Windchill

Hello! Would anyone mind listening to my latest composition above? I'd particularly love to hear the thoughts of woodwind players as I'm unsure about how difficult it would be to perform. The instrumentation is piccolo doubling flute, oboe doubling English horn, B flat clarinet, French horn, and bassoon.

Thank you!

A score would help to answer your questions.

Mark

Regarding your first question, I do not mind at all of course!

Can't help you with your issue very specifically since I don't know about woodwinds enough, but the piece doesn't seem to go wild in a technical sense. As Mark said, it would be really helpful if you provided a score.

Now regarding the piece itself:

• A nice, intriguing beginning. A "blurred" cresc. from it to ~0:45 that sounds very beautiful but that after reaching its end the music enters in a passage where nothing seems to be going in any direction. Then, some more solid passages that end in a silence that is not too abrupt to my ears and with which I expected some transition, but it is kinda timid. There are some rhythmical measures but if I conjoin all of them I don't get again any particular direction. Don't get me wrong, it does sound beautiful, there are some very nice bits here and there but I feel like if the instruments were lost and couldn't find the way to keep going. One of them finds it but some other voice ends up "distracting" that instrument and we come back to the origin. 

• That feeling is still present at ~4:00. New voices come in and out up to ~5:30 where things calm up a bit and the light at the end of the tunnel intensifies. The last long silence allows the entrance to a new section that despite some voices that try to convince me of the opposite, seems to mark the end of the wind the more we approach the end... But I'm not sure if they ended up doing so.

In summary, a piece that sounds beautiful but that in my humble opinion lacks a leading voice that thus makes every passage blend which is not necessarily bad, but it can be, specially if doing so is not your intention, as if overused —in my experience— has the effect of nullifying the particular character of each instrument. 

Hope I've not been too dense and thank you for sharing it! I'm sure that a score will help woodwind players to tell you what can be more or less tricky to perform.

Kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón.

On 12/6/2022 at 3:17 PM, Omicronrg9 said:

Regarding your first question, I do not mind at all of course!

Can't help you with your issue very specifically since I don't know about woodwinds enough, but the piece doesn't seem to go wild in a technical sense. As Mark said, it would be really helpful if you provided a score.

Now regarding the piece itself:

• A nice, intriguing beginning. A "blurred" cresc. from it to ~0:45 that sounds very beautiful but that after reaching its end the music enters in a passage where nothing seems to be going in any direction. Then, some more solid passages that end in a silence that is not too abrupt to my ears and with which I expected some transition, but it is kinda timid. There are some rhythmical measures but if I conjoin all of them I don't get again any particular direction. Don't get me wrong, it does sound beautiful, there are some very nice bits here and there but I feel like if the instruments were lost and couldn't find the way to keep going. One of them finds it but some other voice ends up "distracting" that instrument and we come back to the origin. 

• That feeling is still present at ~4:00. New voices come in and out up to ~5:30 where things calm up a bit and the light at the end of the tunnel intensifies. The last long silence allows the entrance to a new section that despite some voices that try to convince me of the opposite, seems to mark the end of the wind the more we approach the end... But I'm not sure if they ended up doing so.

In summary, a piece that sounds beautiful but that in my humble opinion lacks a leading voice that thus makes every passage blend which is not necessarily bad, but it can be, specially if doing so is not your intention, as if overused —in my experience— has the effect of nullifying the particular character of each instrument. 

Hope I've not been too dense and thank you for sharing it! I'm sure that a score will help woodwind players to tell you what can be more or less tricky to perform.

Kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón.

 

Hello Daniel-Omicron, thank you so much for listening and for your thoughtful and detailed feedback!

I edited my post to include a score.

I wasn't aware of my lack of a leading voice until you pointed it out, and now I hear the extent of it. I did intend a feeling of chaos in the passage leading into 5:30, but otherwise, would it be better in general throughout the piece to have more extended passages spotlighting one instrument similar to the horn passage at 5:30? I think part of my avoidance of that outside the horn passage was because I wanted to give each player time to rest. I may have taken that too far and would need to consult woodwind players to be sure.

Thank you again!

