Bernice In Halladay Street

The most consonant piece I've done in a while, it's also somewhat sentimental. A Hollywood sound backdrop. Some of the string writing may be similar to the stylist George Shearing, though not so much in the jazz idiom, and with more open voicings. Part of the Hither And Yon series.. Please enjoy and offer your comments!

HITHER AND YON

Pearls Of Perception
https://www.youngcomposers.com/t38915/pearls-of-perception/

Rain Dance
https://www.youngcomposers.com/t38695/rain-dance/

Halliday Street
https://www.youngcomposers.com/t39165/halliday-street/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2_eh54c2wg

Edited February 12, 20206 yr by Ken320
Fixed the score.

A lovely piece. I particularly loved the ending, fading out almost to the opening: clarinet, piano and quiet shimmering strings. Relaxed. Sunlit.

Excuse me saying this but while I could appreciate the Shearing strings it seemed more to hark back to that grand time in "modern traditional" American music that seemed to run from the late 1930s to around 1970 when those great symphonists appeared. I could have been fooled into thinking it the second mvt of a piano concerto by...who? Walter Piston? I don't know...but hope you get what I mean. Accomplished in harmony, the piano part, the balance of the scoring, the flow.

Yeah. Accomplished.

Thank you for your comments, @Quinn. I would hope that there are originalities here among the familiar - the derivative even. But I don't know Walter Piston's music and I'm not sure who the other composers you refer to are. I suppose that covering that forty year span you've got the musical theater guys like Jerome Kern, Richard Rogers and Kurt Weill. Sondheim too. The American musical Songbook?

Well it is original as far as I can hear but I meant the sound generally. My early musical roaming took me to 20th century British and American music. The composers? Persichetti, Diamond, Mennin, Creston and others come to mind. Perhaps one could include Bernstein and Copeland. 

7 hours ago, Quinn said:

Well it is original as far as I can hear but I meant the sound generally. My early musical roaming took me to 20th century British and American music. The composers? Persichetti, Diamond, Mennin, Creston and others come to mind. Perhaps one could include Bernstein and Copeland. 

 

 

I don't know the composers you mentioned, I had to look them up. But I listened to some samples of Persichetti who wrote for band  instruments and I was amused as if it were a joke, the connection. Not saying your response was insincere. Just puzzling.

Edited February 3, 20206 yr by Ken320

Probably not the place to discuss composers here but IIRC Persichetti wrote 8 Symphonies. My first acquaintance was with his 5th for Strings - the Louisville Orchestra reading...I studied the score in some detail. Another study was Creston's Invocation and Dance.

[Edit: I'll say again it was the sound in the general sense. And it may be better to look up, say, the Adagio of Piston's 2nd Symphony as an example of the sound to which I referred]

My listening to a work approaching 8 minutes then commenting is most sincere or I wouldn't bother. If you're happier I blank out my replies, just say the word.

Edited February 3, 20206 yr by Quinn

What? I did not mean to offend you. Just having a discussion about music is all.

So musically, there are some great moments in here.  As a brass player, I'm APPALLED :) ☺️😄😆  A Trumpet in here would be nice!!! hehehe

Your horn is a little low.  It can sonor even greater higher. Some of the "mud" register you have here might not blend in this chamber setting.

Okay score critiques.

Rule of scores:

1) The first page ALWAYS has the complete instrumentation. So show all of the instruments so the conductor can be prepared and knows firsthand

what is going to happen/who's playing.

2) Strings are ALWAYS systemically barlined and should have a bracket.

3) The synthesizer goes ABOVE the stings underneath the percussion. Generally , piano is first, then synths.

4) Copyright goes on the bottom center of the page with any contact info or rights.

5) You need to put concert score on here. Since you have Clarinet in Bb, conductors automatically transpose unless we see it say "Score in C" or "Concert Score."

Blimey! Someone's into bureaucracy! 

Convention be damned. For the purposes of demonstration does it matter? I thought this place was about commenting on composition, not the clerical work. If I submit a score here it will always have the strings at the top, percussion at the bottom. If I'm sending it to the BBC, it'll conform to the usual format. Reason: on-line (even pdf) can be difficult to read more than about 8 staves. As most happens or is led by the strings, they remain within the commenter's view. Most commenters here aren't conductors...

Lovely orchestration. Reminded me of early John Williams, because of the combination of sustained strings and woodwind. Did you use NotePerformer3..?

Thanks for sharing

Mike

6 hours ago, Quinn said:

Blimey! Someone's into bureaucracy! 

Convention be damned. For the purposes of demonstration does it matter? I thought this place was about commenting on composition, not the clerical work. If I submit a score here it will always have the strings at the top, percussion at the bottom. If I'm sending it to the BBC, it'll conform to the usual format. Reason: on-line (even pdf) can be difficult to read more than about 8 staves. As most happens or is led by the strings, they remain within the commenter's view. Most commenters here aren't conductors...

 

yes it can matter, that's why we teach it! Plus I'm a fan of @Ken320's music. I believe he has a strong chance of getting his music played by a live orchestra so I give critiques to aid where I can.  Also, there are some on here that dont know and want to learn. Once again, it's 0.02.

2 hours ago, maestrowick said:

yes it can matter, that's why we teach it! Plus I'm a fan of @Ken320's music. I believe he has a strong chance of getting his music played by a live orchestra so I give critiques to aid where I can.  Also, there are some on here that dont know and want to learn. Once again, it's 0.02.

 

Yes, he's accomplished. He's also expressed an analytical interest.

It's also interesting that my Boosey and Hawkes copy of the Rite of Spring doesn't show the full instrumentation on the first page.

But that's beside the point. Let's leave it there shall we?

On 2/9/2020 at 9:20 PM, maestrowick said:

So musically, there are some great moments in here.  As a brass player, I'm APPALLED 🙂☺️😄😆  A Trumpet in here would be nice!!! hehehe

Your horn is a little low.  It can sonor even greater higher. Some of the "mud" register you have here might not blend in this chamber setting.

Okay score critiques.

Rule of scores:

1) The first page ALWAYS has the complete instrumentation. So show all of the instruments so the conductor can be prepared and knows firsthand

what is going to happen/who's playing.

2) Strings are ALWAYS systemically barlined and should have a bracket.

3) The synthesizer goes ABOVE the stings underneath the percussion. Generally , piano is first, then synths.

4) Copyright goes on the bottom center of the page with any contact info or rights.

5) You need to put concert score on here. Since you have Clarinet in Bb, conductors automatically transpose unless we see it say "Score in C" or "Concert Score."

 

Thank you for comments, @maestrowick. I don't mind instructions, especially when they are correct and I'm being sloppy and in a rush. It won't happen again! I made the corrections.

Which parts were muddy?

On 2/10/2020 at 8:41 AM, Mikebat321 said:

Lovely orchestration. Reminded me of early John Williams, because of the combination of sustained strings and woodwind. Did you use NotePerformer3..?

Thanks for sharing

Mike

 

Thank you! No I used East West Hollywood Strings. I would like to try Noteperformer though. It sounds very good and it would eliminate a lot of the extra work I have to do.