" La caresse des anges" (caress of angels)

Hi ! 

I'm happy to share one of my works on that forum for the first time. It's a piece for solo viola da gamba which mix different langages. I tried to imagine what could be the sound of the caress of angels, so I hope you'll enjoy it. 

Thank you for listening and give me your feedback / analysis if you like ! 

Excuse me I realized that uploaded a wrong version ! 

This is the right version to listen to. 

Thanks ! 

Welcome to the forum!  We spoke in discord, but the main takeaways:

• Try not to use so many unnecessary ties.  If the music isn't fitting into the measures, reconsider your time signature, or make use of triplets rather than dotted or tied notes.
• When possible, don't use ties within the measure, use dots instead.
• I am usually a fan of the tuplet, but in this case, you have unnecessary and confusing "tied" tuplets (triplets) which is extraordinarily difficult to time, especially since this is a solo piece (no left hand or another instrument track to measure the time against).
• Honor the title of your piece title.  A solo viola piece should not sound like a string quartet.
• Try to avoid fast octaves in string instruments.  You can get away with this for piano (Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique!), but definitely not for a viola.  Unless you are writing some kind of exercise, avoid avoid avoid.
• The music itself is good, however you may want to consider some more variations.

I enjoyed the music ... have you checked all the double and triple stops with a violist? 

Mark

Just now, MJFOBOE said:

have you checked all the double and triple stops with a violist? 

AND quintuple stops?!  LoL - How many strings is the viola da gamba you're writing for supposed to have?  And I guess since it's fretted all those chords are easier to play than would be the case with any other traditional bowed string instrument?  The music is I guess very much in the spirit of a partita - nice job and thanks for sharing!

On 3/10/2022 at 12:58 AM, MJFOBOE said:

I enjoyed the music ... have you checked all the double and triple stops with a violist? 

Mark

 

On 3/10/2022 at 1:01 AM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

AND quintuple stops?!  LoL - How many strings is the viola da gamba you're writing for supposed to have?  And I guess since it's fretted all those chords are easier to play than would be the case with any other traditional bowed string instrument?  The music is I guess very much in the spirit of a partita - nice job and thanks for sharing!

 

Thank you very much for your comments both of you ! 

I agree with you PeterthePapercomPoser concerning the "spirit of a partita" even though I thought of the spirit of a prelude rather than those of a partita when I composed this piece. Concerning those chords, The viola da gamba is fretted so as you said, the chords are easier to play than with any other string  instrument. It has seven chords but I checked with the violist and there are some chords (not so many) that are impossible to be played so I hesitate between rewriting the part with a chords or turn the solo to a duet to keep all the chords I need.