May 24, 201114 yr I wrote this one a while back and I thought I should share it and try for some feed back. Air's Breath
May 30, 201114 yr Alllllrighty here, let's see. First and foremost your percussion is BAD BAD BAD. OH NO SONNY NO. SHAME SHAME SHAME. HOW DARE YOU. etc. etc. Right so, score percussion parts by player, not by instrument. You will reduce the score size by 25% AND remove a great deal of logistics planning and confusion from the players themselves. The exception to that is timpani, it is always its own staff. I have seen some band composers also separate out the mallet instruments from general "percussion" parts, so that is also an option. But you need to have "percussion 1" "percussion 2" "percussion 3" etc. and then have one player play multiple instruments (be sure to label what each instrument is on the part). For some reason at 2 after H you re-establish the same key signature. Get rid of that. While you're at it, a lot of times you will see a double barline at a key change just to help players notice it visually. You don't need to specify Bb Tuba. Tubas are unique in the instrumental world in that all instruments will read from a "C" part with different fingerings, so all parts will be in "C" (that is, played as written/non-transposing). You've chosen to use a soprano sax instead of two altos, which is alright, but very non-standard. Soprano sax is a fairly rare instrument in band scores, and most bands won't even have the instrument, much less the player. Something to think about practicality wise if you're looking to get a real ensemble to play this. In m.131 you write "diminuendo" on either the timpani or tuba part (I can't tell which), even though neither are playing there - what is your intention? Ideally, you would write in all of the timpani's note changes, although if you didn't, you wouldn't be the first. "Ferverant" is not a word. "Fervent" is, though. Same with "Exhalted" (it's Exalted). Music-wise you have a nice idea here, sort of a typical band piece with a fast, loud, exiting section that dissolved into a quiet, slow, contrasting section. You may suffer from some over-orchestration at points, but eh. Whatever.
