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danishali903 last won the day on February 28 2017

danishali903 had the most liked content!

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143 Excellent


About danishali903

  • Rank
    Advanced Composer

Profile Information

  • Gender
  • Location
    Troy, MI
  • Interests
    Music (duh), Movies (good ones), Books (the classics)
  • Favorite Composers
    Mahler, Bartok, Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, JS Bach, JC Bach, John Williams, Vaughn-Williams, Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Ravel, Shostakovich, R. Strauss
  • My Compositional Styles
    Neo-romantic, neo-classical
  • Notation Software/Sequencers
    finale 2014.5 and GPO 4
  • Instruments Played
    Violin, Viola

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9,101 profile views
  1. Very impressive! Beautiful string writing all around. I have one minor critique: The first movement repeat (bar 18) to the beginning seems...disjointed. Bar 18 is a perfect setup for the next section, but its a little jarring when it repeats to the beginning. But overall, great job! The orchestra sounds marvelous as well!
  2. I don't quite understand what you mean by that. When you're reducing a piece meant for 40-50 players to a piece for 7 people, you are going to lose that "power" regardless of the piano. My main gripe is not with the addition of the piano, its the way it's used in the ensemble. I'm not a pianist myself so I can't really give you any feedback about how to write for the instrument. I can recommend you to listen to Liszt's transcription of the Beethoven symphony and see how transcribes/arranges the piece for solo piano (you can find the score at IMSLP.com) Just to nitpick...those aren't "tremolos". They're just a short-hand way of writing 8th notes, which most composers do use. It's just in figures like those that you must "spell out" your notation clearly. You are assuming that the musician who plays your piece is already familiar with it (in this case most people probably are)...just a good habit to make it easier for musicians by spelling it out.
  3. In the days of Beethoven, there was a trend by music publishers to make arrangements of symphonic works for smaller ensembles for publicity and money-making reasons. For better or worse, that trend continues today...There are like gazillion (ok maybe not a gazillion, but a couple hundred) “official” and “unofficial” arrangements of Beethoven symphonies (and other works...most notably the piano concerti that have been arranged for a “piano quintet” ensemble). This can be seen on IMSLP under the different arrangements/transcriptions posted there. I personally have played two different arrangements of the 5th Symphony for String Quartet. I think we talked about this in another post of yours, but all these arrangements sacrifice the integrity of the piece in question...with varied results. As for this arrangement...I found it confusing. The music and structure is unchanged, so that’s good! It’s the instrumentation that is puzzling...mostly the addition of the piano. I think this might’ve worked (and have been more of an interesting arrangement) if it was arranged for piano and string quartet (or quintet). According to your reasoning, the piano was added to basically fill in the wind voices, which makes perfect sense! But 3/4s of the time, the piano is mostly doubling the violin melodic line and the bass line in the double bass. I think you’d be better off having an expanded wind section for your chamber ensemble (maybe a woodwind quartet and string quintet combined to make a nonet). You also note that only 1 flute is required, yet there are multiple areas where there two notes in the flute staff in one measure, indicating 2 players (like measure 44 and onwards). A single viola CANNOT play the double stops in measures 44-51...just impossible. There are some notation errors, most notably in measures 6-23 (I think the flute and piano left hand are the culprits here). Double check your harmonies in measures 79 and 80 too. There are some bad notation practices that you should avoid. Whenever a figure like in 158-159 (half note tied to half note with slash), write out the eight notes in 159, because that looks really confusing. I really think you should also write those bass notes an octave lower 5 bars before the end...that is just asking for trouble.
  4. This! This is the reason I dread arranging/orchestrating piano-specific pieces...especially for a small chamber group (such as a string quartet). Unless you plan on making this arrangement for a string orchestra, adding the double bass is pointless in my opinion. I am not totally familiar with this piece, so I can't really give any advice unless I know the context of what Beethoven wrote and what you have written so far. Just looking at the excerpt above, I personally would make the whole thing an octave higher starting the end of the 4th bar (with the Eb). Then three before the end, instead of the octaves going up, I would do the opposite....so the Bb(right below middle C) to the low Bb. Even though I don't know the piece, I'm pretty sure the half-note sforazandos are more important than the 8th note accompaniment, so I don't think the voice crossing issue you raised would be a problem. Not the best solution, but I think it just might work in your case.
