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Ruzickova Competition

OK - thought I'd jump off the conversation with mine. Or - uh...someone's work that I found laying in the street, because it's anonymous. Yeah. That's it.

Here it is:


I (I'll just say I for this mystery composer) went with a pretty Baroquey sound overall, because - why not? I love it, I never get a chance to write this, and I Bridgertonned it up a little bit, and had fun. I definitely don't recommend that for anyone else - no winner on the competitions she's produced have ever been 'in the pocket' so...definitely go your own way for best results.

About the Harpsichordist: I didn't use figures because I virtually never got decent figures when I'd play lute on these kinds of things, and I know the keyboardist will probably just read off the score if they can't hear the changes. Not recommending that for anyone else.

How's everybody else going?
 
bbunker said:
OK - thought I'd jump off the conversation with mine. Or - uh...someone's work that I found laying in the street, because it's anonymous. Yeah. That's it.

Here it is:


I (I'll just say I for this mystery composer) went with a pretty Baroquey sound overall, because - why not? I love it, I never get a chance to write this, and I Bridgertonned it up a little bit, and had fun. I definitely don't recommend that for anyone else - no winner on the competitions she's produced have ever been 'in the pocket' so...definitely go your own way for best results.

About the Harpsichordist: I didn't use figures because I virtually never got decent figures when I'd play lute on these kinds of things, and I know the keyboardist will probably just read off the score if they can't hear the changes. Not recommending that for anyone else.

How's everybody else going?
Click to expand...

This is delightful. Thanks so much for posting!
 
Inherently said:
This is delightful. Thanks so much for posting!
Click to expand...
Thanks for listening - and the kind words. I'm looking forward to hearing what others are working up to!

Just a heads-up: I didn't get any kind of e-mail confirmation, either on the initial "click here to let her know that you're applying," or on the submitted materials. I'll try to post if that does come through eventually, but if anyone comes down to the wire and submits and doesn't hear anything back, don't panic!! Not that that's been me in years past or anything. ;)

Good luck everyone, and good writing!!!
 
@bbunker, congratulations on your completed work! Wow, I absolutely loved your composition from the very first measures! It took my mind to a beautiful music journey for all these 8 minutes! It's interesting how the middle part sounds in a bit different style, in comparison with the other two, more traditionally baroque style movements. I really liked that you added a solo cadenza - it was beautiful, and great "exit" to the tutti.
I wish you to win in the competition!:) Your great composition absolutely deserves it!

Ok, so today I finally managed to finish my violin solo part for the whole composition. It's slightly above 8 minutes. I decided to stick with the 2 movements structure 'attacca'. Hopefully now the work on the orchestra part will go faster, as I kind of have an idea how it should go, and I should have more free time this week. So I will work hard now on my composition.
 
Thank you, Gedren - very much so! The funny thing about that middle movement is that I tend to always dislike Vivaldi's middle movements, as opposed to like the slower movements of Corelli sonatas, so I wanted to do something different there, that still captures the 'it's just a little thing between the big movements' feeling of Vivaldi. If it does ever get performed, I'll really be wanting to test whether that works like I think it will in my head!

It sounds like one big push will get your piece over the finish line, so I hope you're getting the free time to make that last stab - I'm looking forward to hearing what you come up with!

One really nice thing about this competition is that they're going to be taking four pieces, so it isn't like some places where they only want one piece and already basically know stylistically what they're looking for. It was encouraging to me, and I hope it is to you as well!
 
@Gedren I use Finale - I don't recommend it necessarily, just what I've used forever! The instruments are the Cinematic Studio Strings and Solo Strings with Noteperformer. It's hard to beat for getting something usable fiast!
 
This is such an original and unique competition, that I'm really sorry not to be able to complete my piece in time. Let's hope it will happen again!

Paolo
 
One week left - so far the schedule has been holding; I am optimistic about completing this score without too many moments of acting like a jerk. Stefan Avalos' riveting documentary 'Strad Style' has got me doubling down on all things calendar, all things nap-time, all things whole grain, fresh air, enough sleep, dental floss, and drinking enough water.

Keep trucking everybody!
 
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Inherently said:
Forgot about this:

(courtesy of Google) The baroque cello has no pin, it rests on the players legs and the players do not play soloistically or in the higher ranges of the strings, but play in the lower ranges. It’s a raspier sound than the modern instruments.

Luckily no major problems - but I may have to tidy up a couple of cello note placements.

Helpful question! Thank you @Emanuel Fróes
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you are welcome


what i knew so far is that the violin does not play so loud, as most early music instruments

I know how it sounds, but writing for this is another thing.

