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Symphony 3

Baronvonheadless

Baronvonheadless

Senior Member
It's been almost a year since I wrote my 2nd Symphony when Pacific Strings came out.

I recently just started to gather ideas and take a stab at writing a third.

Before I go too far, here's my rough sketch of the first movement opening. How's the orchestral balance?

I'm using a combination of CSS & Pacific Strings, Berlin Brass, JXL Brass & CSB, & CSW (will also mix Acoustic Samples double reeds and clarinets eventually), & Cineperc mixed with BBC and Ark 4 percussion. (I also took a stab at writing/programming some string runs for the first time using css Marcato around the 59 second - 1:12 mark) :0



Any honest feedback or constructive criticism welcome (in mixing/mastering/orchestral balance or even orchestration), I think it's relatively balanced?

CHEERS!

-Michael
Click to read more...
 
really good, michael, both orchestrally and mix. my only constructive criticism is the very soft moments are too soft. broad range of dynamics is great, but i could barley hear them and if i increased volume so i COULD hear them, the loud parts were too loud.
 
I love your ideas.
I feel they are not developed enough, this could be a 9-minute piece.
Also, I feel there's this monophonic texture that governs your writing which is very effective and dramatic, but at the same time, secondary lines and textures would make them even more potent.
Great, great and great.
 
jrusselll said:
really good, michael, both orchestrally and mix. my only constructive criticism is the very soft moments are too soft. broad range of dynamics is great, but i could barley hear them and if i increased volume so i COULD hear them, the loud parts were too loud.
Click to expand...
Thank u very much! I appreciate your advice, but in this kind of symphonic concert music - isn’t that the point? I feel the crazy dynamics are apart of classical and I have to do the same thing when listening to Tchaikovsky’s 5th for example or Mahler 2.

(As opposed to film music which is compressed more)
 
Aldunate said:
I love your ideas.
I feel they are not developed enough, this could be a 9-minute piece.
Also, I feel there's this monophonic texture that governs your writing which is very effective and dramatic, but at the same time, secondary lines and textures would make them even more potent.
Great, great and great.
Click to expand...
Thank you, I would love to hear more about this. Like more counterpoint or opposing rhythms? Any good examples u could possibly give? That’s the hardest part sometimes imo about trying to write this kind of music with no theory training or ability to read/write sheet music haha. It’s all by ear for me.

Regarding the time! This will just be the introduction of my first movement. Where it currently stops is where it will really get started, instead of so many pauses and brooding. Not sure which direction I’ll take it but thinking some kind of intense March.
 
Baronvonheadless said:
Thank you, I would love to hear more about this. Like more counterpoint or opposing rhythms? Any good examples u could possibly give? That’s the hardest part sometimes imo about trying to write this kind of music with no theory training or ability to read/write sheet music haha. It’s all by ear for me.

Regarding the time! This will just be the introduction of my first movement. Where it currently stops is where it will really get started, instead of so many pauses and brooding. Not sure which direction I’ll take it but thinking some kind of intense March.
Click to expand...
Your first 10 seconds with the tremolo on the grand cassa could be way longer, you can state your first theme here. The themes and ideas, as good as they are, are not developed enough to make symphonic sense.
So what I mean by Dramatic is that it's mainly monophonic/homophonic, symphonism would mean polyphonism, several lines working together. (See Strauss foreword to the Berlioz instrumentation)

I feel if these very strong ideas are worked further you will have a great opening.
It feels strictly Wagnerian/Straussian I can't grasp how you get here without reading music.

Again, it sounds great and I love it.
 
@Baronvonheadless you have a very unique style. I can recognize your style, believe it or not, it is that distinguishable. I wouldn't bother with calling it "Symphony no.__ or whatever". Your music it's symphonic, that's what matters. Your ideas, the way you orchestrate, you have a very strong and in the same time simple way of composing your themes. It may look like they are disconnected at first, but after a bit you understand that that's your language, the way you think. The only composer I could think of that has a similar minimalist approach is Arvo Part, with his "tintinnabulation", listen to his symphonies, he is amazing.

It is hard for you, I think. You don't have many others to listen, to get ideas, to compare, and please, don't follow orchestration rules by Williams or any other "movie" composers, you have a very unique language, style, keep it, nurture it, work on it, make it your weapon!
 
Aldunate said:
Your first 10 seconds with the tremolo on the grand cassa could be way longer, you can state your first theme here. The themes and ideas, as good as they are, are not developed enough to make symphonic sense.
So what I mean by Dramatic is that it's mainly monophonic/homophonic, symphonism would mean polyphonism, several lines working together. (See Strauss foreword to the Berlioz instrumentation)

I feel if these very strong ideas are worked further you will have a great opening.
It feels strictly Wagnerian/Straussian I can't grasp how you get here without reading music.

Again, it sounds great and I love it.
Click to expand...
Thank you, do you have a link to the Strauss reference?
 
aka70 said:
@Baronvonheadless you have a very unique style. I can recognize your style, believe it or not, it is that distinguishable. I wouldn't bother with calling it "Symphony no.__ or whatever". Your music it's symphonic, that's what matters. Your ideas, the way you orchestrate, you have a very strong and in the same time simple way of composing your themes. It may look like they are disconnected at first, but after a bit you understand that that's your language, the way you think. The only composer I could think of that has a similar minimalist approach is Arvo Part, with his "tintinnabulation", listen to his symphonies, he is amazing.

It is hard for you, I think. You don't have many others to listen, to get ideas, to compare, and please, don't follow orchestration rules by Williams or any other "movie" composers, you have a very unique language, style, keep it, nurture it, work on it, make it your weapon!
Click to expand...
Wow thank u very much!

I think it stems from my years as a minimalist/psych pop songwriter. And now I’m obsessed with Mahler, Beethoven, Mozart, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, & Tchaikovsky.

But don’t have the training/understanding to even begin getting as clogged thematically as Mahler, so this is my poor man’s Mahler hahahaha!

So far, this piece has been heavily influenced by Mahler 3’s dark, brooding opening & a bit of mahler 5’s almost epic western kind of sound (imo I can see ennio Morricone being influenced greatly by Mahler).
 
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