String Sextet in G-flat major (My best work in my life up to date!)

This is the final draft of my best work up to date in my life, String Sextet in G flat major. Posts of seperate movements have been posted before and I'm not gonna repeat it here. If you're interested in the music details, pls check the following YCs:

1st Mov:

2nd mov:

Here is the score and YT link of the work:

String Sextet in G flat major.pdf

Here is the structure of the work: (*denotes parts I love). The two movement structure is inspired by Mahler's 8th Symphony, so the second movement is proportionally much longer than 1st movement:

0:00 Opening credit and structure

0:11 1st Mov, 1st Part: Tao Primo (*3:35-3:47 nice bridge, **4:40-5:26 nice chromatics)

5:34 1st Mov, 2nd Part: Minore, a fugato, some little challenges (**9:40-10:10 nice retransition)

10:10 1st Mov, 3rd Part: Tao Return, a triple fugue and ending (falsely) (*11:45, **12:46 till the end)

14:48 2nd Mov, Lamentoso: Denial of Tao and realization of the realistic World full of tragedies. (*16:54, *19:11, ***19:44 sounds like my version of Bee's op.131 finale!, ***23:38-25:15 most emotional passage for me) 26:33

2nd Mov, Fugue a6: Objectification of emotions and reason. The most difficult passage for me to write technically but easiest emotionally. (**28:10-28:42 includes a 6 part stretto of 1st subject and a nice C minor modultation quoting my own Clarinet Quintet, ****30:07-31:27 a 6 part stretto of 2nd subject and one of my fav. section in the entire work with the very beautiful C minor passage, ***32:58-34:31 nice turn to pentatonics and nice disappointment)

35:03 2nd Mov, The Return. Start picking up the real self and soul and connect oneself with Tao, finding self equals to finding Tao. “I Six Books explain me and I explain Six Books (Lu Jiuyuan)”(*35:03-35:36 try to regain energy, **37:05,37:37,38:11,38:43 Nice color, **39:12 nice folk melody, ***39:15-40:15 Nice pizz.! And a very nice snap pizz! **** 40:46-41:46This passage leaves me in wonder. I don't know how do I compose this, **42:17-43:23 Nice appetizer fugato, ****43:24-44:53 Grand Climax!, ***44:54-45:41 Nice heterophonic passage which ignites my creative power for this movement, *****45:42 till end Pefect ending)

This work was first inspired by Chinese Philosopher Tang Chun I's Realm of Heavenly Morality in his monumental book, The Existence of Life and the World of Spirituality, in April 2022. I wanna felt and descibed it hence I finished the whole 1st mov. I thought it's enough, until I met with my dedicatee Johnson, my respected philosophy professor Dr. Tao and my friend Merina in April 2023, and I knew it's not enough since without pain Tao isn't possible at all. After some painful incidents in 2024, I am finally able to finish the whole piece in March 2025. For me this work is about Tao, Tao lost and Tao regained.

Since this would be the final post on the Sextet, please let me acknowledge people I would like to thank along my way of composing. This work is dedicated to and in memoriam Mr. Johnson Ho https://youtube.com/@beingintheworld?si=9Ch3hnk1UtluHTRF who sadly passed away in July 2024, and it's a regret the work couldn't be finished when he's alive. I would like to thank him for his great inspiration especially his postive way to deal with his illness. I would like to thank Dr. Tao, without his teaching esp. the one on the book Buddha-nature and Prajñā (?) did I realise the importance of pain and human suffering to morality and humanity, and probably won't have enough philosophical basis for this work. I would like to thank Mr. Vince Meyer @Thatguy v2.0, who acts as my musical Virgil, providing so many inspiration particularly in this piece's fugue and different motivic usage, and also make this great recording. Also, thank him for his encouragement when I kept saying I could never finish this piece. I would like to thank Dr. David Goza  http://www.youtube.com/@David_Goza⁨⁩ ,without his videos on YT I would never able to improve my own writing. I would like to thank Merina, Yvonne, Arjuna @expert21 and Peter @PeterthePapercomPoser for staying with me in my difficult times. I would like to thank Mike @chopin for his idea to go back to medieval texture in the Return. I would like to thank Luis @Luis Hernández which helps me solve the harmonic progression btw tritiones. I would also like to thank my ex-boss's mistreatment, as she teaches me a great lesson and the pain helps me reflect a lot which shows here. Also, thanks to everyone who has listen to this piece before and comments, as they help me a lot. Thank you Young Composers Forum and @chopin for giving me a chance to grow musically. Thank you for everyone who has commented on the work's parts before, I especially love the comments by @Fugax Contrapunctus @Giacomo925. Last but most importantly, I would like to thank my mum and family. Without their love I would probably fall much deeper and won't be able to finish this piece at all. Thank you!!

P.S. One interesting fact on the piece is that it stays longer in F sharp minor then G flat Major…..

Henry

At long last, your best work to date is not only complete, but fully realized in its flawless entirety.

More than 3 quarters of a whole hour, in which the magnificence of your music pours an entire saga, perhaps the single greatest musical achievement of this age of classical music, into our minds, hearts and souls like nothing else heard or listened to before.

