The Passage Of Winter

Hey everyone, this is a piece I composed a few years ago but thought I would post. I don't have much experience with writing for an orchestra/large ensemble and would appreciate some feedback/tips on it. Thanks! 

@Aled Edwards

First of all- it would help us help you if you attached a music sheet as well.

I see no need for the piano to double the strings, it feels rather empty especially due to the fact the piano's sound fades away with time.

I like the part starting around two minutes in, but this motive seems to fade away real quickly. 

Yey! Dorian!

Melody-wise, I just don't have any sense of continuity but that might be because I don't have the notes to look at. 

Also, I feel that you should have used more of the bass instruments (bsn, vlc, cbs...), because it feels as if "we don't have a floor" if you see what I mean.

In general I liked some of the parts but because of the drastic changes in texture and instrumentation it feel more as if you have a few separate chunks on after the other,

as if it was some sort of A B C B A etc etc, which is something I'm not sure you should have, depending on your intentions with the piece.

For example, if it were to be a video game's (looping) soundtrack, although you could have smoothen some of the transitions, I'd get the need for a few different textures.

But

If it's a standalone piece, you might want to reduce the amount of ideas, maybe split it in a half then use the other half for a different piece.

I had this problem at the beginning of my composition years- having my pieces built of connected bricks instead of having them being a wall, if you see what I mean.

You don't have to, of course, but I thought you might want to have that in mind.

Hi, thanks for writing a very detailed critique! I'll bear in mind what you said and work on uploading a score as well

I like the main lydian theme you have accompanied by the harp arpeggios - it's a great approach.  I think sometimes your use of piano reminds me more of video-game music than anything.  Not that that's a bad thing.  I myself am quite influenced by VGM in many of my compositions.  Usually in orchestral repertoire the string section is used more liberally - of course that doesn't mean that the way you wrote this piece is wrong - just different.  You could have used various different instruments to give variation to your main theme and have the accompanying arpeggios be played by strings for example.  Just an idea.  Nice job though!

Hi, thanks for listening to it! I do listen to a fair amount of video game music coincidentally, haha. And cheers for the tips