Leaderboard

It’s interesting you brought this up. In the original quartet version of this piece they are half notes (or semibreves) at half the tempo, but they were too difficult to count and always sounded rushed. One of the fascinating things I’ve started to notice now that I’ve had performances of some of my music is that notation can have a profound effect on how performers interpret sheet music. As such, I chose to put it in breves for a more expansive quality. As for the string tutti/unis. issue, I’ve heard it go either way and honestly don’t care terribly about that detail. It’s easy enough to fix, so if someone convinces me strongly enough in the future I may change it. What did you think of the music in and of itself?

It sounds quite nice!

Exactly. In my own writing I honestly don't even think about "chord progressions" at all anymore. It is ultimately a very restrictive view on harmony. A more horizontal, contrapuntal way of thinking is almost always better. I just write a line and then thicken it in any number of ways. Sometimes it will be as simple as thirds and octaves, other times you could examine it as full triads or extended chords, sometimes it's contrary motion, sometimes just a weird cluster that worked at that moment. Then I often do the same to different melodies that may be occurring at the same time. I find the results much more musically, aesthetically and intellectually stimulating than just "chords + melody"

I have no criticism, I just wanted to say well done! It's such a simple piece, polished to perfection, and I love it!

Congratulations on completing such an epic and expansive work! I wonder why you chose to used breves (double whole notes)? I don't think these have been in common use for several hundred years, and some people may not realise what they mean. (That said, I have seen them used by Colin Matthews in his orchestrations of Debussy's Preludes.) You could perhaps have used semibreves instead, at half the tempo. In your strings, you have div. followed by tutti; but I think the correct way to cancel div. is with unis. (Tutti is used to cancel a solo, or 2 soli indication.) I'm really nitpicking here: so feel free to ignore me!