Score: 10

"Re: instrumentation"

submission: A Difficult Parting

date: August 27, 2008

Truth is that harp is a colorful instrument and certainly functions as such in an orchestra, therefore the solo repertoire is post 19th century impressionistic color or extremely diatonic simplicity in anything before that (this is also due to how the mechanics of the harp developed, blah blah blah). In this piece, to me, the "minimalism" sounds more like "safety zone". Nico Muhly recently gave a lecture-class at Columbia and he gave what I think is a very effective summary of minimalism, something along the lines of, "Your musical materials stay the same for so long that when there is any change it sounds like the most beautiful thing you ever heard." By that description, this is certainly simplistic (which is not at all a criticism) but not entirely minimal because the change is abundant and therefore can't set up the tension of repetition repetition repetition and, finally, change. All of these stylistic approaches (diatonic simplicity, impressionist color, minimalist sound world) are I think equally viable with the harp as a solo instrument and it then comes down to what you intend to portray to your audience.

"Difficult parting" is a complicated idea because there are so many untold stories and nuances to any parting, particularly difficult ones. While I'd have absolutely no objection to adding instruments to the existing piece, I still think solo harp can capture the multi-faceted idea of a difficult parting if you're willing to simply escape from your comfort zone here - the harp is full of interesting mechanics (the complexity of the pedals) and possible effects (harmonics are actually included in GPO so I encourage messing around with those; there are also other markings like "pres de la table" [near the sounding board, which means plucking farther down on the string rather than towards the middle], super easy glissandos in any scale, etc.).

While I hesitate to make any suggestion on this scale, I think this is an idea and a piece worth re-exploring entirely, not with the approach of setting up musical materials and then rewashing and reusing, but rather with the approach of balance and finding so many different ways of expressing a difficult parting tastefully and effectively yet emotionally. Even if GPO doesn't have the capabilities of a real harp (thus making a totally accurate recording impossible), I think it best not to sacrifice anything for the sake of absolutely correspondance between concept and GPO realization.

That said I realize I'm not at all factoring in the "video game" part of the description, which obviously changes function and execution of an idea completely; a big congrats on being able to pull off a piece that sets a mood but would not be too distracting when used in an actual video game. Call me crazy but somewhere I feel like this piece comes from somewhere deeper than a simple desire to write video game music and set a mood and to that end I think there's so much potential.

Just when I was thinking that a nice sustained melody strummed out on top of the texture would be lovely, there it was at :39. No matter how much I say about this piece, there's so much that's done RIGHT. I won't saturate this review with too much praise other than to say that there is so much going for you with your ear and talents; keep up the awesome. ;)

Score: 10

"Not bad for a 23 year old!"

submission: Largo for Full Orchestra

date: August 11, 2008

If I rate you against the other composers on this site it's because I don't know how the review the piece based on its own merits. If I compare you with cinematic composers I'm missing the mark by about five miles seeing as though this is programmatic it clearly does not function as a film soundtrack. If I compare you with the student composers that are studying composition around the world and give you a 3 it's to inflate myself as one of said composition students. If I compare you with the greatest composers of all time I'm not actually helping you at all, I just sound like a douche for comparing apples with oranges. And here is a list of names I like to throw around like certificates of how well rounded I believe I am as a musician, and also just to sound like I'm helping you when in reality I'm mostly showing off
(I mean, you obviously haven't heard of Stravinsky, what a no-name).

Who knows, maybe I had good intentions? Maybe, until I send you an obnoxious PM full of baseless accusations.

Hey would you look at this! It's right underneath this text box I'm typing in:

"If you are giving this submission a low score, please offer constructive criticism that will be useful to the artist. The review space is not a place for you to act like a total asshole."

ANYWAY, you captured your mood very well, sometimes I wanted a fuller orchestration because the celesta has a tough time supporting the texture by itself. Slightly unrelated: whatever happened to your GPO :( Back to the orchestration comment, it's really a question of texture and supporting the more mobile and essential elements at spot like 3:52 where the drama could be enhanced by some subtle additions that don't take away from the skeleton already outlined there (melody, violin runs, bass line), same thing with the couple of spots with timpani and horn/clarinet (and eventually violin) melody.

Blahdiblah, anyhow amazing work, see ya ;)

Score: 10

"During my various and sundrey adventures..."

submission: Sketch for String Orchestra

date: August 5, 2008

I downloaded this and have been listening to it for about a week and it gets better every time, the piece is saturated with meaningful details (time changes and such) and the result is short but just amazing. I dunno what I could have inspired (besides shoving strings in your face for the past few months...) because you took the string orchestra and made it your own. That said I'm thrilled to see my name in the description ;)

My brother spent several weeks living with monks with Tibet; judging from what I've heard from him about his experiences, thay context adds a lot to this piece which is already phenomenally powerful on its own.

I've also noticed that you have two even more recent submissions, so I'm gonna go check those out. Amazing job here!

