The Insophisticate (Wind Quintet) - Movement 3, A Desperate Caricature. Feedback is always appreciated.

This is the third and final movement of my first wind quintet

The entire theme of the larger piece is super contrasting sections in the same movements, and how they shouldn't make sense. It is supposed to be almost like a child's unfiltered stream of conciousness.

Hi Brandon ...

I love the mood you create in both the initial and mid-sections ... full of spirit and just lovely.  I wonder why the English horn rather than the Oboe in the quintet.  I Oboe I feel would be more present than the lighter less penetrating English horn - especially in the mid-section.  You could have the English horn play the first section and then have the player switch to Oboe.  Another thing - remember the players have to breathe! Strategically place rests would help the players.

Mark

Well then, this was really great to hear. You're quite the talented composer, and congratulations on getting a commission/performance of this. I'd love to hear an update from you with how you felt they executed your music at some point.

I have to say, that I saw the first movement a while back, and when I wanted to share some thoughts on it, you had posted the second. I figured the third would be coming soon, so I wanted to wait until I could listen authentically to all three in a row before saying anything. For the future, I would definitely keep posting your movements separately, whether they're fully completed or not, as a sure way to receive more detailed feedback on each one.

Before I get into the music, how are you liking Noteperformer? I've recently upgraded my ancient version of Sibelius, and am also looking to upgrade my sound samples. It's just all way too old. I've heard mixed reviews on several options, but wanted your take on how well Noteperformer is integrated with Sibelius. I might still take my Sib files into Ableton for refinement, but I loved your sound samples so was just curious. 

Alright, so I'm going to bogard this post as a way to talk about all three movements. 

The first movement was cool (they all were), I liked the intro. It gave me Barber Summer music vibes. Really cool solo flute melody, I'm interested how the feathered beaming turns out! Fun and quirky rhythms next, you have a talent for delivering awesome rhythms in your music. Not once did one instrument feel like it was more important than the others, really well written.

Was the second movement written with a fast tempo because of the odd time signatures and changes? I didn't feel that pulse, but with a bunch of changes in time sigs it made sense. When the staccato rhythms on repeated notes start, I swear it sounds like there's a woodblock in there haha. It's obviously one of the instruments, just can't tell which (maybe flute?), but it gave a nice subtle color. Also, there's instrument names randomly in the score? Not sure what that was, maybe I missed something though. I loved the pentatonic type of melody for the other section, really beautiful lines in there. And that second to last English horn note is magic. 

The third was my favorite movement, it's like you were getting better and better with each movement! 😄 Absolutely loved the 7/8 rhythms. They were super fun and catchy, and I know if I were performing this piece I'd have a blast playing it. That held clarinet note to transition to that section was really great too. Overall fantastic music.

As a whole, I thoroughly enjoyed this. I think between this and your wine symphony (I saw you posted another movement, I'll check it out), you're one of my favorite composers here. You not only write fantastic and clear scores, but you obviously know what you're doing and are extremely talented. Not only that, you write music that I really enjoy, your style seems to align with what I really love in music. 

A couple more things. I'd be curious on the feedback you get from the performers on some of the very long sustained notes and the breathing in general. I'm actually writing a wind piece right now, and I don't have many to confer with, so I'm curious how they feel about it. Please let me know lol. I was also thinking about the key signatures. I'm not 100% on this, but would it be easier to read some of the music with less accidentals? For instance, one of the movements has consistent F naturals, but the key sig has F# for the french horn. I'm aware it's a transposing instrument, but was just wondering about it. It was also bugging me that all the instrument staves weren't connected, was there a reason for that?

I also thought about how your form a bit. Maybe for the future I'd have at least one movement start out with the faster rhythms (at least texture-wise). Your first first one was like a slow-fast. Then slow-fast-slow. Then slow-fast-slow again. Maybe have the second movement start out with those staccato repeated notes? Just a thought for future writing.

A well thought out piece overall my friend. I was glad to have crossed paths with this piece, and you write for winds beautifully. Loved the wit and sarcastic titles, one of my favorite pieces to have heard on this site. Thanks for sharing!

