jawoodruff

Interesting. This piece definitely has his pointilistiv, minimal tendencies. Your user of gestures is also reminiscent of him.

I was referring to measures 224-225, which ends on a c minor chord. Within these measures you switch from the contrapuntal texture to an interplay between bassoon vs flute/clarinet and end on the c minor chord with a rest aftewards. Definitely an abrupt ending to the texture -but it works. The sciliana does have seconds -but I meant the traditional secundal interplay within a sort of recitative style typical of the siciliana. Mind you, I like your treatment here and it works (reminiscent of some of Bachs). There was one other thing I meant to mention, I notice the piece is definitely modal in nature -you're use of harmony here is neat. The siciliana is a good example of this, you have the key sig as A major, but you're ending is in B minor -and accidentals throughout the section. Not a biggie, just curious about this.

All in all, quite a charming piece. I thought the bassoon and clarinet parts were nicely done. I would've loved to have seen a little more range exploration in the flute though -the piece seems to just stick to the upper low and middle section of the instruments range. But, given this was originally for brass, I can see why you kept it in that range. The lilt section was interesting. I'm not familiar with that form at all. The siciliana was a nice touch, but I would've loved to have seen some of the characteristic second interval play prevalent in that form. I'm not quite sure why you interrupted the fugue at the end of the short statement. I'm guessing that was to signify a solidification of the fugue subjects? All in all, good work. Thanks for sharing!

Very interesting musical ideas here. I like the energy behind your writing. That said, I'm noticing some issues here and there. First, some of your double stops on violin (and the viola in the orchestral rendition you posted) are nearly impossible to play. 4th movement, measure 13 for instance. Third position (III) would make this somewhat doable -but there'd definitely be a high risk of intonation issues due to the awkwardness of the fingering needed here. The double stops mm 11 and 12 also are difficult due to the fact you have the violinst in 5th position. Cpincidentally, the bowing here would make the accent on the first beat of bar 11 impossible. If you want that all bowed, then I'd recommend you crescendo that passage to bring out that first double stop. Measure 31, the double stop here doesn't quite make sense -it's doable, but I'm wondering if that's a wrong note. Bowing at measure 47 is going to make the accent on bar 48 nearly impossible... particularly with the held trill afterwards. I'd look at redoing this passage. Keep in mind with your slurs that string players -while they can adjust the speed of the bow while applying pressure to sustain dynamics- only have so much bow available to use!

Definitely can see the influence of Webern here. I love the use of the vibraphone. Was this a live recording? If not, what sound library do you use?

Very nice work, Luis! I'm quite impressed by this. Regarding parallels: One thing to keep in mind is that parallels themselves aren't necessarily bad when the individual lines retain their independence. You don't want the parallels to harmonize with each other -this 'independence' is why that rule exists. Many composers find that difficult. Thus, many composers avoid parallels like the plague. In this instance though, you have enough independence within the lines that I don't think the parallels really would've detracted from it. Just my two cents. Enjoyable work!

I've never attempted an electronic work -aside from a short stint aiding a dj with sample music for rave mixes (which this is quite removed from that). The opening is quite interesting. The bell sound is an interesting layer that reminds me almost of the psychedelic sound collages of Jefferson Airplane (one of my favorite bands). The layers here are quite distinct and I like how you bring them up within your mix -sort of reminiscent of some of Berio's concrete musique. The softness definitely adds a nice touch to this. I'm wondering if you could perhaps add another layer to this to increase the sound collage aspect of your work here. All in all, I enjoyed this. Hope to hear more of this!

I'm glad you noticed the brass writing! I've been doing a lot of delving into the repertoire thru score study. So, I'm learning what the brass are capable of that way. The irony of my brass quandry is that years ago when I was at the conservatory, I composed a piece for brass quintet. It was a quasi-serial fanfare. I may re-compose it (but most likely won't as it was a student piece). I should've took notes from the performance of it and the other comp majors works and kept them. Oh well, thank god for score study!

I have a few ideas for the ending. For me, the transition from the restatement of the opening material could is what I'm looking at as well as the end material. Doesn't quite seem cohesive to me. I'll tinker with it. Glad you enjoyed it though!