To me, the first noticeable thing to critique is that, if this is meant to be for a woodwind quintet, then you should have only five staves of music in the score with appropriate instrument changes where needed.  Instead you included all the instruments in the score even if certain players are doubling/switching the instruments during the course of the piece, which is something I've never seen in a woodwind quintet score.  So if you plan to submit this to the call for scores that I think you are, that should be something you should fix as the individual players will not want to read a part with two staves in it when they're playing one instrument and then switching.  As I looked closer at the score after I already wrote the above critique I noticed that you double the flute and piccolo part sometimes and the oboe and english horn is also doubled but sometimes different.  So maybe you actually intended this to be played by a woodwind septet?  But I thought you were intending to submit this to a woodwind quintet call for scores?  Now I'm confused.  LoL

About the music - it seems like classical background music.  It does have a mysterious charm to it though that I like.  Thanks for sharing!

Edit:  I didn't see anything particularly difficult about the wind writing.  I perused the score fairly quickly however.  But I did notice that there seems to be plenty of space to breathe for all the instruments.

47 minutes ago, MissCello said:

I edited my post to include a score.

Great! Many thanks. It's very nice to follow the music while one's eyes advance through the score.

BTW, would you mind if I shared your piece in my kinda empty twitter? I am lately asking many people this because I think it would be nice to somehow try to share nice pieces here on a daily basis. As I said I have no traffic but I would like to keep doing it anyway.

 

47 minutes ago, MissCello said:

I wasn't aware of my lack of a leading voice until you pointed it out, and now I hear the extent of it. I did intend a feeling of chaos in the passage leading into 5:30, but otherwise, would it be better in general throughout the piece to have more extended passages spotlighting one instrument similar to the horn passage at 5:30?

Would it be for you? That's the actual question. Definitely the passage at 5:30 is one of my favourite ones in case I didn't say this before. After it, you come back to old ideas of the beginning, with (I believe) the intention of making a coda and it starts nicely. In fact I'm still hooked at 7:30 and I would say that the flute leads the piece pretty nicely but it's from M117 and so on where things don't end up convincing me.

It's still good to my ears at least, don't get me wrong. Coming back to the question then, in my opinion what might make the mentioned section at 5:30 so good to me is that you take this: (why an entire silence and not a just a comma between C and G, just out of curiosity) and you slowly and carefully envelop it with other voices that don't go against (at least, not too much) what the French Horn is saying, as opposed to what might happen in the section preceding 5:30 for example, where you intentionally (I believe) avoid harmonic and melodic movements that could make one think that we're not in tension anymore, "in the I grade" and make some voices perform rhythms that don't seem to accompany the melody at first glance nor are repeated enough to cause any feeling of order.

Another detail: was your intention to make this atonal? I ask because I see the same key signature in all instruments in the score. This is kinda strange since some of them are transposing instruments and therefore they should have different keys and should've been written accordingly. For example if we are in C Major the Bb clarinet should have this key:  
Same goes with French Horn in F. When it says C you're playing an F so the key should be G Major (if I'm not mistaken) so I believe you wrote for clarinet in Bb like if it were a clarinet in C. After commenting this with some other YC mates this seems to be not uncommon these days so no worries haha.

Sorry again for the density. Perhaps some bit of these words can help you decide. In any case, my best advice would be: keep composing!

Kind regards, 
Daniel–Ømicrón.

Not much to add to the previous great comments. As @PeterthePapercomPoser said, doubling instruments should not appeared or even play together! You should indicate in the score whenever there is instrumental change, or just treat it as a septet.

And as @Omicronrg9 said, only in atonal music does the transposed instruments do not need to be written in a transposed key. But I feel like your piece is quite tonal, so I suggest you to write transposed key for the clarinets, horn and english horn. 

Regarding the music itself is really nice and chilling! I don't think that will be really difficult to be performed for the wind players.

4 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

To me, the first noticeable thing to critique is that, if this is meant to be for a woodwind quintet, then you should have only five staves of music in the score with appropriate instrument changes where needed.  Instead you included all the instruments in the score even if certain players are doubling/switching the instruments during the course of the piece, which is something I've never seen in a woodwind quintet score.  So if you plan to submit this to the call for scores that I think you are, that should be something you should fix as the individual players will not want to read a part with two staves in it when they're playing one instrument and then switching.  As I looked closer at the score after I already wrote the above critique I noticed that you double the flute and piccolo part sometimes and the oboe and english horn is also doubled but sometimes different.  So maybe you actually intended this to be played by a woodwind septet?  But I thought you were intending to submit this to a woodwind quintet call for scores?  Now I'm confused.  LoL

About the music - it seems like classical background music.  It does have a mysterious charm to it though that I like.  Thanks for sharing!

