Orchestral Prelude

Short piece with 3 flutes, 3 clarinets, 3 bassoons, 4 french horns, 3 trombones, timpani, harp, 3 violas, 3 cellos.

It is based on Messiaen's mode 2 and quartal/quintal harmonies, and several techniques of mass sonority (Ligeti, Xenakis, Penderecki, et...)

Interesting. I feel you could step it up a notch by throwing more Birtwistle (Ritual fragment, Sillbury air, Earth dances, etc) into it.

Neat, very modern-sounding. A couple of questions:

• Would you mind showing how/where you used the 2nd mode of limited transposition? I looked but couldn't find it.
• I was curious how you built the quartal melody in the woodwinds at 8-13. Is there some kind of scale these are built off of, or are they just parallel quartal voicings chosen to taste?

Also a few comments/observations:

• Clarinets are typically written in Bb or A, I don't think C is very common any more.
• The 1st horn going up to high D in m.34 is pretty extreme, especially at pp. Generally high C6 (written) is considered the top limit.
• The 1st trombone on D5 in m.35 is doable, but is also near the extreme upper limit. 

Thanks for sharing!

Sounds great! I'd love it to be extended a little, since it sounds a little abrupt. That horn gliss, how precise do you want the players to handle it (which notes at what time)? It can't be entirely smooth over the whole minim length, is my understanding...

21 hours ago, gmm said:

Neat, very modern-sounding. A couple of questions:

• Would you mind showing how/where you used the 2nd mode of limited transposition? I looked but couldn't find it.
• I was curious how you built the quartal melody in the woodwinds at 8-13. Is there some kind of scale these are built off of, or are they just parallel quartal voicings chosen to taste?

Also a few comments/observations:

• Clarinets are typically written in Bb or A, I don't think C is very common any more.
• The 1st horn going up to high D in m.34 is pretty extreme, especially at pp. Generally high C6 (written) is considered the top limit.
• The 1st trombone on D5 in m.35 is doable, but is also near the extreme upper limit. 

Thanks for sharing!

 

This is Messiaen's mode 2

In the first part is where I used it the most. The majority of notes here (in concert pitch to see it clearly) are in the mode. Sometimes I write other ones, as F natural, I don't mind, I use this things the way I like.

I was curious how you built the quartal melody in the woodwinds at 8-13. Is there some kind of scale these are built off of, or are they just parallel quartal voicings chosen to taste?  No, they don't fit in any scale. The intention was to make a mirror movement between flutes and clarinets.

You're right about the Clarinet in C, I have to change it to Bb.... Thanks.

I'm aware of the extreme range of some pitches, but it is one of the features in this style. As it happens with the bassoon in Stravinsky's Spring.....

1 hour ago, BritishCompositeur said:

Sounds great! I'd love it to be extended a little, since it sounds a little abrupt. That horn gliss, how precise do you want the players to handle it (which notes at what time)? It can't be entirely smooth over the whole minim length, is my understanding...

 

Hi. I wouldn't care about the exact playing here. As you see this mass sonority style is defined by the indeterminacy, too. I only took care that the glisses were doable (hope so).