Rampant - for String Orchestra

This is a piece I wrote for String Orchestra - it's the first and only thing I've ever done outside of school assessment so far x3 But one of the string orchestras at school's going to play it, hopefully; it's not terribly hard or anything.

It was done in the holidays - and I wish I had a midi keyboard to input in! Keying in notes gets tedious :sleeping:

I had a bit of difficulty merging in the different sections, and the end's a lot shorter and abrupt than I originally planned because school was about to start...and I had to finish it, haha.

The midi gets cut off at the end, but any comments and/or critique will be greatly appreciated! ;)

Rampant v2.sib

Rampant v2.mid

WOAH we sound so much better than the midi. >_______>;;;;;;; lol.

I reckon it's an awesome piece, but just as far as constructive criticism goes...

I think that it would benifit from having a little counter melody here or there, I know seconds get the third beneath the firsts, but yeah. and when it evens out to everyone going quaver section~~~~~ with only one part having a soli/sole, it gets pretty boring for us.... XD;;;;

But I like the drone for the bass. it sounds cool.

:D

Haha yeah the midi sounds really bad. Anything sounds better than the midi! - even our crappy string playing >___>;;

I had no idea that Amadeus would play this piece...otherwise I'd have made the parts more interesting *twitch* I was going for sound, not boring XD;; Even I'm bored playing it, and I wrote it!

Wheeee. Apparently the cellos suck. *twitch* I like their part!

lol~~ yeah the cellos sucked today >______>;;;;

Sounds like a fun piece to play, though maybe the slightest bit repetative for most of the players, the nice part is it's fast which is always a lot funner to play even if the piece is repetative...

You have a lot of cool things going on in this piece, and the overal sound sounds cool too, (If that makes sense) I like the part were the piece kinda picks up around 1:05 and and then into the next section...Some cool harmonic stuff going on in here and the melody managed to stay interesting without clashing with the accompanyment, which is really cool...I would assume you wrote the melody first? But then again, in some cases it can be the other way around and one would write the melody around secondary parts...

I like the ending too, it works out quite well...With the exeption of the midi cutting it off a bit. (That never fails to bug me, but of course, it's not your fault.)

Really good job, two thumbs up! :P

First thought: I would give the quarter notes at the beginning the celli and let the double basses play the whole notes. Placing the celli below the basses is a very effective instrumentation method, Dvorak used that for example in his 9th symphony.

I think otherwise the bass is too heavy.

Danny Cass: Hehe, yeah I had fun doing the accelerando bit! Yay for weird time signature changes... and yes, I wrote the melody first. I sorta through composed this thing...*is utterly bad at planned composition*. Midi cut-offs suck! Thank you for commenting on this one as well =D

ralphb: Playing the cello below the basses? Never heard of that one before - might give it a shot :P It sounds interesting! Thankew :3

It was very nice, my sister was in the same room as I was listening to it, and said it was pretty. I agree.

In my opinion, the opening reminds me of 70's music, I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I disagree with ralphb, I think that the basses were just fine. Especially about halfway through the piece when they start droning, that was cool. You did a very good job with this piece .:P

Look: (attachment: Dvorak 9th symphony Largo)

It's a very effective way because giving the fundament the double basses with no doubling won't work very well - they are too weak. In your piece, I think the moving bass could be played by the cellos an octave higher which will make it less booming and the double basses can play the higher whole notes in a very descreet but effective way.

But I forgot to say: overall a very enjoyable piece.

Wow, first of all, thank you all for the wonderful comments! *is overwhelmed* This is an awesome forum (that rhymed o.O)!

violinfiddler: Thank you, and your sister as well! Yes, I was rather aiming for a droning effect at the bottom (although the boring part is probably making my double-bass friend very angry). The beginning's rather cliche, I'm not exactly the most proud of it XD;;

ralphb: Oooh, that's quite interesting! Thank you for taking the effort to find the score and attach it :) I think I'll use your suggestion for works that are to be played by a larger orchestra though - because right now, the string orchestra that's playing this piece only has double bass, and I can hardly hear it at times *twitch*. The booming effect would only occur when there are more double basses, I think :D

I really enjoyed this piece, very nice theme, and you backed it up with the celli and bass very well.

here comes my constructive critisism, the only thing i didn't get was at measure 9, the 1st violins dont have a cresendo, while everyone else does. This makes the 1st violin sort of difficult to listen to when the lower strings are loud. I'd make a cresendo for the 1st violins too.

overall, very nice piece.

Also, this is more of something that I've found as a string player. In measure 63 when the violas are playing with the 2nd's, 90% of the time in orchestras, viola's are too weak. I'd suggest making the viola part atleast one dynamic level up, so when you play this with a real orchestra, and the violas are too soft, it will still sound strong.

Oh okay, I actually took out the crescendo for the 1st violins because high, piercing notes tend to be heard easier, and I was afraid making them too loud would imbalance the entire thing. But I'll go back and put it in and listen :3

Oh dear, my viola friend's going to kill you. XD;; That's a good thought though! I guess it depends on the orchestras though...

Thanks for the comment :D They help, alot!

Oh dear, my viola friend's going to kill you. XD;; That's a good thought though! I guess it depends on the orchestras though...

haha, I play violin and viola and I've played in....ooh...6 orchestras. Everyone of them has the problem of either not having enough violas, or not playing loud enough.

also, now that I've come back to sort of review my comments, I think it would actually be appropriate for the crescendo to be taken out. 1st violin sits closest to the audience, and they usually are the biggest section, with the best people in the orchestra (again, this is usually), therefore, they will almost always play more loud. Its really a personal choice on that cresendo.

just one more comment, in general, I've found that when you play an orchestra piece, it helps a lot more when the lower parts are more loud than the higher parts, so I think you have it right to keep them louder. Just make sure they're not too loud.

I hope your orchestra plays this piece well, its a nice piece.

Hehe, I think with the crescendo, I'll just give advice to our conductor for this piece, because it varies with each orchestra.

Thank you so much for your help :w00t:

Oh dear, my viola friend's going to kill you.

That is true, that is so true *evil glare*

XD In our orchestra, the violas are (usually) fine... but it is an unfortunate tendency. It's because we're too polite.

...

*guffaw*

GOOD LUCK ELAINE THE SUPERCONDUCTOR TOMORROW~~!!!!!! XD

Polite? *twitch* At least they're in tune.

Haha, I sucked. I feel stupid waving my arms around. You were awesome with Asturias though :)

Random side note: I haven't heard the word "guffaw" being used for a loooong time