The mastermind behind the enormity of this awe-inspiringly sublime task shall be remembered far beyond our days, in the far future where the calamities and uncertainty of the early 2020s will have long been forgotten, maybe for good, or perhaps replaced by newer perils and conflicts. We will never have a way of truly knowing, but the greatness of this outstandingly rich and profound sextet turned symphony, I say, shall never truly be forgotten, even should the misfortune of a thousand more disasters strike the Earth and sow the greatest miseries upon millions: for even the sadly lesser known among the greatest works of art have survived similar catastrophies and triumphantly resounded in perpetual echo through the halls of time retold: we still admire them and the wonderous capacity of their creators to produce such exquisite and intricate music to outlast even the world's direst woes; and most important of all, they exist beyond time and space: one copy can be lost and forsaken for decades and centuries at a time, but eventually one kind and gentle soul shall see through the dust in the cover to find the most utter perfection and beauty ever conceived. That much was taught by Mendelssohn when he resurrected Bach's monumental legacy from the most unfortunate, albeit gratefully temporary, of all the oblivions in the history of classical music, and brought the works of the mightiest and most venerable of all composers who ever lived to light and eternal glory for those who would come thereafter to rejoice and marvel at ever since.

Thank you, Henry. So many words come to mind when I listen to your work that hardly any of them could be written as I process it all. But even so, your music has changed me: as a student of Bach, as a musician and most importantly, as a person. You have taught me that greatness is not only to be found in the glories of the past alone, but is in fact attainable should we strive for it, work hard enough and keep dreaming of a day when we are remembered for it: that shall be my predicament from now on. As for you, you have already sown the seeds and watered the fields for the bounty of those very fertile crops to flourish, and that wonderful future to come to be, when your music is as remembered and listened to as it is praised and venerated: your work has touched the very Heavens with its power and shall now bask in the light of its eternity for ages upon ages to come. That is the goal we all should aspire to in our lives, and you have shown us the way: even now, it too is possible.

Henry, you ought to be immensely proud of yourself! I only joined recently and so i haven't been here for the whole journey of this piece, but I'm glad i can be here for its culmination! You clearly put a huge amount of effort and of yourself into this piece and it really comes through. You have such a unique style and i can only feel inspired and in awe at you and this great achievement.

I had heard of Tao before, but reading your outline and listening to this piece in full really opened up some new corners of my brain.

Do you plan on trying to get this performed publicly, or at least recorded?

I don't think I've listened to this in full yet (as one complete work). A lot of pentatonic influence, which makes the intro to your fugue at 5 minutes in a lot more noticeable since you break out of pentatonic briefly here. It's fantastic in building tension, and a great foreshadow to the full fugal section that comes later. There's also a lot of interesting key changing going on in the first 5 minutes. One minute we are in one key, then all of a sudden, we are taken into a different key. It's a great way to change the focus and break up the momentum!

The intro to your 2nd movement is powerful. I think this may be one of my favorite parts of this piece. This is about 16 minutes in. The part at 16:55 where the violins take over the melody, is just mind-blowing to me. I love buildup like this. I think this works because not only is this a great melody that you are using, but the harmonies are not overly complex, and your modulations are as smooth as butter. Also in terms of smooth vs abrupt key changing, the way I look at it is this. When you change key that feels more abrupt, it's equivalent to changing chapters in a book. That's why this type of key changing can be effective if used strategically.

I'll list some more notable parts of your entire work:

• 19 minutes in, this is starting to sound a little like Mendelssohn. I think this has to do with the style at this particular section.
• 22 minutes in, one of your more dissonant moments, maybe a little fantasy-like here.
• 24, beautiful recap of main melody, a great reminder to the listener of what this piece is really about!
• 25:40, this is an interesting part, because this sounds like a call and response technique that you used here. Again, this is a great way to break up momentum because its out of character for this piece.
• 26, you know how I feel about the fugue and last movement since I've left reviews about them, but the fugue is probably the most complex part of this piece. This is why I featured part of that movement in my highest viewed video to date, on how to change key.

A fantastic and highly emotional piece! There are a lot of great techniques used to keep the listener focused, and to help them follow your journey. For example, it's not just a fugue or, it deviates from normal functional harmony. But some parts have functional harmony. There's a lot of usage of the pentatonic harmony that you made excellent use of it in your story, but you deviate from that that too. Overall, this highly organized work, and strategic usage of dynamics, rhythms, and smooth vs abrupt key changing tactics are what brings this piece together.

From my perspective ..............it lacks 3 concepts :

1:  Originality

2: Style

3: uniqueness

If you can Master those concepts...............you wont remain "Static"

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Hi @FILMSCORE!

5 hours ago, FILMSCORE said:

From my perspective ..............it lacks 3 concepts :

1:  Originality

2: Style

3: uniqueness

If you can Master those concepts...............you wont remain "Static"

This is the funniest comment I have ever received. So in your respective, what do you mean by Originality, Style, Uniqueness and Static? I would be very interested to listen to your unique respective haha.

Henry