SebastianViola

Thank you! I'll definitely give it a listen. I do think that perhaps I should try to make a more concentrated effort to avoid ostinato in order to diversify my capabilities, as it's a little early for me to become so set in style (my last major work was also pretty heavy on ostinato). That is a good idea. I in general think I underutilized pizzicato (I feel like I never know when to use it). Thanks for the insight, as particularly for the introducing sections with the fox what I had intended to make was moreso an atmosphere of foreboding than outright aggressiveness (though this particular fox is definitely more easily angered than the typical one). Thank you! Thanks! That is a good idea. I didn't use an wind instruments due to time constrains (especially with my inexperience in using them) but maybe if I converted this into a piece for full orchestra it could be more captivating. Thank you and thanks for your comments!

Here is mine!

The_Fox_and_the_Rabbit_Score.pdf The_Fox_and_the_Rabbit_Story_and_Notes.pdf musicstory.mp3 Hey guys, been a while since I posted a piece here (have some stuff in the works but this is the first thing I've finished recently). This is my submission to the Winter 2017 programmatic music contest. In this case I did something a little different, I wrote a piece for orchestra and narrator (like Peter and the Wolf, which I was heavily inspired by). I do think there are some places where I could refine / expand upon (particularly have the finale in mind), but it is nearing the deadline and I am at the point where I just really want to put it out there to share and get some feedback. This is also probably the fastest I've completed a piece in it's entirety - when I entered the contest on the 5th of this month I only had the first two movements and a rough outline of the story. The narration in the audio is also done by me, hopefully it was a serviceable job. I tried to compose almost exclusively at the piano this time and also tried to use some more interesting keys. Hope you enjoy! (Also, the title isn't final - if you have a recommendation for a better one please let me know!) Total Length: ~14 minutes Length (only music): ~9 minutes

That sounds fair. I am happy to say I will be participating in this competition. Thanks!

It is done with narration followed by musical sections - so there is a fermata where the narrator tells a portion of the story, then the orchestra gives a musical representation of that and elaborates upon it.

I am currently working on a piece that involves both story and words in the performance (a la Peter and the Wolf) would this qualify?

I really enjoyed this work - I am fascinated by minimalism and the atmospheric sense music like this evokes, though pretty mediocre at writing it myself. Well done!

I like this a lot. Very fun and engaging - gives me the vibes of an 70/80s dramatic/action-y film.

Overall in my opinion I would say this sounds pretty directionless and random - there's very little dynamic, rhythmic, and tonal variation, and the piece is largely scalar.

A very light yet enjoyable piece, well done! Your inspiration comes across clearly. It's all balanced quite well, with a wonderful flow overall (had me bobbing my head a little bit haha), and I particularly enjoyed your use of triplets and chromaticism in the first movement. The second movement has a lovely sense of a lullaby to it. This may be just due to your software, but I feel the initial melody at the begging of the third movement doesn't really cut through. It also end quite abruptly, far before I feel you had explored all the possibilities with your theme (much unlike the first movement where I think you use it to it's fullest potential). Excellent work, I do hope that when you play it with your friends you'll share a recording with us!

Very good work here. m.1-40~ there was some type of magic you captured here. For this section I was completely captured by the music. The violin and piano part complemented each brilliantly, the themes were beautiful, it was just entirely brilliant. m. 47-52 I feel the piano and violin don't gel well here - as a whole it just sounds kind of sparse and directionless. I also personally don't care for the rhythmic pattern here, it just sounds disinteresting to my ear. m. 62+ the piano part here is a little too repetitive for my tastes. You have both the right and left hand not only playing a very repetitive pattern, but one that is moving fairly fast (meaning more repetitions in the span of time) so it gets a little tiring, especially since the phrase builds so slowly and the violin part starts very slow. I do like m.68+ that is a example of good repetition in the piano part with the violin over top. The piano has multiple solo moments, yet strangely enough, the violin doesn't have any. Don't be afraid to give the violin some solo time, especially for the particularly sweet and quiet moments. Having the piano cut out can make a particular moment all the more powerful and engrossing. As a whole I feel this piece kind of overstays it's welcome a little bit. Though I was really engrossed at the begging, as it went on it progressively lost my interest though there would always periodically be excellent moments that drew me back in. In my opinion it could be cut back to 9 or 10 minutes and be much more powerful.

A very interesting theme, and a wonderful piece to accompany it! Well done. It is amazing how musically interesting this piece is, despite rhythmically it being surprisingly simple. The melody flows very well and it all has a nice sense of atmosphere. The surprising addition of the triplets adds to the sense of ambience. I am curious if the relatively sparse notation is intentional - for instance the entire first two pages there is not a single dynamic marking to be seen, but I see many opportunities to notate swells, diminuendos, etc. to give the music more complexity and intrigue. Nice work.

Nice work. Here's my thoughts. 1. I like the jazzy feeling of this movement. It is nice, but I do much prefer the piano part in here as the cello sounds pretty sporadic. This is supposed to be "Love" but I really don't feel that coming across in the cello part. 2. This one I really enjoy, it's really interesting and has very good buildup and use of repetition. 3. A wonderfully delicate and atmospheric movement. 4. Another great movement. This I could see being used the backdrop piece for film or tv, it's very grabbing and directed. 5. Also great. 6. I like your theme here a lot. Overall this is an excellent piece - the audio rendering really doesn't do your music justice and I do hope you will be able to have it performed. Your music is beautifully intricate with a clear sense of vision, and your use of rhythm is fascinating.

Thank you all for your comments! Thank you! I'm glad what I was going for came across. That is a good point. Though I did intend it somewhat, as I wanted to give the whole piece a feeling of circular movement, it is also partially due to my inexperience. When I find a new technique (in this case, giving more texture and interest to melodies by giving a fast moving undercurrent) I tend to overuse it. I think particularly in the first movement the repetitive pattern that is in the cello and later violin does get pretty inane. The triplets in the cello with the viola solo I do like though as I want it to have a sense of unease and building, whereas for the cello solo I did give it a much more relaxed backdrop. Thanks :) This is a really good point and something I hadn't considered much. I do think that I should spend some more time studying rhythm as I generally struggle to come up with interesting variation when it comes to that. I do think the cello solo in the last movement, though not very rhythmically diverse, does fit into the idea of zooming in that you are trying to get across. Thank you a lot. I do think I will make a few small revisions, but it is very satisfying to complete a piece of this scale. It boggles my mind how great composers can write grand masterpieces that go on for an hour or more (and often is a fairly short span of time). The fact that I could get across an image with my music (even despite the shoddy MIDI) makes me really happy. Thank you.

Don't have much I can really add on this one...I like it. It has an interesting sound, it develops well and feels like it's just the right length for what it's trying to accomplish. Well done.