String Quintet in d minor - Picasso's Dance

1. Techniques used

The piece is contemporary in style. I used a lot of meter changes and repeated motives (descending thirds, syncopated octaves, etc...)

2. How long it took to compose the piece

One school night

3. Structure of your piece

Macro: ABA

Detail: ABB'CA'

4. Obstacles when composing

Coherence. There were entire sections I just scrapped in order to be economical and have the piece flow.

5. Summary of overall piece

I'm pretty happy with it. The school string ensemble started working on it and will perform it for the school next month.

String Quintet in D Minor - Picasso's Dance.mid

Here is the performance by the school string orchestra:

String Quartet in d minor

Hey, not bad at all. Great that you managed to get a live performance and a score, a winning combination in my eyes and always means I will listen to it then.

I really like the opening motif, nice odd meter gives it a nice skip and its quirky.

My main concern is that you give most of the fun meaty parts to the first violin, and also the second violin leaving your poor violas and cellos to plod along with the accompaniment. When the main material comes back at the end you had the perfect chance to reverse the orchestration and have the viola and cellos take the melodic ideas and maybe have the upper strings playing a pizzicato accompaniment, or even better, maybe a decorative scale like counter subject glistening over the theme.

I would like to see more interaction between the parts, you have this great theme which you just have sounding in one part, why not chop it up, have little call and response, little echoes etc to add interest.

I wont comment too much on the score, it looks a bit pasty but then again it is an image file. Most of it looked pretty good although I didn't have time to go through it with a fine tooth comb!

All in all good stuff, but just bear in mind my points!

All the best!

Hey thanks so much for your post. I made this thread months ago and it always feels good to have that first reply.

I'm glad you pointed out the weakness in the orchestration, and those are really good suggestions. Next time I'll be more careful to think about orchestration creatively, I kinda just forgot about it :).

I go with Hymnspace! That's very-very good! But, I agree, after m.29, giving the melodic material to the violas and the cellos would be a good idea! You don't want bored players after all. And it's a good choice in orchestration to choose different timbres.

Cheers!