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#1
11-01-2007, 10:55 PM
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| Sinfonietta - 1st movement/part Duration about 5 mins, (about 5Mb) mainly tonal though it shifts about and gets a bit strepitoso when it gets going. Intense. Started as an exercise, this turned into the first movement of a Sinfonietta-styled thing - originally planned in a continuous movement but lack of progress prompted separate parts (to date, at least). I already submitted part 2 as "Allegretto". Have yet to complete the 3rd part, probably some time this year. Apologies about the violins detaché samples about half way through. I feel let down by some of these samples but when I compiled the work I wasn't too sure about tweaking them. http://www.soundclick.com/util/getpl...d=5321368&q=hi Short-score: It needs simplifying, I know, to get it more in line with the rhythmic detail - sometimes off-beat accents work, sometimes not. I did a 4-hand version to try out and got plenty of bad remarks from the co-pianist! There are a couple of discrepancies between the score and music. Many thanks for comments. However, it's a bit noisy, like I say, be warned! cheers, Reith. Last edited by reith : 15-05-2007 at 09:02 PM. Reason: new link  |
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#2
11-01-2007, 11:23 PM
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| It is intense Reith, not as melodic as I like but then I am jealous over the fact that you just jot these things down! |
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#3
11-01-2007, 11:38 PM
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| Wow, that was beautiful! As for the composition itself, I just have to surrender. No comments. But Wow! Lovely to see someone who can trust their own judgement when it comes to building their own chords and voicings, and furthermore letting unison lines speak for themselves. Very personal and well done! I only have to ask about the Sinfonietta title. To my knowledge, Sinfonietta is just a small symphony orchestra, as I state in this thread. And googling for it, orchestras calling themselves sinfoniettas generally got winds, whereas your piece seems written for strings exclusively.  I presume you aim for not calling it just a string symphony, but something mirroring the sonatinas relation to the sonata. Here, I suggest chamber symphony as a relevant genre, ref. Shostakovich’ chamber symphonies, e. g. op. 110a (which is his string quartet n° 8 op. 110 arranged for string orchestra by his pupil Rudolf Barshai).But thanks for the listen!  Regards |
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#4
13-01-2007, 11:55 AM
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| Boneman, Thorolf, thank you for your kind comments and time. I honestly don't know why I called it 'sinfonietta' because I've steered clear of anything as formal as symphony - probably used it to keep all the stuff in the same folder. I may settle for "Music for strings" or just "suite". It wasn't big enough to call a symphony, besides. 
This has forced me to ask a couple of questions that I might post elsewhere. Like, after struggling with something like this, I breathe a sigh of relief and turn to something easy like those minuets and pop-ditties. Thanks again, Reith. |
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#5
13-01-2007, 01:25 PM
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| The hardest thing about a piece like this is trying to be original without sounding like you're trying to be original. This is a very natural sounding, unpretentious piece. It takes more than a bit of courage to write this way, I think, because listeners have nothing familiar to fall back on except the 12 tone scale. It almost sounds as if you're mickey-mousing a scene from a movie or very dark animation. Beautiful. |
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#6
14-01-2007, 02:47 AM
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| The piece is very intense and you do make good use of unisons. I always believed that unisons should be used carefully and not to be overdone. And you were both careful and deliberate with the unisons. Nice job! |
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#7
28-01-2007, 11:09 AM
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| Since I have trouble opening the links to the pieces you give, I looked up your artist page from SoundClick (it's by the name Reith there, right?). The beginning of this piece is nice and gloomy with the low strings, and the mood remains the same all the way through. Very credible scoring overall. This is not too 'popular' (for a lack of a better word) on the melody side, and doesn't have really catchy lines and such, but somehow I really enjoyed listening to it. It grabs my attention very well, and I can't help but follow the piece along. Just out of interest, does this have any other instruments than the strings in it? My listening skills are not refined enough to figure that out. From the limited set of instruments impression I got, I'd say this works well as you get so much out of the instruments in one piece. I wasn't bored one bit during the piece. My only crits would be that the samples don't sound realistic in all places, but that's a minor flaw, and doesn't really harm the listening experience. Somehow this reminds me of art music (or perhaps modern classical would be a better word). It is complex in a way, but differing from the usual effect that complexity gives me, I wasn't lost at any point. I regret that I can't give any useful comments on the theory side since my knowledge is still limited, but this really sounded like a good piece. It was pleasant to the ear. Good work! |
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#8
28-01-2007, 11:06 PM
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| Thank you for the comments, guys. I rarely do unisons except to "double" - maybe I chose them to help break away from the 'style-lock' Crimson, thanks also for taking the trouble to find it - I don't know why the links don't work. No, it's no pop piece - untypical really. I was trying to write something more 'absolute' than the usual. I intend to finish it, come hell and high water! - halfway through the third movement that's a lot shorter. Yes, strings only. The samples? Hmm, they're barely adequate - enough so I could try to 'conduct' the thing (in my living room I mean! It's my best way to check if the score is feasible. I did a 4-hands keyboard tryout...THAT revealed a few things that needed changing about the score!) The violin spiccato/staccato samples are horrid but I'm reshaping them in a wave lab as time allows. Trouble is, they came to me almost free. I begin to wonder if any samples would give me just what I want - I like the Sonic Implants set but...wait for it....£1400. Garritan would probably do for most things but you bet that the one effect you desperately want won't be there. The reverb in my sequencer is also pretty horrid - the one you use is nice though I prefer things a little drier. All will be made good in time. One day these sounds will be modelled and we'll no longer need to rely on samples. Again, thank you all. Much appreciated. |
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#9
29-01-2007, 09:28 AM
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| This might go a little off-topic, but I'd like to comment about the sound side. What sample library are you currently using? The samples didn't sound that bad, at least not on this piece. Mostly they were ok to me. I'm also drooling for the Sonic Implants collection, but as you say, the price tag is a little high. 2800€ around here. Have you considered EWQLSO if you're not already using it? It's more reasonably priced and should have a little wider selection of samples than Garritan, and the price is around 700-900€ for the Gold Pro XP Bundle. Another cheap option would be Halion Symphonic Orchestra, which has a price tag of about 500€. However, I haven't been totally comfortable using HSO and currently prefer EWQLSO over it. And about the reverb: I use a free VST called SIR, which you can find here: SIR - Super Impuls Reverb It's an impulse response reverb, and you can find free impulse responses as .wav files for it from their site and from the net. I have been happy with it, and I think it improved the sound of my own pieces considerably. But I think your piece really is enjoyable. Good luck on finishing it!  |
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#10
29-01-2007, 12:30 PM
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| Thank you for that. I've had a look at the reverb and will download it when I've got a moment. I have a fairly old sequencer, Muzys, now discontinued and this reverb looks like it would fit. I have installed a couple of VSTis. It's ironic that almost a year since I acquired this Muzys there's still much to learn about it. It was a freebie with a magazine. I wasn't sure I'd 'take' to computer music...(hahaha, it still doesn't feel right but the future of much music lies here so I have to adapt!). What amazes me is just HOW MUCH this thing can do.... I'll probably go cubase in the end. Still have to decide...I HATE software depending on a hardware key...it'll get lost or forgotten when I take the stuff elsewhere...I can only load it on one computer even though I travel with my laptop a lot. Obviously I want it mainly on a powerful machine but I could compose on the laptop then transfer it. And the total budget will be fairly hefty with a new computer capable of running on. Meanwhile back to the ranch.... Cheers, Reith |
