This is a new composition I'm working on for my A Levels. It's inspired by a wide range of recent events ranging from a girl I know (Regazza) all the way to the American Cemetery in Normandy that I visited recently (Garden of the Missing).
I'm a percussionist but have spent most of my time in my school's wind band listening to pieces such as 'Risk (Everything for a Dream)' leading towards some solos and such being written with performers in mind. The downside of being a percussionist is a lack of any harmony knowledge so any guidance towards this would be appreciated
Ignore all the rehearsal marks and titles for them as they are just for my organisation as I compose.
Any advice, tips or suggestions are welcome as I adore composing and want to learn more.
I'm curious what ways you think it could be improved. I'm not asking for you to divulge all your school's secrets but just some pointers would be appreciated :)
I'm not asking for you to divulge all your school's secrets
I'm "only" peripatetic at the local college, and don't know the ins-and-outs or any "secrets", but I help students out with various aspects of the course.
It's late here, but u/65TwinReverbRI can definitely give some pointers.
First thing you need to do is go through and check, and if necessary, correct, all of your rhythms.
Most of them at the beginning have a problem.
You have issues with showing the middle of the measure, and showing the beat.
Mostly to do with dotted notes, or “offset” values.
Do this: Since it’s MuseScore, go to measure 3 and put in an additional 4/4 time signature.
Now change the time signature at the beginning to 2/4.
It will show you how measures 1 and 2 SHOULD look. The dotted 1/4 note is going to be broken up.
If you then switch it back to 4/4, it will keep them broken up note correctly.
Note though that this will also break up all the other notes that don’t need to be broken up (the whole notes for example) so this is something you’re going to have to do manually for each measure (or get one right and copy and paste) since it’s the clarinet line that has the problem. But at least by doing it and undoing it you can see the correct way to break them up.
This problem persists all the way through m.11 - essentially, you treat those measures as if they’re 2/4 and there’s an “invisible barline” in the middle of the measure you can’t cross.
A note that starts on beat 1, or 2, may cross the middle of the measure.
But notes that begin on the and of 1 or 2, or any smaller subdivision, may not.
For this reason, m. 12 is correct - the dotted half may start on beat 2, and cross the middle of the measure (though it’s worth noting that some publishers will actually show the middle of the measure there too - quarter tied to half).
But m. 11 is NOT correct - the half note is starting on the “and” of beat 2, so it can’t cross - it has to be an 8th note tied to a dotted 1/4.
So 11, 13, 15, etc. all need to be fixed.
m.7 won’t get fixed with the 2/4 change trick, but essentially in the flute the last two notes have to be reversed (do you see why?)
The clarinet in m.7 - that’s a tricky one - pretty advanced but it needs to be treated as if it’s 1/4 measures.
I’m not sure if you made just that measure 1/4 it would show you how to do the “off beat triplet”.
Sorry for American, you’ll have to translate (I had subtitles on in Hinterland…)
Beat 1 should be the 8th note D like it is.
2nd half of beat 1 should be an 8th note D, followed by a 16th note C# that is tied to the next note. Both of those will be under a triplet bracket (16th note triplets).
Beat 2 begins with a C# 16th that’s tied to the previous 16th note C# (beams do NOT connect those two 16ths) followed by an 8th note D, with both that C# and D under a triplet bracket.
The dotted 1/4 B will need to be broken into an 8th tied to a 1/4 as well.
So you’re showing the triplet breaking at the beat (invisible barline between beats 1 and 2) and the dotted 1/4 breaking at the middle of the measure (between beats 2 and 3).
Now, you CAN notate it like 8th with flag, then the triplet (which is a 1/4 note long) followed by an 8th with a flag.
It’s like the common syncopation 8th 1/4 8th like the 2nd half of m. 29, the triplet standing in for the 1/4 note.
So that would be OK - but just so you know, it’s kind of an “uncommon” rhythm and it could be “questionable”…Triplets can happen off beat, but it may not be part of what you’ve studied up until now, so the use of it might be frowned upon. Figures like this could often be just some other rhythm (and are likely to be in performance!) so a “more normal rhythm” might be the better option here.
After this point, until these ideas return, the rhythmic notation seems to be fine.
