Nightfall Fugitive (for orchestra and solo clarinet)

Hello everyone,

Here I am back among you, dear composers, to present you my latest composition:

It is a piece for orchestra and solo clarinet, whose argument is to stage the run of a prisoner, in a spirit that I wanted to pay tribute to American cinema of the 1960s, or at least an evocation (and an argument).

I don't have the score clean, but you can see a little what my manuscript looks like, which serves as a visual as I got used to on my recent compositions intended for Youtube.

I hope you like it, in any case, it amused me (and took time)...

Friendly yours

K.

Link repaired...
We lose a lot of dynamic on Youtube... However, I respected the LUFS standard. I don't understand what is happening for such a loss of volume and dynamics.

Hi again!

• The beginning was 👌, but it suggested a mood and atmosphere that gets destroyed (of course, I assume intentionally) in the next minutes. Looking at the video it all makes sense, as it's supposed to be related to each part or episode.

• The sound, as it's common of your productions, is very nicely crafted and one can very well notice that despite the loss on dynamics you mention. I don't understand it either, I only know that sometimes YouTube compresses videos a lot. My uploaded nocturnes weigh notably less than originally when I re-download them from the platform. Whatever magic they do, it may affect the sound somehow (?). I'm no expert, sorry.

• The way you make instruments appear and disappear is feels very natural, the music never ceases to flow, the multiple contrasts you do using different amounts of instruments, variations on intensity (done gradually or abruptly), harmonic progressions (jazzy vs. axis-ish perhaps)... Not a single one sounded off to me. Very solid job.

• As difficult as it can be in my opinion, the SOLO parts are very insightful and their intrinsic calm not only give the listener a break but allow you to build up again tense moments very successfully.

• The ending was solid too, not the best in terms of conclusive power —And you probably were not looking for that— but definitely fitting.

• On a side, kinda irrelevant note, since you put the text of the post in black and didn't use "automatic", it's very difficult to see it in the night theme so I had to switch.

In summary, I believe you are a very talented composer and your works speak of you. You are definitely able to create very good atmospheres that I personally enjoy listening to. For that reason, I am promoting your post today, as I'm sure other people will enjoy listening to it, plus they may have useful feedback and not only compliments :).

Kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón.

Dear Omicron ! (Omicron, my favorite variant, which I caught twice!)
I am totally amazed by so many compliments! Again, this can only encourage me to persevere, even if I will have to recharge my batteries... (I had started writing all this just before a professional trip to Asia, representing a big cut and fatigue related to adaptation). So you really felt the final drop in voltage (and My wife no longer remembers very well what I look like by dint of staying locked up in my office).  My first idea was to mix the little jazzy things and a big climax, but too difficult to achieve in my jetlag state. So, I fell back on more conventional sequential approach, but the climax would have required more preparation and the Jazzy atmosphere is a little aborted at the end.
Regarding the beginning of the song, which gives a false lead, it was naturally intentional in several ways: the idea of creating a context a bit of a 60s film, and I also wanted to find a certain somewhat ironic relaxation that would put at a cool distance the more dramatic aspects of the heart of the composition and its many phases of tension, try a pseudo Jazz writing, which has only the And also try to connect this with a more classic (or modern-classical) writing with the question of transition.
This question of transition is also a concern and a subject of reflection. I find it difficult to get out of a writing system you have entered, to get out of one atmosphere to join another. But you analyzed the thing well in your comment. (juxtapositions, ruptures, maskings, mergers etc...)
In any case, I must also try to streamline my workflow to be able to generate edited scores in the process. I promised myself to do it, using a little tip: create in parallel to the main version a secondary instance of Reaper with extremely simplified rhythmic values. then export as much as possible this into midi files to import them into Muse score. It will probably be for the next time.
As for the display of the texts, I did not understand if you were talking about the subtitles of the parts (in yellow) or if you were referring to the macro photos of my manuscripts.
On my screens, the subtitles remain readable, but perhaps this problem needs to be corrected. I'm going to study this.
Finally, I must also confess that these symphonic pieces with solo instruments are rather intended to have a playful approach, to counteract a little the gloom that could well capture us in the silence of our musical face to face! So, I don't forbid myself a few small touches a little easy, some seductions that my teachers would have ravaged with a line of red felt in my youth.

In any case, a huge thank you for your precise, attentive and also enlightening listening for me. It gives me great pleasure!
 