Score: 10

"fantasy a la lydian?"

submission: The Vision

date: January 16, 2008

Lack of reviews for this is a crime, it's a very elaborate and nuanced piece. I have to say though, ADD much? I understand your theme of 'spray of inspiration' but that effect is not unattainable through a slightly more unified piece with more identifiable thematic material. I don't think it's too far out to say that even a dream sequence can tie back to or include hints of something that will ultimately have the effect of being eerily familiar to the listener if accomplished effectively, despite turbulent motion through keys, times, texture, etc.

While taking key relationships, abrupt changes such as 1:15 have an obvious dramatic intent and while the effect is strong it grows more and more gimmicky the more it is used in a piece, essentially turning any subsequent key changes of that sort into more of a cliché (1:30, 1:44, 1:57, 2:02, 3:01; a lot for a three minute orchestral piece no? I mean, this isn't Mariah Carey :P).

Misc. notes: trumpet line at 1:21 is OBSCENELY high, even the sample sounds tight; reasonably speaking, the A or B below that should be the limit and even then only if approached safely. I loved the use of solo violin. This is like a patchwork quilt of ideas compressed into a tiny 3 minute box, but nothing is really developed and when the piece ends I feel as though relatively little has actually been accomplished. The good news is you have lots of materials fleshed out to be used elsewhere and to fuller effect.

The sound and overall effect/colour is gorgeous so definitely a 10 despite certain qualms, you def deserve it plus a 5, beautiful job!

(seriously this is rated waaaay too low, I'll try voting over the next few days to help out)

Score: 9

"Haha you're gonna kill me for this"

submission: The Spanish Laureate

date: March 28, 2007

But my first and foremost critique is about melody, except now it's a little different because there's a lot of melodic material in this piece, only it isn't always so clear. This isn't so much a compositional detail as merely volume control, but some areas (notably :19 - :27ish) could use some more clarity, in my opinion; I can hear lots of stuff going on but I guess my recommendation would be to be a bit clearer about what belongs in the foreground and what doesn't.

Now on to something remotely related, one thing I'd like to hear more of is variation on the same material you've already presented. This can manifest in any or all of several ways, and for this piece specifically I think melodic variation on the E D E C B (that is, until the nutty modulation that I love!) with Chopin-esque flairs in addition to maybe reharmonizing the main theme in parts would contribute a lot. PARTICULARLY at the modulation to Fm, some radical changes to the melody would be completely awesome; a modulation like that is just screaming for attention and why be dull and just do the same thing (compositionally speaking) again? ;)

I love the part at 1:00, melody could be a bit clearer versus the accompaniment but it was a great addition. The return to the main theme was also really well done, but I'm gonna have to agree with Winterwind on the ending, even if only because I know that you're capable of an awesome coda. If you plan on expanding this piece, I'd suggest writing out the B (1:00) and the return of the A section more extensively, and then add a bombastic coda at the end and voila, awesomeness in musical form all in a tidy ABA.

Anyhow, I think I've pretty much exhausted my (not-so-professional) critique, this was a really fun listen! Keep 'em coming, can't wait to hear more classical.

Score: 10

"Ye wowza!"

submission: SQ in G min - I. Largo v.2.0

date: December 26, 2006

What's this?...I'm actually getting around to returning the owed reviews? Nonsense. I really don't have much (if any) critique, so I'm just going to go into detail about how much I liked this piece.

See, one of the strangest things about the creative process is that with less, one has the potential to make more. That's speaking in very abstract terms, but it's true, and very much what you've accomplished here. I would not have guessed, were I the uninformed listener, that everything centers around this repeated D pattern. Partly, I suppose, because of the different qualities of the voices and thus the difficulty in actually hearing, even when trying consciously, the overlap, but that means next to nothing without the surrounding harmonies.

Stylistically, I found this piece to be one of the most unique pieces I've ever listened to.

I might suggest, say, trying out even more stuff with more extremes of the range of the instruments, but really that's not necessary. I feel like you've accomplished a lot with this piece, and it's certainly something to be proud of.

My other suggestions are immediately discredited by the fact that this is only the first movement to a multi-movement piece (i.e., more conclusive ending, more diversity).

In conclusion, great job on this, seriously looking forward to the rest (and I'm always here with a little thing I like to call GPO, if you're interested).

Score: 10

"Moooore!"

submission: Scarecrow song 1 (0:27)

date: December 26, 2006

You and I, we should really collaborate on making awesome orchestrations of the OoT music. That would be really cool.

I have two little things to say, and one is melodically, the piece is a little unclear until the violins take over. One thing I find is that when giving a melody to the woodwinds, the surrounding registers pretty much have to be clear of any sustained notes or else the whole thing can get pretty jumbled. Of course, a much easier solution would be to pump up the volume a bit, or double the melody in a higher register in the flute (and possibly yet another octave with piccolo).

