Flying Dutchman

Hello Guys,

(update: The sheet music is done.)
This is my brand new piece of music. It's a personal topic, I really love this old legend. I hope you'll like it! I composed it for a competition. There are restrictions in the orchestration, I had to write it for a 34-piece orchestra. 

There are several versions of the famous legend. One of them tells the story of Captain Hendrik van der Decken who gets caught in a storm at the Cape of Good Hope and swears to cross it even if it takes until judgment day. The devil hears his oath and curses the captain and his crew for their stubbornness. Hendrik is sentenced to sail the seas forever, never to reach land again.

In the music, the departure is represented by a hopeful, playful flute solo symbolizing a favorable wind. However, the deep sounds of the bassoon and the moving bass ominously rumble. At 00:49, the piece gains momentum as the sailors spot the Cape of Good Hope. At first, they admire the massive cliffs, but then a storm arises out of nowhere, depicted in the music by a change in tempo and rhythm at 01:15. The dark, turbulent, and fast-paced music represents the storm, while the runs and cymbal crashes depict the crashing waves and thunder. The end of the piece is gloomy and hopeless, as the captain and his crew are doomed to wander the seas forever.

Hi @olivercomposer,

This is a very gigantic excerpt and finally there's no "ahh" section!

I will say, to be honest, the variety not too big throughout the excerpt since it's always brass featuring the music after 0:49. I really would hope to have some woodwinds and strings featuring the melody. It's always in the minor key too and maybe adding major keys or modal keys can help bring more tonal contrast as well.

Thanks for sharing,

Henry

Nice evolution around 1:20...

It sounds more cinematic than wagnerian (sorry, but I can't take out of my mind his opera).

5 hours ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Hi @olivercomposer,

This is a very gigantic excerpt and finally there's no "ahh" section!

I will say, to be honest, the variety not too big throughout the excerpt since it's always brass featuring the music after 0:49. I really would hope to have some woodwinds and strings featuring the melody. It's always in the minor key too and maybe adding major keys or modal keys can help bring more tonal contrast as well.

Thanks for sharing,

Henry

 

Thank you for your criticism! I always appreciate honesty, and I think you're right. I modified the music piece, I changed the lead instruments at the beginning and at the end. It was too much from the brass section, but I really don't want to add "major key" parts to the piece. This is a tragedy... 🙂 

It's a huge work, indeed.

I really like this, it would make a perfect film score for a high seas adventure. It reminds me of those golden age Hollywood swashbuckling film scores by Erich Korngold.

I would say that I get more adventure out of it than a menacing doomed voyage though. Maybe if you expanded a little, you could add a darker passage to really nail that doomed storyline.

Still I found it to be a very enjoyable!

8 hours ago, BipolarComposer said:

I really like this, it would make a perfect film score for a high seas adventure. It reminds me of those golden age Hollywood swashbuckling film scores by Erich Korngold.

I would say that I get more adventure out of it than a menacing doomed voyage though. Maybe if you expanded a little, you could add a darker passage to really nail that doomed storyline.

Still I found it to be a very enjoyable!

 

The limit is 3 minutes, so unfortunately I can't expand it. Thank you for your comment! 🙂 

A good programmatic episode, if perhaps conventionally tonal but really needs to be heard/seen in context. Is it part of a planned larger work? This piece works well for 3 minutes but any longer and it would need more pronounced development - possibly a build up to a climax and variation in dynamics and orchestral density. However looking at soundcloud's "sound wave" across the bottom it goes on at a standard mezzoforte throughout. As I say, for 3 minutes that's ok.

Another point is that the instrumentation is for the most part dense so it sounds muddy here and there.

Otherwise - great.

4 hours ago, Quinn said:

A good programmatic episode, if perhaps conventionally tonal but really needs to be heard/seen in context. Is it part of a planned larger work? This piece works well for 3 minutes but any longer and it would need more pronounced development - possibly a build up to a climax and variation in dynamics and orchestral density. However looking at soundcloud's "sound wave" across the bottom it goes on at a standard mezzoforte throughout. As I say, for 3 minutes that's ok.

Another point is that the instrumentation is for the most part dense so it sounds muddy here and there.

Otherwise - great.

 

I composed it for a competition and the duration limitation is 3 minutes. I have been working on the sheet music, the beginning of the track will be in piano, so it will have more dynamic range than you hear in the soundcloud track. It's hard to adjust everything well with sample libraries...

On 3/30/2023 at 2:50 AM, olivercomposer said:

The limit is 3 minutes, so unfortunately I can't expand it. Thank you for your comment! 🙂 

 

Well for 3 minutes it’s very good!

Nice job!  But at 1:15 I heard a key change, not a tempo change, although a few seconds later I guess it does pick up in intensity a bit.  The tempo change at 0:49 is definitely noticeable though.  I like how the piece goes through multiple key changes, but I feel like your harmonic language is still pretty constrained (it's hard to tell without a score, but do you use many non-harmonic tones on strong beats ever?  or non-tertian chords?  or pan-diatonic chords?  or planing/parallelism?it seems like there's plenty of harmonic territory you could make use of).  It is pretty effective though at depicting the dark mood and plight of the sailors.  So maybe don't fix what ain't broken?  Thanks for sharing! 

2 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Nice job!  But at 1:15 I heard a key change, not a tempo change, although a few seconds later I guess it does pick up in intensity a bit.  The tempo change at 0:49 is definitely noticeable though.  I like how the piece goes through multiple key changes, but I feel like your harmonic language is still pretty constrained (it's hard to tell without a score, but do you use many non-harmonic tones on strong beats ever?  or non-tertian chords?  or pan-diatonic chords?  or planing/parallelism?it seems like there's plenty of harmonic territory you could make use of).  It is pretty effective though at depicting the dark mood and plight of the sailors.  So maybe don't fix what ain't broken?  Thanks for sharing! 

 

You're right, probably I should use these techniques...Maybe next time...

OC--

  Gotta agree with Henry---

    Even with the 3 minute rule----a suspenseful B section----stripped down, and/or change instrumentation---would serve this piece well.

  Your handling of the large forces is great, but if I've learned anything this last year--- purposeful VARIETY is key.

         The main theme is clear, but a somewhat meandering.       To paraphrase "Amadeus"--you gotta give the audience a que as to when to clap!!