"Lamentation" for Orchestra, by Kyle Hilton (Updated score / Repost for re-review)

Revisited this piece, after a few weeks off of messing with it. That always seems to give me a fresh perspective on things I've written, and helps me to identify areas where improvement could be made. I feel confident in saying that if I were to forget this piece, and return to it again, that I'd be happy with how it is in it's current state. As always, if there are any areas where someone with more expertise than I have is able to identify an issue or mistake, I'm all ears for the feedback! 🙂 Thanks, and I hope you all enjoy my little heartfelt piece of music

Lamentation_-_Kyle_Hilton_UPDATED_with_Spitfire_Labs_VST3_Audio (4).pdf

Hello Kyle,

Happy new year to you and sorry for the late reply, this piece is not bad at all especially for the style it's written in; it has a really modern and minimalist feel to it, not unlike Hans Zimmer's scores. You bring a lot of rhythmic interest to the work with the overlaying of different parts, and the orchestration sounds quite cinematic(though there are a few odd bits with the sax). My only concern is that the entire work feels quite uniform in it's atmosphere. Though there are some moments where you bring light into the work(at 3:43 for example), I believe you could feature a contrasting section which truly celebrates the life of the individual. Maybe developing a melody in the major key could help. 

Anyways, this would fit great in a end-of-the-world type soundtrack, and I could already picture Nicholas Cage starring in it. Keep me posted if you ever do a collab, I'd be very curious to hear this work featured in a short film.

3 hours ago, Mooravioli said:

Hello Kyle,

Happy new year to you and sorry for the late reply, this piece is not bad at all especially for the style it's written in; it has a really modern and minimalist feel to it, not unlike Hans Zimmer's scores. You bring a lot of rhythmic interest to the work with the overlaying of different parts, and the orchestration sounds quite cinematic(though there are a few odd bits with the sax). My only concern is that the entire work feels quite uniform in it's atmosphere. Though there are some moments where you bring light into the work(at 3:43 for example), I believe you could feature a contrasting section which truly celebrates the life of the individual. Maybe developing a melody in the major key could help. 

Anyways, this would fit great in a end-of-the-world type soundtrack, and I could already picture Nicholas Cage starring in it. Keep me posted if you ever do a collab, I'd be very curious to hear this work featured in a short film.

 

Man, having someone be excited to collaborate with me would be a dream-come-true! lol 

I don't have as many connections as I used to have, back when I was a musician full time. I've clearly abandoned that career path, and haven't spoken to many of the individuals that I knew who "knew a guy" since then. (it's been 7 years). 
Although, one of my old band directors, who has since obtained his Masters Degree, stated that he would like to try to help me with getting an ensemble together to play this piece, in addition to my other piece "The Long Arctic Midnight". I told em' he'd have to find some trumpeters who could perform it for me, because I picked up my horn the other day and realized that my range is significantly diminished, as well as my endurance. 7 years really does a number on you I suppose. 

But that's about where its at, currently. I'd love to either have it recorded, or, receive a request to write for a B - grade film score, or, for another project someone is working on. I believe the sounds from MuseScore mixed with Spitfire VST3 (used in the recording above), are able to allow digital music to "come to life" so to speak, in a good enough way where It would actually be feasible to use it in those contexts. 

I've heard Konkact is also quite good at emulating real orchestral sounds, but it is pricey as you might expect. Though, have a listen to Blake Robinson's Synthetic Orchestra. It is very impressive how "real" synthetic instruments can sound nowadays.

Hope you find players sooner or later for your piece, then you'll be able to get a nice live recording instead. 

Hi @UncleRed99,

I must have said the opening violin melody really touches me! I love your gradual brigtening of the piece by inviting more and more instruments to join to create a great aura for the piece. The piece sounds very broad to me with a lot of space with your accompaniment. 

The horn melody in b.37 is absolutely amazing, as well as the decreasing of volume after it. I love the dissonance you use so much in the piece which adds much flavour to the music.

Starting from section F all the G naturals would be F double sharps since it enters G sharp minor. I love the polyrhythms you use here which makes the texture thicker and fuller! Overall you really have great orchestration skill which portrays the lamentation! I have made a lamentoso myself but it's for String Sextet so it's completely different stuff LoL!

Thx for sharing! I love this very much!

Henry

On 1/6/2025 at 9:28 PM, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Hi @UncleRed99,

I must have said the opening violin melody really touches me! I love your gradual brigtening of the piece by inviting more and more instruments to join to create a great aura for the piece. The piece sounds very broad to me with a lot of space with your accompaniment. 

The horn melody in b.37 is absolutely amazing, as well as the decreasing of volume after it. I love the dissonance you use so much in the piece which adds much flavour to the music.

Starting from section F all the G naturals would be F double sharps since it enters G sharp minor. I love the polyrhythms you use here which makes the texture thicker and fuller! Overall you really have great orchestration skill which portrays the lamentation! I have made a lamentoso myself but it's for String Sextet so it's completely different stuff LoL!