I'm glad you enjoyed it -despite you're deep love of my string quartet <3! I really took the idea of the fantasie from the set of them composed by Mozart. In those, he does a similar thing -he gravitates from one idea to the next. They are really free form in that regard -and this follows suit. I really tried finding more modern usage of the form for study -but came short. At any rate, I'll delve deeper here into the construction of the piece. Tonality: I really did a slight of hand here. The tonality is loosely based on the Phrygian Mode -but, I say loosely as I alter the mode within each section (first by flattening the first note, then the fourth, then the fifth). This is why the section at measures 121 -144 sounds remote from the implied tonal center of E. It's probably also why the ending doesn't sound complete to me. I established E as the tonal center right at the outset with the suspended chords in the strings -with woodwind punctuation to offset the fact the passage isn't functional at all. The chords were designed diatonically with stacked thirds -but the progression created was meant to create a state of stasis. That said, the remainder of the work features a myriad of tertian, quartal, and quintal harmonies -sometimes superimposed on top of each other. I also use secundal harmony and 'cluster' chords (but spaced out over the ranges of the instruments to lessen the dissonant impact of the chords}. This type of spatial placement is modern. The lack of functional harmony is also why there aren't any 'formal' cadences. Instead, I had to rely on gestural cadences which are clear -but the rendering via midi doesn't quite do these justice as live musicians would do. Motivic Development and Unity: In keeping with the form of a fantasy, the material here is pretty much reduced. The material for each segment comes from an idea I found interesting in the preceding section -all of which is tied into the material found in the 1st violin from measures 35 - 40. Again, the modal alterations that I made throughout the sections impacts the segments from the motivic units I used per section. The material is then treated in an improvisatory manner -which is why it's bounced around and manipulated but moves quickly from one idea to the next (much as if you were improvising on your instrument). Atonal vs. Tonal: This is really the nuts and bolts of the entire query you had -so I'll give it a go. I've been doing a lot of thought of where I want my music to go and what contributions I want to make to our art as a composer. I've been listening to a lot of orchestral music of late and I happened to notice that a lot of the modern orchestral works either are huge sound masses that explore textural changes at the expense of melodic or motivic development. Works that use thematic material don't seem to really do much imaginative with it -not as some of the great modernist composers of the 20th century did (Bartok, Ligeti, Stravinsky, etc.) I started this piece with the idea of doing a 'sound mass' sort of American Landscape type work BUT... I got to thinking.... do we really need another? I mean, most of these type of works are usually a few listens and then you're done with them sort of pieces. They rely solely on the orchestration and coloration provided by a symphony orchestra -and very little else. I decided I had to do something different. My response was to go the opposite direction and look at the works of the greats of the 20th century and see what I could use within my own musical language. From Stravinsky, I took the ostinato usage from his works in the 1910s. To me, this was an interesting way to establish a sense of tonality -where tonality wasn't exactly functional in nature. From Ligeti, I looked at his use of brevity found within his Bagatelles for Wind Quartet. The whimsical nature of these works with his scaled back use of chromaticism and dissonance were quite breath taking. Yet, they are modern in their own right. From Bartok, his use of implied tonality. I think he excelled far greater than Stravinsky in that department as he utilized similar juxtapositions. Overall, I feel this work definitely builds on what was laid in my string quartet. While the string quartet definitely is more dissonant due to the contrapuntal interplay of the passages, it too has an implied tonality to it. It also uses a myriad of harmonic styles within each movement similar to this -along with the lack of 'formal' cadences. Hopefully, this in depth look at my inner thoughts on this piece is useful. Thanks again for listening and glad you enjoyed it!

This is my second fantasy for Orchestra. I'm going to give a bit more -just due to the fact I'm planning on sending this to a local orchestra. My inspiration for using the fantasy form comes from Mozart's fantasies for piano. I loved the way Mozart took the improvisatory technique and used it compositionally -where each section is based off material from the previous section. I tried looking for Britten's Phantasie on Youtube -but sadly, couldn't find a good one with score to analyze prior to writing this (but I heard his work did the same thing?) Anyways, I also wanted to go off the idea of a 'dream-like' opening as I did in my first fantasy (which I'm reorchestrating and recomposing sections of). This one opens and ends in a similar fashion. However, I've applied more of what I've learned orchestrating and have more extensive brass parts and a timpani part written out. That said, I'm probably going to redo the ending of this one to make it more final. I'm probably going to compose more of these types of orchestral works. I really enjoyed writing this and love the result of it. Hope you all enjoy!

I think that's a good question. I'm not too familiar on the linguistic-musicological research in that arena. I'm sure, though, if we find linguistic connections in western music, then it most likely also exists in eastern traditions. There's probably also a connection between the two regions as well -that I'm sure has relics here and there.

Honestly, I don't think the number of composers has really increased over the past few decades. There were certainly a LOT of composers who we never heard of -or at least didn't find a place in the continued performance repertoire. In terms of music from the medieval period.... we know music was well spread amongst the full throngs of society as we also have traces of this fact in our own folk music histories. One exceptional example is the troubadour and trovatores of southern europe. There's an extensive tradition of pub drinking songs in England as well. That said, I like your view at the end. Very heart felt!

So, I've been trying to find more to add to my musical voice and I think I finally found a nice match in an ancient greek series (mode). I've been researching Ancient Mesopotamian and Ancient Greek musical theory the last week -and decided to try my hand at writing music using the 'scale' as the harmonic underpinning. I do like the result and think it blends well with my use of chromaticism and material. Open to critique though -I'm sure we have some modal lovers here?