Gavotte in C

This is a Gavotte I dug up from my old archived compositions from years ago when I wasn't yet writing on paper but into the sequencer.  It wasn't quite finished and it also seemed to be stuck in a never ending loop wanting to return to the Musette yet again, dragging on and on so I just ended it like this and called it finished.  This Gavotte is a little more drawn out formally (it is a three-part form - Gavotte - Musette (which is just another Gavotte) - and back to the original Gavotte) and also a bit virtuosic for the cellos and basses.  Let me know what you think if you feel like dropping a comment and I hope you enjoy listening!

Engaging and full of ideas. 
I am slightly confused by a number of your harmonic decisions. For example, the cadence at bar 36 I interpret the F sharp as the leading note, which rises to the G, although the chord contains a G natural, C natural, A natural, F natural and a D natural. Did you intend this to be a d minor 7th chord? Do tell!

Wonderful piece.  The 5 instruments are nicely put together. It surprises me that the  iolins, in general, are in a low register and the 2nd violins are taking the highest voice many times. Only in the final part (m. 104 to 115) sound a bit messy because the quick, articulated notes in the double basses.

Cool piece. The overall feel felt a bit too heavy for a Gavotte (a mix between the occasionally muddy writing itself and the sound of the virtual strings), but there were many engaging textures, especially at the recapitulation of the Gavotte's main idea. Some strange choices I would agree, like giving the violas that high countermelody at bar 13 before the 2nd violins, or the opening chord of the Musette being a G7 chord in 3rd inversion going to a D minor chord in root position (putting the bass up from F to G could fix this - the bassline throughout, generally speaking, needs a closer look). The bit that made me smile was the play between pizz. and arco with those rests between chords - Haydnesque! And I quite liked the F# leading to a Dmin11 chord, sounds a bit too poppy for the context to my ears though! Overall I enjoyed listening to it, the structure seemed complete to me, which was one of your main concerns I think? It ended well.

10 hours ago, Markus Boyd said:

Engaging and full of ideas. 
I am slightly confused by a number of your harmonic decisions. For example, the cadence at bar 36 I interpret the F sharp as the leading note, which rises to the G, although the chord contains a G natural, C natural, A natural, F natural and a D natural. Did you intend this to be a d minor 7th chord? Do tell!

 

Thank you!  As @BritishCompositeur already mentioned the chord in measure 35 beat 4 is a D7 6/4 with a G pedal in the viola and the following chord is a Dm11 chord.  Since I wrote this quite a while ago I don't quite remember how I made my harmonic decisions but I suspect that for the chord in measure 35 beat 4 I just decided to stack 4ths (A in basses, D in cellos, G in violas, C in 2nd violins and D and F# in 1st violins).  Thanks for your review!

8 hours ago, Luis Hernández said:

Wonderful piece.  The 5 instruments are nicely put together. It surprises me that the  iolins, in general, are in a low register and the 2nd violins are taking the highest voice many times. Only in the final part (m. 104 to 115) sound a bit messy because the quick, articulated notes in the double basses.

 

Thank you!  Yeah, I do give the 2nd violins a bit more of the runs (and sometimes even the violas in a range that is slightly too high).  I don't remember why I made these decisions at the time that I wrote this and I guess it could be revised to correct this but then the viola and 2nd violin parts wouldn't be as exciting to play!  😕  And sorry about the muddy double basses - maybe in a better rendition or a live performance that wouldn't sound as bad?  Thanks for your review!

2 hours ago, BritishCompositeur said:

Cool piece. The overall feel felt a bit too heavy for a Gavotte (a mix between the occasionally muddy writing itself and the sound of the virtual strings), but there were many engaging textures, especially at the recapitulation of the Gavotte's main idea. Some strange choices I would agree, like giving the violas that high countermelody at bar 13 before the 2nd violins, or the opening chord of the Musette being a G7 chord in 3rd inversion going to a D minor chord in root position (putting the bass up from F to G could fix this - the bassline throughout, generally speaking, needs a closer look). The bit that made me smile was the play between pizz. and arco with those rests between chords - Haydnesque! And I quite liked the F# leading to a Dmin11 chord, sounds a bit too poppy for the context to my ears though! Overall I enjoyed listening to it, the structure seemed complete to me, which was one of your main concerns I think? It ended well.

 

Thanks for your review!  I am glad that it sounds finished to you as I felt like I put a gag on the final return to the Musette which is what I originally wrote and had trouble bringing to a conclusion as it started sounding like it was really dragging on much too long what with the Musette being at a higher tempo it also sounded hurried.  As for the muddy writing, maybe a better rendition or a live performance wouldn't be as bad?  I intended the piece to be somewhat challenging for all of the strings.  About the bassline at the opening of the Musette - I feel like the F functions as a kind of flattened leading tone that resolves to the G in the following measure and so is necessary because of that.  Thanks for listening and reviewing!

Let's revive this topic. Thanks for sharing it BTW, just noticed it was yours, lol.

The pizzicato section is probably my favourite, you entered on it so daringly and unexpectedly to me. A real performance would probably be powerful, perhaps you could submit this to Evan's call of scores competition! 

It is true that I expected a more lengthened end but what you did works pretty well in my opinion. Not to mention the proper use of dynamics throughout the whole piece and again, the clever use of pizz. (though a bit more wouldn't have hurt, at least to my taste).

Mind if I share this here and there?

Kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón. 

It has a very grand-royal feel ... I enjoyed it.   I can picture the royals being welcome to court.

Mark