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Post by Mike Hewer on Mar 2, 2019 10:30:40 GMT
First off Tim, stop calling it a Pentatonic piece..it's a symphony...  I see you've found some inner Hanson (the composer, not the band) and I love it. What I especially like is the clarity in your scoring and writing which is aided by the austerity and restraint in the material, but all the same, the scoring is very effective and it's always nice to see some musically appropriate bowing. Have you considered getting this programmed on top rate samples? (assuming there is no live band awaiting the m/s). The improvement in sound would enhance your expression so much (it sounds musically good on whatever your playback is at present, which says a lot about the quality of your work imo). If I wasn't in the throes of finishing off a big piece of my own, I might've considered doing it for you as I can hear what it should sound like and samples would get you a lot closer to the real deal. keep it coming... btw...I see you are the same age as me. |
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Post by Tim Marko on Mar 10, 2019 22:15:58 GMT
Sorry for not responding sooner. I appreciate all the support and kind words.
I thought about dovetailing but I'm still not sure. I'm sending it to a clarinetist I know and see what she thinks. When in doubt...
Thanks Greg. When I started work on this, I thought I may have created to big a limitation, but found just the opposite. The hard part was editing the ideas.
I finally titled it. (Still working my way thru the Hanson tome. Lot to digest!!!) Thank you! The playback is Sibelius with NP3 and a lot of hidden markings. (So you remember doing all this with pen and paper, too!lol)
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Post by Tim Marko on Mar 10, 2019 22:23:58 GMT
I finally completed(?) the piece and have titled it "Dreams of the Orient". I still want to beef up the percussion parts and most definitely clean up the score. I changed the time signature at 145. It made the strong melody sit better to me as opposed to the 7/8. Still not convinced by my ending either. If you see anything else, please let me know. Thanks again! Dreams of the OrientDreams of the Orient.pdf (372.41 KB) |
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Post by fuguestate on Mar 15, 2019 23:10:03 GMT
Just got around to this. Whoa!!! My mind is completely blown. This is awesome stuff! Especially knowing that you restricted yourself to a 5-note scale, this just goes to prove how much can be accomplished with so little means.  I'm gonna hafta revisit this again at some point, there's so much interesting stuff to dig into here. Like how you managed to squeeze out so much drama from such a meager scale. |
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Post by fuguestate on Mar 15, 2019 23:20:45 GMT
Just listened to it again. Here's a wild, unfounded idea off the top of my head: at the last chord, have a partial echo of the starting theme emerge out from it and trail off on a solo instrument, falling into silence and ending with an incomplete statement of the theme. Probably not quite what you have in mind, but just throwing the idea out there, in case it might inspire you as to what to do with the ending.
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Post by Mike Hewer on Mar 16, 2019 8:00:40 GMT
The only thing I don't like is the title!!! It somehow put the music into cliched territory and plays down the seriousness of the symphonic/developmental aspect. Perhaps Theme and variations or similar would be better. Hell it's yours though Tim, so don't pay any heed to me - I like it dry and formal and hate being told what to think. Re the ending, (and overall actually) I can't help feeling you've got stuck in the mud of the tonic and related centres. Perhaps more distant wanderings away from the home centres of the piece would then give you enough 'travel' to get back home and in doing so, create more of a sense of arrival at the end. More chromatic wanderings could unhinge the feeling of always returning to the same place(s). This isn't a critique though Tim, just an observation - I do think the piece is terrific and do hope you consider writing a few more movements using different scales/modes. Is there any chance of a live performance? |
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Post by Tim Marko on Mar 23, 2019 17:00:45 GMT
HS, I thought of that. I'm going to wait and see what I end up doing for the second movement and come up with and ending that makes a nice transition.
Mike, Yeah the title still needs work. Your the 3rd person to make that observation. (Even my wife didn't like it!)
I'm starting to experiment with some ideas for a 2nd and 3rd movement. I'm thinking somehow keep the idea of 5 as a unifying idea. The other option might be to do a hexatonic movement and possibly a septatonic movement(?).
The next step for me is to sit on it for a while. I'm pretty satisfied with the overall shape and form. I need to alter the ending as I said and I'd like to find a way to pull the tonal center away. Your right Mike, it really got centered and I think that causes the ending to be weaker. I'll come back to it with fresh eyes in a few weeks.
Once I get it polished, I hope to enter it into a call for scores I've been looking at. Possibly a performance?
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I'm gonna hafta revisit this again at some point, there's so much interesting stuff to dig into here. Like how you managed to squeeze out so much drama from such a meager scale. 
