A Simple Waltz, Op.5

Hey Guys

I'm new to this forum and thought i would see what it was like. I'm posting a piece which i wrote this year for my old school orchestra who commissioned me to write comething for them to play in an international festival in Sydney, Australia.

The piece is scored for:

- 2 Flutes

- Oboe

- 2 Clarinets in B-flat

- Alto Saxophone

- Tenor Saxophone

- Bassoon

- Horn in F

- Trumpet in B-flat

- Trombone

- Timpani / Percussion

- Glockenspiel

- Strings

Let me know what you think!! :happy:

Andrew

P.S the midi doesn't play that well for some reason!!

SWaltz.mid

Well done, Andrew.

I can't comment much on this music as it's not a genre I listen much to. However, it's not disagreeable at any point to my ears. Lighthearted and fun, a little playful. You hold some interest with the orchestration. I enjoyed it. Thank you.

Hi Andrew, and welcome to Young Composers. We hope you plan to stay a while! ;)

About the piece, I really can't say much. Are you a college student? Or older? Your music definitely does not sound amateur, which is why I am asking. You really have a knack for orchestration- I like how this is very lightly orchestrated, a lot of woodwinds and string pizz., it creates a very nice sound, like that of Debussy, but infused with your jazzy harmonic pallete.

A couple of things I would criticize (even though I'd feel wierd criticizing your music if you were in fact an older, professional composer): It's a waltz, yes, but does the 3/4 have to stay constant throughout? I'd like to see some 5/4, which is occasionally used (in more modern pieces) as an alternative waltz. Or 9/8, which is good for slower waltzes, or boleros. Also, some hemiolas and beats crossing over the bar and in general, some more rhythmic interest would really give the piece some more spice. I can't say anything about your harmonies, you seem to know exactly what you want in that category.

Another thing...your ending is a little weak to my ears. I would've liked to hear it build up to a climax and end, not just be whittled away in orchestration and finish off a phrase. Although it ends very...cute! ;)

Overall, this is a great piece and I hope you have good performances of it. Thanks for being here, stick around, and keep posting your pieces!!

I found the piece to be a touch on the experimental side, and being a staunch classicalist, I must admit that experimental music is not my cup of tea. That being said, I admit I cannot objectively offer any criticism, constructive or otherwise, to your piece ;). I shall only say I did not particularily enjoy it.

W.E. Sapphire

Hey, Andrew! Been awhile. :P

Nice work. This is quite different than the Baldwin I heard years ago, but its nonetheless just as nice.

It seems you are really developing a voice of your own. You still have that playful side too! :)

I hope you'll share more works here!

Jeremy

I found the piece to be a touch on the experimental side, and being a staunch classicalist, I must admit that experimental music is not my cup of tea. That being said, I admit I cannot objectively offer any criticism, constructive or otherwise, to your piece :). I shall only say I did not particularily enjoy it.

W.E. Sapphire

Experimental? You did listen to it, right? Hmm.. I found it to be a wonderfully light, highly accessible (in a popular music sense), but sophisticated piece, and very solidly rooted in jazz and contemporary harmony. None of it would sound out of place as 1960's sitcom theme music - say, something like the Dick Van Dyke Show.

Andrew, Your deceptive cadences are wonderful - You are always moving forward with a catchy rhythmic change and a harmonic twist. I have only listened once, but it seems many times when I expect you to land on a minor chord you land on the relative major or some related major chord. It's very, very hip. Your orchestrations are thoughtful and your range of colors and textures in this regard is just as forward moving as the aforementioned components. It was delightful to listen to.

One thing; could you please delete measures that you are not using. While there were only 170 measures in the peice, you had well over 21,000 unused measures. :P It took Finale about 5 minutes to load it. I though my computer had crashed.

I look forward to hearing more of your work.

Way to make the rest of us look bad with your one post wonder LOL. And what I of course mean by that is, this piece was amazing, very light and playful, I like your harmony and sense of style.

Very good job, keep it up!

The Lord of the Onion Rings

Yes, I love this sort of harmony! Very in the light music tradition.

Very nice. I love the moving tonality, the cadences, the tempo changes. The midi does it no justice though I can hear beyond it, as it were.

M

Oh, wow. You just became one of my favorite composers... granted you continue to compose with this quality. I think I'm gonna hafta put this through the Garritan PO sounds!

...And I disagree with Nick. ;) I think the constant 3/4 is just fine. I love it when you do a little hemiola, though. A work like this doesn't have to be off the charts in terms of rhythmic complexity to be a great piece! Well done.

EDIT: HOLY CRUD, mon. What kind of MIDI file is this?! I tried to load it into Finale and it had to go through about 20,000 measures... and when it got done, Finale crashed!! I guess I won't be giving it the GPO treatment anytime soon. You're lucky I didn't have anything unsaved in Finale when it blew! ;)

Hey guys

Thanks for the comments! Will post some more stuff soon...

P.S Don't know what's wrong with the MIDI - it came out that way when i saved it from Sibelius 3, strange huh! ;)

Say, Andrew, why don't you just use Sibelius to save an .ETF file of this score? That should allow me to open it with Finale.

Can you do that on Sib3? If so, how?

Thanks

You should just be able to select "ETF" in the file-type menu when you're saving the file. That's how Finale does it, and I can't imagine Sibelius would do it differently.

Hey I checked my sibelius save dialogue and there is no ETF file type to Save As. Are you sure sibelius can do it? :happy:

Hey I checked my sibelius save dialogue and there is no ETF file type to Save As. Are you sure sibelius can do it? :D

I have Sibelius 3 too and you cannot save as ETF.

I wish i had Garritan PO myself, it won't run on my laptop though (too slow) and it's so expensive!! I put the midi of this piece through GarageBand Jam Pack 4 but GB doesn't do changes in tempo so it's pretty useless.... :)

Hey, if you can manage somehow to get a readable MIDI file on here, I'll do the GPO setup and recording for you, I like the piece that much!

That's Great! ;)

What i should be able to do is re-import it into Sibelius and get rid of the empty measures....

Once i've done it i'll post it here :innocent:

If you have the sibelius file, I'd recommend trying to re-export that. Don't try to load this MIDI file, it'll make your computer lock up!

Andrew, I listened to this earlier but was trying to catch up on schoolwork so I didn't have a chance to comment. I was very nervous about listening to it actually because everyone keeps talking about you and how talented you are, lol :huh: so it had all these expectations. Well, they were fulfilled, you have a very good sense for working instruments together to create great colors. I listen to a variety of music and am a fan of this sort of subgenre of classical as well as others, but it doesn't matter what I like - this is an excellent piece for a school orchestra.

The piece had a lot of really great expressive sections, like before the two minute mark and through it, into that grand section after 2:10. The building and the changes in density throughout gave it this lovely undulating texture. The middle, climactic section made me want to go back in time and be swept across the floor in one of those floaty dresses. I do agree however that the ending was not as breathtaking as it could be. It's not that it's a bad ending, it's just that the rest of the piece is so flowy and the end is so abrupt.

Great!

Lol, as for Sibelius...ugh, my school only uses Finale so I am fighting with them over the fact that I like Sibelius 3, hahaha. Those darned weird midis...

I really like this piece!

Very light and dancing! Great orchestrated. - I like your use of glockenspiel.

M

i think it got this MIDI going... just a sec...

YAY! it works!!

OK johannhowitzer, here's the improved MIDI! :closedeyes:

SW2.mid