Rejuvinating Realm

I'm trying to get to grips with orchestration, but I'm just an amateur with little practical knowledge of orchestration (I just try to make it sound good with virtual instruments), plus I have at times a somewhat wonky compositional style, but here is my latest effort. I post it here so that, if I'm lucky, I may receive critique that I can learn a thing or two from.

I'm aiming for some kind of soothing and spacey sound.

The instrumentation is:

Quote

 

- 1st violins (sordino)

- 2nd violins (sordino)

- Violas (sordino)

- Cellos (sordino)

- Basses (sordino; divisi; one part entirely pizzicato, the other legato and staccato)

- Harp

- Bass flute

- Clarinet

- English horn

- Oboe

- Bassoon

- French Horn (just one)

- Trumpet (just one; muted the first time heard)

- Piano

- Timpani

- Percussion (bass drum, snare - loosened at the ending, cymbal, and some kind of untuned bell at 2:12)

 

I am constantly concerned about wind dynamics. Since it's very "windy" music, I would be very interested to hear a wind player's opinion on the feasibility of the sound combinations. Also, I'm not sure about the way the piano is mixed. It's played very softly most of the time, which gives the texture I want. This works, because the piano is rather loud, but if it was played fortissimo in this mix, it could almost overpower everything else. I wonder if that is unrealistic?

Edit:

I have re-balanced the mix to attempt more realism, and I have made various changes, including the addition of cellos.

Don't be hard yourself, I actually quite enjoyed this. The first thing that came to my mind while listening to this was the film Edward Scissorhands; and I say that in a good way (love the music in that film.)

It's obvious you have a clear direction and you create just enough room to allow other instruments in without pounding it with too much sound. Fading in and fading out the strings were very nice and your transitions were convincing as well.

However, I will say...in my personal opinion, the brass sections didn't compliment the woodwind instruments as well BUT it was the idea and how unique you implemented them that had me in awe. 

Definitely a 8/10 in my book. Good work man.

Horn glissandos aren't that easy to perform, especially at that speed.
bVI to I chord at around 0:29 is kind of awkward.
Switch to duple compound rhythm in the beginning section was weird since it didn't have hemiola backup. 
Something to keep in mind is that instruments with missing partials (harsher) will sound different so you need to balance that with other solo instruments.
The introduction of the trumpet was a little bit weird, but its part smoothed out in the end. 
At 3:01, you start out with a V chord on bottom with your melody not adhering to the same rule.
Brass always overpowers woodwinds. Just changing the velocity on one doesn't make it realistic.
The ending was bizarre. Not bad, but kind of unlike the rest of the piece.

4 hours ago, Monarcheon said:

Horn glissandos aren't that easy to perform, especially at that speed.

Thanks for the tip! Even though I've watch horn players, I have severely limited imagination about what it's like to play one. I'll remove the glissandos; they're not essential anyway.

4 hours ago, Monarcheon said:

bVI to I chord at around 0:29 is kind of awkward.

It sounds more like a fast bVI-bVII-I to me, due to the horn passing through a Db, which is not in key with the melody and therefore (IMO) suggests harmony rather than melody. You had almost the same change at 0:13, except there the horn didn't play a Db, and therefore it sounded different harmonically. Did you find that less awkward? Maybe you are right. I'll try without that note soon. It's probably excessive.

4 hours ago, Monarcheon said:

Switch to duple compound rhythm in the beginning section was weird since it didn't have hemiola backup. 

Switch from what? What do you believe the meter to be prior to the first downbeat? I have no answer. In my opinion, the first few beats have no objective tempo; you stumble into the scene at an angle, but soon recover your footing when a persistent duple compound pattern emerges.

There's another rhythmic anomaly at 2:56 to 2:57-ish where an entire additional beat is injected. Why did I do that? Because when the sound of it first popped into my mind, I was (and remain) convinced that the irregularity is subtle enough to create interest without bothering, mainly due to how the oboe's rhythm obfuscates the rhythm in that part, but I could be wrong about these things due to having conditioned my ears to them.

4 hours ago, Monarcheon said:

At 3:01, you start out with a V chord on bottom with your melody not adhering to the same rule.

Nice observation. I think it would not transition nicely to the next part if the trumpet went in agreement with the other harmonic suggestions at that time. Rather, it becomes a sort of suspension into the next section: The next melody begins at that particular note. That also has a vague connection to the established pattern of a section's melody's first note beginning ahead of time, heard at 0:14, 0:38, and 1:10. It doesn't sound weird to me, but again, I will try tweaking it because you suggested there might be something wrong with it.

4 hours ago, Monarcheon said:

Brass always overpowers woodwinds. Just changing the velocity on one doesn't make it realistic.

After more listening around and thinking, I've concluded that my woodwinds are probably mixed too loud in general, and that I should re-consider all the softer trumpet parts.

But isn't your statement false for horns, which are usually labelled as members of the brass section in modern orchestras, but are a stock member of woodwind quintets and blend very well with woodwinds as far as I can hear in, for example, Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin? And what about the upper register of a piccolo or a clarinet?

43 minutes ago, Hugget Zukker said:

But isn't your statement false for horns, which are usually labelled as members of the brass section in modern orchestras, but are a stock member of woodwind quintets and blend very well with woodwinds as far as I can hear in, for example, Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin? And what about the upper register of a piccolo or a clarinet?

Hm... yes, technically, but have you ever heard a horn section play in unison at ff?  It definitely doesn't sound like a woodwind instrument. But you are right though.
Upper woodwind registers are normally reserved for very choice situations, I've been taught, otherwise everything after is kind of a dropoff. 
Edit: Also, horn glissandi are possible as slide jumps, but the maximum actual glissando range is 3/4 tone max, I think.

16 hours ago, Monarcheon said:

Upper woodwind registers are normally reserved for very choice situations, I've been taught, otherwise everything after is kind of a dropoff.

Ah, this is great advice, I think.