A Verdant Dawn

This is a piece for wind quintet that I've been at for the past few months. I really wanted to take a deep dive into quartal harmony, and it's been fun figuring out how to use this style for my own compositions. I'd love any kind of feedback, and hopefully you enjoy!

Did you wash your hands with Dawn before making this? Its mfin clean! the rhythmic interplay, the structural integrity and continuity, superb. I love the harmony as well. Very zoned out listening to this, almost like a trance. 

What a great use of the quartal harmony! So fitting to the dawn you want to depict! The harmony is so refreshing! The quartal harmony are kept being used but I can't find any moment that is boring! I can feel how vivacious that is!

I can imagine the dawn you create! The birds are humming in b.96!

My favourite section is b.64-88. So serene. Overall that's really great descriptive music!!

The digital interpretation is very nice. Is this Finale libraries or something like that?

I like the care put into the score engraving; definitely a detail I always keep in mind and that I definitely value when it's considered by other composers. 

Now, regarding the piece itself, it really sounds grandiose, peaceful and majestic (sometimes one of those three, sometimes all three simultaneously): trills don't bother (on the contrary, they embellish) despite being a constant for quite a long time near 5:30.

Everything is beautifully constructed. I don't get bored, these ten minutes passed like a breath (replaying now). The rhythm, mostly led by the bassoon, fits very well with the rest of the melodies and "stuff" going on and it's precisely the very nicely achieved contrast between those rhythmic sections and the more paused ones where I find that this piece shines.

My only criticism would be about the ending which I felt not conclusive enough, but I suppose this is typical from quartal harmony pieces due to their nature.

In any case, congratulations! This is another successful solid piece I'm glad to have had the chance of listening. Sharing it on my TT if you don't mind (I have like 1 follower anyway, lol).

Kind regards!!

Thanks guys for checking it out!

23 hours ago, Left Unexplained said:

Did you wash your hands with Dawn before making this? Its mfin clean! the rhythmic interplay, the structural integrity and continuity, superb. I love the harmony as well. Very zoned out listening to this, almost like a trance. 

Haha it took longer for me to write this one, but I'm happy with the result. Glad you enjoyed this, thanks my guy

22 hours ago, Henry Ng said:

The quartal harmony are kept being used but I can't find any moment that is boring!

Thanks for listening Henry! I was actually very worried about this, I kept thinking I needed faster tempos to keep it from being boring, but I'm glad you sided with my intuition. I'm also happy you dug the quartal harmony. Too much of what I've heard with it wasn't to my liking. I think the moment I thought of the chords as stacked 5ths rather than 4ths lead me to a language I felt I could do something with; I guess it just worked better for me that way. 

It's great you found it picturesque, I was hoping for that...thanks!

3 hours ago, Omicronrg9 said:

The digital interpretation is very nice. Is this Finale libraries or something like that?

I recently upgraded my ancient version of Sibelius to the current one, and added Noteperformer. It works very well with Sibelius since it's integrated. Normally I was dragging midi files into Ableton and using sound samples there, but this is much more efficient. If I were writing for a film, I'd still do that, but this gets the point across for much less money.

3 hours ago, Omicronrg9 said:

I like the care put into the score engraving; definitely a detail I always keep in mind and that I definitely value when it's considered by other composers.

I submitted this to a competition, so I was extra paranoid with the engraving 😄

3 hours ago, Omicronrg9 said:

My only criticism would be about the ending which I felt not conclusive enough, but I suppose this is typical from quartal harmony pieces due to their nature.

I thought about this too, and had a version where it ended on a major chord. But in the end, I chose to stick with the language I was working with and added the little motif. I think either could be fine, but I did share that sentiment as well

3 hours ago, Omicronrg9 said:

Sharing it on my TT if you don't mind (I have like 1 follower anyway, lol).

Hell yeah dude, let's get you to two followers!!

Thanks again for checking this out everyone, my YC bros were quick to respond!

I commend you for writing a piece that never loses interest for the whole duration of 10 minutes!  It has interesting harmonies, textures, rhythms and most importantly motifs and a super lucid and customized form.  The style is also very unique and personally your own, although I am not surprised that the following films that I thought you channeled in your music made it in since you did mention that they're among your favorite.  Namely I feel like moments of your music sound like music from the movie "The Matrix" and "Shawshank Redemption".  Measures 58 - 64 sound like "The Matrix" to me - the scene where Neo is standing under a bridge waiting for Trinity to arrive.  Measures 88 - 91 sound like "Shawshank Redemption" and definitely have a Thomas Newman kind of vibe to them.  And when you sort of reprise that section in measures 207 - 210 also.  But the most impressive part of this piece is how seamless it is and how smooth the transitions are in it - there's not an awkward moment.  There's interplay between the instruments and everyone gets ample time to breathe with some well judged passing around of motifs that different instruments trade off playing.  And there's foreshadowing of what's coming next in the form with seamless dovetailing/blending between sections of your piece.  This is a truly polished masterpiece and I wouldn't be surprised if you win the Call of Scores that this was composed for!  I'm looking forward to the live performance!  Great job!

19 minutes ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

I commend you for writing a piece that never loses interest for the whole duration of 10 minutes!  It has interesting harmonies, textures, rhythms and most importantly motifs and a super lucid and customized form.  The style is also very unique and personally your own

That last part makes me happy to hear. Whether it's good or bad, I'll always strive for individuality in composition. I don't care if 3 or 3,000 people like my music, I want it to be mine.

23 minutes ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

  Namely I feel like moments of your music sound like music from the movie "The Matrix" and "Shawshank Redemption".  Measures 58 - 64 sound like "The Matrix" to me - the scene where Neo is standing under a bridge waiting for Trinity to arrive.  Measures 88 - 91 sound like "Shawshank Redemption" and definitely have a Thomas Newman kind of vibe to them.  And when you sort of reprise that section in measures 207 - 210 also.

It's so awesome you pointed this out! I really wonder how much the music we grow up hearing molds our musical voices, even if it's at a subconscious level. I especially can hear the similarity from bars 145-152 to the Matrix. Very cool catch that I'm glad you heard.

26 minutes ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

But the most impressive part of this piece is how seamless it is and how smooth the transitions are in it - there's not an awkward moment. 

The very first piece I ever posted for the internet (basically the world) to hear was posted on this site. I still remember the comment I got on it, and it was about transitions. They were either nonexistent or abrupt, and I think that's something that really resonated with me in future works. I'm glad you found it seamless, it's something I pay special attention to. 

I'm really in debt to your help with this piece. If I had posted what I thought would be a legitimate score without your proofreading it would look like trash (can you imagine if they saw the key signatures? lol). You've freely given your time and shared your insight with so many of us posting our music. I and I'm sure many others sincerely thank the attention you give to all of our music, as well as all the work you do behind the scenes that they don't know about. I always look forward to posting a piece here with the hope that you'll be around to give a listen and share your knowledge. 

It's hard to add to the insightful reviews already posted which I whole heartily agree.  I would like to add - the wonderful textures/tonal-colorful fabric you create within the woodwind quintet.  At times - I though I was listening to a more mixed ensemble ... what an accomplishment to create such a musical canvass. 

Mark

10 hours ago, MJFOBOE said:

It's hard to add to the insightful reviews already posted which I whole heartily agree.  I would like to add - the wonderful textures/tonal-colorful fabric you create within the woodwind quintet.  At times - I though I was listening to a more mixed ensemble ... what an accomplishment to create such a musical canvass. 

Thanks for taking a listen Mark. Be sure to let me know when you post the final version of your adagio, I'll be sure to check it out. 

All in all a very good, refreshing piece. 

I think the modern inflections are a nice touch. The harmonic language sounds vibrant and expansive. You write very well for the ensemble.

That said, I'm going to puruse the forum for some of your earlier works to see how this stacks up to those. There seems to be an air of maturity here -that I'd like to validate against your other works. 

I hope to hear more in this style and see you push the envelope a bit more. Thanks for sharing!

36 minutes ago, jawoodruff said:

All in all a very good, refreshing piece. 

I think the modern inflections are a nice touch. The harmonic language sounds vibrant and expansive. You write very well for the ensemble.

That said, I'm going to puruse the forum for some of your earlier works to see how this stacks up to those. There seems to be an air of maturity here -that I'd like to validate against your other works. 

I hope to hear more in this style and see you push the envelope a bit more. Thanks for sharing!

Hey thanks for checking out the piece! Don't dig too far, you might not like what you hear 😄

Stick around, it's good to see people come back after some time away from here. You really know your stuff, a lot of the members and myself would love to hear any kind of input you decided to give. 

woot 400th post... on this username 😛

2 minutes ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

Hey thanks for checking out the piece! Don't dig too far, you might not like what you hear 😄

Stick around, it's good to see people come back after some time away from here. You really know your stuff, a lot of the members and myself would love to hear any kind of input you decided to give. 

woot 400th post... on this username 😛

 

I'll definitely stick around until I get bored again. I love this art -and I love contributing. Geez.. I can't remember when I hit my 400th post. 

Just now, jawoodruff said:

I can't remember when I hit my 400th post. 

haha I know I wish I had my old account still.