Poème muet

I has a lot of troubles uploading this lol.

Im trying impressionistic instrumentación, I always loved how Debussy and Ravel uses the orchestra and I wanted to do something similar. Also, any tips for instrumentation? The piece is not complete tho

Edited May 1, 20232 yr by Samuel_vangogh

Hey Samuel

I love what you have going on so far. I'm a fan of how the impressionists treated the orchestra too, and it seems like you're following suit pretty nicely. 

I'm moving your post to the unfinished works section. You might find that it gets some more attention there as an unfinished piece, since when people go scouring that section they know part of your intent for critique is figuring out where to take the music. 

I don't necessarily have tips on orchestration, as the color you have seems wonderful so far. I have a few points about the music though. 

- b.8 seems a bit weird to me. Are you going to add more to the flute quarter notes, or keep it as is? I feel like a half note then a rest would work better, or maybe a diminuendo on the notes might work better. the 4/4 time seems odd too

- make sure to notate divisi and all that, since it's unclear what your total instrumentation is

- Some of the time sig. changes felt a bit unnecessary to me, but maybe when you're finished it'll make more sense to me?

I'm just being nitpicky, this is great. I REALLY like the idea of an impressionistic piece with a smaller orchestra, you'll get loads of experience squeezing every ounce of color out of the instruments you have. Brush up on their technique too if you haven't already; with the instruments you've chosen, you'd be surprised how much more you can get out of them. 

Thanks for posting, and keep us all updated! Wonderful start so far.

P.S. What sort of troubles did you have while trying to upload?

1 hour ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

P.S. What sort of troubles did you have while trying to upload?

Well, on my computer I could create the topic and attach the files but i couldn't write anything 

Also, thanks a lot for your comment !

Hi @Samuel_vangogh,

This is enjoyable for me! B.15-17 definitely reminds me of the impressionistic pieces with the flux in the accompanying voice. I wish it's longer! I love the harmony in b.6-7 as well!

For me the oboe part is very beautiful. Except I may use cor anglais to replace it since the low range of oboe is very difficult to control especially in a low volume. (Yea I'm quoting Young Composers Wiki here!) Also this makes the passage like the end (b.20-21) more beautiful with a cor anglais's high range!

I suggest you should add more slurs for the woodwinds and strings to indicate the breathing and bowing, especially when the character of this piece is mosaic instead of a Baroque one. 

I agree with Vince b.8 is odd. Will you use rubato there with more varieties of rhythm even the note E will not be changed? I am thinking of Japanese flute or Chinese Dizi there.

Overall is a very beautiful start. Congrats on this and hopefully you will finish the work soon!

Henry

huh 

It reminds me of Debussy's style a little bit. Interesting piece of music, I think maybe it's too short, and the ending is very sudden.

Well, it's not finished yet, i maade a piano sketch of the whole piece and this is a 'sonority sketch'. 

On 5/3/2023 at 6:16 PM, veps said:

huh 

Definitely strange, it happens...Sometimes.

Hi Samuel, this looks really promising to me. I don't really have tips or advises on orchestration further from what you could find in books you probably already know. Some harp touches here and there may improve the output you currently have, which is already great, so my suggestion would just be: consider adding one.

Looking forward to check the finished Poème.

Kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón.