I Need Your Critique!

[leejacksonaudio]

I have finished a piece for Woodwind Quintet, and I'm looking for feedback on it! If you're willing to listen through a MIDI file (and possibly read through a *very* rudimentary PDF score), drop me a direct message and I'll make arrangements on how to get a copy of the necessary files to you. I'm looking forward to *your* critique!

[Bobby :D]

I dabble a bit in some classical arrangement (mostly as part of music studies), so I think I can give some feedback about the music and score.

[leejacksonaudio]

10 hours ago, Bobby "J said:

I dabble a bit in some classical arrangement (mostly as part of music studies), so I think I can give some feedback about the music and score.

Great! I'm going to go ahead and post the WeTransfer link here in the forum so you and others can download it. Here it is:

 

https://we.tl/t-jVQiYz0zkv

 

There's a readme inside the ZIP file that should have everything you need. Let me know if you have any problems. Thank you for your help!

[stewboy]

Are you looking for critique more on the musical content, or on how you're writing for the instruments? I have a decent amount of experience in writing for wind ensembles of various forms and sizes, and though I'm not a professional by any means I might have some useful insight.

 

I would definitely be a little concerned about the over-reliance on the french horn in the slower middle section. Even at a softer dynamic, the player would get fairly tired after playing so constantly, and would definitely appreciate breaks. There are musical reasons for giving the horn a break as well - the section feels a little static, in the roles of the instruments, in the register, and in the material itself. If you decided to give the horn a couple breaks, it would force you to rethink how you're using the other instruments. You've given the bassoon quite a break - you could perhaps give it a bit more of the heavy work instead of the horn, if only for a couple bars? I like that you've given the french horn the melodic line in the final section though. The player would definitely appreciate that.

 

Spicing up the 'bass line' in general can be difficult in these sorts of ensembles - I was writing a piece the other week for a brass ensemble and had to keep reminding myself that the tuba players were real people who would appreciate variation in their role. A little syncopation or unexpected change in the bass line can add some much needed colour.

One thing I noticed with the flute - you've got them playing quite high up in bar 20. I'd be very cautious about notes above a top F/G on the flute. I asked a flautist friend about this once and she said that she was fine with playing short staccato 'stabs' around that range but that any kind of sustained playing there was extremely difficult. The flute motif in bars 23 onwards would probably be fine though.

I decided to do something that I hope you don't mind too much - I opened it in Sibelius and added a few slurs here and there that felt right to me (though I left a lot of it still kind of staccato), and rendered it with NotePerformer. I actually quite like a lot about it now that I can hear a more 'realistic' (ish...) performance - I can hear how you've passed various bits of material around the instruments, lending some more colour to the piece.

I could probably write more about it if you wanted - I just need to go to bed now!

ThemeAndTangents_revision01b.zip

Edited July 3, 2023 by stewboy

[leejacksonaudio]

1 hour ago, stewboy said:

Are you looking for critique more on the musical content, or on how you're writing for the instruments? I have a decent amount of experience in writing for wind ensembles of various forms and sizes, and though I'm not a professional by any means I might have some useful insight.

I can use any help I can get, and yours is more than helpful in this case. Thank you!

 

1 hour ago, stewboy said:

I would definitely be a little concerned about the over-reliance on the french horn in the slower middle section. Even at a softer dynamic, the player would get fairly tired after playing so constantly, and would definitely appreciate breaks. There are musical reasons for giving the horn a break as well - the section feels a little static, in the roles of the instruments, in the register, and in the material itself. If you decided to give the horn a couple breaks, it would force you to rethink how you're using the other instruments. You've given the bassoon quite a break - you could perhaps give it a bit more of the heavy work instead of the horn, if only for a couple bars? I like that you've given the french horn the melodic line in the final section though. The player would definitely appreciate that.

Thank you for your insight here - you've given me an idea on what to do in order to fix part of this section.

 

1 hour ago, stewboy said:

One thing I noticed with the flute - you've got them playing quite high up in bar 20. I'd be very cautious about notes above a top F/G on the flute. I asked a flautist friend about this once and she said that she was fine with playing short staccato 'stabs' around that range but that any kind of sustained playing there was extremely difficult.

I'm aware, yes. I tried to keep the playing in that range to an absolute bare minimum, but I did cross that line. I may have to change it once I get it in front of a real player.

 

2 hours ago, stewboy said:

I decided to do something that I hope you don't mind too much - I opened it in Sibelius and added a few slurs here and there that felt right to me (though I left a lot of it still kind of staccato), and rendered it with NotePerformer. I actually quite like a lot about it now that I can hear a more 'realistic' (ish...) performance - I can hear how you've passed various bits of material around the instruments, lending some more colour to the piece.

