When The Village Dances (Quintet for Select Instr.)

I've been composing for roughly two years now, and I currently consider this one of my better compositions by far. It was inspired partly by the music of Joe Hisaishi and Studio Ghibli, and I was planning on writing something that would fit nicely in an OST or something of that nature. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how much you might enjoy the piece), the music chose itself a different route to take, so here we are. 

MuseScore's available sound packs are obviously leagues ahead of their competition, but they suffer from a lot of inevitable pitfalls in terms of phrasing, tempo, and so on. I've been hoping to get this performed somewhere, but haven't found the opportunity to do that lol

This is the first time I've uploaded my music on the internet, and I hope you may give my music a listen to and tell me what you think! Please be nice in the comments, would appreciate that 🙂 

-

Hello @Awsumerguy,

Welcome to the forum!

This is for sure a refreshing and funny piece. A pastarol opening with a farcical middle section and they both work really well and are enjoyable.

I love the opening cello melody as for me it really imitates the cow mooing. The opening really creates a pastarol feeling with those drone chords. The woodwinds are great as well and they certainly remind me of the recorder melody. (Like those in the 3rd movement of Berlioz"s Symphonie Fantastique?) 

In the middle section it becomes more rhythmic or less traditional with many of the extended technique used, for example the snap pizz and col legno for the strings, overblow harmonics for the oboe. The changing meter and naughty harmonies which signify how crazy the country dance is, with the punching piano creating rhythmic complexity. All those things use here match with the scenes you want to depict but not for the sake of using them only. The description is funny too. The "musican gather themselves" section is very descrpitve with the cello pizz. goes in first and then piano acts as the conductor of the ensemble. In the end the rustic peace is achieved once more. This is a real enjoyable and joyful piece. Great job!

Make sure to add some slurs for strings and woodwinds to indicate the bowing,tonguing and breathing! I don't know if in some passages it will be difficult for the flute to play with all those rapid 32th notes in a quick tempo.

The ending 4/2 time signature is unnecessary for me. You can just have two bars of 4/4 there for me.

Also the double bass can have more melodic significance here, but this is personal.

Thanks for joining us and providing us this wonderful piece! Make sure to stay in the forum and take a look in other members' pieces as well!

Henry

Thank you for the lovely words, @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu. They've been very motivating indeed!

I never knew about how differently one's interpretation could vary so greatly from my own, and I'm honestly flattered! I certainly never thought to interpret my work that way 😅

I'll keep writing music and I hope to keep posting them to this forum. Looking forward to it! 💪