String Quintet in F#m

Good Evening everyone

I’m starting a new project for string quintet and wanted to make a thread here to document the process, post updates, and hopefully get feedback as the piece develops.

Right now, the work is planned in three parts. The first section will be an Andante. I want it to begin with a gentle, lilting 6/8 character — soft and flowing, but with an undercurrent of drama beneath it. From there, it will gradually transitions into something much more chordal and chorale-like, with a warm, hymnal texture that I’ve been wanting to explore for a while (hymnal style in 6/4 timing - with a melody that is more free-flowing in terms of rhythm). I would love to modulate to Db major here and restate part of the hymn theme, but we shall see.

The second section will move into an *Allegro*, with a more energetic and animated character to contrast the openness and lyricism of the opening.

At the moment, what I mainly have written out is the melodic material that will shape a good portion of the Andante. I already have a pretty strong sense of the harmonic language I want — rich, lush string writing with a soft overall atmosphere, while still keeping the fullness and warmth that I love writing into chamber textures.

I’ll be posting sketches, revisions, and progress updates here as I continue working, and I’d really appreciate any thoughts or feedback along the way. Looking forward to sharing more soon.

String Quintet in F#m.pdf

Morning @BlackkBeethoven

I have looked at your wip, and I have attached the file to help you.

StringQuintetinFm_pdf.pdf

6 hours ago, Kvothe said:

Morning @BlackkBeethoven

I have looked at your wip, and I have attached the file to help you.

Thank you -- I'm working on writing a string quintet so I won't be doing solo piano piece 👍🏾

Yes. I am aware. Baby steps: you have to crawl first. A solo piece will help you to learn so much.

3 hours ago, Kvothe said:

Yes. I am aware. Baby steps: you have to crawl first. A solo piece will help you to learn so much.

How would a solo piece help me more then writing for strings?

@BlackkBeethoven:

That is great question! Before Bach wrote chamber music, he first went through and reharmonized chorales, wrote solo piano works, and then solo works for strings. In fact, his cello sonata is so well crafted!

You have to learn to the basics first: counterpoint, harmony, and musical form. Then apply that! :)

Well, I'll go ahead and scrap this piece then since I have so much to learn

6 minutes ago, BlackkBeethoven said:

Well, I'll go ahead and scrap this piece then since I have so much to learn

@BlackkBeethoven please don't quit writing your piece! Young Composer's Forum should always strive to be a great place for you to receive feedback, guidance and support on any of your musical projects. "Go write a piano piece because you're not ready and need to learn the basics" is not really constructive feedback. Members on YCF should strive to support the composer with whatever project they choose to write, not tell them what to do. We're here to support you in whatever YOU choose to do not what WE think you should do.

17 minutes ago, BlackkBeethoven said:

Well, I'll go ahead and scrap this piece then since I have so much to learn

Well, just take writing this as a learning opportunity! No one writes good pieces before they write tons of bad ones. I remember how bad I was when I wrote my first dozen of "pieces" (of shxt).

I myself do follow the path of writing a piano solo work, then chamber work, then in the present continuous tense orchestral work, but not everyone needs to follow this route since everyone's learning path is different. I would say @Kvothe 's feedback is a personal one that you may follow or not, but never use it as a reason to forfeit any pieces!

Henry

1 hour ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

@BlackkBeethoven please don't quit writing your piece! Young Composer's Forum should always strive to be a great place for you to receive feedback, guidance and support on any of your musical projects. "Go write a piano piece because you're not ready and need to learn the basics" is not really constructive feedback. Members on YCF should strive to support the composer with whatever project they choose to write, not tell them what to do. We're here to support you in whatever YOU choose to do not what WE think you should do.