  5. I think you'll be fine with either being a judge OR an entrant. Let me know what you decide. Does that mean you'll enter...? Cause I hope you do :)
  6. To your first question: yep! I think that mostly would be for the string parts than anything else. But if you're gonna use the entire string section, I don't think you have to be THAT specific in terms of how many players in each section. As to your 2nd question, that is a little bit more subjective. I think the best example would be to look at all the orchestrations of Pictures at and Exhibition, and see (and hear) how each composer approaches each section and adds something new.
  8. I like how @Monarcheon picked Thoroughly Modern Mille (such a fun musical)! I guess my broadway dream conducting would be for Phantom of the Opera and Carousel. In terms of concert/opera music: 1. Rite of Spring and/or Petrushka- Stravinsky 2. ANY Mahler work 3. Beethoven's Symphony 7 4. The WHOLE Ring Cycle 5. Ravel's Daphne et Chloe (the ballet, not the suites) 6. Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet (again the ballet, not the suites) 7. Berg's 3 Pieces for Orchestra 8. John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine oh there are so many more....
  9. Oh this is a toughie! All of the above orchestras are..."good", but each orchestra is lacking in one or more of the categories listed in your original question. So to answer your question, I've narrowed it down to three orchestras that I think have had consistent quality level of performance, AND fresh programming that explores and encourages new works, AND involvement in the community. In no particular order, they are: New York Phil, Los Angeles Phil, and San Francisco Symphony. I think the following should also be on your list for the poll: as bkho mentioned, Boston Symphony and Cleveland (both are a little old-school, but they sound amazing); Pittsburgh Symphony (a little old school too); Detroit Symphony (hometown orchestra, so a little biased, but they've been doing cool things lately); and the St. Louis Symphony. As to the "Greatest Orchestra of the Day" around the globe...Berlin Philharmonic (with Vienna Phil and Concertgebow tied for 2nd place)
  10. Wow! Not much to say or critique here. The 2nd Viennese School influence can be heard, but your writing and the subtle colors you use sound very original. I'm also impressed by the playing of the Hugo Wolf Quartet! This is definitely not an easy piece to play, yet their intonation with those double stops is flawless, and how they bring out those complex rhythms is just stunning. Kudos to everyone!
  11. The audio player cut out on me half way through, but I got the general idea. You pretty much got the sonata form down, so no complaints there. It's interesting in the 1st B theme section, you chose to go to E flat major rather than D major. I think what you did works well within the context. The development section was also very good, though I felt there was a slight tone/character from what came previously. The orchestration textures and harmony made it sound like something Tchaikovsky would write...but it wasn't too bad. Harmonically, there were a couple of odd-ball dissonances thrown in randomly...was kinda odd. I agree with maestrowrick, counterpoint can really enhance this piece. Orchestration was good. Personally, I would do away with the trombones. You're string bass writing seems to be on the higher range side, I think some of the passages should be brought down an octave to double the celli (an octave lower). I've seen Contrabass and Double bass notated in scores, although I do prefer using "Contrabass" myself.
  12. After doing research, Finale started shipping with limited garritan sounds with finale 2008. Still not the best sound samples...but better than MIDI or whatever else.
  13. Does Finale 2010 even come with garritan? I thought they only shipped it with 2012 and later. In any case, the garritan library that comes with Finale pre-packaged is not that great. That's why I purchased Garritan Personal Orchestra. Not the best sound library, but it's cheap and it gets the job done (plus I love the piano and wind samples they've got).
  14. It's a promising start! You have a nice melodic subject, with adequate harmonization....it COULD use a little more counterpoint, but for now it's good. I guess for the next steps, you have to develop that melody, and possibly come up with a second theme that gels in nicely...and then develop that too! Do you have a score you can post? I think we'll be to give you more detailed info regarding instrumentation if you've got that.
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