stepheny

i really enjoyed this piece. the style is so quirky and kind of 'cartoony' and I love the way that the piece strides on so confident through all of the rhythmic quirkiness - and perhaps because of it? I love the way phrases cut off before they are finished and how they dont go the way you expect. I loved the abrupt ending which is just right . . . and I'm rather glad I'm not the pianist at times (yikes! heaps of practice needed I think! Can you play it??) Its strange though because despite the quirky sometimes jaunty feel with the offbeat rhythms and the interesting sideswipes there is a serious thread (perhaps because of the C minor?? and the tonality is a lot minor so I will be really interested to hear how you develop the tonality in the other movements . . . . yeah if you want to call it a trio then you must: a bit like satie with his three pieces in the shape of a pear (there werent three pieces at all)

"The greatest difficulty I had in composing this piece was silencing my own inner intellectual dialogue -- you know, that little voice that questions you ever step of the way with little things like "do you really want this note here" or "is this the direction you want this movement to take" or "is this phrase long enough" or "is that a good thing for the cello to do" or, well, I could go on and on. You know what I'm talking about. But once I got that little guy to shut up, the piece happened quite naturally." I really loved this piece. I've only heard the first movement so far and I particularly noticed the way in which you improvise your way through trusting your instinct and how French it feels! (Are you french by the way?) summery and whimsical with passion aplenty but lots of humour and always interesting to listen to. I love the tempo changes which feel completely natural and I especially love the furious but joyful coda! Splendid conclusion . . .congrats! the performance too in first movement is just outstanding! I'm off to listen to other movements now. (I tried last night but couldnt link.)

sibelius is my hero. I love his symphonies very much for the incomparable sense of form . . . . . I also like nielsen a great deal (especially the 4th). Tippett the British composer: his second is really worth a listen. and Shostakovich of course.

i think you have lots of excellent ideas in your music vb and its clear that you want to develop them. what isnt clear to me is why you want to throw them all together into a single piece . . I think your new version is heaps better than the old one but a symphony needs to be something unified where one idea leads into the next. yes there can be contrast of course but, like in a story, there needs to be a narrative which helps the listener through (like on a map). can I make a suggestion? well two actually. first that you play your piece from the beginning to where you've got to over and over and only then continue to write . . . ie. have the whole piece in your mind as you write. second that you listen as much as you possibly can to all the great symphonies from mozart through to shostakovich to see how they connect everything in the piece so that when the piece is over it is almost like you can see the whole piece laid out before you like a magnificent landscape. . . . . the shape of it is everything. tonality is everything too . . . . that doesnt mean that the piece should necessarily start and end in the same key . . . but the keys need to relate to one another . .. (sidesteps from B minor to C minor are alright if they have a meaning) your feeling about key is very instinctive but have an eye on what has gone before as you write. and the other thing is rhythm. the rhythm of the piece is everything. it is ok to change the rhythm but only if there really is a good reason to do so. music can trundle quite happily and the listener trundles with it but if the music stops and starts the listener begins to feel he will never get there! thanks for posting and I hope I havent been negative have I? all the very best and keep composing!!!!

yes I cannot access the second movement either. I did enjoy your first movement very much though. It is big and bold and very brightly coloured and full of eastern europeanness, (that violin solo for example!) you are romanian arent you? This shines through again and again: the orchestration is heavy yes and I can see why you want it this way: tumultuous and very romantic . . . . passionate and honest yes?

I really enjoyed this piece! I loved the way in which the jazz and the italian overlaps. I love the performance too because it is earthy and REAL and the singers are quite excellent (that stunning alto in the kyrie and is it a mezzo soprano in the later movement? both outstanding singers) there is rhythmic drive and confidence and Italianness in every bar! I just wish I could hear the whole piece . . . . . in a church hahahahahaha. its secularness makes it even better . . . . . . . . . thank you so much for posting.

dont panic violinboy: the gpo comes with the kontakt player. its an integral part of it. have no fear! let us know when it comes.

oh thats such bad news. well, the one good thing about written music is that it doesnt evaporate so there is no rush. I was looking at your website today and it looks like you have quite enough to do in the next few months! wishing you every success.

I had kontact in sibelius 3 and it was a great improvement on the old midi but still not a patch on the sound quality in gpo. I really would recommend gpo over kontakt gold.

oh the moment you couple clarinet with anything at all in the woodwind section there are tuning problems! same with the brass. horn and flute are fine. horn and oboe: horrendous. . . . Your sound quality seemed much better than mine but I do only have 512 ram on the puter so maybe that makes a difference?

well I think I would agree with everything you said only there is a problem with doubling when using garritan: None of the instruments can play together in tune! What software do you use by the way?

interesting thread this. I think each of Beethoven's symphonies shows how he was struggling with the idea of a finale which answered the questions posed by the first three movements. Sometimes he just gives up and writes something light but I think all his life was directed towards that final movement in the 9th. I can see why it might seem overblown but I dont think it was just the finale to his 9th at all I think it was the finale to everything he ever wrote and in that context its hugeness makes much more sense. for Beethoven I think joy was something worth struggling for and my goodness he does just that.

I only joined this forum yesterday and have been fascinated by it. I am trying out one of my pieces here: its the finale of a symphony i composed at the end of 2004. I wrote the slow movement first (hadnt intended it to be a part of a symphony at all. The finale started straight out of the end of the slow movement so then I knew it was a bigger piece. The coda of the finale contains references to the first movement because I was composing that alongside the finale . . . I just opened a soundclick account because I dont know how else to link anything here just yet . . . . not sure if this will work . . . I compose everything at the piano because that is really how it all started. I have improvised endlessly since I was 10 and was nearly 50 before I actually got around to writing this stuff down (a late developer you might say). Had it not been for the puter I dont think I would ever have done this. Sibelius coupled with Garritan has been a complete revelation if, at times, a deeply frustrating one. I am getting better at it though. slowly. I find it impossible to plan my music. the music has to be able to write itself but, as I go along, I often intervene and 'don't' do things that I might have done had I not thought about it as I was writing . . . . someone said in the shoutbox tonight that 'key' was outmoded. well perhaps I am outmoded too but for me key is THE key. colour is everything. I dont mean orchestral colour but tonal colour. Composing at the piano has made me even more that way . . . I am not interested in 'melody' as such. for me, music is a means of travelling through spaces inside which cannot be travelled otherwise and need to be . . . I cannot take my music too seriously. If i do it simply stops happening at all. I would really prefer this piece to have a wider dynamic range but my puter is only 512 ram and that does limit the palette a little. here is the url for the soundclick file. lets see if it works Start Player

I thought it was great fun! glad I dont have to play it though yikes. oh by the way, people have been using and editing bach for well over a century and bach will always bounce back. I'm sure he wouldn't bat an eyelid.

what a shame you cant play the piece on the piano for us! I like the main theme and that F minor section is interesting because it really wanted to take over . . . . I like the way you slip back into D - kind of against all odds! I just made a cup of tea humming your tune! (I only arrived at this forum yesterday too: its a revelation! heaps and heaps of music-making! like a great big festival! Keep composing!