Venus (music for orchestra)

A modern(ish) piece, kind-of between chromatic and tonal, basically in C major.

Any comments good or bad would be sincerely appreciated, particularly whether it conveys atmosphere; the balance between the fleeting mistiness and the more definitive brass chorales brief as it may be. I’m hoping this is an adequate mock-up (possibly) for submission so tear into it if need be. If you feel inclined to crit the score, fine...and many thanks.

It isn’t Holst but still about mystical Venus – fertility/renewal, emotional love, creativity, art, poetry, Nature, attraction. In the Ryder Waite tarot the “heart” symbol is at her feet. In that deck, she's titled The Empress..

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About the scoring. When the brass emerge they are independent of the rest of the orchestra (except horns). They fanfare spring and renewal. Some rescoring is likely. I ask for 2 horns but at forte they probably won’t compete with trumpets / trombones – it may be wise to bolster them up with clarinets, cor anglais, bassoon – anything that’s available (except strings).

I haven’t tried to condense the 3 clarinets etc because they play separate parts with different dynamics.

However, I'm posting two scores: the full score - and a version with vacant staves omitted except strings, always there in full.

Cheers and again thanks if you can give it a hearing! !

On 4/12/2024 at 1:53 PM, Quinn said:

It isn’t Holst but still about mystical Venus – fertility/renewal, emotional love, creativity, art, poetry, Nature, attraction. In the Ryder Waite tarot the “heart” symbol is at her feet. In that deck, she's titled The Empress..

I find this most interesting especially after my recent segue into the Muzoracle.  There is also a way of casting the Muzoracle cards alongside with the traditional Tarot cards.  I am not at all familiar with the Tarot however so I don't know if I'll ever learn that.

This piece to me is a typical one for you - full of sounds of intrigue, suspense and unease.  I don't know if your goal was to channel the emotion of love through the music because I don't think this does that at all.  It does sound kind of coquettish, like a beautiful woman who doesn't want to be caught.  But I listened casually, without looking at the score so of course take that with a grain of salt.  Of course, as always, your music seems to proceed according to the rules of its own logic and it does so in an interesting way that sustains my interest throughout.  So good job with that!  Thanks for sharing.