The Awakening of the Tides (String Orchestra)

First time writing for an ensemble this big, took a while, includes a small cello solo. Let me know what you guys think!

The first four notes of this sound just like the main theme in Holst's Planets - Venus although you develop your piece quite differently so it's by no means a copy.  I like your careful manipulation of unison voicings and you split the unisons very well at well chosen points, harmonizing the melody quite effectively.  You also use your suspensions quite expressively in this - it's really very beautiful.  You also use both major and minor varieties of dominants which gives your piece extra color (assuming that this is actually in A minor and the ending is left as a half-cadence intentionally - it certainly sounds like it should resolve to A minor).  I like how the basses and cellos invert the solo cellos melody in meas. 169.  Great job and thanks for sharing!

@PaperComposer Thank you for listening! I had never heard Holst's opening of Venus (or the piece itself) until you brought it up and it shocked me completely because no one else I'd shown the piece to had brought it up so thanks for that insight. I guess I probably wouldn't have been able to write it in this way if I'd heard before so I'm kinda glad I'm only discovered this recently.

You're kinda right in that it is in A minor - well certainly it's the home key for the majority of the piece, I didn't intend for it to be the official main key hence the no key signature was meant to signal a more ambiguous nature (it's just a coincidence that A minor doesn't any sharps or flats) so I just accepted it more as A minor as I continued writing the piece. The ending though kinda signals my original intention for no official key (or certainly not a traditional ending in the home key) so I actually find it interesting that it sounds like it should resolve to A minor for you, because for me I felt it couldn't and that it shouldn't return to A minor again once it moved to towards C major (around K/b.210). In my mind when writing it was set like that but it's interesting that you see it a different way with A minor as the key so can appreciate that.

Thanks for the compliments, I really do like the pizzicato section with the cello and bass going against everyone, and my other favourite part is bar 48 - 53, for some reason that progression always gets me. Appreciate the comments!

Wow, I really like this piece overall. It's well put together, it sounds phenomenal, and I can just envision a sea shore with crashing waves throughout all of this. Well done!

Also, I'm trying to get better at writing music for strings overall. I can write parts for wind instruments just fine, but strings are a bit more foreign to me. Any tips or advice?