Introduction and Waltz (Is score MOLA Legible?)

Hello, I recently finished a piece, Introduction and Waltz, and am wondering if the score is MOLA ready. I'm submitting to a competition thats due on the 10th (parts are not required til a later date). Thanks a lot and feel free to also listen and give feedback!

Hi again @Gabriel Carlisle!   Good to see you again!

Regarding your score, I have some nit-picks:

In the very beginning, French Horns do not read in Tenor Clef (also, are you British?  Asking because your score is in concert pitch, and if you had the Horns in F it would alleviate some of the problems that are causing you to use Tenor and Treble Ottava Bassa clef which Horn players don't usually read)  In meas. 69 - 70 the F#'s should be Gb's, and same in meas. 77 - 78 F#'s.

As far as the music is concerned - brilliant piece!  Very affecting modal mixture appropriate for Romantic era music.  The melodies are lovely and dance-like as well.  Very fitting of a composer hoping to get his foot in the door in ballet music!  Many parts are quite jubilant and celebratory - great victorious moods full of tension and release.  The ending was a bit drawn out for my taste, but I am biased towards succinct endings that get to the point quickly which is perhaps not a norm common to Romantic era music.  Thanks for sharing and good luck in your endeavors!

MOLA guidelines, for some reason, say do not list the timpani part. I do not understand the reasoning behind this. 

It’s fine that trombones read in treble clef, but for the most part have them read tenor clef.  This is because of tradition and what they are more used to reading triple cliff should really be necessary if you’re going to a very high range.

I also noticed something: 

In your horn parts, you have one two horns, but it the scores implies 4? 

Hi Gabriel.

Sorry this a bit late for your competition entry, but like Kvothe says above, there are errors in the way you've labelled the staffs.

Far as I can see, you should have Oboe 1.2, Clarinet 1.2, Bassoon 1.2, Horn in F 1.3, Horn in F 2.4, Trumpet in Bb 1.2, Trombone 1.2, Trombone 3.

Also, where strings have dyads, you should indicate whether these are to be played div. in 2, or non-div. (e.g. celli in Bar 13).

Where you have more than one voice on a staff, stalks should always point in opposite directions (you've done this in some places, but not others). The exception is when you have div. in 3 or greater in the strings.

Some of your slurs in the strings are too long to be playable in one bow: so these slurs should be omitted. (A slur always indicates: play in one bow. Composers sometimes write molto legato above the staff to indicate longer legato passages.)

For the horn parts in concert pitch, you are allowed to have lots of ledger lines, so they can be written in standard treble clef.

Hope that helps,

Alex

This all sounds and looks very professional so pardon me but I will give some subjective thoughts on the piece:

For the first part, I really like your use of the minor 6th scale degree. It is well used, but also its sound maybe looses some power towards the end. I also feel that maybe I would've wanted a bit more time before the strings come in loud, before it explodes so to speak. I personally love to exploit the perfect 4th that forms between the minor6th and minor9th, but that might not fit into here anywhere, just wanted to point it out :D.

I love bar 81 and how that part develops. Love it.

Nice use of seconds in horns and violas on page 16.

On page 17 bar 150 and forward I am a bit sceptical about the flutes hitting those high notes, perhaps the oboes too. I feel they distract from the theme a little bit.

The chords between page 17 and 18 are very nice, I like those a lot! It breaths a lot of colour to the lines.

Page 19 works really well too, maybe there's some things about form I would look at over there (kinda feels like it jumps from one thing to another), but I think you do a very good effort of gluing those themes together. I would maybe just recheck it and try a couple different things, but your solution might just be completely fine. The Andante Cantabile feels rewarding. That whole Andante Cantabile part has a nice energy to it, gives you goosebumps. Very ballet-like!

I don't know if I fully agree with the turn from the horns in bar 213 to the earlier waltz theme in bar 227. I would maybe hope for a bit more glue there, something a bit more elegant. Trumpets are nice though! Although once again I feel that the trumpets could've played for twice as long, the jump feels a bit rushed now to me.

Ending in the larger sense is powerful, maybe I would think a little about form once again, like how have we earned this ending. Also the last bars I don't agree with :D, I feel like you bring us to the mountain top and then there's a different ending to the one I was anticipating and waiting for - this said, endings in my opinion are one of the most difficult parts of a piece. But you have built up well to the ending, really well, I was feeling goosebumps, but the hits left me feeling a bit betrayed.

I hope this doesn't come off as mean! That is not my intention. I liked the piece a lot, these are just the things that jumped at me. You don't need to agree with these or do anything about these, most of these are not some general guidelines or greater truths but just how I felt myself. I am not opposed to you keeping the score musically as is (other have pointed out the technicalities). 

Great piece! Thank you for sharing, and do keep sharing!

With great admiration from Finland,
Pyry

Hi! Overall the piece is lovely

I just have a few notes about the trombone part, as a low brass player. Not the trombone 1 part, it's mostly fine and trombones can read treble clef. But the trombone 2 part is another matter entirely.

So, The trombone as an instrument can technically play most of the notes you have listed on the page, but generally you just have them playing really low. If you intend the part to be a bass trombone, it's all fine and well, but it's important to note that normal tenor trombones, even with a trigger, can barely play that Low C, and cannot play the low B natural. 

But if you want them to be playing that low, possibly on a bass trombone, you then have them in tenor clef at 193 (Which by the way is not necessary, it's more annoying to have to switch to tenor quickly than to just stay in bass clef and read a few ledger lines, especially considering you go up to a high G. And also the trombone 1 part goes higher but is still in bass clef?????). While professional bass trombonists can hit that high, it's much more annoying than it would be on a tenor trombone. 

Looking at general scoring, it seems like you might want to have 2 trombone parts(or just label the staff trb 1, 2) and a bass trombone part, though I understand that with a lot of music notation software it then becomes a space concern of fitting it all on the page. 

...I just now saw that this was due on the 10th. I wish you well with the competition! Keep these things in mind moving forward and I can see a lot of growth!

P.S.

The tuba part is great. All good on that front. Sincerely, A tubist