Symphony in E minor

Hello everyone,

I only really started composing around summer of 2020, and while I've grown up on music, I've found a new appreciation for what goes into creating music. While this project is incredibly ambitious for someone who's such a novice, it only took me 3 days to draft. I've always written at an incredibly fast pace, though I think it leads me into a trap of rushing through things. I've also found that I can't write for ensembles more than once. I have no idea why, but as soon as I finished my first string quartet, I couldn't write another. This may be why I haven't written a piano piece I've felt good about it around 4 months, despite it being my main instrument. In addition to reviewing this, my greatest work, would anyone mind giving me some advice on getting around some of my creative blocks?

Anyway, here is my Symphony in E minor:

https://musescore.com/mercurypickles/symphony-in-e-minor

The first movement is based in a few themes that I pulled together, and starts with an oboe solo.

The second was actually the first movement that I wrote, and the opening was heavily inspired by the beginning of Schubert's "Unfinished" 8th Symphony.

The third movement is my favorite of the three, it's the shortest but I think the themes I wrote for it are the absolute best in the whole composition.

My process for this piece was actually to come up with some very simple themes before I really started drafting, then I went in and fleshed them out, developed them. This approach gave me a little bit more structure on where I was starting with the music, but also gave me the freedom to do what I wished with that "seed".

I hope you enjoy it, I'm incredibly proud of this piece.

I've only had a chance to listen to the first movement so far. 

It's very nice - lyrical, good natural-minor sounding harmonies (with a few interesting twists) and some nifty scoring. Even so, the scoring sounds a bit thick at times - it isn't helped by musescore's rendition but looking at what you've done it may be worth trying to thin out the string accompaniment starting in bar 15. You have Basses, cellos violas and Vns 2 on unison notes spanning 3 octaves while Vn1 plays a 3rd above.  The idea is fine but it seems to clog the texture a bit. Worth a try to cut out Vn2, say, and maybe the basses. Try something like giving the bass a soft pizz on each 1st beat - various things. May also be worth rethinking whether you want the bassoons which are doing their own thing here. They are weighing in on the bass end. 

For all that a good orchestra could bring off what you've done well enough.

As for structure, I assumed a new subject began at bar 33. I might have been wrong as something new also seemed to start about bar 40.  The point is while you pass through different harmonies the key is still basically E minor. This could be exactly what you want in which case disregard these comments - there's nothing wrong with inventing your own structure. But to me it cried out for a change of key: the relative major, the sub-mediant or even the tonic major at bar 33 or 40.

The closing bars were too slow for me although you had a most interesting harmony in bar 160 (enharmonically C minor)  Another thing I liked was the imitative entries.

BTW musescore was an utter nuisance! I wanted to watch the bass while it played but each time the pink slab changed bars it flicked up to the top of the score. Because I can only see half a page on my screen it was difficult to 'read' silently....not your fault at all!! These things are sent to try us! (Something went wrong after bar 132, the music disappeared while the pink patch went on, picked up again at bar 156.

Thank you so much! I'm still working on this, it may end up getting retitled as an orchestral suite instead of a symphony. Though aside from that there are still significant things that need changing, mostly to do with the orchestration itself. You're right, the closing is very slow, which was intentional though the more I listen to it, the less I like it. 

Your ideas about thinning out texture are immensely helpful, I've been struggling to figure out why some parts sound so dense, and that's almost certainly why. As for a change in structure, once again I think you're right. I have started working on some changes with bringing that into a new key, though I'm not completely satisfied with anything yet. One other major revision I'm working on is adding percussion. Between that, thinning out some of the textures, and that key change, the sound of the first movement will be greatly improved. 

If you do get around to listening to the other two, I would greatly appreciate your feedback, as it's always very detailed. 

About the MuseScore issue: I'm working on synthesizing a revised version of this piece using a software sampled orchestra. I will be able to sync that with a score and probably upload it to YouTube.

There are also large swaths of this that I think get too repetitive, particularly in the 2nd movement, that are probably just going to be cut entirely, as they're just repeats of already stated material.

UPDATE:

These movements have been significantly revised and will be re-posted as three tone poems instead.

Any chance of segregating the movements - or telling the bar numbers where mvts 2 and 3 start? I could guess #2 but then it might just be a development of the first mvt. 

At this point, it really doesn't matter anymore. The "spinning-off" of the first movement is finished, and I'm about to post it. The other two will be coming.