Certainly a grand work that encompasses several variations of style (hence mood) and works well, through-composed. 

I like how it varies from bold and intense orchestration to tranquil if uneasy moments.  I like the orchestration.  I also thought the way it disappeared was good/clever.

Very nice.  The kind of music I get on with but would have said more if a score had been offered!

Cheers. 

Hello,

Thank you for listening. Unfortunately for the moment, as I say above, I have not yet had the courage to start editing the manuscript. It's in my projects, as for my other music, but I really don't have time. It's a shame...

Possibly I can copy you, for example, the beginnings of each handwritten part... It can give an idea, but there is only one piano score on 3 spans (it's the writing system I use for the pieces I intend to orchestrate, it seems very practical to me. I carry out the orchestration after this reduction, directly in the DAW).

Hi @Krisp,

I enjoy your output as always! As Daniel noted you are very good at portraying moods. Clarinet is perfect for that jazzy and benighted sound! As Daniel noted (again) the piece has good contrast with the alternation of tutti and solo sections! 

17 hours ago, Krisp said:

n a spirit that I wanted to pay tribute to American cinema of the 1960s, or at least an evocation (and an argument).

I do find some parts reflecting the style of those detective or film noir! There are dangers all over the place with the anaesthetic clarinet playing overall to presuade oneself there's no danger at all, finally defeated just right before the ending, I love that ending very much. It's like a self-deception (as noted by your French philosopher Sartre!) from the ominously dangerous to get back to that false jazzy dream.

I am an utterly different type of composer than you, but I utterly enjoy this! I really have nothing to say this time. I feel like your typical style is moody, through-composed, great contrast on timbre, dynamics, texture, great use on orchestral colour, descriptive and depictive, impressionistic harmony and very fluent passages. I don't know if you have a programme for this or not but I do feel like it's music on this nihilistic world right now!

Thanks for sharing! I think I have to give you a badge for this great music (again)!

Henry

6 hours ago, Krisp said:

Hello,

Thank you for listening. Unfortunately for the moment, as I say above, I have not yet had the courage to start editing the manuscript. It's in my projects, as for my other music, but I really don't have time. It's a shame...

Possibly I can copy you, for example, the beginnings of each handwritten part... It can give an idea, but there is only one piano score on 3 spans (it's the writing system I use for the pieces I intend to orchestrate, it seems very practical to me. I carry out the orchestration after this reduction, directly in the DAW).

 

No, it's ok, it was enough just to listen but without a score I can't point out bits I particularly like. It's an accomplished work.

It seems that we work in similar ways. I start in a piano/short score, maybe 3 or 4 staves, making text notes of instruments I think might play each thing. Once that's ok it's transferred to the daw.  The final bit is engraving which takes the longest time by far.   So I can appreciate that you don't like to spend too much time on a full score when there's the next piece to be composed.  I don't engrave everything - only those scores that I might send around with the hope of a performance, something that gets more rare as the days go by.

I look forward to more of your work.

Cheers, Quinn.

On 3/6/2023 at 8:08 PM, Krisp said:

Dear Omicron ! (Omicron, my favorite variant, which I caught twice!)

LOL. For the record, I'm older than the variant :P.

On 3/6/2023 at 8:08 PM, Krisp said:

As for the display of the texts, I did not understand if you were talking about the subtitles of the parts (in yellow) or if you were referring to the macro photos of my manuscripts.

The first.

On 3/6/2023 at 8:08 PM, Krisp said:

So, I don't forbid myself a few small touches a little easy, some seductions that my teachers would have ravaged with a line of red felt in my youth.

Were they too strict? I have had none, thus I do not know how is composition even taught! Counterpoint, perhaps. Harmony as well. But composition, I'm clueless.

Kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón.

1 hour ago, Omicronrg9 said:

Were they too strict? I have had none, thus I do not know how is composition even taught! Counterpoint, perhaps. Harmony as well. But composition, I'm clueless.

Kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón.

 

The one who emphasised homework with large red strokes with a felt pen was the conservatory's writing teacher. A rather feared "old girl" who finally turned out to be very nice. A squeaky humour that worked very well.

