Story That Should Never Be Told - 5 Movement Symphony

This is a piece I've been working on for a little over a year at this point. Originally intended as a suite, it developed into a symphony, with themes that are varied throughout the entire piece. It is the longest, most complex, most varied piece I have written. I am quite proud of it.

This piece intends to follow the life of someone who commits a terrible act. Movement 1 is Idolization, the character experiences something that they love, and attempts to reach this idea again and again, but fails. So movement 2 is the Manic continuation of this feeling but now with stronger feelings, and worse intentions. Movement 3 is when the character decides to commit to this terrible act. Movement 4 is the action of committing the act. Movement 5 is the end of the terrible act, and our character, leaving us with nothing. When I wrote this, I was following along with someone in particular, but now I see, it could be many stories, which is why I've kept it general. Enjoy this piece.

00:00 Movement 1
11:16 Movement 2
16:58 Movement 3
27:30 Movement 4
36:54 Movement 5

I've only listened to the first movement so far. Enjoyed it very much.
It must've taken a lot of effort to compose!
Love the evocative opening theme, and the alternating time signatures work well.

I like the way you sometimes use a canon rippling through the orchestra to create interesting and complex textures. 

Nice change of mood at M.

It's good you've given the bassoonists a lot of material to work with. (I've tried to do that in some of my pieces, as I think it's an underused instrument.)

Will have to check out the rest when I have time.

Thanks for posting,

Alex

47 minutes ago, Alex Weidmann said:

I've only listened to the first movement so far. Enjoyed it very much.
It must've taken a lot of effort to compose!
Love the evocative opening theme, and the alternating time signatures work well.

I like the way you sometimes use a canon rippling through the orchestra to create interesting and complex textures. 

Nice change of mood at M.

It's good you've given the bassoonists a lot of material to work with. (I've tried to do that in some of my pieces, as I think it's an underused instrument.)

Will have to check out the rest when I have time.

Thanks for posting,

Alex

 

Thank you Alex,

Indeed this took a long time. I started it nearly 2 years ago and composed quite on and off over that time. I appreciate your specific feedback, and I agree, bassoons are awesome! I had a reading session with some woodwinds recently and the bassoon really struck me, especially in the upper register, so I thought I would apply that, and you should see that idea in the last movement as well. 

Have listened to the whole work now.

The 2nd movement makes great use of percussion, with splashes of colour from different parts of the orchestra.

Loved the sorrowful melody on the oboe where it first appears in the 3rd movement.
The build up of intensity after Bar 66 is really interesting, then it coalesces into an unexpectedly happy resolution.
N.B. I'm told the triangular fermata is not generally used in professional scores. Better to use a regular fermata, with short written above. 
Also when you have a fermata, it should be indicated across every part in the score, including those not playing. 

Nice use of fp effects in the strings during the 4th movement.
Liked the offbeat staccato notes in the celli. 
Great change of texture where you have the solitary flutes.
At bar 78, the 1/2 time signature looks rather odd. May be better to use 2/4 instead, so the conductor keeps beating at the same rate. 
Bar 22 should have a full bar rest in the timpani. 
Bar 145 has some double minim rests, where they really should be full bar rests.

Nice rhythmic variation in the 5th movement, combined with unexpected harmonic progressions. 
I like how you've given everyone something interesting to play here.
The mournful ending is evocative and delicate. 

Overall fluent use of orchestral textures and colours, with effective build up and release of tension. 

You seem to have mastered all the tricks on how to make MuseScore sound realistic.
Are you using the standard MuseSounds libraries? 

Do you expect a real orchestra to play this at some stage?

9 minutes ago, Alex Weidmann said:

Have listened to the whole work now.

The 2nd movement makes great use of percussion, with splashes of colour from different parts of the orchestra.

Loved the sorrowful melody on the oboe where it first appears in the 3rd movement.
The build up of intensity after Bar 66 is really interesting, then it coalesces into an unexpectedly happy resolution.
N.B. I'm told the triangular fermata is not generally used in professional scores. Better to use a regular fermata, with short written above. 
Also when you have a fermata, it should be indicated across every part in the score, including those not playing. 

Nice use of fp effects in the strings during the 4th movement.
Liked the offbeat staccato notes in the celli. 
Great change of texture where you have the solitary flutes.
At bar 78, the 1/2 time signature looks rather odd. May be better to use 2/4 instead, so the conductor keeps beating at the same rate. 
Bar 22 should have a full bar rest in the timpani. 
Bar 145 has some double minim rests, where they really should be full bar rests.

Nice rhythmic variation in the 5th movement, combined with unexpected harmonic progressions. 
I like how you've given everyone something interesting to play here.
The mournful ending is evocative and delicate. 

Overall fluent use of orchestral textures and colours, with effective build up and release of tension. 

You seem to have mastered all the tricks on how to make MuseScore sound realistic.
Are you using the standard MuseSounds libraries? 

Do you expect a real orchestra to play this at some stage?

 

I can tell you spent a good bit of time and effort listening and thinking about my piece, and that means alot so thank you for that. I appreciate the specificity of your feedback, especially the notes about fermatas and other formatting suggestions. You feedback is very much respected.

As for musescore, one day I realized the sound libraries were on sale, so having just had my paycheck I decided to get “Berlin woodwinds” and “berlin brass” “Cine Percussion” as well as “Cine Strings”. I find that many instruments are out of balance with each other in default musescore. And because of the limited sound editing options (velocity values don’t work with muse score sounds) you have to use dynamics to change volume (rather than some softwares like dorico where you can just make an instrument louder in certain parts of music). 

These were a game changer, and the $50 i spent on these libraries is a very good in between from Musescore sounds to the nearly $1000 needed for Dorico+Noteperfomer+VSTs. 

I’m not currently reaching out to any orchestras to perform this, I’ve been looking at some compettions to submit a movement or two but nothing has deadlines soon so I’d rather see what new things I can write. My current goals are to improve until I am satisfied I can write music without limitations (currently my knowledge of harmony and textures feels limited) Once I spend some more time dedicated to improving in these areas, I’ll feel comfortable spending the time advocating for myself to orchestras. I am still very proud of this work, it is many times better than my previous suite I wrote a few months ago. 

I am taking composition classes this year and next so we will see where those can take me, especially with the focus on chamber works.