First attempt to compose a string quartet

Hello!

I am totally new to composition, self-taught and doing it as a hobby only. This is also my first post on this forum and I didn't find a section explaining the rules of the forum so apologies if I'm doing something wrong!

Anyway, here is my first try for writing a string quartet! Curious to have some feedback on it :)

I attached an audio file and a pdf but you can also find it here on musescore: https://musescore.com/user/27118405/scores/6317578

As a first quartet very nice. As usual, the rendering doesn't do the score much justice but given you've done your best it's a pretty good mock-up. (I mean, for instance, the dynamics allow much more expression than the notation program gives.)

The harmony moves well, the interplay of parts making up the tune are clever and if you've a mind, this could be developed into something longer based on the same material in, say, a different key like the relative minor coming back to the major at some point, or a contrasting theme.

I had a look at the score and have no crits (that need concern me here, like bow strokes which a professional performer would sort out anyway). The only thing I'd ask you to be sure about: the semiquaver figures that start in the cello at bar 16 would be played detaché as written. That's fine but if you want them legato you'd need to group them under slurs. Some other phrases/groups might benefit from slurs and legatos, so if you have a few moments, think about that.

You've come to the right place if you are interested about learning composition, there are some talented and knowledgeable composers here that are really supportive. Im fairly new to composition myself but I do have some advice for those starting out.

Its tempting to jump into the deep end and try immitate the music we enjoy listening to when we start composing. This is fine as long as you are studying basic theory and doing exercises to learn the craft at the same time. One of Mozart's students, a talented English virtuoso pianist and aspiring composer, asked Mozart to teach him counterpoint because he was anxious to start composing fugues. Mozart replied that it will take a year of exercises before even attempting a fugue.

The English guy like most of us starting out wanting to jump straight into the fun stuff which is understandable but music is complex and needs to be broken down and assimilated through exercises. First focus on learning melody writing by composing melodies every day, Mozart said the essence of music is the melody. Choose a simple musical form such as the minuet to practice melody writing and add a walking bass. Also don't be afraid to compose amateurish music, we must learn to be comfortable as 'the fool' before become 'the master', so manage your expectations and look for improvement over time.

My efforts so far after a few months are amateurish but I'm improving which is what I'm focusing on. In the beginning I would say quantity is more useful than quality. You can learn more composing 10 minuets over the course of a month than a month spent sweating over a piece that is currently beyond your ability to bring to a successful conclusion.

What text books are you studying? I've combed the Internet for free textbooks on every subject of composition which I can send links if you want to add to your library? 

My opinion of your string quartet is that its the musical equivalent of a stick man drawing, I know the artist's intention was to draw a person but it lacks basic proportion and depth and indistinct quality. I can see and hear some harmony knowledge and in places there's beauty but its not convincing as a whole. It comes across as a bit strange to my ears but so does a lot of beginners music and I'm sure my efforts have the same effect to other's ears! Its a great start and I look forward to hearing more from you. Have you written any chorales?

You're very brave attempting a string quartet. Although it seems more an idea, it flows well. I think you exploit the pointillism here, but many other tools you could use. 

I also think it is a great start and I actually liked it, I think you have nice ideas, but I agree with what DarrenEngland said. I am also a beginner and only three months ago I was making the same mistake of jumping into the deep (we all seem to make it at first, I guess) and, in fact, I also posted a string quartet here which, luckily for me, made some people from the forum help me and point me in the right direction.

You clearly have some knowledge about harmony and you even used chromatic tones for modulation twice but, except for that run of semiquavers and a couple other instances, most of the piece consists of chord tones which makes me think your next step (since you seem to know chords and triads well) could be learning more four-part writing and counterpoint (two-voice counterpoint first, if you have not studied it yet). But I liked it, I think the ideas were nice and, especially, I enjoyed the part starting at 1:05, when you restated the beginning of the piece and developed it while slowly ending the piece. That was  nice!

Like DarrenEngland I am also curious about the textbooks you are using or what have you studied so far. Let us know and we could try to recommend you some resources! 🙂

I personally don't think Coxi jumped in a particularly deep end. He has to make a go of it and his scoring shows insight. The vertical is fairly well laid out. I might have done things differently here and there but that's me, not the composer of this piece. He has plenty of scope for future adventure but this is a good opening. If anything it could be a little longer. 