Edit:  I didn't see anything particularly difficult about the wind writing.  I perused the score fairly quickly however.  But I did notice that there seems to be plenty of space to breathe for all the instruments.

 

Hello! Thank you so much for listening. I intended this as a woodwind septet, and it was not written for any particular occasion. Are you referring to a call for scores here on this site? If so, I would be curious to know more about it. 🙂

12 hours ago, MissCello said:

Hello! Thank you so much for listening. I intended this as a woodwind septet, and it was not written for any particular occasion. Are you referring to a call for scores here on this site? If so, I would be curious to know more about it. 🙂

Oh - thanks for clearing that up!  We all thought, for some reason that you saw the advert that Evan Erickson left on this site and on composer discord servers about his 2022 Call for Scores for wind quintet and composed this piece for it.  I think he does one every year:

https://www.evanericksonmusic.com/2022-call-for-scores

19 hours ago, Omicronrg9 said:

Great! Many thanks. It's very nice to follow the music while one's eyes advance through the score.

BTW, would you mind if I shared your piece in my kinda empty twitter? I am lately asking many people this because I think it would be nice to somehow try to share nice pieces here on a daily basis. As I said I have no traffic but I would like to keep doing it anyway.

 

Would it be for you? That's the actual question. Definitely the passage at 5:30 is one of my favourite ones in case I didn't say this before. After it, you come back to old ideas of the beginning, with (I believe) the intention of making a coda and it starts nicely. In fact I'm still hooked at 7:30 and I would say that the flute leads the piece pretty nicely but it's from M117 and so on where things don't end up convincing me.

It's still good to my ears at least, don't get me wrong. Coming back to the question then, in my opinion what might make the mentioned section at 5:30 so good to me is that you take this: (why an entire silence and not a just a comma between C and G, just out of curiosity) and you slowly and carefully envelop it with other voices that don't go against (at least, not too much) what the French Horn is saying, as opposed to what might happen in the section preceding 5:30 for example, where you intentionally (I believe) avoid harmonic and melodic movements that could make one think that we're not in tension anymore, "in the I grade" and make some voices perform rhythms that don't seem to accompany the melody at first glance nor are repeated enough to cause any feeling of order.

Another detail: was your intention to make this atonal? I ask because I see the same key signature in all instruments in the score. This is kinda strange since some of them are transposing instruments and therefore they should have different keys and should've been written accordingly. For example if we are in C Major the Bb clarinet should have this key:  
Same goes with French Horn in F. When it says C you're playing an F so the key should be G Major (if I'm not mistaken) so I believe you wrote for clarinet in Bb like if it were a clarinet in C. After commenting this with some other YC mates this seems to be not uncommon these days so no worries haha.

Sorry again for the density. Perhaps some bit of these words can help you decide. In any case, my best advice would be: keep composing!

Kind regards, 
Daniel–Ømicrón.
 

 

I am so flattered that you would want to share my piece! No, I do not mind at all. Thank you so much!

After bar 117 I would imagine there is not enough tension and that the ending is somewhat anticlimactic, so if you or anyone else would like to share what is happening mentally/emotionally for you during that final section, I would love to hear. 

Re: the dotted quarter rest: I thought it might provide a good moment to breathe metaphorically, for the listener, after the prior chaos (which was intentional, yes -- I wanted an improvisatory sound to come through and the idea of disintegration.)

Re: the single key signature: I had my notation software set to concert pitch to ease my workflow and forgot to change it when I was exporting the score. Thank you for catching it!

3 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Oh - thanks for clearing that up!  We all thought, for some reason that you saw the advert that Evan Erickson left on this site and on composer discord servers about his 2022 Call for Scores for wind quintet and composed this piece for it.  I think he does one every year:

https://www.evanericksonmusic.com/2022-call-for-scores

 

Actually, that looks familiar! I visited the page earlier this year but couldn't remember why, but now I remember it was because of an email from YC. How funny.
Perhaps I will enter next year. Have you written for it before?

1 minute ago, MissCello said:

Actually, that looks familiar! I visited the page earlier this year but couldn't remember why, but now I remember it was because of an email from YC. How funny.
Perhaps I will enter next year. Have you written for it before?

I haven't written for it yet, but since I don't have many performed works I think I might in the future!  And @Thatguy v2.0 is submitting a piece to it this year:  

@PeterthePapercomPoser Thank you for sharing! I look forward to checking it out.

