Symphonic fantasies

Hi, I'm new here on this forum. I've been making music as a hobby for many years, first mostly guitar (fusion) with keyboard and a DAW (studio one) and in the last couple of years more and more "classical" or rather symphonic music, first in a DAW, but now mostly in Dorico as i like the workflow much better. I've self-studied a lot of theory from books and youtube-videos. 

These are 3 of my latest compositions. I tend to make something I would call a "fantasy", as I like to let my mind flow and let the themes and ideas flow. Maybe it results in a mess, I'm not sure...😀   I'm writing in Dorico with Noteperformer and I'm using the standard sounds, except the strings where I'm using Spitfire BBC core.

The Purple Fields

Blue Jelly

Eight Crows in a Tree

Hello @stigbn25 and welcome to the forum!

The Purple Fields - I like how sparsely orchestrated and motivically streamlined this piece is!  And even all the different percussion instruments all have unique, exposed and important roles in the music.  Some of the quick pizzicato figures are almost borderline unplayable at that speed, unless you instruct the string orchestra to play the instruments like a guitar (or on two alternating double stopped strings).  The ending felt like a cliffhanger.

Blue Jelly - I love the glissandi although they sound a bit artificial or like they're played by a synth.  This one is a bit more unusual harmonically than Purple Fields.  This is also rhythmically quite creative in how some of the grooves are constructed.  Also sparsely orchestrated which makes for a more easy-listening experience dominated more by purely essential phrases.  The ending in this one feels more conclusive although also avoids any kind of cliche.

Eight Crows in a Tree - the mood of this one from the get go sounds much darker and menacing.  Your focus on solo individual lines makes the moments where you orchestrate dyads/triads and more harmonically developed sections more meaningful.  Some parts of this sound longing.  Your characteristic use of pitched percussion makes a return here.  Using all the strings doubled in octaves also makes for a particularly strong melodic effect.  I love the ending chord!  If I'm not mistaken it's just an E - G dyad with the G also in the bass.  Very cool tone-painting there with that last chord.

I think overall I can understand why you called these "Symphonic Fantasies".  They're very free and through-composed formally speaking.  This allows you to explore sounds in an unencumbered way.  I actually have a project that I just finished that I also call a Symphonic Fantasy although it's a bit more of variations piece on pre-existing themes not composed by me.  Thanks for sharing!

Thank you very much for your comments! It's the first time I've really got any really good, substantial musical feedback on my music, and it means a lot to me. It is very motivating, so it really makes me want to make more! 

I often compose by improvising (I'm used to improvising in a jazz/fusion) parts/themes, either using a piano or flute sound, and then edit, change instruments, and adding harmony, voices. To get away from a certain predictability when I improvise, I recently sometimes experiment with pitch-class sets, or some of the messiaen-modes. Most of Eight Crows in a Tree was based on octatonic (diminished scale) melody and harmony, with some parts with polytonality, but not in a strict sense. I might use it as a starting point, and then edit it so it sound better for me.

And yes, there might very well be parts that are un-playable, as I have never written for any real instruments. I'll have to be careful about that.

And yes, I knew the glissandi wasn't sounding 100% natural, but I tried something else, but came back to this, as I thought maybe in a future version of noteperformer/dorico it will sound better. Also about the pitched percussion -  I like to use the melodic percussion to emphasize rhythms, if I sometimes use 7/8 or similar.

I can see that you, PeterthePapercomPoser, are interested in Japanese music, as you use some for your variations, they sound great by the way! I'm also very interested in Japanese music, the use of harmony can be interesting and complex, while keeping it very approachable at the same time.