Orchestral arrangement

Back before school got out, our music teacher gave us a final project. It was basically to use all the skills we learned in theory that year to compose a song. However, it had a few rules. We were to use the given melody at at least one point in the song. The melody is held by the solo oboist in the beginning of the song. We were to create our own harmonic progression, and arrange it.

We were also to include a melodic interlude leading into a modulation, and to include secondary dominant chords, along with an intro and a coda.

I arranged it for full orchestra.

It took about a month total to write. That, however, is a result of me sitting on my donkey and not getting to the computer to write. All in all, it was made in four or five three hour bursts of writing.

The piece is made with a short introduction with solo horn, which then leads into the primary melody held with the solo oboe. The melody is then repeated, held with the strings.

The brass section then takes over with new material, with a short melodic sequence. The melody then passes back to the flute, moving into a con moto section. This slows back down into a rich textured interlude (2:35) that results in the restatement of the theme.

After a fermata, it changes style into a fast, festive feel. (3:26) It quickly changes into a darker, more dire feel. At 4:04, however, it modulates back to major. 4:29 brings the initial melody back shortly.

Writing this piece was difficult, as I am used to creating my own melodies. When forced to use one, and made to create a harmonic progression around said melody, I found that I discovered a progression that had never entered my mind before, how circle progressions are not always the best choice when writing a stable progression.

Overall, I say I learned a lot more writing this piece than I had during the year, as we barely got into notation before the final. I am pleased with the result, and am proud to present it as a representation of what a year of music theory can do for a writer.

AP_Music_Theory_Final.mid

I enjoyed it. It wasn't thrilling, it wasn't exhilarating, but school projects rarely are, right? Technically, I'm sure it's masterful; you probably know a lot more about that than I do. This is definitely a layman's review. There were some really sweet parts in the beginning, those definitely caught my attention. I kept expecting the brass to go into Pirates of the Caribbean around 1:50, so that caught my attention, too. I must say I really liked the first half of it or so, but the last minute and a half didn't engage my interest as well. But it wasn't bad at all, it just seemed like the first half was better than the second to me.

I really liked your piece!

Yeah, it was reminiscent of Pirates at about 1:50; however, to the contrary of Stubbazubba, I belive that the song is as good at the end as the beginning. It sounds like film music, which is always great