I understand that, but if it's that bad, I don't want to waste more energy on it 😬

11 minutes ago, BlackkBeethoven said:

I understand that, but if it's that bad, I don't want to waste more energy on it 😬

You will never know whether your piece will be bad until you work on it! Most of my pieces grow themselves and I never know in advance how their outcome would be! To me writing is more an adventure and excavation of yourself which you will find numerous unexpected routes to take! So take it easy and enjoy the view you have when writing and treat it as excursion, rather than wasting energy!

Henry

@BlackkBeethoven

Heavens no! Please do not give up!

I want you excel at your craft. I want to best write amazing pieces and be proud. Thus, that is why I suggest a path that would allow you to do that.

You can approach a string quartet in the same manner as 4 part chorale first. :) That is amazing thing about homogenous textures they blend well!

I know this can do this. Please continue. :)

p.s. You are being hard on yourself if you think "why should I continue if it is bad". Tell that negative view take a hike!

I want lush and ambiguous w/o a super direct V-i motion...I would like to get some more rough ideas and chords on paper and then take a step back and look @ structure...my composition professor likes to just have us write rather than talk about strict forms. I did study it in theory, though, and I would like this piece to be my magnum opus and I want to do it well.

1 hour ago, BlackkBeethoven said:

I want lush and ambiguous w/o a super direct V-i motion...I would like to get some more rough ideas and chords on paper and then take a step back and look @ structure

I think you could play with the ambiguity of key here... now your bass is suggesting F# minor and the melody is suggesting A major, so probably you can have these two keys stretching themselves, like the opening of Schumann's Dichterliebe.

Henry

1 minute ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

I think you could play with the ambiguity of key here... now your bass is suggesting F# minor and the melody is suggesting A major, so probably you can have these two keys stretching themselves, like the opening of Schumann's Dichterliebe.

Henry

I was hoping the pedal tone, while I shifted around different chords, would help with that ambiguity...what do you mean by stretch?

31 minutes ago, BlackkBeethoven said:

stretch

two keys competing

50 minutes ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

two keys competing

Ohhhhhh gotcha

Edited 18 hours ago18 hr by BlackkBeethoven

Writing harmony for strings is always fun tho regardless lol - yes, I see the parallel 5ths 😒

Edited 17 hours ago17 hr by BlackkBeethoven

17 minutes ago, BlackkBeethoven said:

Writing harmony for strings is always fun tho regardless lol - yes, I see the parallel 5ths 😒

lol, then just correct it. Or it's ok to have p.5 if it's not in chorale style.

@BlackkBeethoven You are getting of this!

Let us address voice leading and part writing errors, okay?

As @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu there are those pesky direct and parallel 5ths in this string writing. Normally, we want to avoid that! However, there are times when it is nearly impossible to do that. Or base on the style, we choose to ignore standard part writing rules. Another thing I noticed is voicing of the chords.

The first chord is not correctly voiced. Why is there F in the bass? what is the tonal center?

I know you can do this @BlackkBeethoven . :)

12 minutes ago, Kvothe said:

As @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu there are those pesky direct and parallel 5ths in this string writing

I didn't say that in the first place lol!

30 minutes ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

I didn't say that in the first place lol!

My bad! :)

54 minutes ago, Kvothe said:

The first chord is not correctly voiced. Why is there F in the bass? what is the tonal center?

How should the chord be voiced? It's an F#m9...I'm using the F# as a pedal tone, just experimenting with it a bit. Mind you, I haven't listened to any of this yet, so idk what it sounds like lol

@BlackkBeethoven

That makes sense now! That would be rather 20th century of you to have 9th chord.

what is your harmonic style? common practice, 20th century, atonal...

I can help you!

27 minutes ago, Kvothe said:

@BlackkBeethoven

That makes sense now! That would be rather 20th century of you to have 9th chord.

what is your harmonic style? common practice, 20th century, atonal...

I can help you!

I don't really know...I just like lush, full-sounding harmonies.

O don't really need help for rn...I'm gonna take a break from the piece til August-Sept., and really study & get a handle on form before proceeding.