The Road to Victory

This piece finishes a 4 part symphonic piece I have been working on for the last month.

This one is the first movement. I wrote the pieces in reverse order.

The 1st written (The finale) was "Order and Chaos", 2nd written (3rd movement) was "A Celebration of Life" followed by "Sunrise Over the Meadow" (2nd movement).

These have all been posted already and are here within the last month.

This is, IMO the best of the 4 and almost wrote itself. I finished this in a half of the time that it took to do any of the others.

The idea is that an army is on the road towards a battle. The emotions they feel are both euphoric and frightening. This is why I chose the dissonent chords. When you are on your way to possible death, the emotional conflicts can be unbearable. You feel many emotions all at the same time. Some are from different ends of the spectrum. Some of this is introspective and some is the facade we try to put up in the face of death.

The first half of this is just to set up for the Pizz. in the finish.

Hope you like it.... I do! :o

Any comments would be appreciated.

Link to score

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Here is the MP3

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jun 18,2007.sib

No one was commenting on this so I reworked it and added to it.

My major concern is whether or not it is too repetitive.

As always any comments are appreciated.

I haven't listened to the earlier three movements yet - I find this movement very enjoyable with a good flow and interesting colour from woodwinds and brass coming in to augment the strings. I didn't find it too repetitive. The ending is good.

For some reason, it strikes me as a first movement rather than a last movement - it whets one's appetite for more. Definitely one of the better listening large ensemble pieces that I have heard on this web site - slightly modern but not aggressively so.

Someone with experience in writing symphonic works ( I haven't tried yet) might find some minor problems but I consider it a really good composition.

Thank you again sir. I wrote this last but I see it as being the first in the order. I actually wrote these in reverse order.

This is the only movement I listened to I and I thought it had a great flowing quality to it; almost "riverlike" if that makes any sense.

One thing you should consider is adding some percussion to the piece, maybe around the pizz. section or something. It would accent what is already there yet adding a different color to the overall sound. Also, when I listened to the piece it sounded very similar dynamic-wise, although I don't know what the score actually says because I am a finale user myself.

Speaking of which, could you upload a pdf of the socre?

Thank you for your comments. I was thinking the same thing about the percussion, just have not done it yet.

I posted a link to the score also.

I can't add percussion to this yet. If I do, I lose the patch for the Pizz. Kontakt silver only allows 8 patches. This is why I hope to upgrade soon.

ah I see, that sucks. Well, I hope you upgrade soon; this piece would sound even better with some percussion.

You have some very strange chords and tones in this piece. I did not hear the first three movements, and I don't know what effect you were striving for, though. All of the offtones and dissonance just seemed weird to me, because your melodies did not seem like the type that would have that.

Besides that, I felt you had a good melody, and I could definitely hear a Road to Victory. Good work. (and as mentioned earlier, some percussion would probably help)

Rolifer, I enjoyed your work.

Each personal point of view is unique and that's what I enjoy the most when I listen to other composers.

It's a fun enjoyable pleasant organization of ideas...

Mike

You have some very strange chords and tones in this piece. I did not hear the first three movements, and I don't know what effect you were striving for, though. All of the offtones and dissonance just seemed weird to me, because your melodies did not seem like the type that would have that.

Besides that, I felt you had a good melody, and I could definitely hear a Road to Victory. Good work. (and as mentioned earlier, some percussion would probably help)

Thank you for replying. This is actually the first movement of the 4.

The idea is that an army is on the road towards a battle. The emotions they feel are both euphoric and frightening. This is why I chose the dissonent chords. When you are on your way to possible death, the emotional conflicts can be unbearable. You feel many emotions all at the same time. Some are from different ends of the spectrum. Some of this is introspective and some is the facade we try to put up in the face of death.

Milillo

Thank you for your comments as well.

Hey Ron,

I hear the entangled web of emotions you paint through dissonance and consonance and floating above is your wonderful main them being redistributed among the instruments. Enjoyed the Marcotto and pizzicato strings; great use of accents and rhythms. I feel it safe to assume that the end leads to victory. Great work!

Michael

Thank you sir for the kind words. It is great to see that you have jumped into this forum and made a huge splash both with your music and your charm.

charm.

:thumbsup:

BUMP! I believe people need to hear these together if possible.

;)

Michael

I'm glad Michael bumped these up otherwise I may have never heard them.

These are all really great Ron. As you know, I don't have the experience to comment on them from a compositional point of view, but just as a casual listener I think these are great.

In fact, you might not be getting a lot of comments on these pieces simply because they are so complex. People are afraid to comment on them because they know these are way over their heads.

I'm glad Michael bumped these up otherwise I may have never heard them.

These are all really great Ron. As you know, I don't have the experience to comment on them from a compositional point of view, but just as a casual listener I think these are great.

In fact, you might not be getting a lot of comments on these pieces simply because they are so complex. People are afraid to comment on them because they know these are way over their heads.

I have been a casual and then intent listener all my life. That is all the training I have ever had. I did take some one on one lessons but that was only about 10 hours worth. The rest is the same as you. The best thing about it though, is the more you compose, the better you get.

I know as a Math professor, you will have no problems with the theory or the application of music.

I even composed a duet based on Hyperbolic Geometry. So the math helps a lot!!!

I it atonal music?.. I don't think I understand it well enogh.. maybe i haven't enough "memory texture" of atonal harmony to get it.. :) I'm sorry Ron :)

First let me say that you have again captured the scene you were trying for quite well, and I need not tell you that you are obviously very good at what you do. That being said, I have some broad observations/suggestions to throw out.

I've listened to a few of your pieces now, and I think I've started to get a feel for your style. You seem to be very knowledgeable about composition, and your pieces are certainly distinctive, but I cannot quite decide yet whether or not I would describe them as recreational listening.

There is something inexplicably inaccessible about this piece, at least for my ear. Beyond the various dissonant aspects (which I don't really mind too much) there is still something very cold about it. I am beginning to think that it may just be that there is so much going on, too many notes in a single span of time. All of that makes it harder for the average listener, or even the above-average listener, to feel connected to what's going on. Also, (and this might be related to MIDI) the various instrument parts don't seem to blend together as I expect them to, creating a layered effect which is burdensome to the ear. I enjoy pieces where I can pick out each instrument's part and follow it, but only to a point. I imagine that it is much harder to blend sounds when you use strongly dissonant elements, but I guess I just don't come away with that satisfied feeling of having connected to the orchestra as a whole, because the orchestra doesn't seem to speak with a unified voice in this piece.

I apologize for not giving more praise, but I think this forum is really more useful when people offer critiques. Nevertheless, an impressive piece.

I apologize for not giving more praise, but I think this forum is really more useful when people offer critiques. Nevertheless, an impressive piece.

I agree with you completely on this. Sometimes it is nice to hear that someone enjoys your work, but often a critique is more useful.

I think that some of your concerns are due to not having an expensive library of sounds. For the money, sibelius does great, but to bring it all together, a higher quality of sound is needed. The dynamics in sibelius are not the greatest and that makes a huge difference in the sound as well.

I do appreciate your comments. Thank you