Thx for sharing! I love this very much!

Henry

 

Oooh, I'd love to see that Sextet! 

I appreciate the time you took to review this piece, and am elated to hear the detailed feedback on my overall construction of the score. It was definitely something of a "love child" of mine. I attempted to portray my personal emotional journey that I had the misfortune to experience a few years ago, of which, I am still coming out of. I'm glad to have been able to translate it onto the pages, in this one. The kindness, and the correction with my use of accidentals, is appreciated. 

Though, if you haven't already noticed, I have a hard time with comprehension when it comes to what accidentals would be "correct" to use with the context of the mode... 

However, to play it safe, I've always tried to avoid the double flat & double sharp, because of my time as a musician, regardless of the mode / key signature of any piece I performed, I rarely ever encountered the double flat or double sharp accidental during sight-reading or rehearsal/performance of repertoire. But I'm okay with being corrected on it, since I don't have that training to really 100% comprehend the difference in using double sharp / natural / double flat / flat... I've always figured since, for example, G Natural and F Double Sharp are in-harmonic notes, that it wouldn't matter, in terms of how the piece would be played, ultimately. 

If you're alright with it, I'd love a lesson in lame-man's terms on how to correctly use accidentals in a given mode 🙂 

4 hours ago, UncleRed99 said:

Oooh, I'd love to see that Sextet! 

Here it's the Lamentoso!

Henry

Good stuff man, the sound quality of your music is superb. 

I peered through the score, and the only thing I could find to give feedback on is your piano writing. I didn't always seem very idiomatic to the instrument. For instance, you tend to favor ultra wide chords sometimes that won't sound like how they're written. For example, the pianist would have to roll the LH chords in bars 1 and 4. Is that what you're going for? I'd rewrite the voicings, or if you like them the way they are, roll the chords. You denote arpeggios in other places, so I'd do it there also. 

I'd use slurs too. Yeah, I know you show pedal markings, but it's still a good idea to write in the slurs for how you want it played. 

I'm excited for you with the possibility of a performance (that's happening, right?). Keep us updated, and hopefully I stop by this site and see an update from you with a live recording. Regardless of that, kudos on your effort of continuing to better this piece with peer review. That's what this place is for 🙂 

Looking forward to future music from you, and thanks for re-re-sharing your music 

On 1/12/2025 at 7:57 PM, Thatguy v2.0 said:

Good stuff man, the sound quality of your music is superb. 

I peered through the score, and the only thing I could find to give feedback on is your piano writing. I didn't always seem very idiomatic to the instrument. For instance, you tend to favor ultra wide chords sometimes that won't sound like how they're written. For example, the pianist would have to roll the LH chords in bars 1 and 4. Is that what you're going for? I'd rewrite the voicings, or if you like them the way they are, roll the chords. You denote arpeggios in other places, so I'd do it there also. 

I'd use slurs too. Yeah, I know you show pedal markings, but it's still a good idea to write in the slurs for how you want it played. 

I'm excited for you with the possibility of a performance (that's happening, right?). Keep us updated, and hopefully I stop by this site and see an update from you with a live recording. Regardless of that, kudos on your effort of continuing to better this piece with peer review. That's what this place is for 🙂 

Looking forward to future music from you, and thanks for re-re-sharing your music 

 

I appreciate the kind words, and the constructive feedback! 

I didn't notice that I forgot to use an arpeggio for those chords! That was the intent. 

And you're right about the slurs. I just tend to get lazy time to time, and neglect to go back through, highlight the sections of notes, and press "s" lol (It sounds so easy, but my ADHD brain hates the thought of it because its so boring, to me. I'll probably make sure to do it if/when a performance is confirmed, as I go through to cleanup engraving for each individual part) 

And I'm glad that the playback sound quality is superb to you 🙂
 I used MuseScore's Muse Sounds, paired with changing a few of the instruments to Spitfire's LABS VST3 sounds, and I used panning & Muse ProEQ / Compression for a few individual parts, and on the Master track for mastering the sound. There's also some hidden staves in there, due to my french horns mostly playing through the score with LABS VST3 F Horn, and a secondary hidden staff for Horn 1 & 3, that uses MuseSounds in order to make the Solo section, and the last section stand out loudly. 

Strings also had a hidden staff for Violin and Viola for a couple of places as well, due to the articulation-abilities of the VST3 playback lacking some of the adaptability that Muse has. 

On 1/12/2025 at 6:46 PM, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Here it's the Lamentoso!

Henry

 

I'll come back to this, later on tonight, when I make it back from fixin' this old pathfinder for a client of mine! 

I'm still, unfortunately, a full time mechanic. Gotta make that bread 

@Thatguy v2.0 @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu Y'all know what I just realized... 
This isnt even the latest version of this score... I changed it to E minor, and did some magical things with the playback. 

Let me fix that, quick. 😅