Never Give Up (heroic orchestral piece of hope)

Hello everyone,

I’ve been going through some tough times lately, but recently I overcame some of them, which gave me inspiration to compose a rough draft of this piece for “semi-orchestra” (my personal term for a full/symphony orchestra with some instruments excluded).

I’m also happy that this is my first upload on this forum using Muse Sounds (tried it with a few of my other compositions, works really swell!).  However, their snare drum sound doesn’t seem to work, so I substituted it with my Garritan version instead.

Updates to this piece might come, so stay tuned, plus enjoy!(:

~Frank

Hi @Frank Normandy!

Great heroic piece!  The thing that really jumped out at me and that I felt I had to comment on asap is the harp part near the end - after 1:10.  Not only is the harp unrealistically loud, but from what I can tell, is playing chromatic glissandi up and down the register of the instrument.  Harp can't play chromatic notes in this way as it's conceived of and constructed as a heptatonic instrument which means it can only play modifications of a 7-note scale.  Because of this, this rendition sounds really unrealistic and unidiomatic.  The part where the harp starts its glissando is so dominated by the harp that it seems like the most important part of the piece at that point, which sounds comical (since it clearly shouldn't be the most important and salient feature of the music at that point).  I had to say something about that LoL.  Thanks for sharing.

Edit:  I thought you were familiar with the particulars of how harp should be used owing to your Dreamscapes contest entry?

Ok, I just uploaded the 2nd draft of my composition with the newly modified harp section near the end.  Now it plays triplet harmonies instead of the weird glissando runs.  Thanks @PeterthePapercomPoser for pointing out my mistake!

~Frank

44 minutes ago, Frank Normandy said:

Ok, I just uploaded the 2nd draft of my composition with the newly modified harp section near the end.  Now it plays triplet harmonies instead of the weird glissando runs.

The glissando can still be okay if you bring down the harp in the mixer (overall, now that I think about it, the harp seems to be too loud throughout the whole track, not just the end).  And you can switch the type of glissando that Musescore plays back from chromatic, to diatonic to portamento glissando.  If you just switched it to diatonic, and bring down the volume it could still have a really nice effect that I think you were going for.

A very nice and attractive piece.
I agree about the harp. In the orchestral forte it doesn't have much to contribute. It's not going to be heard.
That's why many late period Romantic composers who used very large orchestras included two harps. To increase the volume, but also to be able to make impossible chromatic games with only one harp.

The harp is a fascinating instrument, but you have to spend a little time to understand how it works if you want to write real things.