The Tuckasegee Flyer - An Orchestral Work about a Steam Locomotive

Hello everyone, I am back to feature an overhauled work of mine: The Tuckasegee Flyer.

CONTEXT:
Originally written in 2024 by commission from my friend, Brody, this work was meant to accompany a YouTube video series he was creating. Two years later, and during this summer, I felt in a trough of composition. I have sketched a lot of ideas for themes or independent phrases, however, I had no passion or inspiration to make them into full pieces. So, after looking through my file system, I looked through this work and immediately, I had ideas.

This work is an orchestral depiction of what it feels like to ride behind a steam locomotive as seen or felt by a passenger. If you would like to know more specifics and a longer explanation of the work, go to the 3rd page of the PDF (which is listed as page 1 due to the front and back of the cover page).

Thanks for viewing my score and taking a listen!
(Comments welcome)

This work in its current state would not have been possible without the support of friends and fellow composers. Big thank you to @UncleRed99 for his help with understanding brass ensembles as well as non-YCF composer @Arbolav for his help in the development. You two elevated this piece and I am forever thankful!

The Tuckasegee Flyer_SCORE.pdf

The Tuckasegee Flyer_SCORE.pdf

The Tuckasegee Flyer_SCORE.pdf

Hi @MK_Piano !

What a wonderful steam railway adventure you've created! I think it will fit right in with similar train-themed repertoire in the catalogue such as the Copenhagen Steam Railway Galop and Pacific 231. I love the spirit of the piece! The brass Eb major 6/9 chords do a wonderful job of mimicking the train whistle! I didn't even realize what chord that was until I heard this piece. The melodic variations and modulations keep the piece fresh and the modulation to Db major is a well conceived and welcome one! The descending Eb, D, C, Bb figure is a really great ostinato that puts me in a chugging mood! LoL

I know you're a stickler to score engraving so I don't have much critique there except that usually the Horns are paired 1&3 and 2&4 on each staff. Also, I'm surprised that you used C Trumpets - and only two of them? When I played trumpet, Bb trumpet was still the standard and I'd expect 3 in the orchestra to be available. Also, any reason why you didn't group the woodwinds two to a staff? It would save a lot of space on the page. Those are just my minor critiques. Thanks again for your recent help on my Christmas Mash-up!!!

15 minutes ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Hi @MK_Piano !

What a wonderful steam railway adventure you've created! I think it will fit right in with similar train-themed repertoire in the catalogue such as the Copenhagen Steam Railway Galop and Pacific 231. I love the spirit of the piece! The brass Eb major 6/9 chords do a wonderful job of mimicking the train whistle! I didn't even realize what chord that was until I heard this piece. The melodic variations and modulations keep the piece fresh and the modulation to Db major is a well conceived and welcome one! The descending Eb, D, C, Bb figure is a really great ostinato that puts me in a chugging mood! LoL

I know you're a stickler to score engraving so I don't have much critique there except that usually the Horns are paired 1&3 and 2&4 on each staff. Also, I'm surprised that you used C Trumpets - and only two of them? When I played trumpet, Bb trumpet was still the standard and I'd expect 3 in the orchestra to be available. Also, any reason why you didn't group the woodwinds two to a staff? It would save a lot of space on the page. Those are just my minor critiques. Thanks again for your recent help on my Christmas Mash-up!!!

You know, with the score being two years old, and my experience also being two years younger at the time, I just assumed the horn staves were already formatted correctly as they are for all my scores/ templates now. That was an oversight by me due to complacency.

C-trumpets are the preferred instrument for orchestral settings compared to the Bb-trumpet. Why? I am unsure the specific reason/ evolution to that answer, however, I know it is industry standard now to see C-trumpets in a vast number of orchestral works. Trumpets in D, Eb, and Bb are some of the exceptions with Bb being the other most common. I used for that reason and because I wanted C-trumpet for it's slightly brighter character compared to Bb. To add, the instrumentation lists Four Trumpets split between two parts (2+2 for volume). With the standard of 3 distinct parts over two staves, I kept the parts limited to two for simplicity when it came to orchestrating. That was done two years ago when I created the piece and I just kept it the same now.

Lastly, I did not pair the woodwind staves together as they have very distinct parts between all the winds. Trying to condense them onto a single stave felt like a cluster-bomb I was not willing to tackle. Thus, having them explicit and separated establishes a strong clarity for what the part is doing. To add, as I have printed an earlier draft of this score once before, the pdf makes it feel smaller than what you will see physically. I do not think the measure/ part size will be an issue.

Thanks for pointing out the horn parts, I will fix that immediately!

Still so happy how the flute solo at b.76 sounds ;)

Glad I could be of assistance, with both, what we referred to as the "Brass Hymnal" sections, and with the C Section of the piece. I had fun being involved in the process, directly :)

@MK_Piano, you’ve created another wonderful piece!
The way the composition unfolds right from the opening is fantastic.
The section starting at 0:55 reminded me of the sound of a steam train whistle; it has a real sense of momentum, and the percussion works well, too.
The part starting at 1:55 is a particular favorite of mine—the melody is so memorable.
The calm section that follows at 2:25 is also excellent; the piece really tells a story.
I’m sorry I can’t offer any specific advice regarding the sheet music or technical details.
By the way, it looks like you and @UncleRed99 get along really well!
I’d love to hear a full-scale collaboration between the two of you someday :)

Best,

Lithl.

7 hours ago, Lithl said:

@MK_Piano, you’ve created another wonderful piece!
The way the composition unfolds right from the opening is fantastic.
The section starting at 0:55 reminded me of the sound of a steam train whistle; it has a real sense of momentum, and the percussion works well, too.
The part starting at 1:55 is a particular favorite of mine—the melody is so memorable.
The calm section that follows at 2:25 is also excellent; the piece really tells a story.
I’m sorry I can’t offer any specific advice regarding the sheet music or technical details.
By the way, it looks like you and @UncleRed99 get along really well!
I’d love to hear a full-scale collaboration between the two of you someday :)

Best,

Lithl.

@MK_Piano and I have been composing together / critiquing one another's works for a time before either of us were apart of this forum. I recently brought him onto it, as a way for him to share his works with you all, when I am unavailable to give insight on what he is working on. Although, he is much more Theory-Literate than I am, on account that he actually followed thru with his music education, unlike myself, who dropped out of school back in 2018 😅

But yes, we have brought up the idea a couple of times, and even started something, but never followed thru with it, I think, simply due to incompatibility in terms of scheduling. We will likely get around to it, some time. But for now, consider many of our works to be collaborations in and of themselves. We've contributed something to many of eachother's scores, be it small or large contributions, we've had a hand in one another's work in some fashion for a time, now. :)

2 minutes ago, UncleRed99 said:

@MK_Piano and I have been composing together / critiquing one another's works for a time before either of us were apart of this forum. I recently brought him onto it, as a way for him to share his works with you all, when I am unavailable to give insight on what he is working on. Although, he is much more Theory-Literate than I am, on account that he actually followed thru with his music education, unlike myself, who dropped out of school back in 2018 😅

But yes, we have brought up the idea a couple of times, and even started something, but never followed thru with it, I think, simply due to incompatibility in terms of scheduling. We will likely get around to it, some time. But for now, consider many of our works to be collaborations in and of themselves. We've contributed something to many of eachother's scores, be it small or large contributions, we've had a hand in one another's work in some fashion for a time, now. :)

This^

My thoughts exactly

7 minutes ago, MK_Piano said:

This^

My thoughts exactly

Very professional and detailed score. Did you use Dorico?

I wonder will you be getting this performed by real musicians?

51 minutes ago, Alex Weidmann said:

Very professional and detailed score. Did you use Dorico?

I wonder will you be getting this performed by real musicians?

No, this is all within MuseScore Studio!

Uncertain on the second part. It is registered on ASCAP and when I get the parts finished, I will self-publish to J.W. Pepper. In terms of performance, I have prepared an email to be sent out to a director of a 60-80 member orchestra in Joplin, Missouri. I was reached out by their principal trumpet player last year in regard to this work. When I notified him yesterday of the overhauled work, he gave me the contact of their director. We'll see if it bears fruit.

My universities orchestra director gave me the chance to drop off some scores to her office for a reading session, and I have ordered Waves of Frisco Bay and Tuckasegee Flyer to be print at the beginning of next week. To add, I sent Waves of Frisco Bay out for two separate Call for Scores and should be notified of those events over the course of this month and into September.

TL,DR: Hopefully!

Hi @MK_Piano !

A really exciting and enjoyable piece! I have a lot to learn from your scoring and engraving and orchestration skills. The energy level in the outer sections is so well maintained which reminds me how vivacious you are in real life and here. I thoroughly enjoy this one, as this is not something I can compose. I don't have this kind of energy level myself and hence nothing similar to show in my own pieces. My favourite section is the middle section. It's real nice contrasting section featuring woodwinds when the outer sections are predominated by brass and strings. The counterpoint here is better than the outer sections too haha, because in the outer sections you feature more homophony and octave doublings which is apt to the steam theme too!

And then some of my subjective thoughts: I think there is a bit unbalance in b.47 Rehearsal no. F to modulate to D flat major. Maybe an 8 bar phrase will be better than the 6 bar phrase now, but that's my personal thought.

Also, I think you can have more prominent changes in the last A section, other than the key which is the most obvious change. Yes the orchestration is varied there and the texture is even thicker than the exposition, but I think you can slightly change the order of events in the recap, and change the modulation plan, since you modulate from Eb to Db major in the exposition, modulating from F to Eb major sounds similar to me so the heightening effect by modulating is weakened to me. I think ending in Eb major is the right option as to maintain the same key for the beginning and end, so you can begin in a key other than F major in the start of section L, which gives another advantage for having another modulation apart from the middle section, which is also in F major.

P.S.

7 hours ago, UncleRed99 said:

@MK_Piano and I have been composing together / critiquing one another's works for a time before either of us were apart of this forum. I recently brought him onto it, as a way for him to share his works with you all, when I am unavailable to give insight on what he is working on. Although, he is much more Theory-Literate than I am, on account that he actually followed thru with his music education, unlike myself, who dropped out of school back in 2018 😅

Huge props to you @UncleRed99 for bringing @MK_Piano here! Definitely vitalizing the forum much more haha!

Thx for sharing this wonderful piece!

Henry

I wish you the best of luck getting this performed!

If you don't mind me asking, I wondered how you added the preview copy watermark?

I didn't know you could do that in MuseScore.