13 hours ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

Well then, this was really great to hear. You're quite the talented composer, and congratulations on getting a commission/performance of this. I'd love to hear an update from you with how you felt they executed your music at some point.

I have to say, that I saw the first movement a while back, and when I wanted to share some thoughts on it, you had posted the second. I figured the third would be coming soon, so I wanted to wait until I could listen authentically to all three in a row before saying anything. For the future, I would definitely keep posting your movements separately, whether they're fully completed or not, as a sure way to receive more detailed feedback on each one.

Before I get into the music, how are you liking Noteperformer? I've recently upgraded my ancient version of Sibelius, and am also looking to upgrade my sound samples. It's just all way too old. I've heard mixed reviews on several options, but wanted your take on how well Noteperformer is integrated with Sibelius. I might still take my Sib files into Ableton for refinement, but I loved your sound samples so was just curious. 

Alright, so I'm going to bogard this post as a way to talk about all three movements. 

The first movement was cool (they all were), I liked the intro. It gave me Barber Summer music vibes. Really cool solo flute melody, I'm interested how the feathered beaming turns out! Fun and quirky rhythms next, you have a talent for delivering awesome rhythms in your music. Not once did one instrument feel like it was more important than the others, really well written.

Was the second movement written with a fast tempo because of the odd time signatures and changes? I didn't feel that pulse, but with a bunch of changes in time sigs it made sense. When the staccato rhythms on repeated notes start, I swear it sounds like there's a woodblock in there haha. It's obviously one of the instruments, just can't tell which (maybe flute?), but it gave a nice subtle color. Also, there's instrument names randomly in the score? Not sure what that was, maybe I missed something though. I loved the pentatonic type of melody for the other section, really beautiful lines in there. And that second to last English horn note is magic. 

The third was my favorite movement, it's like you were getting better and better with each movement! 😄 Absolutely loved the 7/8 rhythms. They were super fun and catchy, and I know if I were performing this piece I'd have a blast playing it. That held clarinet note to transition to that section was really great too. Overall fantastic music.

As a whole, I thoroughly enjoyed this. I think between this and your wine symphony (I saw you posted another movement, I'll check it out), you're one of my favorite composers here. You not only write fantastic and clear scores, but you obviously know what you're doing and are extremely talented. Not only that, you write music that I really enjoy, your style seems to align with what I really love in music. 

A couple more things. I'd be curious on the feedback you get from the performers on some of the very long sustained notes and the breathing in general. I'm actually writing a wind piece right now, and I don't have many to confer with, so I'm curious how they feel about it. Please let me know lol. I was also thinking about the key signatures. I'm not 100% on this, but would it be easier to read some of the music with less accidentals? For instance, one of the movements has consistent F naturals, but the key sig has F# for the french horn. I'm aware it's a transposing instrument, but was just wondering about it. It was also bugging me that all the instrument staves weren't connected, was there a reason for that?

I also thought about how your form a bit. Maybe for the future I'd have at least one movement start out with the faster rhythms (at least texture-wise). Your first first one was like a slow-fast. Then slow-fast-slow. Then slow-fast-slow again. Maybe have the second movement start out with those staccato repeated notes? Just a thought for future writing.

A well thought out piece overall my friend. I was glad to have crossed paths with this piece, and you write for winds beautifully. Loved the wit and sarcastic titles, one of my favorite pieces to have heard on this site. Thanks for sharing!

 

Thank you for all of your input! I guess I'll just start at the beginning. I love noteperformer. I couldn't imagine using sibelius without it. It has its downsides though. At fast tempos it will frequently drop articulations and get very sloppy with rhythmic consistency sometimes. And every now and then the major third is extremely sharp for some reason. Other than that it's great. As far as held out notes, it's really limited by the crowd that you're writing for. If they're great players, they'll figure out where to breath. If it's a full section, then they can stagger breath. The instrument names in the score Is just an engraving error I hadn't noticed until a few hours after posting. They're fixed in the actual pdf and parts. The key signatures are honestly just leftovers from previous versions that I never thought of changing back, but with talented players having 1 sharp or flat doesn't really bother them as long as they know to mark them in.