Symphony #2 in C minor - 4-Allegro ma non troppo

Hi 🙂

Here's the 4th and last movement of my second symphony. It's partly build with reminiscences of the first 3 movements.

Hope you'll enjoy it 🙂

Link to full symphony :

I want to start off this review by saying that i listened to parts of the other movements to get the feel of the piece, and i've decided that this would sound great in live recording and if it ever got performed in my town i would go watch it! 

There are some interesting intricate melodies all throughout this movement which are all really cool individually, but there is not much sense of structure in it. Also some of the harmonies seemed to clash with other parts in some spots, i don't know whether or not this was intentional. There are also some parts like around 3:40 where it sounds a bit confusing and the violins sound like they're playing a completely different piece.

Take this review with a grain of salt as i don't know much about composing for large ensembles.

Thanks for sharing this with us!

On 5/30/2021 at 11:00 AM, malumCompositor said:

I want to start off this review by saying that i listened to parts of the other movements to get the feel of the piece, and i've decided that this would sound great in live recording and if it ever got performed in my town i would go watch it! 

There are some interesting intricate melodies all throughout this movement which are all really cool individually, but there is not much sense of structure in it. Also some of the harmonies seemed to clash with other parts in some spots, i don't know whether or not this was intentional. There are also some parts like around 3:40 where it sounds a bit confusing and the violins sound like they're playing a completely different piece.

Take this review with a grain of salt as i don't know much about composing for large ensembles.

Thanks for sharing this with us!

 

Hi @malumCompositor !

Well, thanks for your first sentence : that's the main point !

About the lack of structure : yeah, it may be so, I'm getting more concerned, step by step, with introducing more structure in my orchestral works, taming the original inner flow. I don't see any non-intentional harmonic clash in my piece.

Also, the violin arpeggios you point out at 3'40 don't seem confusing to me, they are just background ornamentation ; I had more interrogations about the part at 2'15 in the third movement... 

Thanks for reviewing 🙂

Disclaimer: I haven't listened to the other movements, but I will in time.

I echo what @malumCompositorsaid about a lack of structure. You have some good ideas here and there, but they seem to be severely disjointed. Try to not to cram everything at once. I did like the motivic figure and its subsequent development from measures 9-16. 

There are also a lot of questionable harmonic/melodic choices...For starters, the key signature at the beginning is in C minor, but the material is in G major...and it mostly stays in the G major/minor-ish tonality the rest of the piece. There are odd harmonic progressions (the last few measures of the movement for example), harmonic clashes (flute/oboe around 97, B natural in bassoon at 96)....even if intentional, sound very odd. 

Your string writing is alright. Wind writing on the other hand needs more polish. Overall, a little orchestration studying might be helpful, just to get a general idea of the capabilities for each instrument. 

On 6/4/2021 at 2:19 AM, danishali903 said:

Disclaimer: I haven't listened to the other movements, but I will in time.

I echo what @malumCompositorsaid about a lack of structure. You have some good ideas here and there, but they seem to be severely disjointed. Try to not to cram everything at once. I did like the motivic figure and its subsequent development from measures 9-16. 

There are also a lot of questionable harmonic/melodic choices...For starters, the key signature at the beginning is in C minor, but the material is in G major...and it mostly stays in the G major/minor-ish tonality the rest of the piece. There are odd harmonic progressions (the last few measures of the movement for example), harmonic clashes (flute/oboe around 97, B natural in bassoon at 96)....even if intentional, sound very odd. 

Your string writing is alright. Wind writing on the other hand needs more polish. Overall, a little orchestration studying might be helpful, just to get a general idea of the capabilities for each instrument. 

 

Thanks for reviewing @danishali903

I was aware of the material's going widely in G major, I just didn't mind letting a C minor key signature, as it's the main tonality of the whole symphony. Laziness ? 😉

I dont get you about the B natural in bassoon at 96 : the vertical harmony there is in full G major, except the E flat at double bass coming at 97, put here to let a - to be resolved - tension with the main C minor key (tension to which participate the F sharp at flute/E flat at oboe coming also at 97). Doesn't sound odd to my hear, but maybe that's matter of taste.

I agree with you on my writing for wind's needing more polish.

Overall thanks for your advices 🙂