23 hours ago, MissCello said:

After bar 117 I would imagine there is not enough tension and that the ending is somewhat anticlimactic, so if you or anyone else would like to share what is happening mentally/emotionally for you during that final section, I would love to hear. 

I'm not sure. The very ending seems pretty standard to me; I'd say it's just those 2 bars which seem not tense but ambiguous, and for insufficient time to cause a the intended feeling of chaos you achieved previously in the piece. 

23 hours ago, MissCello said:

Re: the dotted quarter rest: I thought it might provide a good moment to breathe metaphorically, for the listener, after the prior chaos (which was intentional, yes -- I wanted an improvisatory sound to come through and the idea of disintegration.)

Understood.

23 hours ago, MissCello said:

Re: the single key signature: I had my notation software set to concert pitch to ease my workflow and forgot to change it when I was exporting the score. Thank you for catching it!

Oh, haha. I am curious: what scoring software have you used in this case?

23 hours ago, MissCello said:

No, I do not mind at all.

Great! (Though don't expect anything coming from my share, my social media is empty lol).


Sorry if my words are briefer than usual, I am kinda sleeping at this hour heh.

Looking forward to your next posts and reviews!

Kind regards!!
 

6 hours ago, Omicronrg9 said:

I'm not sure. The very ending seems pretty standard to me; I'd say it's just those 2 bars which seem not tense but ambiguous, and for insufficient time to cause a the intended feeling of chaos you achieved previously in the piece. 

Understood.

Oh, haha. I am curious: what scoring software have you used in this case?

Great! (Though don't expect anything coming from my share, my social media is empty lol).


Sorry if my words are briefer than usual, I am kinda sleeping at this hour heh.

Looking forward to your next posts and reviews!

Kind regards!!
 

 

Your word about the ending makes sense; Thank you! I will spend some time revising it.

I use Dorico Pro 3.5 (which I need to upgrade to 4!)

Would you please share the link with me when you post it? I'm curious to see your page. 🙂

Wow, what a lot of great feedback you've gotten already! Take to heart what they say; those that have commented have offered me great advice in the past, so I'd be obliged to adhere to their criticisms/thoughts. 

So first of all, I love the atmosphere you've created. I love the language and your musical voice, I'm sure you'll have plenty to share with the world in your growth as a composer! You do a great job at adhering to themes and developing your musical content. I'm curious what you meant by this being a septet though? At first you say the oboe doubles the english horn, and the flute doubles the piccolo. Are they all meant to be played simultaneously? I think your piece would receive more attention and have a better chance of being played with a live performance if written for a wind quintet, but I'm eager to know your thoughts. With the advent of continuously more profound sound samples, you're instrumentation is fine, but again, just curious. 

One thing that stood out to me is your phrasing. You have a constant eighth note quality to a lot of your melodic lines. As @Omicronrg9 pointed out, there were issues with leading tones, but I think a different issue you have with your phrasing is the "sameness" you have with the lines themselves in rhythm, regardless of melodic intuition. Yes, I know you vary it up in your harmony by giving some lines tuplets and such, but I think a more unique melodic contour would have benefitted this piece greatly. It's ok to think of a sameness in rhythm with your melody at first, but how can you further make it more interesting for the listener? How can you give your themes a bit more character in the wonderful harmonies you're creating, with a more distinct sense of rhythmic variety? Not saying you have to change anything, but this was my initial impression with hearing your piece. I had a strong sense of sameness throughout.

I would have liked to see a teeny bit more pushed dynamics as well. You do a wonderful job with your attention to detail in writing dynamics, but I feel like the instruments were never pushed to their extremes. How about register? You have piccolo and flute parts that could be VERY high and shrill. Your bassoon acted as the bass very well (just watch the range, I think the bassoon can only play the Bb under the staff, just looking at it's last note). You have a wide range from ppp to f, but were there any moments you could have gone to ff or fff? Perhaps not, maybe the piece didn't call for that, but just know performers love to explore their instruments, so don't be afraid to give them some notes to really shine through the ensemble.

Like I said before, I really like your musical language, and that's not something everyone composing can say. Many attempt to emulate their heroes, or copy what some other composer has done. You do a very good job at "pacing", giving rests here and there not only to let the instruments breathe, but letting the melodic lines rest as if they're being sung. It's very natural for music to be heard this way, and I hear too many composers writing obnoxiously long lines that don't seem human. Your phrasing in that regard is good, just always be aware of this as you continue to write and create music for the future. 

