First string quartet

Hi everyone, I began a string quartet between the 2nd and final movement of my piano concerto to take my mind out of it. This is the first time i compose seriously for string quartet and would like to know your thoughts... There is only the exposition of the first movement

Hi @Camfrtt,

I love the false relation in b.10 and the harmony in b.11-13, very beautiful for me. You should cancel the arco marking in b.18-20 since there's no pizz. before it😅!

The presentation of the first subject is good. Very nice to use the second violin and viola for the melody in b.17 and 18. I personally find the F minor quite abrupt in b.39, but you can use this in your development section it will be great, then the abruptness will not be an issue here!

I love your transition since it's very mature to modulate to C major via C minor and your harmonic progression is good. In 105 the arco in 2nd violin is also redundant. I just find your second subject quite short. Your building up to climax is great with the enhanced movements and shorter note values and tremolos. Just beware of the accents on a tied note in b.114-117! B.119 for me is a first ending back to the exposition proper, and you should add a second ending to move on to the development!

Will you use the material from the introduction in your development?

I will say it's very promising movement, thanks for sharing!

Henry

Wow!  This piece certainly leaves the listener hanging!  I think you have thusfar expertly crafted the introduction and 1st and 2nd theme groups of a sonata form movement!  There's already some great development which you've introduced even without reaching the development section proper.  Do you plan on repeating the exposition of this movement by at some point returning to bar 22?  Or do you hope to also include the introductory material in that?  I'm very interested to see where you will go with this!  Btw - I love the sudden F# minor flavor you use in bar 18 - borrowing a minor chord from the parallel major mode is one of my favorite harmonic devices!  I love how at bar 39 you use chromatic mediant chordal relationships - another favorite of mine!  Your harmonic language is quite varied and adept!  Thanks for sharing.

Hi @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu, first of all, thank you for taking the time to write your thoughts.

On 2/1/2023 at 4:04 AM, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

You should cancel the arco marking in b.18-20 since there's no pizz. before it😅!

Ah, you're right about that. The whole score is a complete mess right now. I will definitely clean it once the composition process will be over. Same applies for the accent.

On 2/1/2023 at 4:04 AM, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Will you use the material from the introduction in your development?

I was thinking about it when writing the development (i'm in the middle of it right now). I think it would be difficult as it is 
1. an adagio which could break the dynamic of the development that I already composed so for (this kind of slow section should be prepared in my opinion, just like a cadenza in a concerto).
2: it is in 4/4, which is also quite abrupt, and I dont think the melody is easily transposable in 6/8

On 2/1/2023 at 4:04 AM, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

I will say it's very promising movement, thanks for sharing!

I will definitely post the first movement complete once it will be done! 🙂 

Hi @PeterthePapercomPoser🙂

On 2/6/2023 at 12:55 AM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Do you plan on repeating the exposition of this movement by at some point returning to bar 22?

At the point where I am in the developement, I composed a little codetta and a bridge section to go back to bar 22. For the introductory material, I will use it, for sure, as the coda of this first movement, but not necessarily in the development section.

On 2/6/2023 at 12:55 AM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

I love how at bar 39 you use chromatic mediant chordal relationships - another favorite of mine!  Your harmonic language is quite varied and adept!  Thanks for sharing.

Thanks a lot! My worst nightmare when I was a beginner composer was to lack harmonic diversity, your commentary is thus very encouraging.

3 hours ago, Camfrtt said:

I will definitely post the first movement complete once it will be done! 🙂

I am really excited to this!

3 hours ago, Camfrtt said:

I was thinking about it when writing the development (i'm in the middle of it right now). I think it would be difficult as it is 
1. an adagio which could break the dynamic of the development that I already composed so for (this kind of slow section should be prepared in my opinion, just like a cadenza in a concerto).
2: it is in 4/4, which is also quite abrupt, and I dont think the melody is easily transposable in 6/8

Actually I don't mean to use the entire elements of the introduction. For example you can transform the introduction theme from a slow 4/4 to a fast 6/8! Or even retaining the time signature and tempo can be fine in some cases, e.g. in the first movement of Beethoven's op.127, when he directly uses the opening slow duple metre introduction inside a fast triple development for drama. But of course it depends on the nature of your development here!! It is the section where we can display ourselves most!!

P.S I have just noticed that you write piano concerti!! The Piano Concerto in C minor appears quite fascinating! I will definitely look into the posts if I have time! But if you have the ability of writing a concerto, you definitely can write a good string quartet.

Henry

Hi Camfritt.

The transition at near 0:58 didn't convince me much and took me a bit off guard. Having said this, the modulations you do near minute 2 are delightful, the really good use of dynamics throughout the whole piece pays off (at least in the digital interpretation, but surely on a real one as well).

On 2/7/2023 at 2:12 AM, Camfrtt said:

The whole score is a complete mess right now.

Not quite, but the fact that you be aware of this makes my comment much shorter :).

On 2/7/2023 at 2:12 AM, Camfrtt said:

2: it is in 4/4, which is also quite abrupt, and I dont think the melody is easily transposable in 6/8

This, in case you want to do it, seems like the best option to me. I don't think you will actually have much trouble taking "the essence" of some of the material you have already crafted and putting it into the next section, seeing how you've handled this one.

Thank you for sharing and kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón.