Nilay's Dream (Orchestral Overture)

At last I am ready to present you the orchestral piece that I have mentioned before. This along with String Quartet, that I posted recently, was my final pieces for the master course. As with the string quartet, this piece was a nightmare to compose. When I started this piece, I had only 3 weeks left to the deadline and I haven't composed a single line of melody. I WARN YOU, NEVER THINK THERE IS ENOUGH TIME. lol. Anyway, this piece demonstrates a different compositional style that I have been using once in a while. I put this piece to the same style as my other piece which I posted long time ago called "A Short Tale", People either loved it or hated it. So I am more or less expecting the same here.

This is my first ever attempt at writing for orchestra, so please be gentle with your comments! lol. As ever, I exaggerate things and I wrote this for a huge orchestra including some percussion that I have neveer heard of before. There orchestra is:

Pc, (2)fl, (2)ob, E.hrn, (2)cl. B.Cl, (2)Bsn, C.bsn, (4)Hrn, (2)trmp, (2)T.tbn, b.tbn, Timp, Perc, hrp, pno and strings.

Percussion:Glockenspiel, snare drum, tambourine, triangle, slapstick, bass drum, crach cymbal, woodblocks and xylophone

The form of the piece is rather strange. The lack of form was something I did intentionally, to evoke a feeling of a dream. Everything can happen and suddenly, or it may be calm. I dont have to describe it, you know it. So think about it as if it was a dream and forget to look for forum, just listen where it goes. I used motivic development and tried to be as much economic as possible with my themes. Most of the time the melodies are created with various transpositions of already introduced material.

the harmony... well... this is also difficult to describe. For the "tonal-sounding-sections" the harmony is mostly based on E lydian Scale. for example the begging and ending. the middle section "the-crazy-section" is mostly a harmony I keep inventing myself. and there is no way I can even try to explain it. But things that I use mostly are chords build up of 5ths (slow sections on woodwinds), and also poly-chords.

When I was writing this piece, I have realised my laptop was not upto this task and finale kept freezing when dealing with such a large orchestra. Even though I was not using gpo! just standard midi! ahh laptops !! With only 2 weeks left, I found the solution with the old ways... pencil and paper. Man was that hard ! I was not able to listen what I was writing which resulted in very frustrating moments. Well... this is a product of compositionally very depressing and frustrating period. When I listen to it now, yes there are so many things that I could have done better and other little things that i dislike. But, at least I have done my first orchestral piece, under very difficult circumstances.

Click here <-------

I enjoyed this thoroughly.

I'm sure you will richly deserve your diploma.

it was a lot of fun to hear, it was tonal, but very colourful and, well, harmonically spicy. Very much the sort of music I enjoy listening to. You definately have a great career ahead of you.

Wow, I am not easily intrigued by contemporary music, but this had my attention the whole time :unsure:

Please make more pieces like this one

This was a fun piece to listen to!

I could almost see this as a dream scene in a ballet or something. It is harmonically interesting and keeps you listening.

As far as a lack of form, I always tell my students that I think its kind of hard not to have form. If you choose not to use a specific standard form then your motivic ideas almost naturally give some kind of form to the piece.

Anyway, a well composed and nicely orchestrated piece!

Ah, I was wondering when this piece would show up. :thumbsup:

It's pretty masterful writing. In places, it almost sounds like one of Stravinsky's Ballets Russes pieces. You use plenty of dissonance, but manage it in a way that allows it to make sense, and also complement it with warmer, lusher sounds that provide some lovely harmonic variety.

Without a score, the only thing I've got left to say is that I'd love to see one.

Thank you all for your nice comments. I am glad that you have enjoyed it. I am also glad that people who don't like this kind of music is liking it.

Yes, Stravinsky was one of the biggest influences to this piece. I learned a lot about orchestration from his scores.

I am still unable to upload the score, it is 7mb and it is not uploading it to here. I am sorry about this.

I am still unable to upload the score, it is 7mb and it is not uploading it to here. I am sorry about this.

I have to rush off somewhere now, but I'll try to contact you later about this.

After some struggling, I managed to reduce the file size of the pdf from 9mb to only 2 !!. Thanks to Mike.

I uploaded the score. Thanks for your interest. I welcome some more comments !!

No more comments ?

Any bad comments ?

You should have this piece put into a movie :D

I forgot to mention that I sent this piece to a competition. If I win, London Symphony Orchestra will perform it. Well.. I don't have this such hope, but we'll see.

Not to crazy with this piece Night fly. Howeverm, you had some exciting moments towards the middle and espcially the piano licks around the 3 minute mark. But something about the harmonic vocabulary of this piece was not to my personal aesthetic choices. Something about it sounded a little dated. Not sure why. That all being said...its still well crafted and an entirely enoyable piece. I was certainly not upset nor bored with listening to this. How could anyone be. You did have some Stravinsky moments in there...esp the end. :dry:

Say what sampling programs and software do you use?

well written! very interesting and enjoyable work! despite your description about the effort and difficulties to write this piece that cannot be noticed in the music and it appears to have been composed with great ease. as the overall effect i also heard many echoes from the beginning of the XX century, which is cool. the piano part is wonderfully effective. congrats!

Thank you your comments Palarino and frantz. Palarino, you are right that the harmonic vocabulary may sound dated. However, I am not much of a composer who tires to create something that sounds contemporary just for the sake of it. I find myself composing whatever emotion I am feeling at the time of composing. On the other hand, I try to create something new and fresh if not always successful. This particular piece, I wanted to create a lively atmosphere that can well suit for example beginning of a concert.

Frantz thank you for your compliments. You are right with the 20th century influence. And Stravinsky is sure a big influence on this work. I was actually thinking that the piano part will receive a negative comment since it sounds out of place -but that was the intention.

Thanks for listening

I didnt mean to imply that you should try to werite something more "contemporary" just for the sake of doing so. In fact doing so is one of the worst possibly things you can do i think.

However, I think, where you had a voice in the chamber work...this one sounded a little more atypical. And that nots necessarily a bad thing...as you mentioned it would be for the start of a concert. I think thats a great idea and this piece would serve that function very aptly. :shifty:

thanks again.

This was very interesting. I dont usually listen to music like this as I prefer something with a more clearly defined form and melody etc. However, for what it is I think it works very well, and could be a very good piece of incidental music if ou chose to use it like that. Nice one!

Sound textures are well picked. Quite impressive for a first full orchestration attempt!

Excellent composition. It was some of the best contemporary music I've heard. I listen to quite a bit too, (John Williams Concert Pieces, Elfman's "Schizophrana", Bernstein) needless to say I've heard a lot, and this held it's own really well.

PS

I sympathize with computer trouble, it's terrible trying to write a masterpiece on an uncaring PC, : )

Hello guys, Fox, gandhi and johnwilliamsfan thanks for your comments. I appreciate you taking time to have a listen. It's the best reward after such a work, no matter what.

I just got a call from NOTION.

and...

I WON THE GRAND PRIZE !!

I can't believe it, London Symphony Orchestra is going to perform and record this !!

This must be one of my happiest moments as a composer.

Congrats! What a great opportunity and honor! :D

Your piece was great. Very fun to listen to.

Hopefully, this is a beginning of other great things to come. :)

Thank you majesty, thank you for your support.

I just got a call from NOTION.

and...

I WON THE GRAND PRIZE !!

I can't believe it, London Symphony Orchestra is going to perform and record this !!

This must be one of my happiest moments as a composer.

wow! great news! congratulations Nightfly!:)

I just got a call from NOTION.

and...

I WON THE GRAND PRIZE !!

I can't believe it, London Symphony Orchestra is going to perform and record this !!

This must be one of my happiest moments as a composer.

How would you say "Congratulations!" in Turkish?

I just got a call from NOTION.

and...

I WON THE GRAND PRIZE !!

I can't believe it, London Symphony Orchestra is going to perform and record this !!

This must be one of my happiest moments as a composer.

GOOD JOB MAN CONGRATS!!!!