Don't hurt me - a symphony

Not the name of the symphony but rather an appeal to the reviews - please be gentle. This music is the result of 10 years listening and 2 years writing. No formal musical education here folks!

4 movements; the first three play with their own themes, and the fourth combines them all into a .. well, you'll see. It's not finished yet, but it's getting really close, and I'd love some feedback from the experts (the amateurs love it)

First movement's in sonata form, I've got as far as the exposition. Development, recap. etc to come.

Second movement is a slower andante. I'm writing it so that it's fugue-like in style. An orchestral fugue, if you will. I've made it to the end of the entry of the 4th voice ....

The 3rd movement is complete at least. It's a minuet and trio in structure.

The 4th movement is complete, but (as it was the first of the four that I wrote) it's going to be heavily revised once the first three are ready. In particular, I'm going to get its beginning to sound the same as that of the third movement, and run the two without a break betweek them, so that it sounds like a continuation of the 3rd .. it'll trick the audience. What I just said will make more sense once you've heard it.

The fourth movements takes the melodies of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd movements and plays with them. It's also the first of the four movements that I wrote, so it's got the dodgiest orchestration/dullest accompaniment/extraordinarily plain segments. They'll be revised out in time .....

In spite of its flaws I love the fourth movement simply because of the sheer number of hidden references to earlier melodies I put in it.

I present my Symphony No 1 in G.

And I look forward to learning from you all.

EDIT: Ok, the first two movements are now complete!

mvt3.mid

mvt4.mid

mvt2.mid

mvt1.mid

I'd love some feedback from the experts (the amateurs love it)

Hahahaha! Like it! But that's the nature of amateurs, they do it for the love of it rather than the mortgage payments.

The problem here is time - this lot adds up to 1/2 hour so until you're more established in the community you may not get too many detailed analyses. It would also help to have a score (but space is limited here - a matter I just raised elsewhere)

I gave the first movement about 5 mins. The midi doesn't do it much justice - doesn't give you a chance to bring the solos/entries forward. It's ok but I'm unsure about how you scored it - the bass seems slightly thick at the start. The cresc at 1:43 was good though it seems to peter out into a second theme (come across like a march). Might be best to save some of the volume until around 4:30 where it really gets going. Some interesting harmonies given the basic classical setting.

I'll try to hear some more later. Let's see what others think.

I actually listened to the entire first movement (so far) - fairly impressed, but will need a lot more time to give it a review that will do it justice. We have the same kind of background (self-taught amateur, not composing for very long), which gives me a lot more incentive to take a good long look at this. I'll try to do that this weekend.

i have never heard a slow fugue in my life time, most of time fugues starts moderately, and then tempo increases greatly, i don't think there is such a thing called "Fugue Andante", your second movement is an Andante, and let's leave it at that.

first movement:

sorry, i do not evaluate unfinished works, go finish it.

second movement:

l like the andante, it's pretty well written, i don't think i hear a fugue in there, otherwise it probably won't be "andante".

third movement:

sorry, but it doesn't sound like a menuet, a menuet is a dance, and i don't hear any dancing rythm at all, instead you gave some drama, which is somethingi you should present in the first movement, there shouldn't be any 'suprises" in the scherzo/minuet, it's there to provide contrast, not giving more questions.

fourth movement

interestingly, this sounds more like a "minuet", you should put this as your third movement, and rewrite a finale.

overall, a nice attempt, and keep the last movement and the second, rewrite the finale, and work on your first movement, if so, u should have a decent symphony.

overall

second move 6.6/10

third move 2.1/10

finale 7.6/10

"i don't think there is such a thing called "Fugue Andante" "

Well you're wrong.

I don't know what fugues you listen to... start moderately and then greatly increase in tempo.

Certainly there are slow fugues... consider Shostakovich's C major fugue from his 24 preludes and fugues, which is a beautiful example. Although the tempo marking is Moderato, it only gets the feel of a moderate tempo when it reaches its peak of complexity; for most of the fugue the tempo seems more like Adagio.

third movement:

sorry, but it doesn't sound like a menuet, a menuet is a dance, and i don't hear any dancing rythm at all, instead you gave some drama, which is somethingi you should present in the first movement, there shouldn't be any 'suprises" in the scherzo/minuet, it's there to provide contrast, not giving more questions.

:D I was well aware when I wrote it that it wasn't a 'minuet' proper - don't they have to be in 3/4 or something? But it's structure is as a minuet & trio; that is to say, A A A' A' B B B' B' A A', and I'll be damned if I know what else to call it. :P

In fact, Bach's first fugue of the well-tempered klavier is "largo"

actually, it's Andante.

and even then this is a "suggested" tempo, rather than an authentic tempo indication.

however, all that being secondary, there is nothing that says that a fugue needs to be any particular tempo.

However, a fugue "proper" does require certain elements - a subject, an exposition, some episodes. these are a bare minimum.

Heya, I'm listening to the first movement of this right now... and I gotta say, it's really quite nice. I do agree it could use some other things happening... And those oboe thirds get repetitive after awhile... But it's really quite nice. Nicely done man. 4:00- was really nice. Those octaves were genius. 4:35 was nicely done. I'm not sure I like the strings little them at around 5:00 or so... the eighth notes and rests. Back at 5:38 or so those thirds are back. I think 6:17 is too sudden, and before it the theme is too repeated. At around 6:50 might be a good place to climax... maybe? The high pizz. at 7:26 I don't think worked... Before and now. I like that timpani at 7:50. Great transition to 8:11 or so. I think the louder 8:20 might need more variation then just the drone of the octaves. Again, at around 8:49, I think something should happen during that rest.

The ending didn't work. There was hardly a peak to the piece. I was shocked when I saw the final bar of the piece. I think a build up, THEN the end would be better. The flute at the end was great too.

So, on the whole, I'd say just what others are saying. More drama... Maybe a little more variations in the repeats. I can see it's kind of a recap after a bit, but you might wanna consider changing keys through them and changin' a little... Might make it more interestin'.

I have updated both the first and second movements, which are now finished. They run to 15:12 and 8:50 respectively.

Sorry, I should have made my initial post clearer. The first movement was not finished, it only ran to the end of the repetition of the exposition. Now it's finished. I'm quite pleased with the development section, really.

Same with the second movement. It ran only to the end of the 4th voice entry. Now it runs though to the end. It's not really a fugue (although I did include a nice stretto)

So that's 1st, 2nd and 3rd all complete - just have to rewrite the 4th and it's done! Wow