I recently heard a flute player complain that every modern composer abuses fluttertongue in their writing. I don't think you fall into that category, but just be aware of extended techniques, as many people use it nowadays extensively. I think your use of it is just the right amount though, but just something to keep in mind. Not every modern composition has to be littered with a bunch of filler technique to sound modern.

So, moral of the story is that I really like your musical voice, which is something no music school, teacher, or conservatory can teach. You have great instincts, I just felt some aspects of the writing seemed a bit premature. I'm really excited to hear future works from you as you continue to evolve, and please be active on our site! You'll find loads of talented composers here willing to share their thoughts on your music, and even more if you get involved in our community! Most of the time, if you share a bit of insight into another's work, they'll be much more willing to give your music some attention as well. 

Thanks for sharing, wonderful piece!

5 hours ago, MissCello said:

I use Dorico Pro 3.5 (which I need to upgrade to 4!)

Oh, I see. I thought about free software but it sounded too good to be just that. My guess was a combo of a DAW + free music notation software.

5 hours ago, MissCello said:

Thank you! I will spend some time revising it.

I believe that as long as you keep practising it doesn't matter if you leave the piece as it's now or modify it. There will surely be many more to come and you'll definitely be polishing your way of composing while that happens. BTW, you have a quite abundant soundcloud page; I am sure some other works that dwell there would also be very welcome here.

5 hours ago, MissCello said:

Would you please share the link with me when you post it? I'm curious to see your page. 🙂

It's just my twitter, nothing actually serious(It can be found —as well as other sites where I make content— under all my posts/replies if you have the "view signature" option activated).

Here's the link to the specific tweet I just shared: link

Kind regards!!

21 hours ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

I'm curious what you meant by this being a septet though? At first you say the oboe doubles the english horn, and the flute doubles the piccolo. Are they all meant to be played simultaneously? I think your piece would receive more attention and have a better chance of being played with a live performance if written for a wind quintet, but I'm eager to know your thoughts. With the advent of continuously more profound sound samples, you're instrumentation is fine, but again, just curious. 

One thing that stood out to me is your phrasing. You have a constant eighth note quality to a lot of your melodic lines. As @Omicronrg9 pointed out, there were issues with leading tones, but I think a different issue you have with your phrasing is the "sameness" you have with the lines themselves in rhythm, regardless of melodic intuition. Yes, I know you vary it up in your harmony by giving some lines tuplets and such, but I think a more unique melodic contour would have benefitted this piece greatly. It's ok to think of a sameness in rhythm with your melody at first, but how can you further make it more interesting for the listener? How can you give your themes a bit more character in the wonderful harmonies you're creating, with a more distinct sense of rhythmic variety? Not saying you have to change anything, but this was my initial impression with hearing your piece. I had a strong sense of sameness throughout.

I would have liked to see a teeny bit more pushed dynamics as well. You do a wonderful job with your attention to detail in writing dynamics, but I feel like the instruments were never pushed to their extremes. How about register? You have piccolo and flute parts that could be VERY high and shrill. Your bassoon acted as the bass very well (just watch the range, I think the bassoon can only play the Bb under the staff, just looking at it's last note). You have a wide range from ppp to f, but were there any moments you could have gone to ff or fff? Perhaps not, maybe the piece didn't call for that, but just know performers love to explore their instruments, so don't be afraid to give them some notes to really shine through the ensemble.

Hello, thank you so much for the kind words and thoughtful feedback! I listened to your piece, "A Verdant Dawn", last weekend and was blown away. I will certainly be listening to more of your music!

Yes, all the written parts were meant to be played simultaneously. Since some other users expressed confusion about the ensemble size, I've begun an attempt at creating another version where one player can switch between oboe and English horn, and one between flute and piccolo. I have no experience in this department (writing for more than one instrument per player) and it may take me a while to create a cohesive sound that doesn't leap around wildly or create potentially less powerful chord voicings as it does right now, since those instruments are an octave apart. Any advice on how to handle alternating the instruments would be appreciated. 🙂 Perhaps it would help to break up the "sameness" as well?

Re: Range: I have seen that there are low A extensions for bassoons, but (correct me if I'm wrong) that they prevent the low Bь from being played and make intonation more difficult. Double-checking my score, though, I see no low Bь. I'll continue to research! I am glad you brought up the topic.

Again, I appreciate your encouraging message!
 

19 hours ago, Omicronrg9 said:

Oh, I see. I thought about free software but it sounded too good to be just that. My guess was a combo of a DAW + free music notation software.

