Symphonic Sketch

A little piece I wrote out in a couple of days after a little burst of creative energy. It could probably be developed into something more, but I don't really have interest in it as anything other than a little sketch. I'm mostly looking for advice on my scoring, as I've been intentionally writing for smaller ensembles for a while until I feel comfortable working with full orchestral forces. I more or less just tried to orchestrate the music as a heard it in my head.

The engraving and attention to detail is probably not at the level I would normally expect from myself, since this was sketched out pretty quickly. The midi is also pretty terrible, but I haven't really bothered to make many adjustments to it.

Thanks for listening!

Pleasant, if nothing else. A little bit bipolar, or so it sounds (perhaps due to the admittedly awkward MIDI). A lot of the big climax points seem to be very sudden the way I see and hear it. The beginning is a lot of tonic meandering which maybe could have done as a pedal tone instead of an actual harmonic progression, but it works okay, I think...
 

It's nice, but strange.

I don't mind the beginning with a long stay in the tonic, because it's well worked (let's remember the prelude from Das Rheingold a six-minute chord).

The chord at 1:00 took me by surprise, it sounds like in a horror movie (it reminds me of Nosferatu). I think it sounds that way not for being totally atonal, but some pitches predominates strongly over other ones and it sounds more like a very dissonant (tonal) chord. I don't know, just an impression. In fact, this chord is the most shocking for me, although it opens effectively in the followintg chors (in a Zarathustra manner). The last part is pleasant, even joyful. There are many sensations in 2 1/2 minutes. Yes, I think it's a good point to do something.

1:20 reminds of Final Fantasy 7 when you first get on Cid's airship.

It goes from creepy to adventureous but to me that's good because music is an emotion. 

If you're looking for advice on scoring larger ensembles, while I'm not as good as Luis and Monarcheon, large ensembles and epic sounding scores is what I love above all.

Personally I like using major and minor thirds when it comes to chords and progressions. First I'll construct a eight bar progression and create a melody over it. For the next eight bars I like to keep the melody going then add something that can boost the overall sound like brass over the chords then my two signature instruments: choir and timpani...Oh I love those! Hahaha.

I don't use many instruments in fear of clashing. I know none of that was helpful...sorry.

Thank you guys for the comments! I think the overly sudden contrasts in the music comes from the fact that it's really just two fragmentary ideas developed a little and stuck together. Had I developed these with a little other material to make a more complete work, I would have tried to make it flow a little better. 

On October 18, 2016 at 2:29 PM, Luis Hernández said:

The chord at 1:00 took me by surprise, it sounds like in a horror movie (it reminds me of Nosferatu). I think it sounds that way not for being totally atonal, but some pitches predominates strongly over other ones and it sounds more like a very dissonant (tonal) chord.

My only intention here was to use a dissonant chord to have an ambiguous (and maybe somewhat phoned in) transition between the two ideas. It is possible that I should've considered orchestrating it differently, so as not to over-emphasize the more shocking tones. 

On October 20, 2016 at 5:45 PM, LostSamurai said:

I don't use many instruments in fear of clashing. I know none of that was helpful...sorry.

Don't be sorry! I really appreciate any feedback I can get. I've never gotten a comment that wasn't helpful to me in some way.