November 16, 20196 yr The piece is based on a European version of the second part of a Jewish Chant called "These Candles". It is said on the holiday of light which is... in about a month and a half from now. Titled "a Prayer for a Light Long Forgotten" the piece is meant to take the listener into a dark night on a pagan ancient tribe, a night in which from darkness, by prayer, grows a big light (say, they light a great bonefire and dance around it). Thus, I try to make the piece go from darkness to light using scale, chords colors, register, tempo etc. Please listen and tell me what you think of it, any reviews are welcome, especially the critical ones.
December 14, 20196 yr Hey my friend, One thing to consider is marking slurs on the cello part. I don't know if you are aware that generally, string players use slur markings to know how many notes to play with one bow. This can affect everything from volume to tone color, so for places like measure 9, think about a cellist playing that and whether or not you want them doing all four notes in one bow or doing maybe two to a bow for better sound. If you have thought of this and have marked accordingly, it's fine. I wanted to let you know just in case though. I was writing the above comment when the "He-Ya!" started; that scared me! Lol Very cool though. Also, the 5/8 bars are cool. Overall, I think this piece is really interesting and would be great fun to hear live. It's very imaginative, and I was looking forward to what came next the entire time. Great job!
December 14, 20196 yr Author @celloman99 I'm glad you like it :) I've been checking the piece for reviews every weekend the past month XD Yes, you're right, these slurs might actually be too long. I'll reconstract it. Thanks for the review!
December 18, 20196 yr I love your harmonic language here. The piece definitely has a Yiddish feel to it -which I adore. A few comments: 1. I love how the Viola counterpoint comes from nowhere at measure 13 (one of my favorite techniques). However, the double stops at measure 18 bring attention to this line and pull it to the foreground -which I don't think was your intent. I'd look at redoing this. 2. The extended techniques used add nice color. I loathe reviewing pieces that use harmonics, beating on the instrument, and other techniques arbitrarily. You use them to add timbral variation -and you do it well. All in all, I greatly enjoyed this piece! Thanks very much for sharing. I look forward to hearing more of your work!
December 23, 20196 yr Author On 12/18/2019 at 3:42 AM, jawoodruff said: I love your harmonic language here. The piece definitely has a Yiddish feel to it -which I adore. A few comments: 1. I love how the Viola counterpoint comes from nowhere at measure 13 (one of my favorite techniques). However, the double stops at measure 18 bring attention to this line and pull it to the foreground -which I don't think was your intent. I'd look at redoing this. 2. The extended techniques used add nice color. I loathe reviewing pieces that use harmonics, beating on the instrument, and other techniques arbitrarily. You use them to add timbral variation -and you do it well. All in all, I greatly enjoyed this piece! Thanks very much for sharing. I look forward to hearing more of your work! About your first note- I meant for the Viola to pop out for a sec, and wanted it to be a little... bolder there. Thank you for the review :)
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