Le Mariage Rouge

I'm pretty new to all of this, mostly having fun with composition while I apply to medical school. This is the first big piece I tried to write, some errors here and there with some questionable passages, but I'm overall happy with it. Very open to criticism as I hope to improve this piece and others I hope to write as a way to ward off application anxiety.

Main idea of the piece: it's about the death of Henry II of France at his daughter's wedding. The beginning is meant to be a little chaotic but joyous because it represents the many people of France, both of high and low standings, gathering for this momentous occasion (imagine flying over the castle and seeing the many people walking around, preparing things). The softer part afterward is meant to represent the princess as she readies herself for the festivities, including the jousting. Bell tolls signify the beginning of the joust, with everyone being summoned to watch the event. Once things become faster, imagine the knights galloping at each other, lances ready to unsaddle their opponent. The King is one of these knights, excited to take part in a sport he loves. The tension builds as the joust becomes quite dangerous, until the unthinkable happens and the King is launched off his horse, a part of his lance protruding from his visor. The uneasiness and sadness that follows portrays the people as they become worried about not only the King's health (as he will soon perish), but also the fate of France as the King's young son will claim the throne without any experience and proper guidance.

Score please ...

Wow, this is great!

I love some of the tactile things I can hear with your samples. The wood echo of the strings pizz, or I could hear the breathiness for some of the subtle wind moments. A hobbyist composer/aspiring medical professional? Very cool, and welcome!

You do some pretty eargasmic things in your music lol. Was that wind harmonics in the background at the part around 5:40? The part at 4:00 was really to my liking too, I love the bass/cello low suspenseful line. The winds at 5:00 remind me of the scherzo in Beethoven's 9th 😄 The ending section was very beautiful, and capped this off nicely. 

This was a bit "heavier" in sound, which I think you flirted with the line of being too much. Nice job with that. It seemed to have a good balance with orchestral colors, and you didn't hold back with the wide range the orchestra offers (church bells, percussive stuff I couldn't quite make out, etc.).

One thing to think about is your melodies and motifs. To me, as impressive as your piece sounds, it could've benefitted with stronger themes for the listener to latch on to. About halfway through listening, I read your description of the music, and I like that you used a story for the form, but attaching motifs to characters or plot points would be something to delve into deeper next time. Maybe it's there and I just didn't catch it, but that's kinda the point. 

I'm a guitarist, and with heavy distortion and high gain, I can mask a lot of "mistakes" or cookie cutter patterns in my leads. I can hide behind the "sound". I kind of hear something similar with this piece. There are lots of cool sounds and effects you create, and your samples really get to flourish in this. But, I'm just saying don't let that be your heavy distortion. 

I listened to this 3 times, and after every listen, I liked it even more. 🙂 Kudos to a fine work, and good luck with the med stuff. Involve yourself in the community as well! People would love to hear your thoughts on their music. 

Thanks for sharing!

On 6/16/2024 at 12:05 PM, MJFOBOE said:

Score please ...

 

My apologies, forgot to add it the first time. Score is attached here.

On 6/17/2024 at 4:14 PM, Thatguy v2.0 said:

Wow, this is great!

I love some of the tactile things I can hear with your samples. The wood echo of the strings pizz, or I could hear the breathiness for some of the subtle wind moments. A hobbyist composer/aspiring medical professional? Very cool, and welcome!

You do some pretty eargasmic things in your music lol. Was that wind harmonics in the background at the part around 5:40? The part at 4:00 was really to my liking too, I love the bass/cello low suspenseful line. The winds at 5:00 remind me of the scherzo in Beethoven's 9th 😄 The ending section was very beautiful, and capped this off nicely. 

This was a bit "heavier" in sound, which I think you flirted with the line of being too much. Nice job with that. It seemed to have a good balance with orchestral colors, and you didn't hold back with the wide range the orchestra offers (church bells, percussive stuff I couldn't quite make out, etc.).

One thing to think about is your melodies and motifs. To me, as impressive as your piece sounds, it could've benefitted with stronger themes for the listener to latch on to. About halfway through listening, I read your description of the music, and I like that you used a story for the form, but attaching motifs to characters or plot points would be something to delve into deeper next time. Maybe it's there and I just didn't catch it, but that's kinda the point. 

I'm a guitarist, and with heavy distortion and high gain, I can mask a lot of "mistakes" or cookie cutter patterns in my leads. I can hide behind the "sound". I kind of hear something similar with this piece. There are lots of cool sounds and effects you create, and your samples really get to flourish in this. But, I'm just saying don't let that be your heavy distortion. 

I listened to this 3 times, and after every listen, I liked it even more. 🙂 Kudos to a fine work, and good luck with the med stuff. Involve yourself in the community as well! People would love to hear your thoughts on their music. 

Thanks for sharing!

 

Thank you so much for the kind words, and for the constructive criticism! Music definitely is a great way to keep your mind fresh and relieved after the pain of science lol.

I do really like writing those "eargasmic" parts as you put it - can't deny that I love grand orchestral moments, especially as a horn player. Didn't quite mean to mimic Beethoven, but he definitely is an inspiration along with many late Romantic era composers (Mahler especially, as a horn player should be). For example, the part where everything seems to fall apart and die down was meant to be similar to Tchaik's Romeo and Juliet scene where Tybalt is mortally wounded.

I will admit it was quite hard deciding what was over the top and what wasn't, especially because I wanted to use everything an orchestra had to offer. But, I still think I can work on those softer moments, choosing when is best to double up parts and when is best to leave the music to fewer musicians and achieve the same results. I think the score would reveal that many instruments are often playing at the same time, and while it blends pretty well in this mp3, my worry would be how it sounds with a real orchestra. As you stated with heavy distortion, a lot can be hidden here and blended but I'm just worried that blending is allowing me to make some rookie mistakes and get away with it.

Regarding the motifs, I was definitely working with "shorter" melodies that would disappear and reappear at various little points like "Where's Waldo". The trumpet bit at the beginning, for example, is meant to represent the King himself, although I agree it could be longer or more fleshed out to fully capture the "might" of the scene. The bassoon/oboe combo in the softer sections was also the princess theme, if you were wondering. But again, can definitely be made more apparent.

Thank you again, and I'll see with later work what I can do to improve!

Hi @kaiserkulp,

Since my bro @Thatguy v2.0 loves your piece so much, I can’t leave this one out!

The opening theme is so gorgeous, and those harmonies created by the set 025 which is the opening motive makes it more grandiose! 

I love the C minor theme in 2:29. The chimes are so charming like the finale of the Symphonie Fantastique.. The creation of drama here is so well handled. You really know how to create tension by adding instruments and filling up the rest of the music. The polyrhythm in section C is great too! In the outburst of b.129 I feel like I’m listening to Mahler’s 6th the major 3rd immediately denied by a minor third. 

I really love section G! A really great funeral march! It’s so lovely to have a bassoon solo here, and it matches so well with the overall mood here. I however really don’t expect the piece to end on a low mood, I imagine the opening gorgeous passage will return and bring the music to a high end! I feel like you end the piece in a midpoint anticlimax that will bring all the way back to a climax. But I like how you bring the opening motive Bb Eb F at the end to G C D to signify the defeat of the king? I like that, but I think you could use more motives linkage , given how great you shape the colours and create drama smoothly without abruption! I think you really could use more of that particularly King motive to signify his fall in midway of the music!

Thx for your grand introduction to our forum! Feel free to listen to pieces here by other talented composers!

Henry