Those who were the most vachards, were the self-proclaimed supporters of experimental contemporary music that I followed in faculty (I had entered a very "new music" department, which wanted to be avant-garde, swore only by some of their own works of which they were glening in a small enclosed world. Of course, it was exciting, and of course I caricature because there were many fantastic things to discover and learn, but in any case, everything that could look like a perfect chord was seen as a petty bourgeois class mark, from the hated conservatories that existed only to train young people to become canned musicians.

In France, we love these bell tower fights that still continue, but fortunately are far behind my concerns. Moreover, there is a very unreputable obedience that has settled quite well in some institutions and conversely advocates a return to the "traditional values" of tonal music. Their works for the moment look like bad Brahms and they seek to prove by A plus B that Mozart is superior to Boulez. (which makes no sense because there is no scale of value that can measure this to my knowledge...)

In short, the ideal is to make the music you want, keeping all this in a corner of your head, but without making much of it when you do not need to affiliate with this or that chapel, this or that network, to get an order.

3 minutes ago, Krisp said:

Those who were the most vachards, were the self-proclaimed supporters of experimental contemporary music that I followed in faculty (I had entered a very "new music" department, which wanted to be avant-garde, swore only by some of their own works of which they were glening in a small enclosed world. Of course, it was exciting, and of course I caricature because there were many fantastic things to discover and learn, but in any case, everything that could look like a perfect chord was seen as a petty bourgeois class mark, from the hated conservatories that existed only to train young people to become canned musicians.

In France, we love these bell tower fights that still continue, but fortunately are far behind my concerns. Moreover, there is a very unreputable obedience that has settled quite well in some institutions and conversely advocates a return to the "traditional values" of tonal music. Their works for the moment look like bad Brahms and they seek to prove by A plus B that Mozart is superior to Boulez. (which makes no sense because there is no scale of value that can measure this to my knowledge...)

I really hate those people who claim they know the absolute truth of music or having an absolute standard on something that is dogmatic in music. Music is way too grand and magnanimous to be limited by any "definition" or "standard" by those narrow-minded people. To link music with politics is necessary sometimes but to over-interpret it is nasty. Only focusing on "new", "originality", "avant garde" cannot help with the progress of music at all if we don't find new dimensions in our heart, thinking and soul, after all music is not only product of craft and ideology and human beings are capable of much more than that. A total scientific approach to music is a joke as well since to quantify music is ridiculous. You can do that in some way and it does give us some insights but obviously not the full picture of music. If human beings can be measured in numerical terms then it will be way too dangerous and shallow for human culture,

Henry

23 hours ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Hi @Krisp,

I enjoy your output as always! As Daniel noted you are very good at portraying moods. Clarinet is perfect for that jazzy and benighted sound! As Daniel noted (again) the piece has good contrast with the alternation of tutti and solo sections! 

I do find some parts reflecting the style of those detective or film noir! There are dangers all over the place with the anaesthetic clarinet playing overall to presuade oneself there's no danger at all, finally defeated just right before the ending, I love that ending very much. It's like a self-deception (as noted by your French philosopher Sartre!) from the ominously dangerous to get back to that false jazzy dream.

I am an utterly different type of composer than you, but I utterly enjoy this! I really have nothing to say this time. I feel like your typical style is moody, through-composed, great contrast on timbre, dynamics, texture, great use on orchestral colour, descriptive and depictive, impressionistic harmony and very fluent passages. I don't know if you have a programme for this or not but I do feel like it's music on this nihilistic world right now!

Thanks for sharing! I think I have to give you a badge for this great music (again)!

Henry

 

Hey, I hadn't read your comment! Thank you very much!

And I'm very happy that you like my end. It is true that in this general rise, the idea was still to arrive at an end shape. The poor little clarinet (the prisoner's soul in pain, if we will) had no choice but to scream and giggle to be heard again in this crash before a necessary return to the starting pirouette. Well seen from you! (I think you know how to perfectly translate emotional content).

Delighted in any case to find here the ears quite open and benevolent for these enlightened comments!

I promise to spend as much time as possible listening to the music posted (with the scores, which is a big asset!)

I love the more classical sections, you clearly know your craft. 

I kinda wish, (and this is my ridiculous taste), to have them separate, expanded and blended together into another suite.

10 hours ago, Uhor said:

I love the more classical sections, you clearly know your craft. 

I kinda wish, (and this is my ridiculous taste), to have them separate, expanded and blended together into another suite.

 

I understand and it would be a different scenario. But why not take up one of the elements to make it a development. It could be an interesting exercise... It's an excellent idea.