Night Cascade: For Wind Ensemble

Hello everyone,

Since this is my first post here, I will add a small background of myself. I am 17 years old, a senior, and have been composing since 8th grade. I have had little music theory training up until last year when I took AP Music theory. I have additionally been playing trumpet for 8 years.

I drew inspiration for this work after hearing the genius of Václav Nelhýbel in his work, Symphonic Movement, as well as the works of Danny Elfman and his various film scores. The main premise of the piece is to convey the mystery and intensity of the night, with a pseudo chase theme in the beginning, fading away to a calm yet unsettling theme, that builds into a dramatic climax. After the climax, a more evil chase takes place, leading to the finale, which briefly recapitulates on the cascading woodwind motif in the beginning, and ends with quite a punch.

I hope I did an alright job explaining the general structure, and I would greatly appreciate any feedback

I have attached the score and MP3 file in a Google Drive folder. The sound engine is NotePerformer 4 and Finale 27 is the notation software

Hello @tj2024 and welcome to the forum!

I have never heard of Václav Nelhýbel and his Symphonic Movement.  I guess the popular concert band/wind ensemble literature changes with every generation.  To me the beginning sounded kind of like Frank Ticheli which is a wind band composer I've played back when I was in one.  It reminded me of Fortress and Vesuvius - some popular ones I played.  Your piece certainly sounds fun to play to say the least!  I hope you get the chance to have this performed by an actual band and hopefully also get a good recording!  Your writing sounds very competent and mature for a 17 year old!

I was going to say that one critique I have of your piece is that it seems to lack some thematic unity.  But then I hit the play button once again after hearing the ending and noticed that you were using the same exact motivic material for both the start and the finish.  Reusing your melodic material at different levels of intensity/tempi is definitely a good way to create thematic unity while also giving a sense of novelty - two forces in music that I think every composer must constantly work to keep in balance.  The contrasting section is nice as well with constant swelling giving a sort of menacing feeling with the accelerando.  The part following that where the "more evil" chase starts up sounds like something out of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones where Anakin jumps out of the window holding onto the assassin droid LoL.  Part of the chase section sounds like a stately march instead of a chase which was surprising to me.  Overall though - a very enjoyable piece and I'm sure with much that I've missed that I would appreciate more upon even more repeated listenings!  Thanks for sharing!

Peter

Given your declared experience this is a very good work, a well chosen ensemble, rhythmically unpredictable in places which sustained interest through a few surprises. The slower passage from somewhere after 2'45" was mesmerising.

Great use of percussion, good rendering and good, detailed scoring.

Good work.

Hi, welcome to the forum.

Very much enjoyed your piece.
I especially love the fluid passages in the woodwind beginning at Bar 217, and the beautiful motif on the piccolo in Bar 235.

I wondered what instruments are scored in the Accessories stave? Is this a set of bass drums?

Also the percussion staves labelled 1 and 2?

N.B. Master scores tend to be written in concert pitch these days, rather than transposing pitch.
Makes it easier to spot errors in the harmonies, and rogue accidentals.

At least that's what I've been told. (Not that you have any errors here.)

You have a few notational issues where symbols are printed on top of each other, e.g. Bar 24 in clarinets 2 & 3, the cresc hairpin overlaps the note stalks.

Not sure how to fix these, as I use different notation software.

Anyhow, thanks for posting. Look forward to hearing more of your work.

Hi @tj2024,

Welcome to the forum!

I really enjoy the energy of the first section with those changing meters and repetitive percussion ostinato! It really gives the music an urgency. Lovely colour as well. I like the slow section with the use of marimba! The funeral march quality with those brass and bass instruments is captivating. Maybe only the transition to it a bit abrupt for me, and just feel the section a bit too long for me, but this is personal. In the Agressivo section those acciaccatura is so Berlioz like. The effect here is great with those brasses. I feel like the ending a little bit abrupt but I like how the climax is attained. Great job especially given how young you are. I hope I can compose like you when a I was 17!

Thx for sharing and joining us!

Henry

Hey welcome to the form! This is a really nice piece, and an excellent way to introduce yourself.

I enjoyed your piece from start to finish. I really don't have anything constructive to say about it. There are just a couple of practical things I noticed on a read through of the score.

• I'm not sure how practical or effective the fast saxophone repeated notes starting at m.174 is. I think it might be difficult on the instrument, and I also think it might not have the effect you are going for. This kind of technique works better on brass than woodwinds (which I see you do have this in the horn as well.)
• While the timpani part at m.188 is awesome, I'm not sure it is practical. It looks like this passage would require 5 drums, while most bands/orchestras tend to only have 4. Also, for the notes you have chose (F2, G2, Bb2, C3, and F3), you would probably need more than one of the same size drum to accomplish this, which is also not common. The below pic from Wikipedia shows the drum sizes and typical ranges, (though I believe the V drum is uncommon.) I think you would need two I drums to get both the F1 and G1.
•  

Other than that I really have nothing else constructive to say. Great work, and I hope you are able to get your band to perform this!

On 1/29/2024 at 1:02 AM, gmm said:

 

• While the timpani part at m.188 is awesome, I'm not sure it is practical. It looks like this passage would require 5 drums, while most bands/orchestras tend to only have 4. Also, for the notes you have chose (F2, G2, Bb2, C3, and F3), you would probably need more than one of the same size drum to accomplish this, which is also not common. The below pic from Wikipedia shows the drum sizes and typical ranges, (though I believe the V drum is uncommon.) I think you would need two I drums to get both the F1 and G1.
•  

Other than that I really have nothing else constructive to say. Great work, and I hope you are able to get your band to perform this!

 

Great teaching here!!  Five drums are becoming more standard, especially with the bands that could play this piece.  Make sure you put five drums on this one.

Also, You REALLY need to put rehearsal numbers on your pieces.  The lack thereof will make band's life a living Hades if you don't.

This composition has some straight fire in it.  Make sure you put in competitions!