Pocket Symphony

So, this is a 13-minute symphony in four movements, each of them (generally) in C major. The last movement was composed first, and it's still my favourite, but I'm happy enough with the rest of it to post it here. Hope you enjoy it!

It is very nice and pleasant music. However if I hadn't knew it is symphony, I would have rather think it is a movie-music suite.

True, I tend to like large-scale works when they sound like film music, like Holst's The Planets suite (which is like a massive symphony in some ways)! Typical symphonic development comes off as pastiche to me these days, at least when I try and do it, hence the different 'feel'. Thanks for commenting!

On 2/20/2021 at 5:07 AM, BritishCompositeur said:

True, I tend to like large-scale works when they sound like film music, like Holst's The Planets suite (which is like a massive symphony in some ways)! Typical symphonic development comes off as pastiche to me these days, at least when I try and do it, hence the different 'feel'. Thanks for commenting!

 

Thank you, Mr. British!  Mr. Ives, is also quite pleased.

A bit late to reply now so I'll keep it short.

Pleasant enough to listen to though I found the third movement a bit drawn out. It came in as light music to me, akin to the American Don Gillis' Symphony 5 1/2.

There were balance issues, a good example being the clarinet solo at the start of the 4th movement. With a real orchestra the conductor would make this more prominent, quite easy against the accompaniment. And the horns at [43] were too intrusive. Just my thoughts though. 

Hi, I really only have two comments: first I thought the orchestration was a bit sparse.  Many times it seemed to be an accompaniment to a lyrical line. I also thought music was a quite "square" with most of the notes on the beat with little counter melodies across the measure line.  The main thematic material variations at times loses it punch through repetition and lack of major development.