Passion (Short Orchestral Sketch)

Hi. I'm a new composer (started maybe four or five months ago) and am just checking to see my current quality of work. This is a small excerpt of what I am currently capable of. Am I on the right track?

Looking at your score I see you often write groups of staccato 16th notes for the strings which at the speed they're playing them at seems impossible.  Although you might mean for them to be played spiccato, I would consult a string player (unless you are one yourself and already know this) to see if spiccato at that speed is practical/possible.  It would be more practical and idiomatic though if your groups of four 16ths were in a pattern of 2 legato notes and 2 staccato/spiccato notes which would also be much easier to play.

As for the music it seems like many composers when they first start out in composition write these hyper-intense and driving pieces.  Not that that's bad but I did find that after a while of composing music my musical ideas became more manageable and tended to in general kind of slow down in tempo.  I think sometimes faster tempo pieces when played at a slightly slower tempo can be perceived as more profound and less kitschy.

If this is one of your first compositions as you say then I think you've done quite well!  Keep going and I hope you share more of your music!

Peter

There are many beautiful ideas.

With time (as I also do) you will polish many details. For example it makes no sense long notes with pizzicato (contrabasses in the very beginning).

If you're really just sketching, choose ONE idea to work on and develop in the sketch. Your first 4 pages seem to be an introduction, but it's kind of a jumble of ideas, no one of which goes anywhere before it's replaced by something else. On page 5 you hit on a theme that could have legs, but you stop before you finish the full thought. Throw out the intro, and flesh out that theme into a full period that makes one complete musical statement. Decide what you're saying before you start putting notes into bars. And if it turns out to be good stuff you can always write an intro for it later.

On 4/11/2022 at 3:18 PM, Tom Statler said:

If you're really just sketching, choose ONE idea to work on and develop in the sketch. Your first 4 pages seem to be an introduction, but it's kind of a jumble of ideas, no one of which goes anywhere before it's replaced by something else. On page 5 you hit on a theme that could have legs, but you stop before you finish the full thought. Throw out the intro, and flesh out that theme into a full period that makes one complete musical statement. Decide what you're saying before you start putting notes into bars. And if it turns out to be good stuff you can always write an intro for it later.

 

My bad