At the County Fair - The Big Tent

Hi all,

I mentioned in a previous post At the County Fair - Arcade - I began a sketch for a first movement of 3 movement suite.  The Arcade is the 2nd movement in the Suite.  So I took out the sketch and worked on it.  It was incomplete with many errors and lack of development.  Any  how - here's my composition resurrected.  Please note this is not a "finished" presentation and the there is more to do and the engraving needs to be cleaned up further.  I still haven't shared it with my mentor - who has been unavailable these last few months.

All feed back much appreciated.  I hope you enjoy my endeavors ....

Mark

I imagine this big tent at the county fair to be somewhat like a circus tent with lots of animals performing and jumping through hoops and doing tricks and things.  Your music sounds very incidental with the way you use the percussion and the extended length of certain sections of music which almost function like standing chords.  It's almost like Stravinsky if his music wasn't polytonal (although admittedly this piece does have it's polytonal flourishes sometimes which are very interesting harmonically).  I love the woodblocks and whistles which to me brings to mind some small animal playing the woodblocks and the whistle being blown by maybe a monkey?  The piece has a perpetual forward energy which is only interrupted once at 2:36.  The piece seems to be winding down up to that point, but then it suddenly picks up speed towards the end.  I like the contrasting sections/variations.  Quite interesting!  Thanks for sharing.

It came across to me as a ballet piece - plenty of room for choreographic expression there. It fits with what I call the American modern traditionalists so is easy to listen to. Plenty of drive and variety to it. I'd have liked a little more dynamic emphasis here and there to give it greater punch but this may be something you'll look at as you declare there is "more to do." The glockenspiel touches in brightness. 

The score looks pretty good. It looks like all instruments at concert pitch except the usual double basses and piccolo (my own practice - I'm ready to provide a transposed version if required). A few touch-ups are needed like beaming or not the quaver notes in the violins and violas to match the cellos (bar 3 and on). I'm unsure whether you need to declare à2 for the unison woodwinds (I do but that doesn't mean everyone does. Have others an opinion on this?) Otherwise some text spacing where needed, like bar 24 where the mp dynamic obscures the violin 1 pizz - things you'll see as you tart it up.

A pleasant, bright, accomplished piece ready for its final look-through.