"Two dark preludes"

I'm stil not done with my orchestrations, I will probably come to this section a bunch of times this year haha.

What do you think? I believe I managed to portray a dark aura.

I still don't know how to assign dynamics to the instruments, any advice for that so I don't have to rely on "mp" and "ppp" so much?

The orchestration is really flavorful and colorful and excellent use of dynamics
 

Very moving and touching stuff. I like your process of orchestrating piano works of yours... has that helped reinvigorate your passion? Lovely music

10 hours ago, Ivan1791 said:

I still don't know how to assign dynamics to the instruments, any advice for that so I don't have to rely on "mp" and "ppp" so much?

Not sure what you mean. Do you mean techniques for different dynamics? Having access to players might help you see your music from a different angle, as they'd probably know techniques that could be used if you described what you were looking for. Simply writing expressivo for a player with their given dynamics would go a long way too, but maybe just not for playback with synthetic sounds. 

13 hours ago, Fruit hunter said:

The orchestration is really flavorful and colorful and excellent use of dynamics
 

 

Thank you very much! I think I might have overdone dynamics but it's better than my past try. 🙂

12 hours ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

Very moving and touching stuff. I like your process of orchestrating piano works of yours... has that helped reinvigorate your passion? Lovely music

Not sure what you mean. Do you mean techniques for different dynamics? Having access to players might help you see your music from a different angle, as they'd probably know techniques that could be used if you described what you were looking for. Simply writing expressivo for a player with their given dynamics would go a long way too, but maybe just not for playback with synthetic sounds. 

 

Yes, it is something that has sparked a new flame in me. Now when I listen to orchestral music I pay attention to new details and it inspires me to write music with a more orchestral language, at least more polyphonic.

That's a good idea. Although I was referring more to the use of dynamics. I have heard "ppp" should be used scarcely and "mp" shouldn't be overused either. But in piano they are not too uncommon, so I need to change the mindset regarding dynamics.

My experience with dynamics using Finale is that you have to be very fussy with markings to get a good performance.

   Musicians know how to work a passage intuitively.    P, MP, F might often be more than enough indication..

   But with notation, the computer does only EXACTLY what you tell it.  Each dynamic makring is tied with a specific, unchanging volume level.  I use ppp through ff to get a sound I like.  I spend a LOT of time on this.

   The VST sound set has some impact as well.  Baseline volume, and how volume is registered with the samples is also a factor.

      You would need to make a PERFORMANCE score for HUMANS if you wanted to workshop/ or get a piece performed.

On 1/29/2025 at 9:02 PM, Rich said:

My experience with dynamics using Finale is that you have to be very fussy with markings to get a good performance.

 

   Musicians know how to work a passage intuitively.    P, MP, F might often be more than enough indication..

   But with notation, the computer does only EXACTLY what you tell it.  Each dynamic makring is tied with a specific, unchanging volume level.  I use ppp through ff to get a sound I like.  I spend a LOT of time on this.

   The VST sound set has some impact as well.  Baseline volume, and how volume is registered with the samples is also a factor.

 

      You would need to make a PERFORMANCE score for HUMANS if you wanted to workshop/ or get a piece performed.

 

Luckily in musescore you can place a dynamic and then change the letters or just place two dynamics and deactivate one and make the good one invisible.

I hope this piece gets performed someday by some lucky chance, I want to know how convincing some of my choices would sound in real life. 

Hi @Ivan1791!

I think this writing of yours, especially the 2nd Prelude is very Wagnerian.  The 2nd Prelude's first phrase reminds of Wagner's first melodic phrase before the harmony comes in in the Prelude to Tristan & Isolde (at least to me).  Your playing of the piano and orchestration are both very expressive and fit nicely into the neo-romantic tradition.  They are in fact both very dark indeed, with some occasional parting of the clouds to let the sunlight shine through.  Thanks for sharing!

Also, I'm sure the reviewers of your music, as well as myself would really appreciate it if you gave them a ❤️ or a 🏆 for the reputation points that corroborate our community!  I think it fosters a good and communicative little musical society that we have here.  Thank you!

