Thank you so much for the kind words, and for the constructive criticism! Music definitely is a great way to keep your mind fresh and relieved after the pain of science lol.
I do really like writing those "eargasmic" parts as you put it - can't deny that I love grand orchestral moments, especially as a horn player. Didn't quite mean to mimic Beethoven, but he definitely is an inspiration along with many late Romantic era composers (Mahler especially, as a horn player should be). For example, the part where everything seems to fall apart and die down was meant to be similar to Tchaik's Romeo and Juliet scene where Tybalt is mortally wounded.
I will admit it was quite hard deciding what was over the top and what wasn't, especially because I wanted to use everything an orchestra had to offer. But, I still think I can work on those softer moments, choosing when is best to double up parts and when is best to leave the music to fewer musicians and achieve the same results. I think the score would reveal that many instruments are often playing at the same time, and while it blends pretty well in this mp3, my worry would be how it sounds with a real orchestra. As you stated with heavy distortion, a lot can be hidden here and blended but I'm just worried that blending is allowing me to make some rookie mistakes and get away with it.
Regarding the motifs, I was definitely working with "shorter" melodies that would disappear and reappear at various little points like "Where's Waldo". The trumpet bit at the beginning, for example, is meant to represent the King himself, although I agree it could be longer or more fleshed out to fully capture the "might" of the scene. The bassoon/oboe combo in the softer sections was also the princess theme, if you were wondering. But again, can definitely be made more apparent.
Thank you again, and I'll see with later work what I can do to improve!
