Sententia for Flute, Oboe, and Cello

My hand at a relatively short miniature form created by another member on this forum @luderart

I'll be adding some more here as I develop more confidence in writing these type of pieces. So far, this was an enjoyable exercise in brevity. Love it.

I think @luderart is on to something with the Sentence.  I think what could work for you @jawoodruff is to add more sentences.  For instance, you could add say 8 more by bringing back each of the previous 4 and develop them differently.  That would make this even more compositionally stronger and more cohesive.

Nice short pieces.

I think the first works worse. In this post-tonal or whatever you may call it style, this linear canonic approach doesn't work very well in terms of control of tension and relief. It seems that what happens depends on  random verticalities. Much better control of this issue in the other sententiae, for example nº 4.

Congratulations @jawoodruff  on your four sententiae for Flute, Oboe, and Cello. I think you have gotten the hang of composing sententiae! I enjoyed the pieces, especially the fourth one, even though it was the shortest.

2 hours ago, luderart said:

Congratulations @jawoodruff  on your four sententiae for Flute, Oboe, and Cello. I think you have gotten the hang of composing sententiae! I enjoyed the pieces, especially the fourth one, even though it was the shortest.

 

I'm glad you liked them and hope I did the ideas justice. I'll probably write more of these and refine it some. 

On 3/14/2020 at 7:29 PM, maestrowick said:

I think @luderart is on to something with the Sentence.  I think what could work for you @jawoodruff is to add more sentences.  For instance, you could add say 8 more by bringing back each of the previous 4 and develop them differently.  That would make this even more compositionally stronger and more cohesive.

 

Interesting idea on adding more. I'll probably add a lot more than 8. This was a fun series to work on and you have to be concise -which I felt I could have been a bit more concise. Still, it's all fun though.

14 hours ago, Luis Hernández said:

Nice short pieces.

I think the first works worse. In this post-tonal or whatever you may call it style, this linear canonic approach doesn't work very well in terms of control of tension and relief. It seems that what happens depends on  random verticalities. Much better control of this issue in the other sententiae, for example nº 4.

 

Glad you liked them. 

Regarding the linear canonic approach -I don't necessarily use canon (and I wouldn't call anything in these short pieces canonic). I chose to imitate the oboe with the flute for purely coloristic effect. To me, it sounded better then a more planed structure (flute oboe planed over the cello part). With such short ideas, I don't think I'd focus so much on establishment of a tension/relief structure. Certainly, such short ideas can have an underlying TR relationship and evolution -though, such a brief idea would be counterintuitive to a fuller TR experience.

Ironically, I think no. 4 is the simplest of this set. And this is where even the composer's subjective mindset comes into play. I figured the 4th would be the one perceived as being the worst. The two sections -while connected harmonically and somewhat thematically- doesn't quite seem coherent to me. I thought about rewriting it (and still might) to provide some more cohesion within it. Food for thought.

 now that I thought about it, change the oboe to clarinet so we can make this "flute trio" a popular thing 😃

26 minutes ago, maestrowick said:

 now that I thought about it, change the oboe to clarinet so we can make this "flute trio" a popular thing 😃

 

I'll write a trio for the ensemble. You able to get it performed if I did!?!

Just now, jawoodruff said:

I'll write a trio for the ensemble. You able to get it performed if I did!?!

 

Hahahahahahahha. Iwish I had that type of power.  just trying to create a movement 🙂

3 minutes ago, maestrowick said:

Hahahahahahahha. Iwish I had that type of power.  just trying to create a movement 🙂

 

Movements are good. I'd love to be part of a 'school' like the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern). Imagine the possibilities of impacting the future of classical music like that. Would be something neat.