|
|
Post by Dave Dexter on May 28, 2020 14:07:05 GMT
Hey all . . . this piece is in theory being recorded next month and I wondered if there were any thoughts on it before I tidy and finalise to parts over the next few days. Mockup: soundcloud.com/davedextermusic/hiraeth-demo/s-Q8YvGWnfpPI and score attached. At this stage the music itself is pretty much set but I'm always open to suggestions - some of the note spelling is making me paranoid, say b1-17. It's for 10-8-6-6-4, and I've considered the fairly extensive divisi carefully in terms of how the various section colours will change and support each other. As best I can, anyway! It's not a Romantic orchestra size so my samples aren't representative. Speaking of, it's just a mockup and not 100%  Logic also did the usual thing of shifting a lot of notation by a few mm upon export, so this score is more untidy than I'd like. With all those caveats in mind, dig in, if you want. Dave Attachments:Hiraeth draft.pdf (266.58 KB)
|
|
|
|
Post by driscollmusick on May 28, 2020 18:11:42 GMT
Hey Dave, hope you and your family are doing alright.
In those first few bars I would respell the A#'s as Bb's and G#'s as Ab's. The harmony at bar 8 is really just a Bb major chord with a 6-5 suspension, bars 12-13 are really an implied Bb Dom 7th harmony.
Not gonna go nuts here, but a couple other suggestions:
Instead of writing out a technique in text like "tremolo to b18", I would just write out the tremolo marks. Text just gives them more to read and requires them to remember (while sight-reading) the specific bar to stop doing the technique. I think it's just easier to show them visually.
Similarly, for bars 66-79, I would just use a three-line tremolo (that means "unmeasured") and write out the notes instead of using the repeat marks. Given that the music keeps changing every two bars, I think it will just be easier for them to read the music written out.
For bar 101, bass, I would replace what you have there with what you say at bar 124, which is much clearer ("1 pizz, 3 arco")
I would make the tempo markings a larger, darker font that the technique indications
|
|
|
|
Post by Dave Dexter on May 28, 2020 19:56:44 GMT
Thanks - those are all good ideas, I'll implement them. I went back and forth so many times on the enharmonics in the opening bars and STILL f'd it up. Appreciated. I'm doing ok, hope you are as well. Hey Dave, hope you and your family are doing alright. In those first few bars I would respell the A#'s as Bb's and G#'s as Ab's. The harmony at bar 8 is really just a Bb major chord with a 6-5 suspension, bars 12-13 are really an implied Bb Dom 7th harmony. Not gonna go nuts here, but a couple other suggestions: Instead of writing out a technique in text like "tremolo to b18", I would just write out the tremolo marks. Text just gives them more to read and requires them to remember (while sight-reading) the specific bar to stop doing the technique. I think it's just easier to show them visually. Similarly, for bars 66-79, I would just use a three-line tremolo (that means "unmeasured") and write out the notes instead of using the repeat marks. Given that the music keeps changing every two bars, I think it will just be easier for them to read the music written out. For bar 101, bass, I would replace what you have there with what you say at bar 124, which is much clearer ("1 pizz, 3 arco") I would make the tempo markings a larger, darker font that the technique indications |
|
|
|
Post by driscollmusick on May 28, 2020 23:13:30 GMT
Oh, and I like the piece by the way! I think the string writing is overall strong and I got some thrilling Vaughan Williams vibes.
|
|
|
|
Post by Dave Dexter on May 29, 2020 12:51:26 GMT
Too kind, though it's not mandatory you like it Would you believe, RVW barely entered my mind when composing despite him being a byword for string writing. I do not stare upon the sun. |
|
|
|
Post by driscollmusick on May 29, 2020 16:46:24 GMT
I assume Ralph's spirit flows in the blood of every Englishman!
|
|
|
|
Post by Dave Dexter on May 30, 2020 1:55:29 GMT
There was another classical composer of roughly the same period whose attitude and structures, more than music (but his music is brilliant), was a direct influence on me here. I listened to a whole slew of his work I'd never heard before and it felt like he just wrote what he damn well pleased, how he liked, without consideration of conventional frameworks. As someone endlessly fearful that what I write is too easy, or too obvious, or too tonal, or repetitive... that was useful. Everything I beat myself up for doing, he did, but louder.
I'll take a risk and ask which bits reminded you of RVW?
|
|
|
|
Post by driscollmusick on Jun 2, 2020 16:00:04 GMT
Not all of it, but particularly the passage starting at bar 44 (violas and cellos with tremolo violins) reminded me of the RVW Thomas Tallis Fantasia. I can't listen again today as Soundcloud is blacked out!
|
|
|
|
Post by Dave Dexter on Jun 3, 2020 14:25:32 GMT
Hell of a compliment, thank you (whether or not it was meant as such ). Now you've mentioned it I can see what you mean, presumably from the start of the RVW where the low strings pizz the theme and the high strings hold harmonies? I've also never considered the similarity between part of that melody (b46) and part of Why Fum'th In Fight/Tallis Fantasia. I was worried it sounded more like the theme from Harry Potter, which again I hadn't considered until a friend mentioned it. I suppose there's only so many notes. This piece had an interesting journey, originally it was to be a rearrangement of a work combining some of my favourite recent themes with little new writing. As time went on I found it harder to combine them without it seeming contrived, and the only surviving part is the passage you mentioned. At some point the overarching four-note theme turned up (b18/A) and shaped the following work. I still worry a little it's a too-contrived mix of three differing themes, but worrying is for suckers. Not all of it, but particularly the passage starting at bar 44 (violas and cellos with tremolo violins) reminded me of the RVW Thomas Tallis Fantasia. I can't listen again today as Soundcloud is blacked out! |
|
|
|
Post by driscollmusick on Jun 8, 2020 16:37:27 GMT
Glad you understood it that way! Some composers get touchy about drawing references to others. I think it's the orchestration but something also about the implied dorian mode that seems (Vaughan) Williams-esque
|
|