Awesome work my friend. 

id love to see this fleshed out into a suite of some sort

to touch on the dynamics question, the skill with delegating dynamics can be quite intimidating especially in pieces like this that demand expressiveness and have a very specific set of dynamic needs that may have to be followed strictly by an ensemble. 
 

typically what I do is I go to the voices of a given section that need to be heard over the rest of the group, or, need to stick out more than the rest of the group, and depending on the context of the section, I will never put their markings anywhere below mf. Every other voice, which would be low registers (bass, tuba, cont. bass., bass clar. Etc….) would be at a comfortable mp or p, and the 5ths and 3rds (maybe 7ths depending on your chord structure) would be at p or pp, as each degree of the chord is more than likely doubled, tripled, or quadrupled by other instruments and will naturally ring out loud enough to be heard, while also allowing the melodic line to stick out much further, as higher pitches are caught by the human ear much more clearly than lower or mid register pitches would be. 
 

however, I say all that without any contextual examples at this current moment. I’m typing this out on my phone during a little bit of my spare time so can’t get *too* in depth about it, but for a more simplistic answer, just start your playback, and allow your own expertise to tell you what instruments/tones/rhythms are the most important in each given section of the composition. For pieces of this mood, you’ll likely find yourself feeling the need to use decresc. And cresc. Markings very very frequently, and that’s okay! If a player were to read it, they’d be more than capable of performing with a ton of hairpins just fine. As a former trumpeter, I actually loved varied dynamics for more legato pieces, especially while I played as first trumpet, and there was a gorgeous, bold, ringing trumpet solo during a slow moving part of a piece where as the soloist, my part was written out to be in the spotlight. 😂 looooved those moments so much. Even had a piece that was for military remembrance that we played at my local all county clinic band concert. Suggested to the director that I felt that the piece almost NEEDED a trumpet solo in the beginning and boy oh boy, he loved that idea and so did the rest of the band. 
 

snare drum came in, playing a very simplistic but military-esc rudimentary line, then came to a halt, and in a silent auditorium, I played what almost sounded reminiscent of the “Taps” Bugle call, except it was just the main Melody of the piece heard throughout. I got a video of that somewhere… lol but there was hairpins from start to finish on that solo part we wrote out for me to play. Without any other instruments in that case, p < mf > pp on the soloist part can be heard all the way in the back of the room, with little effort.
 

the players will know how to handle what you write. Dynamics aren’t a set dB level. They’re an “attitude” is what I like to say. Players will naturally adjust their dynamic volume according to the sound within the concert arch. In notation software they aren’t treated that way, but there are ways to manipulate the program to have playback do what you intend regardless of dynamic markings. Just gotta learn your program.  
 

EDIT: I found the recording! lol can’t add video media, so I just converted it to mp3. (Peep the little kid in the audience yelling “is that a trumpet?!” Right as soon as I got done playing 😂😂😂) also, not my best effort here, as we had been rehearsing 5 pieces of music non-stop over the course of 2 days, start to finish, just for that performance. Your boy was pretty pooped. 

On 3/10/2025 at 4:21 AM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Hi @Ivan1791!

I think this writing of yours, especially the 2nd Prelude is very Wagnerian.  The 2nd Prelude's first phrase reminds of Wagner's first melodic phrase before the harmony comes in in the Prelude to Tristan & Isolde (at least to me).  Your playing of the piano and orchestration are both very expressive and fit nicely into the neo-romantic tradition.  They are in fact both very dark indeed, with some occasional parting of the clouds to let the sunlight shine through.  Thanks for sharing!

Also, I'm sure the reviewers of your music, as well as myself would really appreciate it if you gave them a ❤️ or a 🏆 for the reputation points that corroborate our community!  I think it fosters a good and communicative little musical society that we have here.  Thank you!

 

Thank you very much Peter! I'm glad to hear you think I did a good job in this work, it didn't get much views on YouTube. Also yes, a friend of mine pointed out the wagnerian vibes in some moments. 🙂

You are right, thank you for reminding me. I will try to react more to the feedback comments I get. I would like to comment on other people's music too, but I am still struggling with mental illness and I can barely keep my DMs in place.

@UncleRed99

Thank you so much for your detailed feedback on the dynamic and sound balance, you give some very interesting points I will reflect on! I might do some small experiments related to the relative volume of each degree of a chord.

Also I appreciate you sharing your personal experience. 🙂 Nice playing in the solo. 😁 I only played in a band once, but I never rehearsed that much, it must be exhausting oof.

On 3/29/2025 at 12:21 PM, Ivan1791 said:

@UncleRed99

Thank you so much for your detailed feedback on the dynamic and sound balance, you give some very interesting points I will reflect on! I might do some small experiments related to the relative volume of each degree of a chord.

Also I appreciate you sharing your personal experience. 🙂 Nice playing in the solo. 😁 I only played in a band once, but I never rehearsed that much, it must be exhausting oof.

 

It definitely could be. Depending on the amount of time you have for rehearsal prior to performance. Most of the time I was on a time constraint with the ensembles I performed with, resulting in 4-5 hour sessions, with 1 hour break, then back to it, twice a day for 3-4 days. It can definitely be hectic lol