I believe that as long as you keep practising it doesn't matter if you leave the piece as it's now or modify it. There will surely be many more to come and you'll definitely be polishing your way of composing while that happens. BTW, you have a quite abundant soundcloud page; I am sure some other works that dwell there would also be very welcome here.

It's just my twitter, nothing actually serious(It can be found —as well as other sites where I make content— under all my posts/replies if you have the "view signature" option activated).

Here's the link to the specific tweet I just shared: link

Kind regards!!

 

Thank you so much! I love the photo you paired with it, it completely suits the Wintry drama of my piece. 😆 Some of your other posts seem like they would be very helpful to my score study as well!

Warm regards,

Gwendolyn

5 hours ago, MissCello said:

Some of your other posts seem like they would be very helpful to my score study as well!

Glad to read this and that the photo suits, as just after tweeting I realised I could have used the same you have in soundcloud. Regarding the other posts, they're scarce but I'll keep up adding more and more from here, free-scores, youtube or anywhere else.

Still, I do think the best kind of studying one can do is keep composing but this doesn't exclude anything else at all. Looking forward to check any new music you make!

21 hours ago, MissCello said:

Yes, all the written parts were meant to be played simultaneously. Since some other users expressed confusion about the ensemble size, I've begun an attempt at creating another version where one player can switch between oboe and English horn, and one between flute and piccolo. I have no experience in this department (writing for more than one instrument per player) and it may take me a while to create a cohesive sound that doesn't leap around wildly or create potentially less powerful chord voicings as it does right now, since those instruments are an octave apart.

I'd say just make sure to give plenty of rest for them to switch. You may find that your music turns out better than you could have hoped for giving yourself more restrictions. 

Depending on what you're going for, it's not to say that it needs to be changed. You could surely just keep it in mind for future music rather than spend hours continuously editing a current piece. Up to you though, and if you make changes to the instrumentation, let me know and I'll check it out.

22 hours ago, MissCello said:

Perhaps it would help to break up the "sameness" as well?

Well, I was referring to the rhythms rather than orchestration or anything like that. I just saw a lot of eighth note phrases, and even though that's fine in spots, I think varying up the rhythms a bit could give it some more character. In a recent piece of mine, I had quarter note block chords that I just made dotted quarter-eighth-quarter-quarter for that vary reason. Sometimes even just a little bit of change in a stagnant rhythm can go a long way

21 minutes ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

I'd say just make sure to give plenty of rest for them to switch. You may find that your music turns out better than you could have hoped for giving yourself more restrictions. 

Depending on what you're going for, it's not to say that it needs to be changed. You could surely just keep it in mind for future music rather than spend hours continuously editing a current piece. Up to you though, and if you make changes to the instrumentation, let me know and I'll check it out.

Well, I was referring to the rhythms rather than orchestration or anything like that. I just saw a lot of eighth note phrases, and even though that's fine in spots, I think varying up the rhythms a bit could give it some more character. In a recent piece of mine, I had quarter note block chords that I just made dotted quarter-eighth-quarter-quarter for that vary reason. Sometimes even just a little bit of change in a stagnant rhythm can go a long way

 

Thank you! I will keep these points in mind for the future. 🙂

1/16/23 UPDATE: I've revised the piece for quintet and modified both the score and SoundCloud track. I would love to hear any feedback! I hope that I correctly notated the switches between flute and piccolo and between oboe and English horn, as this is my first time writing for more than one instrument per player.

~ Gwendolyn

13 hours ago, MissCello said:

1/16/23 UPDATE: I've revised the piece for quintet and modified both the score and SoundCloud track. I would love to hear any feedback! I hope that I correctly notated the switches between flute and piccolo and between oboe and English horn, as this is my first time writing for more than one instrument per player.

Hey I see your new score! I see this score is in the actual pitch. I am not sure whether it's a must to notate the score in transpoed score and will it be difficult for the players to play though😅.

Henry

5 hours ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Hey I see your new score! I see this score is in the actual pitch. I am not sure whether it's a must to notate the score in transpoed score and will it be difficult for the players to play though😅.

Henry

 

Very good points, haha. I found this, and it seems it needs to be transposed: 

I am not sure how much more difficult this would be with the revisions. @Thatguy v2.0 kindly informed me that a player needs at least 7 seconds to change instruments and that they should not enter in an extreme register, and I tried to adhere to that. If anyone has any other rules of thumb, please let me know!