String Quartet

He's a string quartet written a few years back.  Listened to it today and made a couple of notes tweaks.

Feedback always appreciated.

Mark

I feel like this piece never flourishes to its full potential.  I think what contributes to this feeling is the mostly flat dynamics throughout only crescendoing to fortissimo at the very end in a sort of opposite of a fade-out.  Another thing that I think might add to my impression is that the melodic material doesn't seem very substantial or profound making the piece seem superfluous.  Sometimes my professor in music school would have us define "up" and "down" measures within a piece we were analyzing as a kind of exercise in understanding phrasing.  But I think your material in this piece is quite static never really suggesting a directionality.  As a result it doesn't really feel like I've gone on a musical adventure in this piece - it feels like I've stayed in one place despite the contrasting sections which I feel weren't really different enough.  Also, your 3/4 sections have a kind of rhythmic illusion.  Like in meas. 138 where everything suddenly becomes syncopated.  If there is nothing in relation to which the listener can hear the syncopation, the syncopation will feel like it's on the beat all of a sudden and the whole point of syncopating will be moot.  It might as well have been written one 8th note over and the impression on the listener would have been the same.  Tchaikovsky does this in his Pizzicato Ostinato movement of his 4th Symphony but then uses the syncopation to suddenly create surprise when he suddenly switches to stressing the beat once again.  Anyways, I hope some of that is helpful!  Despite the multitude of criticisms I gave you, the piece was still enjoyable.  Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the feedback.  It is much appreciated~!