David Kincaid

Sorry I mistyped, I meant to say the reverse. There are about 10 measures that a pianist won't be able to play. And they're the places where it looks as if you randomly stuck octaves in places that would sound good, not in places where it would be idiomatic for a virtuosic pianist to play, and only in the left hand. A pianist just won't be able to play the octaves in m. 34, 35, 36, 37, 45, 48, 152, 154, 161, and 164. The octaves and huge chords a pianist would have to roll rather than play straight like that, with leaping arpeggios, are highly unnatural for a pianist. If you want to write something difficult for a pianist that are natural for him to play, I'd suggest taking a look at the scores of Liszt's Transcendent Etudes and Chopin's Etudes and looking at the score to Rachmaninoff's Piano Concertos rather than just writing it blindly.

You seem to use dynamics arbitrarily. You use PPP and FF way too much. I'd go back through and eliminate some of them or change them to something more moderate.

I don't want to sound harsh, but please learn how to play the piano before writing a concerto for it. I saw maybe 10 measures of the whole piece that were playable, much less idiomatic.

First of all, I like the piece a lot. Secondly, I'm assuming you don't play either piano, violin or cello. Fourths and fifths are the hardest intervals for any string instrument to play. They're very awkward. The biggest concern I have is I think the writing for the instruments could have been made a little more idiomatic. Sure, it's playable. But, as a pianist, I look at that piano part and go "Ugh. Another boring piano part with ternary chords in both hands for most of the piece. That's no fun." In addition, there aren't any triple stops, pizzicato, or tremolo for the violin and cello and no pizzicato. If it weren't for the occasional double stop, you could pick up nearly any instrument and play this piece. I could take your score and put it for two saxophones and piano with changing almost nothing. :P I think that this piece does a lot of things great, but it could also do a lot of things great.

I seem to remember Stravinsky writing an orchestral piece named Firebird...

I think that you need to change the time signature to 6/4 to better accommodate the melodic rhythms.

I'd really appreciate a comment before someone just rates a 6/10. I can't do fix anything with a rating, but a comment would give me direction.

Sounds really musical. One of the things I would work on is making sure that it's not only playable, but also idiomatic. I know as a pianist that those runs are possible, but they would be really difficult to time that precisely, and some of the string writing is awkward. Another thing to consider is phrase markings, and for the piano, pedal markings. There are none. I would go back through your piece and decide where you want phrases to end and for them to begin. The last thing I can think of right now before I dash off to Russian is that you need to work on notation and dynamics. I think I saw one dynamic throughout the entire piece, and that was FF. Hope this helps!

Thank for you the kind words! I completely agree with what you said about the mf and mp markings. I am definitely going to change them accordingly. I actually thought about doing it because I realized how loud it would get. I can definitely see myself extending this piece, but not too much longer. Maybe another minute and a half to two minutes.

It was really exciting to have it performed. Definitely an experience that I hope to have happen again. Also, I'm from Longwood, FL and thanks! Always nice to have someone that likes it. xD

A simple nocturne I wrote for piano in about 2 hours at 2 in the morning. It's really quiet!! Turn it up to hear it!! Nocturne

I wrote this piece for the Young Composer's Challenge last year and was selected as a finalist. Please excuse the horrid notation! This was the first orchestral piece I had written and my harmonies have advanced greatly since this. YCC - Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra

Sounds great! I like the lively and fun feel of it. However, NOTATION NOTATION NOTATION NOTATION NOTATION. It would take a performer of this thirteen times as long to learn it because of the way of you notated it. I don't want that to sound harsh. I like the piece a lot. :D

A small piece I composed about a year ago as a composition assignment. Passacaglia Chromatique: "Raindrop"

String Quartet I wrote last year as a Freshmen. String Quartet, Mvt. 1