Wind Quartet in F

Thought I'd share this little rondo I wrote in a few minutes, a couple months ago. The dynamics and articulation could be refined more but ehh I can't be bothered. Feedback is welcome, though

Hi @user011235 and welcome to the forum!  I like your username!  LoL

Like I said in the discord, great piece!  With lots of thematic unity and charm that is brought out even more by repeating this little charming melodic snippet multiple times after it is first heard in the oboe:    That is probably my favorite part of the piece, melodically speaking.  I do perceive some rhythmic confusion in the piece where it isn't clear anymore where the downbeat is from bar 62 through 78.  The Flute, Oboe and Clarinet all have a figure which seems to emphasize beat 2 as if that's the downbeat and for the duration of those measures that's how I hear that fragment.  Also, like I said in the discord, it would be great to hear this expanded by including a contrasting section in a minor key.  I will also tag @Markus Boyd because he also frequently writes pieces for this kind of small wind ensemble in this kind of classical style and I'm sure he'd be interested in taking a look at your piece.  Thanks for sharing and I hope to hear more of your music as well as hope for your participation and input in the rest of the forum!

31 minutes ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Hi @user011235 and welcome to the forum!  I like your username!  LoL

Like I said in the discord, great piece!  With lots of thematic unity and charm that is brought out even more by repeating this little charming melodic snippet multiple times after it is first heard in the oboe:    That is probably my favorite part of the piece, melodically speaking.  I do perceive some rhythmic confusion in the piece where it isn't clear anymore where the downbeat is from bar 62 through 78.  The Flute, Oboe and Clarinet all have a figure which seems to emphasize beat 2 as if that's the downbeat and for the duration of those measures that's how I hear that fragment.  Also, like I said in the discord, it would be great to hear this expanded by including a contrasting section in a minor key.  I will also tag @Markus Boyd because he also frequently writes pieces for this kind of small wind ensemble in this kind of classical style and I'm sure he'd be interested in taking a look at your piece.  Thanks for sharing and I hope to hear more of your music as well as hope for your participation and input in the rest of the forum!

 

I'm glad someone gets my username 😁

Thanks for the review and your kind words! And if I end up expanding the piece I'll also try to clarify m. 62-78 as you stated

19 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Hi @user011235 and welcome to the forum!  I like your username!  LoL

Like I said in the discord, great piece!  With lots of thematic unity and charm that is brought out even more by repeating this little charming melodic snippet multiple times after it is first heard in the oboe:    That is probably my favorite part of the piece, melodically speaking.  I do perceive some rhythmic confusion in the piece where it isn't clear anymore where the downbeat is from bar 62 through 78.  The Flute, Oboe and Clarinet all have a figure which seems to emphasize beat 2 as if that's the downbeat and for the duration of those measures that's how I hear that fragment.  Also, like I said in the discord, it would be great to hear this expanded by including a contrasting section in a minor key.  I will also tag @Markus Boyd because he also frequently writes pieces for this kind of small wind ensemble in this kind of classical style and I'm sure he'd be interested in taking a look at your piece.  Thanks for sharing and I hope to hear more of your music as well as hope for your participation and input in the rest of the forum!

 

Thanks for copying me in to this post. 
I think the piece has much promise, although there are several areas that need tidying up. 
For example, the opening bar which is blank need not be there; also, there is a time signature change indicated in bar 92 to 3/4 which is unnecessary as nothing is changing. 

As for development, the piece is 114 bars long and would benefit from some tonal variety. Consider how you can manipulate our emotions better...

However the motivic development is generally sound. I notice you use irregular phrasing at times, notably for the opening theme which is a little usual, particularly considering regular phrasing then follows. 

One other thing you should consider is increasing the independence of each part. There is very little counterpoint. 

Overall, it is a good effort considering you spent only a "few minutes" on it; although a little more time could be spent on increasing its sophistication. Please feel free to ask any specific questions 🙂

Hi @user011235,

I like the joyful attmosphere here! One thing I like most is you really make use of all four instruments in a chamber setting. They have their melodic parts and interactions. Apart from what @Markus Boyd suggests, I think you should include modulation in the piece when the piece is around 2 minutes long! It's amazing to write this in a few minutes though haha.

Thx for sharing!

Sextet

Thanks @Markus Boyd and @Finish the Sextet for the reviews! Markus, looking at your page you're well versed in galant music, my favorite! I dont always adhere fully to the style (nor have i studied it nearly as extensively as i'd like) but it's a huge influence on my writing and its tenets resonate strongly with my own philosophy on music.

