Symphony in d minor

After a lot of going back and forth on whether or not to post this here, I’ve finally decided that my true first symphony is ready to have other people’s ears on it! (As opposed to the “symphony” in e minor that I posted here a number of years ago, which I now regard as number zero and don’t allow anyone to look at. 😉)

This piece originated last october as a string quartet, and as I worked on the finale of the piece, I realized that rather than writing a chamber piece I was actually writing a large scale orchestral work. I finished it toward the end of this past July.

I hope you enjoy!

Hello

I'm not going to give you details of concrete analysis of anything because I have dedicated myself to listen and enjoy.
And I loved it. I haven't had a dull moment at all. I think it has some lyrical parts and some very intense parts. As well as a lot of harmonic and textural richness, etc...
Congratulations.

On 10/16/2024 at 12:32 PM, Luis Hernández said:

Hello

I'm not going to give you details of concrete analysis of anything because I have dedicated myself to listen and enjoy.
And I loved it. I haven't had a dull moment at all. I think it has some lyrical parts and some very intense parts. As well as a lot of harmonic and textural richness, etc...
Congratulations.

 

Thank you for taking the time to listen and leave a comment!  :-)

Congratulations on completing such an epic and expansive work!

I wonder why you chose to used breves (double whole notes)? I don't think these have been in common use for several hundred years, and some people may not realise what they mean. (That said, I have seen them used by Colin Matthews in his orchestrations of Debussy's Preludes.)

You could perhaps have used semibreves instead, at half the tempo. 

In your strings, you have div. followed by tutti; but I think the correct way to cancel div. is with unis. (Tutti is used to cancel a solo, or 2 soli indication.) 

I'm really nitpicking here: so feel free to ignore me!

18 hours ago, Alex Weidmann said:

I wonder why you chose to used breves (double whole notes)? I don't think these have been in common use for several hundred years, and some people may not realise what they mean. (That said, I have seen them used by Colin Matthews in his orchestrations of Debussy's Preludes.)

It’s interesting you brought this up. In the original quartet version of this piece they are half notes (or semibreves) at half the tempo, but they were too difficult to count and always sounded rushed. One of the fascinating things I’ve started to notice now that I’ve had performances of some of my music is that notation can have a profound effect on how performers interpret sheet music. As such, I chose to put it in breves for a more expansive quality.

21 hours ago, Alex Weidmann said:

In your strings, you have div. followed by tutti; but I think the correct way to cancel div. is with unis. (Tutti is used to cancel a solo, or 2 soli indication.) 

As for the string tutti/unis. issue, I’ve heard it go either way and honestly don’t care terribly about that detail. It’s easy enough to fix, so if someone convinces me strongly enough in the future I may change it.

What did you think of the music in and of itself?

Musically it feels very episodic, with moments of high drama, and some vivid tone colours.

The first movement brought to mind a battle on the high seas, perhaps due to its cinematic tropes.

It starts with a sombre air of tragedy, then becomes more expansive, and morphs into a sort of action adventure movie soundtrack. I found the sudden changes in dynamics quite effective and evocative.

It's well orchestrated (better than anything I could do), and I enjoyed your use of sul tasto, Bartok pizzicato, and handstopping in the horns. All these things add more colours and textures to the orchestra. 

Overall a well heard piece.