I might have been critical of certain points like a hesitancy, and doubling (nay tripling) of the 3rd in bar 15 leading up to a cadential G in bar 16 but...but the hesitancy was an intriguing effect and the weakness of the multiple 3rds gave a thorough resolution on the G chord. (I'd have dropped the cello to D on the last beat of bar 15 but again, that's me. (These are things that the composer can rethink when he reviews this piece. Matters about when to double the 3rd and not will be picked up in studying voice leading.) His handing of the runs in bars 16 to 19 came over as clever as he moves through the harmony to get to a nice-sounding first inversion G chord in 20 correctly resolving onto the C chord - in terms of the overall key Vb - Ia.

The octaves in bar 26 are a bit naughty so is the parallel 5th, albeit onto a diminished 5th - questionable but do the rules really apply here? If this was a technical exercise on 4-part harmony I'd say yes - know the rules before you break them. Ultimately, rules or not it comes down to "is it what the composer wants?"

= = =

I also don't equate "amateur" (particularly "amateurish") with beginner. Amateurs do something for the love of it whereas tradespeople do it to pay the mortgage. They work to order. I'm an amateur but not really a beginner, beyond the philosophical obvious that we're always beginners...creeping away from the beginning but without an end in sight!

Wow, thank you so much to all, I'm so glad to have so many feedbacks on that tiny stuff! Lemme answer in sequence. Sorry if the message is long, you can jump straight to your part:

@Quinn : Thanks a lot for this very encouraging answer!really nice to read your kind words, and I'm grateful for the specific technical recommandations you give, they're super helpful. Thank you for taking the time to have a detailed look at the score. As you said, it could -and should probably- be longer, but it's really the second piece of music I ever wirte that is not a pure textbook exercise, so I wanted to keep it short, keep it manageable for me. Thank you veeery much for the recommandation of the legato on the semiquavers. I really lack knowledge on this kind of stuff that relates to the technicity of the player (never touched a violin in my life), and I need to build up that intuition. About the doubling of the 3d, I thought it is actually common practice to use the II-7th chord with the 3rd as a bass, and a doubling of the bass in a cadence context to "mimic" the role of the IV chord in a IV-V-I  movement. Did I use that wrong?

Thanks also for pointing out the octaves in bar 26, I actually just missed that one, although it was obvious.... Damn! I'll re-work that part a bit. As to the consecutive 5th, I thought this was accepted when moving from 5th to diminished 5th. Is that wrong? Anyway, thanks a lot for those very useful comments!!

@DarrenEngland Thanks for commenting! I understand your recommandation to start slow. I think I did to some extent actually. I've been learning 4 part harmony and writing quite a few chorale exercises (also harmonizations of a given bass). Actually I'm not totally sure why you consider a string quartet as particularly challenging. In my mind, it actually seems like a somewhat straight-forward way to apply four-part harmony. Seems tailor-made for that! I know almost nothing about counterpoint yet though, and I need to work on that asap, but I just tried to write that in the meantime as a purely harmonic, counterpoint-free attempt. I totally understand your stick figure analogy! Though actually, I didn't especially feel that way on this particular music: I will post another stuff I wrote (my very first composition) which was clearly overly ambitious and which gave me much more that feeling of stick figure music. Could you give me hints on some particular points that gave you this impression? Or is it just a global indistinct feeling?

My sources so far are all in french I'm afaraid :(( I've been using textbooks and videos from a fairly respected french music teacher. I would really love to get textbook recommandations from you guys, although I'll have to learn all the linguo in english haha. I especially have weaknesses (or straight-up ignorance) on counterpoint, rythmic techniques, and overall "architecture of the piece" (i mean how to organize together  individual parts that sound well on their own, how to make smooth transitions from one phrase to another, etc..). If you have material adressing those issues, that would be awesome! 🙂

@Luis Hernández Thank you! It is indeed just a short idea, a tiny project to get used to writing something that is not purely an exercise. Glad to know it sounds ok to you! It is the first time I hear the term pointillism for music haha, thanks for teaching me this!

