Andante cantabile (potential symphonic movement?)

Hello everyone,

It's been a few months since I posted an orchestral piece, and this is the first orchestral piece I've finished in those few months. 

I'm trying to refocus on writing larger scale pieces because I feel that my best music emerges when I'm working in larger forms for larger ensembles. In a strange way, I just find it easier.

This piece is something I sketched out over a few days and decided, on a whim, to orchestrate. The result is something I'm actually pretty happy with and am very excited to share! I did my best to link the various passages using transformations of previously stated material, and I think I was at least partially successful. 

Please tell me your feedback so I can improve and grow!

Intrumentation:

2 Flutes

2 Oboes

English Horn

2 Clarinets

1 Bassoon

2 French Horns in F

2 Trumpets in Bb

2 Trombones

1 Tuba

Cymbal

Timpani

Tam-Tam (gong)

Harp

Violins 1

Violins 2

Violas

Cellos

Double basses

Edit: I've removed the attached score and mp3 and posted a youtube video instead.

This really does sound great!  If you think well on a grand scale like this, it might be worth writing this way, and then going back and chamber-ifying your works.  To have two versions, this one, and a smaller-scale one, increases your chances of being performed, since it costs thousands of dollars an hour to run a rehearsal for a group this large.  A lot of successful working composers, current and historic have done that.  The more groups you make your work accessible to, the better!  

I enjoyed this start to finish.  It really does a good job evoking a mood with those high strings and mellow winds.  Nice job!

Hi @mercurypickles,

The opening wind melody with the shrieking strings is beautiful. Lovely viola countermelody in b.23 combined with the cor anglais. Lovely outburst in section E but I would want that to linger a little bit longer to give more contrast! You really love using the lowest of the oboe but maybe bassoon can be used more? The coming back of the A theme is very treasuring after all those disasters. I especially love the ending cor anglais melody with its own distinctive color. Very nice music!

I think it will make a very good stand alone orchestral piece as the color in it in fascinating. It will also be a great potential symphonic movement if you can use the material in this movement and reintroduce them in later movements. For example the wind melody is very beautiful and it can act as a "last survival of purity or religiosity"? 

On 3/27/2023 at 12:14 AM, mercurypickles said:

Please tell me your feedback so I can improve and grow!

I am sure if you comment more on other members' music you will attract more feedback in your own posts as well! I see that you almost never comment on other members' music and this may result in lack of replies in you own posts! Your comments will for sure help other members improve and grow as well, and mutual growth will be fascinating! Thanks for sharing!

Henry

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but it looks like your high harmonic passages in the 1st Violins are notated at sounding pitch.

I wonder should these be notated as natural harmonics instead?

I'm not a string expert: so I'm just curious if anyone on the forum knows the answer?

Also wondered if perhaps they should be notated as sounding pitch in the conductor's score; but harmonics in the scores for individual string parts?

This gives me some slight John Williams vibes.  Especially in the beginning when you have the high strings alternating between chromatic notes.  But the rest of it sounds quite classical rather than cinematic imo.  I think the orchestration throughout the piece is fitting.  The harp chords are an especially ominous effect.  The occasional borrowing from the minor mode or using chromatic neighbor tones in the melody is quite charming as well.  Sometimes I do wonder whether the Oboes and Clarinets have enough time to breathe with the very long phrases that they have to play.  Overall, nice job though and thanks for sharing!  (Btw, I am also curious about whether the high strings should be notated as natural harmonics if anyone knows the answer!)

Hi, I overall enjoyed the work ... a couple of comments for writing for English Horn and Oboe.  Measures 15 & 16 those low Bb's are not too Oboistic.  Also the left key fingering among those notes are quite awkward and to slur them is a real concern.  They are also the lowest notes of the Oboe - similarly although the High Eb in measure 24 is not extreme for the English Horn  - it is in the upper upper range... it might not produce the tonal quality you want/expect.

Mark

On 3/31/2023 at 10:23 PM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

(Btw, I am also curious about whether the high strings should be notated as natural harmonics if anyone knows the answer!)

I've actually been wondering the same thing! I'm not really sure what to do, or how to do that, so I'll do some digging to try and figure that out.

On 4/1/2023 at 5:38 PM, MJFOBOE said:

similarly although the High Eb in measure 24 is not extreme for the English Horn  - it is in the upper upper range... it might not produce the tonal quality you want/expect.

I was considering changing that line with the english horn to a different instrument, but when I experimented with that it just didn't feel the same. I'm keeping it as is for now, at least until I'm able to come up with a better solution.

Thank you both for your feedback, as well as everyone else who has left wonderful comments and opinions on my work.  : )