mvmt - my favorite movement of the piece. intro was good, faster section good, keeps interest and a good sense of forward motion. crazy piano part... I like it...:sadtears: I love the section starting around 2:00... fabulous melody kept on top of rhythmic figures. Final section has a good sense of finality

Keep at it... I wish I could write anything like this even now... much less in high school!

Hey, sorry about the cymbals... I forgot to mention, when there are rolled 16th/32nd notes, that is meant to be suspended cymbal. The single notes are crash. Sorry for the confusion.

>.<

gotcha... that makes sense... nice work!

I only had time to listen to the 4th movement. It's really exciting! Well done. :P Although, perhaps not what I had in mind when I thought 'Dies Irae'.

I love your use of the bells in the first movement. The section where the strings play pizziccato in the first mvt. is my favorite.

Umm, well I only really listened to the 4th movement, and yes, it is great. It reminds me of triumph? Ah, well it's pretty cool. Good job! ^_^

Bravo!

great work very complex and intelligent

nice!

i just have one kinda small problem... you (and many other people in this forum) seem to have some form of MADD... musical attention deficit disorder... in other words... stop switching around so much, i know you need different themes... but give me a break, you try to cram like a 10+ minute symphony into 5 minutes

you also have a tendancy to suddenly cut out half of your orchestra

... sorry i cant elaborate more... i have to go to bed

but really it was an excelent piece... really nice ideas and everything.. just to squished ^ ^

sorry i was mean... but it was a really great idea