And then, the pizzicato bass. Now, I love pizzicato bass, but here I felt like it was sounding a little dry and even the notes got a little ambiguous at parts. My recommendation is to double the pizzicato dbl bass and octave up with pizzicato cellos, because the tone is more rounded. The lower lower register of the double bass is really tricky because it's powerful but can get rather stiff and sometimes the notes themselves can be hard to discern.

Oh, and one last request: make it loooonger!

More reviews in the works, merry belated Christmas. ;)

Score: 9

"Very intricate"

submission: Dissonance Nocturne

date: December 23, 2006

Well composed, well thought out, and for starters I absolutely loved the dissonance.

I guess my first critique, 'cus I never let anyone off easy ;), is the melody. As pianists we often forget just how melodic an instrument can get, and while the melody is clear some of the time, the melodic lines remain largely ambiguous and indistiguishable from other voices. The piece is beautiful to listen to, but what gives the listener something to remember after is an extraordinary melody that simply won't go away (which can get annoying, so make the melody a good one, I say). I think the nocturnes of Chopin are an excellent example of the piano functioning melodically as well as harmonically in this kind of context, even with countermelodies.

And the other thing I have to say is, make it longer! You have an excellent start, but what makes a piece is not only the beginning but where you take it. Whenever you get the time, I would love it if you could take these ideas and expand them. Maybe considering using ternary form (ABA) to expand it a little, using what you have now as the A section (which is an ABA in of itself, but still missing a true companion section to my ears).

Exceptional job! Sorry it took so long to get back to you, I'm an awfully lazy reviewer...

Score: 10

"Presenting:"

submission: The Dance of Shadows

date: November 12, 2006

The shortest review I will ever write. Because we're just that awesome.

Score: 9

"Warning: another lengthy review"

submission: -Orr-Stormy Seas

date: September 16, 2006

"By glancing at the order in which the six orchestral groups are placed, strings, wood-wind, brass, plucked strings, percussion producing definite, and those producing indefinite sounds, the reader will be able to determine the part played by each in the art of orchestration, from the secondary standpoint of colour and expression. As regards expression, the strings come first, and the expressive capacity of the other groups diminishes in the above order, colour being the only attribute of the last group of percussion instruments.

The same order obtains from the standpoint of general effect in orchestration. We can listen to strings for an almost indefinite period of time without getting tired, so varied are their charactaristics. The addition of a single group of strings will add lustre to a passage for wind instruments. On the other hand, the quality of the wind instruments soon becomes wearisome; the same may be said of plucked strings, and also percussion of every kind which should only be employed at reasonable intervals in orchestral composition."

-Principles of Orchestration, Rimsky-Korsakov (translated by Edward Agate)

Now, that's a hefty block of text, but what it's saying is basically what I was getting at in my review of 'A Hero Reborn'; a lot more effect can be achieved with the use of instrument groups, in particular strings and brass, when keeping rhythms than just the dull repetition of a beat with percussion (that's how I interpret this passage of his, anyway). In my opinion, this also gives the composer good opportunity to practice achieving colour in creative manners, thereby increasing their general comprehension of an orchestra.

With that general point aside, I'll get down and dirty and start working with specifics (a lot of this will be personal preference; keep in mind that I don't consider myself the ultimate authoritative figure on orchestration, but perhaps what I say will help you).

Let's start, logically enough, with the beginning. In this place, just imagine the effect of marcato strings and crazy cracked out woodwind lines instead of that dull percussion! The effect I get from lots and lots of doubled strings and then just a percussion beat in the background is effective enough, but I think simplistic in scope. Runs, arpeggios, trills, supported beneath by a strong repeated marcato note in the dbl basses (most likely doubled an octave higher by cellos for the best severe tone) would add, I think, a much broader sense of the confusion and madness associated with a ship at sea, being buffeted by wind. The sense I got from the piece as it stands is more like a war march, because of its strong foundation in the tonic (fully diminished seventh chords, for example, offer a great basis for crazy chromatisism and harmonic confusion that could be associated with a storm) and heavy reliance upon the snare and timpani hits for the beat.

One general point I'd like to make about the meledies starting around :41 are their lack of rhythmic variety. There are other patterns in 5/4 that work melodically besides 1 2 3 4 1 (such as 1 2 3 1 2, or 1 2 1 2 3), and I'd recommend experimenting with those in counterpoint. Then, I think, one might get an even better sense of being tumbled about, owing to the different natures of the opposing melodic lines.

And finally, from about 1:42 onward, there isn't much of an apparent bass line. Particularly from 1:49 onward, the lack of a bassline really detracts from the "orchestra hit" quality of the notes, because the only other emphasis is the cymbal, which adds attack but makes the notes feel very empty without some "filling in the blanks".

I think that just about does it for this review. Hope some of this helps. Quickly, before I end, here are some corrections to the review I left on A Hero Reborn:

1) The reference to Principles of Orchestration was to the above quoted passage.

2) When talking about the ending, I meant Db in the note sequence, not D natural.

Okay, I'm really done this time, I swear.