"Mind too much???" I *appreciate* it, very much!!! I don't have a notation program on this laptop that would allow me to insert slurs and articulation, much less do a rendering of the MIDI file! I probably will put in more slurs when i get the file loaded into Dorico. Still, you did a wonderful job, I must say. You really helped the work come alive.

 

2 hours ago, stewboy said:

I could probably write more about it if you wanted - I just need to go to bed now!

When you wake up then, feel free to add more to your comments! Thank you!!!

[leejacksonaudio]

I still need your critiques, folks! Please download the ZIP file, as well as the MP3 that @stewboy uploaded (thanks again!) and listen to them, then give me your critique! Anything helpful you have to say would be appreciated. Thank you!

[LoatharMDPhD]

do you know of any midi sequencer for linux? if not ill have my brother play it and make a recording for me; he's a composer...

[leejacksonaudio]

3 hours ago, LoatharMDPhD said:

do you know of any midi sequencer for linux? if not ill have my brother play it and make a recording for me; he's a composer...

I believe there's one called Rosegarden.

[plums]

12 hours ago, LoatharMDPhD said:

do you know of any midi sequencer for linux? if not ill have my brother play it and make a recording for me; he's a composer...

There are lots. For just playing MIDI you can use Timidity. Otherwise Rosegarden, MusE, LMMS... you can also use Sekaiju in WINE. Some (all?) of those need a MIDI device regardless which often means setting up Timidity anyhow. If you need a soundfont, you can get this one that I use for Doom music but works fine for cases like this as well.

 

12 hours ago, leejacksonaudio said:

I still need your critiques, folks! Please download the ZIP file, as well as the MP3 that @stewboy uploaded (thanks again!) and listen to them, then give me your critique! Anything helpful you have to say would be appreciated. Thank you!

It's too bad you're not getting much response to this, I think people here are maybe a little intimidated, or feel they have nothing to offer, with this being "real music" as opposed to just some video game tunes. For myself I have some experience composing in different styles but very little of it is writing music for actual humans to play; I think stewboy said anything I possibly could about that and much more besides. I did listen to the piece and I liked it, I liked the A-B-A' structure and the way you use some dissonance/major key lines in the A parts and call back to them in A-prime. Other than that I'm not entirely sure what to say besides "good job!" heh.

 

It seems like you're trying to solicit general feedback but I think if you were extremely specific about things you'd like people to comment on, even to provide a checklist for other people to think about, you might get a few more responses? I know it would help me at least. If you're just trying to tell if it works, then at least to my uneducated plebian ears it does.

[leejacksonaudio]

2 hours ago, plums said:

I did listen to the piece and I liked it, I liked the A-B-A' structure and the way you use some dissonance/major key lines in the A parts and call back to them in A-prime. Other than that I'm not entirely sure what to say besides "good job!" heh.

Much obliged, thanks!

 

2 hours ago, plums said:

It seems like you're trying to solicit general feedback but I think if you were extremely specific about things you'd like people to comment on, even to provide a checklist for other people to think about, you might get a few more responses? I know it would help me at least. If you're just trying to tell if it works, then at least to my uneducated plebian ears it does.

Well, that's the problem. @stewboy handled my specific problem, which was with the French Horn line, and then found a couple more issues that were major helps. Now I don't know what else could be wrong with the thing. I've listened to it over and over and over until I've driven my wife insane with it. ;)  What I'm needing is for people to go over it with ye olde fine toothed comb and comment on anything that annoys them, I don't care what. I'll take it under consideration.

[TheNoob_Gamer]

I listen to instrumental tracks often, but is by no means musically astute. So from listening to stewboy's revision a few times, I can only say that it sounds great (a bit melancholy too?), and my only real nitpick with it is the transition point between the beat drop at 3:18 and the succeeding portion at 3:20 is a bit too quick.

[leejacksonaudio]

20 minutes ago, TheNoob_Gamer said:

I listen to instrumental tracks often, but is by no means musically astute. So from listening to stewboy's revision a few times, I can only say that it sounds great (a bit melancholy too?), and my only real nitpick with it is the transition point between the beat drop at 3:18 and the succeeding portion at 3:20 is a bit too quick.

Thank you very much! I can guarantee that, once I get the piece in front of live human performers, that transition point will be handled much better. I'll likely insert a brief pause indicator there. That will result in a bit of a slowdown, as you've noted. Thanks for pointing it out!

[Stay Puft]

Big fan, I've done a private recording on my synthesizers to give another take on what it could sound like: https://youtu.be/IZgZH7RW31A

[leejacksonaudio]

Very good! I like the way you've interpreted the slurs. Thank you!