@PeterthePapercomPoser brought up tonal variety and the possibility of a contrasting section as well; do you guys really think it needs it? The whole piece feels like a single thought, I wonder if sticking a modulation or minor section in there would disrupt that. I wouldnt even consider it a proper piece, more of an interlude. I know the piece is over 100 measures long, but it's just so fast.

@Markus Boyd I replaced the pdf attachment, fixing the mentioned errors as well as two redundant dynamic markings. The strange phrasing at the beginning is because the first two bars are a pickup/intro - would a double barline after m.2 make that clearer? Also, I'm uncertain what you mean by increasing the independence of each instrument - my goal here was for each instrument to take the melody in a different section of the rondo.

makes sense… I always struggle to add an anacrusis in musescore… its unnecessarily complicated! 
 

By independence I mean doing something more interesting than simply providing harmonic support. There are moments when you do have some contrary motion but this could be more refined. When I write for wind instruments, I like to think of each instrument as individual characters in a story that each not only have something unique to say, but also something interesting to say to each other. In a sense, good writing should evoke an intriguing story and which induces an array of relatable emotion. This is also why it it’s important to modulate to, because remaining in a single key will limit your means to convey that to your audience. 

Wind instruments are great for storytelling for the unique characterful sound of each instrument. One other point is that some of your motifs evoke several galant schema but which just need some tweaking to the voice leading to make it more compelling. It suggests you listen widely to galant music and know what patterns you’d like to apply, but just needs some guidance to refine. I will show you exactly what I mean when I have some more time on my hands next week. 

12 hours ago, Markus Boyd said:

I will show you exactly what I mean when I have some more time on my hands next week. 

 

That would be great, thank you!

I promised I would have a little look at your piece in detail. So here goes...

 I didn't wish to interfere with your melodic writing so have focused on providing input regarding voice leading principles. Let's look at the opening motif...

(The numbers I have entered above the notes below indicate their scale degree and this useful for voice leading analysis).

A) In this opening, the bass features scale degrees 1-7-1. This pattern is typically used to accommodated a higher voice ascending from 1-2-3 respectively, while other voices may descend from 3-2-1 or maintain a pedal on scale degree 5. 

The melodic line in this example (oboe) emphasizes scale degrees 3-2-3, which is a non-standard solution on the basis that this would lead to consecutive with 3-2-1 part as well as a possible ascending (1-2-3) line. It would make more sense to close the melodic line on scale 1 (F natural) to to accommodate the contrary motion that makes this opening gambit effective. Notice that the voice leading for your clarinet line is not smooth as a result of this configuration. In these situations, it is desirable to facilitate stepwise motion between the individual parts opposed to leaping about; if you are leaping around excessively, it suggests the voice leading could be improved. Finally, the bass returning to F in bar 3 doesn't need to drop to the lower octave, and the flute part can remain on scale degree 5 due to the doubling of the third being unnecessary. 

Here is how the voice leading could be realized, which as you can see consists of oblique, contrary and parallel motion with no consecutive 5ths/8ves

B)

The other example I want to use is the nice melodic line from bar 11. It is quite beautiful. However, the other parts are a bit muddled. Let's isolate this part with the bass alone to see what's going on... 

In several places the bass part clashes with the melodic line, especially at the end cadence. There are also consecutive octaves in one or two places. I have realized an alternative bass for you to have a look at and compare. Note that I look for opportunities for contrary motion wherever possible, while retaining the strength of the chord that is being realized (for example, avoiding doubling the outer voices). It is good practice to avoid doubling the bass and main melodic line in the interest of maintaining independence. You can double with inner, supportive parts more freely.  

I have provided an audio of our respective realizations... 

Here is my realization

If I evaluated all aspects of your piece in this manner I'd spend a whole day doing so! So I will stop here. But I hope you can appreciate the importance of effective voice leading in your work. Always consider the outer voices in first instance to arrive at a coherent skeleton that can then be embellished by filling out the inner or supportive elements. 

If you have not yet read Robert Gjerdigen's 'Music in the Galant Style', I would recommend doing so for further voice leading instruction and especially if you like the galant style. This wikipedia page can provide an introduction to the analytical system that he advocates using (schema theory): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galant_Schemata

Feel free to ask any questions. 

@Markus Boyd I can't thank you enough for taking the time to write lay this all out so clearly and thoroughly. It's funny you mention Gjerdingen's book; just recently I was searching for it through the boxes from my recent move, but I couldn't find it! I shall redouble my efforts. In the meantime, this analysis was extremely helpful. I hope you'll continue to follow my musical journey here and look at and comment on my pieces when i post them!