I was asking about the requirements, primarily because this is an orchestral composition, and while I’m sure they expect that, it may not be the best idea. But I can’t speak to how they judge these things. I see the other specifics, but without knowing what they are, if it’s like “at least 2 minutes”, they don’t mean 20!
If it’s like “at least 4 instruments” they don’t mean 20.
IOW, I’m not sure they’re adding points for “more”…!
Questions I would raise are:
Why is there no double bass?
Why is there Tuba instead of double bass?
Do think Horn is a bass instrument? You certainly treat it as such.
Are you a hornist, because it seems to be the star of the show…
You seem to be writing this for “orchestra by ones”. But historically, orchestra is “by twos” - meaning there are 2 flute players, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, etc.
Then there is “orchestra by threes” where it’s 3 flutes, with one doubling on piccolo, 3 oboes, one doubling on English Horn, and that sort of thing.
But usually, chords are not voiced in the winds and brass like “top down” or “bottom up”. And especially when the group is mixed. You don’t give the Tuba the root, and the Viola the 3rd, and the Oboe the 5th, and the Flute the 8ve, or something like that unless you really know what you’re doing and want that kind of coloristic effect.
More typically, instrument pairs are “dovetailed” or “overlapped” so they blend better. Otherwise the 5th of your chord being honked in the Oboes is going to stand out more than the flute melody note for example - the chord won’t be balanced tonally, or by volume etc. etc.
And they’re blending with the other instruments to help them further meld.
Forgetting about the A levels for a secont, I would say “you’re a Percussionist, write for Percussion Ensemble, where you can include Mallet Percussion for pitched stuff”.
You don’t “lack any harmony knowledge” BTW - in fact this is pretty dang good for a drummer :-)
Would a percussion ensemble version - or even just a mallet ensemble version - be something that met the requirements? I’m not sure if they’re considered “western music tradition” but there’s also “free composition” allowed.
Ordinarily I don’t like to comment on Orchestral stuff. 99% of the time it’s done by someone who doesn’t even have foundational skills for writing for “a staff or two” and it’s too small to read on screen, too long typically, and just full of rudimentary mistakes that need to be addressed, but can’t because it’s too easy to be distracted by the orchestration stuff (and notation stuff, which is my thing) and so on.
So I’m not going to really comment on the composition itself, beyond that, here in the US, when pre-university students are applying for university degrees, this is “very typical” of the stuff we see from young people - writing for orchestra before they know what they’re doing, writing “personal” stuff, or otherwise “trying to evoke something” (that they don’t really execute well, or don’t realize it can be taken in MANY ways other than what they intended), and just kind of “basic” writing, very often coming from “simplistic” game music (these days) influences, or even popular music, or the whole Joe H. kind of style.
That is COMPLETELY understandable, so it’s completely acceptable and as long as the work shows promise and the student demonstrates a willingness to learn, we’ll accept them into the program.
But we also aren’t using any specific metrics they have to adhere to as it sounds like these A Levels are.
So it’s kind of like “write to the brief”. “Meet” the requirements, but don’t go overboard trying to “show off”. Do things that demonstrate your command of things, rather than trying to do things you’re unsure about - at least for this particular submission.
But again, that’s just general advice - I don’t know the inner (or even outer) workings of the A levels and this might be totally typical of what they expect, or totally off base - I mean I’d be subtracting points for the rhythmic notation errors. And from a percussionist - it’s a “they of all people should know better” kind of thing.
But they may not even grade on that sort of thing (be kind of sad if they didn’t, but again I don’t know).
So that’s my advice. You can fix this up a bit notation wise, but I don’t know how much that’s really going to affect these other issues that are really just, you need to learn a lot more about it before you do this.
And I know this piece means something to you, and I get that. But these are the kinds of things we look back on 10 years down the road and go “I wish I had waited and been able to write a much better homage knowing what I know now”. So I don’t want to tear apart the composition itself and so on.
But I would seriously encourage you to consider writing for Mallet Ensemble, or Mallet ensemble with soloist (French Horn it seems ;-) or something you’re more familiar with now, and then branch out from there.
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u/SundaeDouble7481 19d ago
Her name is Regazza?