@JorgeDavid Thanks for your appreciation and support! As said to Darren, I would love to hear some textbook recommandation from you although I have to apologize that I can't give some back to you, since all I have learned so far is in my mothertongue 😞 They were focused on 4 part harmony. You are totally right, I should definitely learn about counterpoint. It is my next step.

Thanks again for so many comments! It's really encouraging and heart-warming to feel supported by people with more experience 🙂

1 hour ago, Coxi said:

 

 

@Quinn : Thanks a lot for this very encouraging answer!really nice to read your kind words, and I'm grateful for the specific technical recommandations you give, they're super helpful. Thank you for taking the time to have a detailed look at the score. As you said, it could -and should probably- be longer, but it's really the second piece of music I ever wirte that is not a pure textbook exercise, so I wanted to keep it short, keep it manageable for me. Thank you veeery much for the recommandation of the legato on the semiquavers. I really lack knowledge on this kind of stuff that relates to the technicity of the player (never touched a violin in my life), and I need to build up that intuition. About the doubling of the 3d, I thought it is actually common practice to use the II-7th chord with the 3rd as a bass, and a doubling of the bass in a cadence context to "mimic" the role of the IV chord in a IV-V-I  movement. Did I use that wrong?

Thanks also for pointing out the octaves in bar 26, I actually just missed that one, although it was obvious.... Damn! I'll re-work that part a bit. As to the consecutive 5th, I thought this was accepted when moving from 5th to diminished 5th. Is that wrong? Anyway, thanks a lot for those very useful comments!!

 

 

 

 

My pleasure. But the technical comments were just observations. If they help, fine, but you'll discover things for yourself as you go along. 

String technique: it's fairly easy writing for strings in the ordinary sense as long as you keep within the instruments' range. It's when you want special effects that you need to know a bit more, like what different articulations are about. When you have a few moments give this a look but don't get too embroiled in the terms:

http://beststudentviolins.com/articulations.pdf

Important ones are legato (playing several notes under a single bow-stroke) detaché (bow each note separately) pizzicato (pluck the strings) arco (go back to bowing the strings), staccato (very short detaché like a piano staccato). Sustained notes speak for themselves! The best players can make an endless sustain sound seamless, you don't notice when they change bow direction, but there aren't many who can do that! That link gives you a lot more like tremolo and "sul ponte", special effects.

In case you land on the following link, I found it a waste of time and an insult to call it "professional"!!

https://professionalcomposers.com/how-to-compose-music-strings-articulations-guide/ 

I vaguely remember the rule about consecutive 5ths with a diminished interval. I think it's ok - they don't sacrifice independence of the parts. It comes down to whether the sound is in good taste or not. There are members here FAR more knowledgeable of CPP than me so perhaps one could come to our rescue. I gave up on the rules long ago - but don't take that as encouragement to break them until you're aware of what you're doing!! That consecutive octave isn't conspicuous - possibly because the harmony (C at that point) is established on the first beat and the quaver D (Violin 2) is an accented passing note that reinforces what the cello is doing. Getting rid of it is a problem without disturbing the rest of what's going on. Maybe leave it as it is? 

It's well known that Debussy HATED CPP voice leading, got on badly with his tutors, broke all the rules but came up with unique music that brought him fame.

Good luck.

awesome, thanks a lot for the link it's of great help! I'll try to experiment a little bit with the different possible effects and see how each one feels (as much as it can be emulated by my limited software anyway)

To be honest with you, I never really understood the rules of consecutive fifths or octaves. I tried to write some stuff with quite a lot of parallel fifth and octaves, and, most of the time, I don't really hear a problem with them. I dunno, my ear is probably not trained enough but most often I don't think it sounds wrong. I read that this rule was designed partly because this succession of perfect intervals is too reminescent of medieval music, but tbh I don't consider it a problem if there's one bar somewhere that's reminescent of medieval music...  Well, the reason why I try to follow the rule anyway is that I'm a beginner and I think I should be able to respect and get familiar with a given set of rules before potentially deciding to ignore them.

Btw, what does CPP stand for? I'm not familiar with the acronym