April Showers

Here's a song I entitled April Showers due to the fact that it reminded me of... well... april showers. Let's see if you can pick up the same imagery I saw when I was writing this.

Some info behind it... this is really the first time I've ever really written anything remotely waltzy. This is really a new style for my writing, and I must say I had a lot of fun with this one. Let me know what I can improve on, suggestions, what's good, what's bad, etc...

http://parliament.rm2kdatabase.com/rlech/April%20Showers.mp3

Cheers! :)

Very pleasant piece, smallz! i loved it - now into some details:

The intro is very neat, and the melody when the brass enters in also cool, the percussion is a bit too loud i think at that spot. The flute (piccolo?) makes a beautiful with whet glockenspiel, but there are loud brass tones in the back... kinda spoils it for me... maybe you can make them no so loud. The chimes that enter wtih brass from time to time are awsome! The beginning repeating itself at the middle of the song again... guess thats ok. well the main brass melody again... i somehow wished it was more marchy... the background is kinda static, but thats cool to if you like it that way. I'm not really a fan of the fade out ending, and since the song was energetic, i'd put a "symphonic finale".

Neat stuff! For a bit it reminded me of Grieg!!! The nice flowing entrance is quite pleasant to my hears, and the french horn is used quite nicely. I loved the big bang around 1 minute. Overall the piece is a great work and I applaud you on your fine composition.

I like the way the opening slowly develops. You give us snatches of melody in the woodwinds, while the Horns carry something more sombre until the rest of the orchestra joins in. Ah, this feels very good, nice and maestoso exciting. Oooh, great cut off transition to a new idea. Very well done.

I can feel a bit of the waltz influence here about a third of the way through. It's a very dystopian waltz though, and that makes it allt he more enjoyable. :-)

I am trying to think of what this reminds me of, but April Showers isn't it I'm afraid. I don't feel rain in this piece. Perhaps a bit of a country parade in some places though.

I love the recapitulation about 2/3 of the way through. Ah, that was nicely handled. I love the flute melody. It's just so playful! This is a really nice piece, smallz, it's just fun to listen to!

The ending has a verynice dying off quality to it. I tihnk you dragged it out just a tad bit too long, but it still sounds really good. :-)

Thank you all very much for the critiques and comments. They really do help a lot, and it really makes me happy that you liked it.

I'm just wondering Wolf, what part of the brass in particular is it that you don't like, because I have an idea, but I'm not sure.

There are some parts that I'd like to revise, like maybe the melody at 1:00 and the recap... somehow it's almost like it doesn't fit the piece as much as other parts. What do you guys think?

Also, I guess that what reminded me of april showers, is all the staccato stuff I imagined raindrops falling and building up into a pretty little shower and then with the minor melody, the big part with lots of low brass and bells and cymbals, I imagined that to be lightning. The lightning then stops and everything calms down, and the recap of the melody is when the sun comes out and brings out the brilliant colors after a rainshower, a rainbow, etc... almost making a majestic or fantastical scenery at the end of the piece, and I guess that the fade out to me was the shower dying out and leaving that rejuvinated world behind. That's my own interpretation of it.

As I was writing, I was thinking to my self "what does this remind you of?" and I thought "you know, I could see rain falling" but that's about it, so I decided to figure out what could make a more dramatic contrast. I had one thought.... Thunder and Lightning.

I hope that when you read that little description of my interpretation that it may influence anything else you found in the song, or it may not, although don't get me wrong... I'm not trying to feed you what the song symbolizes by any means... it's all in the eye of the beholder, right?

Again, thank you all very much for the comments/critiques... I really really appreciate it!

I'm just wondering Wolf, what part of the brass in particular is it that you don't like, because I have an idea, but I'm not sure.

Your intro is very nice, all the instruments fit into place just like that, as it goes on the more interesting it gets, more instruments, more harmony. and then a short silence. the picolo (tahts what it is right) seems quite in tac and awesome melody, the triangle that follows the picolo has gutie a nice touch to it too. I like this song, its very very cool. good job :)

I like the neat build-up, kinda reminds me of one of the tracks by Andy Brick in Sim City 4 Rush Hour. I like the overall flow of the piece, which is kept pretty consistent by the bass pizz ostinato. The theme is also quite nicely developed, too. Most of the problems I have with it are technical: it kinda sounds like the strings or whatever have a high reverb presence, but the woodwinds don't; I don't know it it's built into the samples themselves, but try to achieve consistency in space. Speaking of samples, a lot of the instruments have rough transitions between the notes, so maybe you wanna patch that up manually. It also sounds like the mid-range is a bit too high, especially by the time the horns come in and play along with the strings.