When i composed this music i had gambas and old strings in mind, but the recording was only possible with modern instruments, since this was the ensemble i could afford






This video had a shocking painting in the previous version, and got reported by some haters from my university, who thought it was a real photo, so Youtube deleted my own video , what is totally no sense. I know this cause one of my piano teachers reacted like this, thinking the painting was real, as i shared the video. Bastards of art... The music is about a death scene, a symbol of nihilistic death.
 
Thanks, @Inherently - glad that the piece is having some 'study' benefit, too! Don't look too hard at ALL the counterpoint though, there were times where I put in 'power chords' between the cellos and soloist because...I thought they sounded cool. They might take my degrees away lol.

I'm not a violinist - I'm married to one, so that might have some effect through osmosis - but the biggest differences are in reduced tension overall, both in strings and bow-strings. One big example is that - for example - triple-stops are a pretty theoretical thing in modern violins, while the bigger 'bendability' in the baroque bow makes them take less of sweeping through in the direction of the bowing and more of sounded simultaneously. The sonatas and concerti of Tartini and Locatelli especially have double-stopping that on a modern instrument can sound a bit silly, while there's no issues of fluidity in the baroque instrument. Look at held-trilled notes on alternate strings, which is a much more natural thing with the lower tension.

One thing to keep in mind is that there was much more on-the-bow playing. Modern orchestras have a hard time with the baroque pattern of long-short eighth notes, because the second note tends to be hard to control if they're playing too near the frog. (It's why a lot of UK-trained players you can guess whether they're playing Mozart or Rachmaninov by the percentage they spend at the point or the frog...) On the older instrument, the lower tension means that the on-the-bow staccato on the second note comes much more naturally. So - exploiting longer-shorter pairings of bowings, the bow mark going into a staccato note, is very usable and idiomatic.

Watch out for bowings in Baroque scores, especially editions done in the 1880s-1930s, where you'll find plenty of editorial markings of dubious benefit or intention!

Best of luck to everybody - don't let perfect be the enemy of the good in getting out a piece on time!!!
 
Emanuel Fróes said:
you are welcome


what i knew so far is that the violin does not play so loud, as most early music instruments

I know how it sounds, but writing for this is another thing.

When i composed this music i had gambas and old strings in mind, but the recording was only possible with modern instruments, since this was the ensemble i could afford






This video had a shocking painting in the previous version, and got reported by some haters from my university, who thought it was a real photo, so Youtube deleted my own video , what is totally no sense. I know this cause one of my piano teachers reacted like this, thinking the painting was real, as i shared the video. Bastards of art... The music is about a death scene, a symbol of nihilistic death.
Click to expand...

Current version is plenty shocking, with enough painterliness to keep all those fun actual decomposing corpse memories at bay. It took me more than half the score to cotton to the scrolling notes, which really read like maggots. Obviously no reference to Nick Drake, but, I do love the odd non-sequitur. While I have language enough to refer back to the visuals, I can only say thanks for writing and producing this music, and sharing it here!
 
:)



Edit - composition has been appreciatively taken down - it's with the judges now! Huge thanks to all. :)
 
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@Inherently, congratulations on your completed composition! It sounds great, I can hear your own distinguished style in it!
I like that you decided to go away from the baroque style to more contemporary approach. My most favorite part is Presto from 5:25 - that was very cool and unexpected!

@bbunker, did your wife play the solo violin part from your contest composition?

Yesterday I spent the whole Sunday working on my orchestra score, but managed to finish it only today. Time flies so fast... Actually I'm not used to implement vst-instruments in my notation program. Until recently I didn't even think it was possible:D But I see now how well the vst-instruments can be used in a notation software too! I watched some tutorials on how to connect my vst to Sibelius, but no luck yet... So later today and tomorrow I'll work on the details in my score and try to get a better sound, than just the default General midi.
I'll send my entry tomorrow and post my video here probably on Wednesday.

6CDF2D7E-7477-4E3C-9718-0C7A7BCD8035.jpg
 
@Inherently Great Job hitting that finish line! I like that it's a collection of moments, which not many concertos are - the whole "solo vs orchestra" thing tends to feel like a shooter on rails, and I love that you avoided that. The Larghetto in the first movement is especially striking - would love to hear a soloist play that bit in particular.

@Gedren even pixelated, I can tell from those arpeggios who the violinist in the room is. ;) The solo on mine was actually the Cinematic Studios Solo Strings straight out of Noteperformer - it can be pretty astonishingly good at times! Funny story - I 'convinced' my wife to play my Suite for Unaccompanied Violin about 5 or so years ago, and she thought she was going to be doing a quick and easy thing in between projects and...it's not Bach but it's got a lot of twiddly bits lol. She's almost forgiven me for that...
 
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