Sean Salamon

If you can sing Pirelli's part, then you are almost certainly a tenor. If your accompanist can do Sondheim, try: "Finishing the Hat"-- Sunday in the Park with George "Giants in the Sky" -- Into the Woods Pirelli is a very niche part; neither of these really captures his unique personality and it will be very hard to find a song that does. However, these songs, if played right, showcase pretty major acting which is good for the director.

Oh my, this is lovely. I adore your use of repeated motifs, varied over time. Very good performance. The only thing I dislike is that, in order to play the piece, you have to be able to read very quickly, when in fact, it's not a fast piece. I would have wrote the half notes as quarters, quarters as eighths, eighths as sixteenths, etc. This was very enjoyable to listen to and I love your style!

I posted this on the Writer's Block forum a couple weeks ago and have "finished" the piece. Not many commented, so fyi, it's a Landscape portrait of a French island village for orchestra, lasting approximately five minutes. Please listen and review! msmichel pdf.pdf Mont Saint-Michel.mid Mont Saint-Michel.mus

My main criticism about this piece is the registers in which you have the instruments play. Generally in orchestration when writing homophonically like this, you have each instrument play in its strongest register. The clarinet and alto sax both are flirting with the bottom of their range for the entire piece (though I did like the one phrase the clarinet had). The clarinet will play consistently in any register, but asking the alto sax or tenor sax to play quietly at the bottom of its range (low written Bb up to F) is futile and it will extremely hard to execute. Also, both trumpet parts are written too low to be in any way lyrical. The first trumpet part is really not that bad (although it may be difficult for the trumpet to blend with the woodwinds in any case). The melody in the solo, however, goes down to a low G, which sounds like a strangled duck on a trumpet. I would really advise transposing the piece up so that the lowest note is at least a C. The transposition may also take care of the problems with the saxophones. Happy composing.

What exactly do you wish to achieve by studying this score? Do you want to study something in particular?

Now, I don't have the full score in my posession, but I've listened to this piece many times and the only differences between your arrangement and the Holst's real piece are: Holst's first movement (March) had the first two themes, a trio, and a repitition of the first two themes. Your first movement only has the first two themes Holst's second movement (Song Without Words)had a clarinet solo in the beginning but you have the piccolo, oboe 1 and clarinet 1 play it instead. Also, the original is in F minor but yours is in D minor You also have some problems with your tempos. The march should be at about quarter note= 120, and the Finale should be at dotted quarter note= 140. Other than that, your "arrangement" doesn't seem to be an arrangement. It's a mus. file of the original piece.

You had a really good thing going from measures 7-12. It was building to something big and lyrical... but then you cut it off abruptly with a weird fast piano thing. I nearly cried. If I were you, I'd go back to the measure 12 and let the piece develop naturally without being cutoff. :)

This is the first piece of music that I've heard in my short few first days here that I would like to actually listen to for pleasure. Good job!

I knew what you meant... I tend to oversimplify things sometimes because the differences between some things are not really that important to me. In the big picture it's the same idea. Anyway, I stand by with what I said, and think that jawoodruff's piece would serve as a great accompaniment to any melody, theme, or collection of horizontal cells... :)

Reyeahman, thank you for commenting, I appreciate it. No, I am not related to a Mark Salamon that I know of. Nirvana, I think I agree with your criticism. I shall have to make the piano part more interesting and perhaps make a second theme. It's interesting that you compare my music to Japanese incidental music... One of the first times I was inspired to compsose was after I listened to the score to Spirited Away and Nausicaa. Apart from those movies, however, I am not familar with Japanese film music. Maybe that experience shaped in some way, though.

I agree with QcCowboy... I can't really discern a real melody here. It's all just very nice accompaniment... :).

Shows how much I know...

5. Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity --Holst 4. Russian Easter Festival Overture --Rimsky-Korsakov 3. Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte --Ravel 2. A Little Priest --Sondheim 1. Five Variants on 'Dives and Lazarus' --Vaughan Williams

I don't know how experienced your friend is at playing the clarinet, but be careful writing in the altissimo register (C above the staff and up). You've written a high F to G trill-- I'm certainly not the best of clarinetists but I've played for seven years and I can't play that trill without squeaking. Just clear that with your friend first. Otherwise it's very good.

Hmm. I must admit, the first section needs a lot of work. I find the trills unnecessary and most of them clash pretty badly with the other parts. The transition from mm. 6 to 7 is a bit unsettling because it sounds like you're going to be modulating from a C# major chord to a F# chord, but you just go back to a C# minor chord, where you started. Also, you can do better with the falling glissando part of the melody in the first ending, preferably so that you don't end up with an F#-E#-C# ending. The fugue has much potential but beware of putting running sixteenth notes in two voices at the same time-- unless the voices are directly paralleling each other, it will sound overwhelming. If you want ideas, I envision a soaring, legato oboe countermelody over the tocatta-like melody underneath. Have you ever heard Holst's Fantasia on the Dargason? He begins out with a stacatto Irish jig in the woodwinds and then the horns play a sweeping rendition of "Greensleeves" overtop-- it's a great effect that I think would be cool in this piece. Happy Composing.