I like it very much ...very spiritual and wide
the strings re very nice ..well done !!

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It's good to know that you're there listening and working on you own great music. This piece is somewhat slow to develope. I hope listeners give it a chance and that it works for them. It means a great deal to me that you liked it my friend.
Take Care,
Charlie (Bowman)

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It's good to know that you're there listening and working on you own great music. This piece is somewhat slow to develope. I hope listeners give it a chance and that it works for them. It means a great deal to me that you liked it my friend.
Take Care,
Charlie (Bowman)

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Hi Charlie, I think I've liked everything you've submitted, and this is no exception. Very soothing, and, as Feter says, spiritual. I guess it's slow to develop, as you suggest, if you're used to music that immediately gratifies, but classical music often (generally?) takes a lot longer to take us somewhere, and compared to that, this is not slow to develop at all. In fact, it's relatively speedy if you compare it to the adagios of Barber and Mahler, two composers listed in your keywords!\

I have a suggestion for you that might be impractical or even useless, but I'll make it anyway: Do you compose with a sequencer, or even a notation programme, where in a case like this one you have seperate tracks for each grouping within the string section, like Vn I, Vn II, Vla, Vc, Db? The reason I ask is because this sounds like it might have been composed and realized at the keyboard, so the "strings" are doing what your hands can do, whereas in a real string orchestra you have groups of talented individuals playing each line within the fabric, so the individual lines can do a lot more than one can when using only one's hands to play. Not sure if that makes any sense or not... but in any event, some of the things that Barber's Adagio (for example) does that might be worth trying is varying the texture (having the basses drop out at points, and/or the cellos, and/or any of the other groupings of instruments, varying the register more (although you do that to some degree here, and it's effective), and varying the roles of the instruments, where the 1st violins aren't always the main idea. And in my experience, laying the music out in five staves as I suggested allows you to do these sorts of things more.

This all may be totally useless, as I said before, because you may not have a multi-track sequencer, but if you do, it might be worth a shot even if only as an experiment.

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Clark I'm so grateful when you find time to critique a piece and give such thoughtful and constructive criticisms.
I generally compose from a keyboard. I don't have players to perform my work and feel the need to express it with a live performance which in my opinion is very difficult to recreate totally with a pen then have a sequencer almost spit it. Before Garageband I was truly limited in what I could do to develop a piece. Since the summer I've been working with GB which is a wonderful way to augment and modify my work. GB does have layers and a time line. With this I played it all out on one layer then went back for several more passes bringing new material in on different layers. I adjusted things and as you mentioned there are sections that take advantage of this and have more textures but - and maybe and this is because of the solemn almost sacred aspect to this piece - perhaps I’ve been too careful to play with it more. It's funny but sometimes the best things creatively usually come from not worrying so much and saying the hell with it I’m just going to have some fun see what happens. I definitely will experiment more with textures of this and vary the roles of the instruments carrying its main theme.
Clark not only are you a talented composer but also a generous and caring one.
Thank you,
Charlie (Bowman)

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...about classical music in particular (and music in general) to give an informed and constructive critique of this fine piece. But alas, I am what I am. I do, however, know what I like, and this falls at onmce both dramatically and pleasantly on these tired old ears. Well done friend.

Take care!

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I too wish I could express more articulately what I felt about a piece of music. Maybe classical presents an extra challenge because generally there aren't lyrics to help us interpret the meaning. But in the end if it touches your heart then it works. I'm happy that it seems to have touched yours.
Thank you my friend and be well.
Charlie/Bowman

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What sort of blue are you talking about in the title? A happier blue like sky blue? Or blue as in sad? I'm curious. Nice piece. The title left me a bit confused and was trying to figure out what shade you were going for in the song. [Heh. I love being analytical.]

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Good question. It's all subjective. I think the picture of an empty concert hall bathed in blue light begins to capture the feelings I have about this piece. Certainly not bright sky, I’m so happy to be alive blue, but more a hushed, quite, reflective blue. It's also another way of naming a piece rather than numbering it. I'm thinking that I'll be putting out more "colored" pieces in the future and in some way they"ll reflect at least my feelings about their colors.
Thanks for checking this out.
Take Care,
Bowman

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that this lovely piece brought to my mind was the awesome vastness and unbelievable beauty of outer space. Very nice.

God bless,

Rick


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It's always good to hear from you and I'm very glad that you enjoyed this piece.
Take Good Care Rick,
Charlie/Bowman

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I liked this especially as it has strings, I love strings, a nice ethereal sound. I played this twice and then downloaded and voted. very inspiring.

Go in peace, be you and have fun
Steve

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I too love strings sometime too much I think. But what can I do? I'm very happy you enjoyed this.
Take care my friend,
-Bowman

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