The Forest Of Dreams

Hi to all our genius composers!
Have posted this work previously in the incomplete section, but have now more or less finished it off.

I'm excited to hear what you think!

It's become much bigger in scope than I'd originally intended, and has morphed into a work for symphony orchestra with a large choir.

Also has an electronic synth component.

Dare I say, it sounds symphonic at times; though it's not intended to be an actual symphony!

I hope it flows well, and has enough variety to be interesting?

The score is going to be a big challenge to complete: so I won't have that for quite some time.

Also haven't got round to adding a triangle yet (which was Henry's suggestion); but I fully intend to!

Hey Alex,

11 hours ago, Alex Weidmann said:

Hi to all our genius composers!

LoL

11 hours ago, Alex Weidmann said:

Also haven't got round to adding a triangle yet (which was Henry's suggestion); but I fully intend to!

LoL again haha!

It's very soothing to listen to. For me I think it flows well and love your modal usage combining with the synth. Your woodwind usage is again my favourite thing from you. I like that extensive passage in 1:33 by the oboe family. I like in 3:53 when your strings passage having the previous section as contrast, appear more emotional and desolate here. The xylophone in 6:47 and 8:10 is attractive to me. Again your altoflute ending is great!

Thx for sharing!

Henry

Thanks Henry!

Wasn't even aware I was using modal scales really, as I tend to sequence the music instinctively, without thinking about musical theory.

Which modal scale am I using, just out of interest?

Thought it might be useful if I attach an unedited score, translated directly from the MIDI data.

This is NOT a proper score by any stretch, and it shows the haphazard way I work when sequencing a new piece.

As you can see, I'm using close harmonies in the choir, and dense voicing in the strings, with lots of octave doubling.

It seems to work; but perhaps there are too many close harmonies?

Will have to re-score the woodwind parts where I'm going out of range. Will be moving those passages into bass oboe, bass flute, and bass clarinet (or bassoon). 
 

Many thanks for listening!

10 hours ago, Alex Weidmann said:

Which modal scale am I using, just out of interest?

I think you have a lot of Phrygian chord usage here with all those Bbs. 

10 hours ago, Alex Weidmann said:

This is NOT a proper score by any stretch, and it shows the haphazard way I work when sequencing a new piece.

Haha as always when having Musescore auto-generating score!

10 hours ago, Alex Weidmann said:

As you can see, I'm using close harmonies in the choir, and dense voicing in the strings, with lots of octave doubling.

It seems to work; but perhaps there are too many close harmonies?

Indeed your choir sounds more like a piano chord with those close chords and octave doubling, but I don't mind at all since I also play piano LoL... But ofc your can go for wider harmonies if you want the passages to be grander at some points.

On 7/21/2023 at 5:31 AM, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Haha as always when having Musescore auto-generating score!

I actually used Notion this time.
MuseScore would've made an even bigger mess!

It has a lovely woodwind opening - I enjoyed all the woodwind writing ... and your harmonic movement/orchestration is interesting.  Please note page 6 you have the English Horn playing a low A.  The lowest note is a Bb - just like the Oboe.  Now I believe/heard - you can stick a cardboard tube to extend the bell.  On page 23 you have the horns and trombones way up in  the stratosphere.    Not sure how real players would react!  The extreme upper range for the French Horn is 2 octaves above middle C.  Please check the trombone range too.  Also I think a bit more harmonic movement would add to this work since after a while it feels a bit stagnant (too much of a good thing).

Many thanks for listening!

When I make the score, I will definitely substitute different instruments where they go out of range. (Notion was showing me a lot of red notes!)

Probably flugelhorn or mellophone in place of French horns and trombones.

Bass oboe and bass flute where the cor anglais and alto flute parts go too low.

Also need to use a bassoon or bass clarinet at one point, in place of the regular B flat clarinet.

The harmonies are quite repetitive. I did lots of copying and pasting between parts. So I could perhaps try adding some harmonic changes here and there.

Made a much better version of the score, which I've added to the original post.

It's still missing expression marks, slurs etc...

Just wondered if my instrumentation list makes sense?

I've yet to figure whether the choir is SSAA, SSAT or SATB!

Are we supposed to specify the number of singers?

N.B. Now I've made a concert pitch score, I've noticed my melodic lines are often weaving within and around the harmonies, with nothing much going on in the bass clef most of the time.

This sounds ok to my ear, as the differing timbre of the instruments makes the melody stand out; but maybe I should try expanding the harmonies into the bass clef more often?