dexm85

....yeaaaaahhh, the lower instruments could use a little attention too!

Thanks! It's sometimes hard to tell whether a piece is really finished or if it's being thought about too much. I don't think it was jumping around in genres really, just a bunch of them piled together. The contrasts between the repeating rhythmic unison parts and the fast technical passages always stuck out to me, and when played, the unison parts required a whole lot of work to stay intense. It was like a roller-coaster instead of a big build to the end. I guess that can be looked at in different ways...

This here, a piece entitled "Party Hat" was performed on my junior composition recital put together by some of my friends at school. I think it's pretty cool, but it eludes me altogether in another sense. To begin with, the style is a hybrid of many different influences (as is most of my music), but it's almost strange how they fit together. When I listen to it I hear classical and jazz influences, as well as some pop and maybe even disco influence. I also hear a little bit of video game-ish type stuff in there. What I'm stuck on is whether I should change the instrumentation to something entirely different altogether, or keep it a woodwind quintet....or to just figure out what's going on stylistically here... What do you think?? party hat.MID

I agree with what you guys say for the most part...The first two movements are quite dark, even though "Hymns" and "Waltzes" aren't usually as dark as these pieces. I'm interested in these "strange" harmonies I seem to have created, since you both brought them up. As far as the finale, I've been contemplating re-doing it entirely, and changing it to a darker finale to match more with the first two movements. The beginning is difficult for brassists. My own quintet played this piece with me on euphonium (instead of trombone for this piece), and was doable with the experience of the musicians in my quintet -- it was far from cake, though, and with the brass instruments, created quite a nice "wash-over" of sound type effect, but I feel that effect is almost random in terms of context of the piece. All in all, that will probably change in the near future.

This piece was written in January 2007 and was performed at my Junior Composition Recital in April. The movements are short each with its own simple, sweet melodies, hence the title. 1. Hymn 2. Waltz 3. Finale Happy Listening! I.MID II.MID III.MID I.pdf II.pdf III.pdf