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Butterfly Dance (flute quartet)

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Here's my latest composition, and probably my last one before I start my masters degree! I wrote it for a newly formed flute quartet at uni.

I'm really happy with how most of it sounds overall, and I got a lot of productive harmonic experimentation in there. My main worries are whether the structure works overall as a piece, and in particular there's one transition (bars 115-123) that I couldn't figure out how to do right, it just always sounds kind of clumsy and contrived to my ears despite going through a few revisions.
Score is in C for the purposes of this site. I'm waiting to hear back on one minor thing before I clean up the parts and send it to them.

Using the Alto Flute's pedal Dflat at bars 114-122 under the shifting harmonies of the other flutes creates a  pretty smooth transition back to F major, because it acts as a sub-dominant, leading us to C (usually C7), then to F. Although, the fact that once it resolves to C we are not hearing C7 but instead Cmaj7 creates an uneasy feel, and begs the question - where are we really going with this? Your use of flat 9's in the next measures (and the addition of a Bb - the 7th) give us more of a feeling of dominance than the Cmaj7 did, and as such you have created a perfectly viable modulation. 

Your piece is very playful! I especially enjoyed your use of counterpoint and countermelody - giving every flute a chance to take up the melody and shine! I love the interplay between Flutes 1 and 2 in measures 97-111.

 

Well done, and great work on the score!

  • Author

Thank you! I was intending on it being heard as an F chord in second inversion, but it still works if you're hearing it in C for another few bars.

ilv: A bit of a dig at impressionism there? :P

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