My first symphonic work

Hello, I'm new here. This is my first work for orchestra and probably my 3rd ever composition. I've been working on it for a while. It's going to be performed in a few months-what do you guys think? First rehearsal was today (I'm in the orchestra) and it was really nervewracking. There's a bunch I would probably change if I could go back, but it's pretty much set in stone for this orchestra. \

There's clear influences from Mozart, Beethoven, and other composers. I think this work lacks maturity or individuality, and my teacher says I need to work on developing my own  voice as  a composer-but I'm very interested to hear your opinions.

Thank you so much for listening!

PS if you're wondering about the weird orchestra-I wrote this specifically for my high school's symphony orchestra and we don't have every instrument which is quite restrictive 

Edited January 23, 20206 yr by wesleymiller

Wow, for only your third composition ever, this is pretty good! There's a lot of good stuff going on.

If you're going for more of a Mozart and Beethoven sound, you could focus on making this ternary form (ABA), which is what was the form used by Baroque composers. 

Also, a little side note, if you're interested in computer software or soundfonts that will make the instruments sound more realistic, I'd recommend any of the things below:
Musescore (free notation software) - https://musescore.org/en
LMMS (free composition software) - https://lmms.en.softonic.com/download
Free Sound Vault (free, high quality soundfonts) - http://www.freesoundvault.com/sounds/
 

Great job and I look forward to seeing what else you compose in the future!

Wow! This is amazing for a 3rd ever composition!

Regarding the instrumentation, I think that it could work. If there is any way of getting low woodwinds (bass clarinet or even a bassoon) then that would really benefit the piece. What instrument do you play in the orchestra?

There is a problem with some of the orchestration, especially in the woodwinds. In bar 13, you have widely divided harmony in the clarinet section. This will cause what is known as "register confusion" - when multiple of the same instrument play in different registers. It badly affects the resonance of the chord. Bar 14 is very high for the 1st clarinet. You will want to be careful when scoring so high. Bar 96 (the 1st time bar) shows some of the issues with the small woodwind section. The clarinets and flutes are paying notes close together, which can again cause register confusion.

Overall, this piece is very biased towards the 1st violins, although much of the wind scoring is good. This is typical of Classical period pieces, and shows the influence of Mozart and Beethoven. From Figure I (bar 115) the strings are playing a difficult passage. This could work well in a chamber composition, but is at a great risk of sounding muddled with full sections.

On 1/22/2020 at 10:44 PM, wesleymiller said:

There's clear influences from Mozart, Beethoven, and other composers. I think this work lacks maturity or individuality, and my teacher says I need to work on developing my own  voice as  a composer-but I'm very interested to hear your opinions.

Perhaps it lacks maturity, but it is one of your first works. Regarding the "own voice" n̶o̶n̶s̶e̶n̶s̶e̶ opinion, I recommend you have a look at this thread:

Overall, this is really really good for a beginner. Well done!

Edited January 24, 20206 yr by aMusicComposer
Typos

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5 hours ago, aMusicComposer said:

What instrument do you play in the orchestra?

 

I play the cello. We had bassoon, but she went back to her home country Japan. Perhaps I could alter the french horn part to act as the low wind in some cases. 

Thank you very much for your comment on the wide scoring comment, I will definitely look through the entire score and make sure that I fix instances of that. 

Yes, quite an accomplishment. You're developing a good sense of melody and harmony. Some nice doublings in the scoring here and there. Clearly you have a sense of these things.